REVIEW: Hearts and Flowers: A Tale of Hay Fever and Bad Decor by Angel Martinez
Office parties can be horrible, but they’re not supposed to be life threatening.
Michael Sarver hates Valentine’s Day. Between the flowers, the tacky decorations and his sleazy boss, he’s certain he’s about to experience the worst costumed office party in history.
But Cupid’s minions and a certain Hawaiian god have other ideas. Let the mayhem begin.
Dear Ms. Martinez,
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from this book but as it’s from you, I knew it would at least be funny and slightly offbeat.
The ballroom looked like a Hallmark store had wandered by and thrown up its innards in a fit of disgust over the excesses of the season.
I’m sure I’m not the only one who agrees with the fact that Valentine’s Day decorations can be cloying and Michael certainly agrees. Why is he at this office party? Oh, right his boss – at whose insistence Michael manages Dave’s social calendar and keeps up with his stable of boy toys – ordered him to. Things look up when Michael runs into a fellow buffet predator who also has the last bowl of beef panang in sight. Shane Pakaua’s costume is even more inventive than Michael’s and it includes a Hawaiian god’s war club which is lucky because two love imps with terrible aim are about to set off party mayhem.
In periculo veritas so each gets to see how the other reacts under pressure. No possessed kitsch is going to get the better of them! As the battle against the force of evil, they actually have (believable) time to talk (during which, among other things, they discuss the possibility that Bert and Ernie are a couple) and start to get to know each other. The short story ends with a HFN and a smile on my face. B+“Well, we can’t have poets being eaten by rogue kitsch on Valentine’s Day. That’s just not right.”
~Jayne
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This sounds cute. And I would have never picked it up because of the title and cover.
@cleo: Yeah, not the greatest cover. Martinez seems to either have really nice ones or … really not nice ones.
Oooh! Thank you for this! I really adore the books of hers I’ve read.
And you’re totally right about the covers. Aside from the Brandywine Investigations series, I try not to look at the covers. :)
@Random Michelle: I think her Offbeat Crimes covers are great. Some of the Brimstone ones are okay.
@Jayne:
Offbeat Crimes is the BEST. One of my all-time favorite child-parent passages in a book is Alex Wolf texting with his mom about Audacity.
“I have all her stuff. It’s OK, Mom. She has peeps watching her.
Mom typed for a long time, then finally sent—
They better not be peeps. Marshmallow chicks should not watch kittens.
For the second time in fifteen minutes, Wolf sagged in relief. If Mom was making bad jokes, she wasn’t so mad anymore.”
That passage makes me want to read the whole series again–or maybe just Alex’s books. :)
@Random Michelle: Audacity – best kitten character ever! >^._.^<