I found this book totally off the wall hilarious. Dark humor, not for the faint at heart!
See my full review at www.bookloons.com

Thank you Melissa! It arrived yesterday.

What a fun read! I was curious and went to Amazon to see what others had to say. Some people never get it! Don't go see Star Wars and complain that it is completely unrealistic. OK, you are right, but so what? That is not the point of movies like Star Wars or novels like Cassandra French's Finishing School for Boys. Willing suspension of disbelief and all, this was a great read, full of humor, witty observations, and superb writing. I could not believe the author is a man. Eric Garcia did a terrific job portraying the women in this book, nuances and all. For example, Cassie is visiting her mom, who is under house arrest. Her mom says:

"Speaking of movie stars," she said at one point, "did you see the news on TV this morning? About that actor?"

"What actor?"

"The one from that movie, where he played that guy. You know the one I'm talking about."

That sounds like my mom and every single one of my aunts. You sometimes need to have psychic powers in order to have a conversation.

So it happens that Cassie, a lawyer at a movie studio in L.A., is disgusted with the rude and uncouth men she encounters as dates. Some of them, although major brutes, have potential, so she decided to establish a finishing school to make these boys into men. Sure, her methods are not always conventional, but her intentions are sickly honest. The boys are chained in her basement, sedated and on a lean diet, but they are learning to be everything a woman desires.

Cassie's best friends are Claire, a ruthless executive at a TV network, and Lexi, a bimbette yoga instructor who Cassie secretly despises. Lexi's dogs (the wuzzles), a handsome movie star, and the owner of a gimmicky club all take part in unraveling Cassie's life. The ending was ingenious and most satisfying.

This book is an advance reading copy, and i caught a couple of inconsistencies. Wow, i could do this for a living!

In summary, you must have a slightly twisted sense of humor in order to enjoy this book. This is NOT chick lit by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, this is a great parody on chick lit. Loved it!

This is 2006's second BookRay, and slowly but surely more people have been joining!

This is a fast and fun read, so please try to keep this book for a maximum of 4 weeks. If you think it may take you longer, please let me know. Thanks!

Shipping order:

bksfamly - Arizona (US only) - MAILED FEBRUARY 7
Sarradee - Texas (US, Canada pref, intl if neccesary)
dittybopper - Louisiana (US, Canada only)
Lpree - Nebraska (intl OK)
snoopy3 - Connecticut (US only)
pammykn - Florida (intl OK)
LyekkaMarengo - Pennsylvania (intl OK)
juicy-comrade - BC, Canada (intl OK)

OOPS!, I received this book and started reading it right away, and forgot to journal it till now. The book is very good and funny I enjoyed it very much and will pass it along to the next participant this week.

RELEASE NOTES:

Arrived in today's mail. I have to finish up the book I'm reading, and then this one will be next. Thanks for making it into a ring, looks really good.

Eric Garcia is better known for his dinosaur detective novels, (Casual Rex, Anonymous Rex) so this is somewhat of a departure, but anyone familiar with his humorous style of writing won't be disappointed. I haven't read any of the Amazon reviews, but if people were expecting this to be serious, or entirely realistic, they're barking up the wrong author.

I'd call it a mixture of chick Lit and the movie Heathers with a bit of whimsy added. Cassandra French is likeable if insane, smart and funny, with just the right amount of self-doubt. I'd have to say Garcia did a better job with her issues than some female authors would have.

I caught the part about the pants. Sometimes it's amazing what editors don't catch.

I've been in touch with Dittybopper and will be mailing this out in the morning, unless my post office has floated away in the massive rainstorm we've been having over the past 24 hours.

Received today. I have 1 1/2 books to read before this one. I will be needing some humor when I finish the two books I am currently working on! LOL

Just an update . . . things have been crazy around here since I got a new part time job and I'm finishing up my last semester in college before I graduate (Yeah!). I have been reading this book and am about half way through it. I will journal my complete thoughts on it as soon as I'm finished which will hopefully be in the next week but for now I must say that this has been a very interesting read so far. It's a very different concept and one that I would probably fantasize about if I were a single woman into the dating scene. It does tend to make sense to me since I just finished reading "Why Men Love Bitches" right before beginning this book LOL!!! More soon.

