Three Minutes on Love (2008)

I got a copy of the recently released Three Minutes on Love (2008) by Roccie Hill through the always lovely LibraryThing Early Reviewers program a couple of weeks ago. I have a tendency to just request most of the novels that LibraryThing puts up and see what they give me. If I had read the publishers description of this one, however, I don't think I would have picked it (and don't read the suggested reading group discussion questions on that page -- they make the book sound really awful).

Actually the book is pretty readable and not as bad as the title and description make it sound. This is the story of Rosie Kettle, a young photographer in the 1960s who concentrates on shooting musicians. She has a flirtation with the up-and-coming songwriter and rocker, David Wilderspin (the name!), that eventually leads to a serious relationship, then prego, then marriage. She also has an odd Hungarian friend named Peter. Things go good, then things go druggy, then things go bad, then things go better, then really bad, then okay again. Got it? While there are some interesting characters here and the plot of the novel moves quickly, the overall story is predictable and occasionally uneven. In one key plot point, David is extremely jealous of his lawyer's flirtation with Rosie. The lawyer, in fact, is madly in love with Rosie, but as far as the reader knows, they only met a few times, and the reactions of both men are really disproportionate. And the climax is almost deliciously ridiculous, although I'm pretty sure that isn't what Hill was going for.

So, not a wholehearted recommendation, but you could certainly do worse if you are looking for a 1960s California musician-based romance...