The Book: Benny & Shrimp, by Katarina Mazetti
The Story: Benny is a farmer. He lives pretty far outside of town by himself in the house he grew up in. He loves his land and its history. He loves his animals. He loves farming.
Shrimp is a librarian in town. She has recently been widowed. She loves reading and culture. She wears plain clothes and has a plain little house.
They are both happy in their own way and sad in their own way. When they meet at the cemetery, there is a little spark between them but they ignore it at first. Benny sets up another “run in” and they start dating. As things get more serious, they start to wonder how this will work out. Will he give up his farm and move to the city? Will she give up the job and apartment she loves and head to the country? Or are they meant to be at all?
What I Thought: Totally strange. Both of the main characters are fairly bizarre. Their living styles are strange. The poetry that starts each chapter is really weird. How many more adjectives can I come up with? It was just strange.
I kind of thought that this was going to be a cute little love story and I loved the cover. I guess this is what I get for picking out a book by the cover, huh?
This was just drivel. The plot-line was weak, the voices were unrealistic, the characters were bland, and the sex scenes creeped me out. That’s not supposed to happen, right?
Even the premise: country boy meets city boy is just so… done. Nothing about it was original, except maybe the end… which was just another bizarre little twist.
Meh.
Conclusion: Skip it. It’s short, so if you can’t resist another country boy/city girl story, at least you can finish it up in just an evening or so… but even that may be a waste of your evening. At least it has a pretty cover.