Monkey Love

Monkey Love is Brenda Scott Royce's debut novel. It is billed on the cover to be "hilarious", "laugh out loud", "a hilarious romp of a novel". It was funny, it was a romp, an easy, fun book. Hilarious is going a little far, and I don't think I quite laughed out loud. Maybe I chuckled once. That isn't to say that it wasn't a cute book or that I wouldn't recommend it.

Monkey Love is about a single woman (Holly) living in New York who is going through life day by day, hour by hour even and not really thinking about the big picture. Holly is very likable, a little scattered, and quite resourceful. She is busy trying to make ends meet any way she can: pet sitting, typing, running errands for neighbors, and cutting hair. Her family is a little dysfunctional, and not quite lovable sometimes. Her friends are all mixed up in whirlwind lives themselves, and Holly finds herself always cleaning up others messes. Holly realizes that maybe she needs to get her life in order. Maybe instead of jumping from fire to fire, she needs to pick one track and stick to it. But just what is that track?

Along the way she meets a monkey with as much of a personality as any of her friends, and a dad and his little girl. They are a sweet combo that add some interest to Holly's life. Overall the book is enjoyable. Girl's life is crazy, girl meets boy (and child), girl and boy date, girl thinks maybe there is another boy that she likes, girl and boy (with child) fall in love, but is that enough in this crazy life?

I would recommend this book as a light, vacation type read. A book to have fun with, but not one that you will necessarily remember reading. In fact, I realized a few chapters in that I thought maybe I had read it before. A little more than half way through the book I was sure that I had read it before. It took me a while to be positive that I had read it. I still enjoyed it the second time through, though.

Happy Reading!