In Her Shoes by Jennifer Weiner

In Her Shoes
Author: Jennifer Weiner
Publisher: Washington Square Press
Published: September 17, 2002
Paperback: 421 pages
Source: purchased at used book sale


My Rating: 2 stars


Synopsis (from goodreads.com): Meet Rose Feller. She's thirty years old and a high-powered attorney with a secret passion for romance novels. She dreams of a man who will slide off her glasses, gaze into her eyes, and tell her that she's beautiful. She also dreams of getting her fantastically screwed-up little sister to get her life. together.

Meet Rose's sister, Maggie. Twenty-eight years old, drop-dead gorgeous and only occasionally employed. Although her dreams of big-screen stardom haven't progressed, Maggie dreams of fame and fortune -- and of getting her dowdy big sister to stick to a skin-care regime.

These two women with nothing in common but childhood tragedy, shared DNA, and the same size feet, are about to learn that their family is more different than they ever imagine, and that they're more alike, than they'd ever believe. In Her Shoes observes Rose and Maggie, the brain and the beauty, as they make journeys of discovery. Along the way, the'll encounter a wild cast of characters and they'll borrow shoes and clothes and boyfriends, and make peace with their most intimate enemies -- each other.

My Thoughts: After reading one of Jennifer Weiner's novels earlier this year, I decided that she was an author I should definitely check out more of. Unfortunately, this book was a huge disappointment for me. The characters were bland, the writing lackluster, and the plot almost nonexistent. Telling the story of two sisters who don't have anything in common with one another, there are so many things that Weiner could have focused on to show how the two women grow individually and as sisters, but there was nothing there connecting these two together. There wasn't even much talk of shoes (at least for me)!

The story is basically this: Rose and Maggie have always been polar opposites of one another, with Rose basically being the perfect child and Maggie the screw-up. Maggie makes a huge mistake, losing Rose's trust, and must find herself while Rose discovers who she is. At the end, they reconnect and everything turns out wonderful. It's pretty conventional, nothing all that surprising, and nothing that really stuck out in my mind. Like I said, the plot was lackluster. Nothing made it stand out or different from most chick-lit. The characters had no sparkle. The two sisters were completely stereotypical: Rose is perfect, Maggie is beautiful and gets by on her looks. Way too predictable.

I have sisters and enjoy books that explore the relationship between sisters. When the subject is well-written, it can make a book phenonmenal. But when there's little thought put into the characters, it just makes for a dull read.