Hollie Porter Builds a Raft
by Eliza Gordon
Goodreads
iBooks
raft (noun): when two or more otters rest together, often holding hands, so they don’t drift apart
.
Hollie Porter has put her old gig as a 911 operator and sad single girl in an attic-bound box, right where it belongs. She’s rebounded nicely from her run-in with Chloe the Cougar in the wilds of British Columbia, and this new life alongside concierge-in-shining-armor Ryan Fielding? Way more fun. After relocating to Ryan’s posh resort at Revelation Cove, Hollie embarks on an all-new adventure as the Cove’s wildlife experience educator, teaching guests and their kids about otters and orca and cougars, oh my.
When darling Ryan gets down on one NHL-damaged knee and pops the question of a lifetime, Hollie realizes this is where the real adventure begins. It’s all cake tasting, flower choosing, and dress fittings until a long-lost family member shows up at the Cove and threatens to hijack her shiny new life, forcing Hollie to redefine what family means to her. What is she willing to sacrifice to have one of her very own?
As Ryan’s words echo in her head—“Our raft, our rules”—Hollie has to face facts: a raft isn’t always tied together with blood and genetics. Sometimes it’s secured by love and loyalty… and occasional help from the clever creatures that call Revelation Cove home.
My Rating:
Favorite Quotes:
“Her eyes were
hopeful, despite the smear of black and blue cosmetics that make her look like
she’s been assaulted by Crayolas on a bender.”
“The harnessed
power of this man’s smile could bring an end to our reliance on fossil fuels.”
“But… what if
I don’t want to reproduce at all? Why is
that everyone expects that as soon as you get married, you’ll start squeezing
out mutant life forms?”
“I sneak into
the lingerie section to find a little something for Ryan for the wedding
night. No saggy, faded Hanes for Her
with tired elastic under my dress. I’m a
swanky bride, baby, all satin and lace for my undercarriage.”
“This disaster
stuff – it’s a rare genetic anomaly.
Some people have naturally straight teeth or curly hair or an affinity
for math; my mother has the opposite of a Midas touch. It seems to have leaked into my DNA.”
“She’s adorned
in so many animal prints – like she crashed into a safari or a blackjack table
filled with Florida retirees escaped from their convalescent home.”
“You are a
breath of the freshest air.”
My Review:
I adore Eliza
Gordon, her books are just a delight to read and massively entertaining. I want to follow her around and sit at her
feet while listening to her warble hilarious and pithy comments all day. I am sure she is constantly bubbling over
with naughty fun. I do believe I am decidedly
envious of those friends and family members who get to sit with her at the “big
kid table” during holiday meals.
In reading her
latest missive, I frequently smirked, chortled, and occasionally cackled. I was enchanted with Hollie Porter Builds a Raft, which is the sequel to her first, and
one of my all-time favorite books, Must
Love Otters. When reading series with a time lapse
between books, I often struggle to remember the nuisances of the story as well
as who the characters are, given my diminishing mental capacity, poor memory
and massive reading list… but that did not prove to be a problem with this
story, as Ms. Gordon’s quirky and amusing characters remained fresh in my mind,
as if I had stored them in Tupperware and successfully burped their containers
as directed. The writing was crisp,
smart, and endlessly witty. I
specifically enjoyed the amusing and clever banter between Hollie and Ryan, who
are perfectly suited to humorous verbal sparring.
The story-line
provides one hilarious, mortifying, and least expected adventure after another
for the newly engaged couple. While
Hollie is more than a bit of a Calamity Jane, once her long absent mother
(Lucy) shows up out of the blue waving Hollie’s picture in the newspaper, we
soon learn that Lucy bring a whole new level of disaster. Having grown up feeling as if she missed out
by not having a mother around, Hollie soon learns that she appears to have been
far better off not knowing her crass, loud, bling-loving, uncouth, fire-prone,
hirsute, sticky-fingered, banshee shrieking, poker-playing, and somewhat
obscene and felonious nuisance of a mother.
I was fearful
that between Hollie’s accident prone tendencies and her troublesome mother’s
shenanigans, my beloved BBF and the world’s most perfect man, also known as Concierge
Ryan, would throw up his hands in surrender.
I do just love that man! Thankfully
he doesn’t, but Hollie almost does. I
adored everything about this book, the colorful descriptions, the sparkling
humor, the demon goat, the creative manner in which the chapters are titled,
the cast of unique and interesting characters, and of course the otters. I was sad to conclude the book and am
currently contemplating my plan of attack to campaign Ms. Gordon into continue
their story with a series of adventures, as I don’t believe I could ever get
enough of this charming pair.
Empress DJ
***
Buy MUST LOVE OTTERS
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Eliza Gordon has excellent taste in books, shoes, movies, and friends, and questionable sanity in the realm of love. Best leave that one alone. In real life, she’s an editor, mom, wife, and bibliophile and proud parent of one very spoiled tuxedo cat. Eliza writes stories to help you believe in the Happily Ever After; Jennifer Sommersby, her other self, writes YA and is repped by Daniel Lazar at Writers House.
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