That's -Not Exactly- Amore by Tracey Bateman

Laini: Judgment? You think calling sin a sin is judgment? Choose your own commandments to break. Nancy: I’m not sleeping around.I know this is wrong okay? I don’t need judgment from you. I thought you felt the same way I do about sleeping around.” Even if he weren’t married and weren’t cheating. “I don’t know what you want me to say, Nancy. And her Nancy is, a Christian by her own words, and she’s sleeping with this guy. Before I really starting trying to live the way the Bible says Christians should live. And that was before I started going to church. It’s so frustrating to watch an ignorant woman.” I can tell she doesn’t want me to bring up the fact that I know he’s married and is cheating. “Men aren’t allowed to sleep over,” I (Laini) mumble. I mean, in all the years I’ve lived in the apartment, no one has ever violated the “man” rule. According to Laini, Nancy is a borderline tramp (she doesn’t actually say this, but Laini’s judgments do) as demonstrated on pages 229 – 230: Laini’s new roommate Nancy (the worldly one) is described as an Italian knockout who could be a Victoria’s Secret model. Laini of course is the good Christian girl described on page 3 as a, “30 year old, freckled faced redhead with too many extra pounds on her petite frame.” The too many extra pounds is 20. However Laini breaks her own rules – kissing before the 3rd date and snuggling with her love interest before they are exclusive – she does stick to the rule of not sleeping with anyone before she’s married. Laini kept saying over and over that she wasn’t a prude and that her moral code was to not have sex before marriage (I can live with that), not to kiss on a first date – her dating rule was no kissing until the 3rd date (oh, I don’t know about that one.sometimes you have to break the “rules”), no snuggling/cuddling until she’s been “dating” for a good long time, & “dating” seemed to consist of mostly hanging out & not very much passion. I did find the main character, Laini, a little bit annoying, judgmental, and self-righteous. No wonder why there weren’t any good sex scenes – I kept waiting for them to appear. I was about half way through the book (too far into it to put it down for good although I had figured out the story line & plot a long time ago) before I discovered that this was a Christian “romance” novel.

The story sounded good enough for a quick, chick-lit, easy read.

I was at the library checking out the latest books on the rack reserved for new books.

That's -Not Exactly- Amore by Tracey Bateman