Fender Barnes profits from an institution he doesn’t believe in: marriage. He’s a talented designer, but a reluctant jewelry store owner, thanks to his pop’s retirement. He’s cynical, he’s jaded, he’s not entirely certain about the concept of love, but he’s happy to sell an eager young guy an engagement ring for his fiancée to be—until moments after the transaction when that eager guy is hit by a car and killed, and Fender’s conscience pays a rare visit.
He retrieves the ring and decides to find the woman his customer intended to marry. That woman turns out to be Ginger Stevens, twenty-something ski instructor, who—despite being full of guilt and self-doubt after the death of her boyfriend—is someone Fender finds he quite enjoys being around. He’s smitten.
Which is all well and good, except that after he meets her, Fender can’t do it. Though it’s right there in his pocket, he can’t tell her about the ring. Instead, he embarks on a long, ridiculous quest to find a way to tell her the truth he knows she deserves. Aided by advice from Pop and the antics of his best friend Sam, Fender tries desperately to juggle his budding romance with the reality he knows could ruin it.
Will he find love or foul it up? Can Ginger move out of the past to embrace what the future has to offer? Meet this unlikely pair in Beck Anderson’s heartfelt and fabulously funny second novel, The Jeweler.
BOOK REVIEW: 3.5 STARS
This is one of those books I pick because of the sexy cover and I was right about it. The first thing I noticed was the name of the characters, they are unique names: Fender and Ginger. It rhymes! HaHaHa! And then the plot was very intriguing. I wanted to know how Fender was going to reveal the engagement ring to Ginger, specially after he falls for her.
Ginger was a cool girl. I like her. I like how she is discovered, along the book, how she really felt and what she wanted in life. I like her friendship with Fender and how it gradually became from a physical attraction into something else. I like how she tried so hard to respect the memory of her “DBF” (Dead boyfriend) but at the end accepted that she needed to start living again.
Fender was a weird character. Don’t get me wrong, I liked him, but he was weird. His self esteem wasn’t the best, he really thought the worst of himself and it was really hard for him to take the next step with Ginger.
I loved the romantic moments between Fender and Ginger, and what Fender did to get Ginger back at the end of the book was really awesome.
The secondary characters were so helpful in Ginger and Fender’s relationship. Molly and Sam were like the conscience for Ginger and Fender. They gave the right advices at the right time. I really liked the little time Ginger and Pop spent in the cemetery.
IMO the male characters in this book were weird, they thought and acted a little like women.
In general, the book was very good, I liked the plot, the twists of events, how Fender, with the help of Sam and Molly, finally got the girl he was madly in love.
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Beck Anderson believes in the power of perfectly imperfect women and in the healing power of love. Her first novel, Fix You, grew out of those beliefs and the time to write afforded by the worst Thanksgiving blizzard she’s ever witnessed in West Yellowstone.
Beck balances (clumsily at best) writing novels and screenplays, working full-time as an educator, mothering two pre-teen males, loving one post-40 husband, and making time to walk the foothills of Boise, Idaho, with Stefano DiMera Delfino Anderson, the suavest Chihuahua north of the border.