I finished this one up this afternoon. It was refreshing to read something totally off the wall. Cassandra French is insane yet believable, conniving but doesn't see herself that way - just a girl searching for happiness. The concepts in this book are shocking, funny, and downright crazy and I loved it. Thanks for sharing another cool book with me GorgeousGlo!

I will PM Lpree and get the book on its way sometime this week.

This arrived in yesterday's mail. I've got a few other rings ahead of it, but will read it as soon as I can. I loved the title of this book, so I hope I'll enjoy the rest of it!

You know, I'm still not sure what I think of this. I started it and didn't really care for it at first. In fact, I PMd the person after me with the intention of mailing it on without finishing it. But I had the book with me at convenient reading times, so I got into it. But each page I turned, I dreaded what would happen. The ending was a surprise (no spoilers here...) and in the end, I'm glad I read it.

Thanks for the opportunity to read this. I mailed this out to snoopy3 earlier today.

Received in the mail & began reading last night. Enjoying it very much so far...Thanks for including me in this ring!

Finished this afternoon, and will be sending to pammykn tomorrow, for when she returns from vaca.

Really enjoyed this book--totally cannot believe was written by a male author. And the ending was quite satisfactory--tied up all loose ends....almost. Will look for more by this author.

Thanks for including me in this ring!!

Book is received...sorry, bit of confusion w/ the BCID#. At any rate will start reading this weekend & have off to the next person soon. Thanks.

I was really curious to see how I would like this book. Very much enjoyed the quirky sense of humor in the dino PI books and found this one very amusing. Sending off to lyekkamarengo. THANKS for sharing this delightful book!

Received safe and sound in Central PA. Working on another one GorgeousGlo's eclective bookring (Wrong Information is being Given Out at Princeton) then have two others but from all accounts this one is a pretty quick read.

Thanks for the ring.

Finished this up a few days ago but I've been on vacation, so sorry for the delay. To enjoy this book you have to be able to just suspend reasonable reality and join in the universe as seen by Eric Garcia. It reminded me a lot of a Christopher Moore type place where within the bounds of what was a quirky(to say the least) place, everything made perfect sense and the characters all behaved as I would expect. That's the problem with some sci-fi. I can accept a lot, as long as it makes sense. Cassandra was a wonderful character and I'm sure your life would be much more interesting with her as a friend, maybe not safer but definately interesting. And I bet we all have met a guy who could be improved by her intervention. While Owen was the only one of her "boys" that gets an extended character evaluation I have the feeling they all were interesting in their own right. I loved her grading system throughout the book and would have to agree with most of her grades. Garcia has a great way with writing and I found the whole book to be full of good lines and fun parody. Though Cassie does tend to be a bit of an overthinker. Such as when she "woke up to the truth behind that tried-and-true aphorism: Each day is precious. Each day is a gift. If we don't open the wrapping carefully, we might break it and have to return it to the store. And then they're going to ask for a receipt and throw a total shit fit if we've left it at home, and we'll have to call the manager over and give him a good talking-to, and of course eventually he'll relent and tell the clerk to give us full credit, but by then we'll be so upset that we've wasted an hour of our time that we'll end up with a migraine and have to spend the rest of the day in bed, completely defeating the whole idea that each day is supposed to be precious and so forth."

An then there is her mother....

Thanks for the ring. Moving it on to juicy-comrade today.

Mailed today to juicy-comrade in Victoria, BC, Canada.

It came in the mail today. Thank you.

I had to speed through the second half of the book the other night because my mind kept drifting away from my biology notes and I'd start wondering what was going to happen in the book. That goodness I was able to finish it and still have a few hours left over before my midterms. And the story was deffinately worth the evening of wasted study time -- excellent book.

Just grabbed this from juicy-comrade