Review by cherryalakei -- Randy Love...at your service

[cherryalakei]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Randy Love...at your service" by Shay Carter.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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Randy Love…At Your Service
By Shay Carter

Where do I start with this review? I really wanted to be impressed by this book, after reading the summary. It sounded like a male version of Bridget Jones’s Diary. In some ways that’s what it was- raunchy, comedic and British. These are not necessary bad things if done right, but if not done well can be problematic and dull.

The story sounds intriguing enough- a young 20 something who thinks he’s god gift to women, a cheapskate, lazy asshole goes bouncing through life from one bed to the next, disaster after disaster never knowing the problem is with himself. This isn’t a new concept or story by any means, but the author never quite achieves what they are striving for in my opinion. The character of Randy was very frustrating, and agitated me quite a bit. Kudos to the author for evoking the amount of emotional disdain I had for this fictional character. The problem isn’t with Randy as a character in concept, but mostly with the dialogue and the world in which Randy’s story revolves around.

It took me over a month to finish reading this book because I found it so dull, boring and flat. Randy’s character is pretty lazy and he works lots of temp jobs where he has become the master of swindling alcohol, avoiding actual work, and turning on every female within a 2-mile radius. The story takes place in England, and the amount of British slang drove me batty. The exposition feels out of place to me, because honestly the story probably would not have been affected much less without it. I found my first error in chapter 2, and the grammar, double spacing, and slang kept stacking up with every chapter until I started just not even noting it anymore.

There are a lot of linguistic problems for me. Things like check being spelled cheque, kerb instead of curb, phrases like “not bad for an old bird”, and unfamiliar terms like kibbutz. There’s a lot of references to things I didn’t quite get, such as the term “building society” which Randy works at, which is a bank. College spelled collage, skeptical spelled sceptical, the term passbook instead of checkbook, referencing two women sitting in a bar as tramps, the term fiver…the list goes on and on. This is one of the main reasons I found the book difficult to digest. I felt like a good percent of the time I had trouble understanding what was going on because of all the linguistic, dialogue and grammar differences.

Of course, naturally Randy is depicted as a gorgeous model-esque young man with the IQ of a 5-year-old and the milkshake that brings ALL the ladies to the yard. The boss at one of his temp jobs corners him into the kitchen and throws herself at him, a girl tells him literally “You are a good listener, and cute. Do you want to get coffee?”, which I guess is code for let’s go back to my place, and seriously every chapter he is sleeping with a new girl who just can’t go on with her life unless she gets a piece of him. The dialogue is very flat and there is hardly any build up and the sex scenes are awkward at best, if they aren’t downright infuriating. There’s even one where he just totally farts and snores after being drunk, leaving a gorgeous woman in lingerie that he went home with just so he’d have a place to spend the night, even though he didn’t find her terribly attractive. Yeah. It’s that sort of thing that just got under my skin.

There’s quite a bit of infidelity going on as well. I’m not a prude by any means, and I have definitely enjoyed stories with sex in them from time to time. Yet the crass way Randy and his friends talk about women, whether it’s supposed to be comedic or not, is downright sexist. The women in this book are portrayed as sex driven lunatics, to the point there is even a scene where a couple is getting married, and the bride is found banging the best man, and Randy and his buddy voyeuristically get an eyeful, and talk about wanting to bang the bride, and the same friend friend is later discovered by Randy getting his rocks off by a bridesmaid. There’s even a scene in which Randy’s boss (from a different job) gives Randy oral sex because her boyfriend doesn’t like it. Call me a prude if you want, but that is not okay to me.

The plot moved slowly, and I found it rather boring, and predictable. I gave this book 2 out of 4 stars because honestly, I didn’t think it deserved something as low as 1. I feel like this story could have been a lot more though, that there was lots of potential but it just didn’t quite reach what it was trying to achieve. The grammar and language differences were enough to keep me from giving 3 stars, but the biggest reason I couldn’t give it 3 stars is because I felt Randy was too one dimensional and the story was way too flat. If you are looking for a quick, quirky read, I would not recommend this, unless you have a whole weekend to devote it. I think those who are familiar with the slang, and British humor would probably like this book, and I would recommend it to those people.

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Randy Love...at your service
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[Manang Muyang]

Hi, Cherryalakei! It seems Randy Love isn't a character to love. Neither am I impressed with the service he provides.

After reading your review, I don't see the author's point in writing this book. You mentioned in another post that this book made you angry. Well, I won't touch this book. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry.