How Nancy Drew Saved My Life

By Laura Baratz-Logsted

I picked up this book last week, thinking it would be a fun and quick summer read. I enjoy reading funny women’s fiction when I need a break from heavier material. This story depicted the heroine as brainless and immature, neither of which I find funny or entertaining. Sorry, Laura.

The heroine is getting over a broken heart and loss of a job. She chooses to read 56 Nancy Drew novels as her recovery method. As hard as I tried to suspend my disbelief for the sake of the story, I never could buy into the premise that a grown woman would do that, no matter how heartbroken and devastated she was.

The book has the standard “nanny falls in love with the male employer” plot, only the heroine does it, not once, but twice. Sheesh.

Throughout the book she keeps asking herself, “What would Nancy Drew do?” Well, dear, she certainly wouldn’t fall in love with her married employer. Make that plural.

The story ends in an unsatisfying way, that makes the heroine appear addle-brained and irresponsible. That’s exactly the reputation that chick lit has been trying to break out of for years.

There is one saving grace when you read a book like this one. You can assuredly put it down and say, “I can write better than that.”