Review: The Fortune Quilt by Lani Diane Rich

The Particulars: Women's Fiction, Storywonk, available as e-bookThe Source: Purchased at SmashwordsThe Grade: C+ The Blurb: 

"Accept the book with the amber spine. 
Return the frog. Take the cab.
What the hell kind of advice is that?"

When Tucson Today segment producer Carly McKay visits the quirky artist’s community of Bilby, Arizona, to do a story on a psychic quiltmaker, she receives an odd reading… and her life falls apart in eerie harmony with what the quilt foretold. Her best friend professes his undying love; her show gets canceled; and the mother who disappeared seventeen years ago appears on their doorstep, getting instant forgiveness from the entire family… except Carly.

Carly rushes off to Bilby to return the cursed quilt, and then surprises herself; she stays. She rents a cabin, gets a job, and meets an artist who shows her new ways to look at life, and love. Can she run away and start a new life, or should she go back and stitch her old one back together?

And why is it so hard to get a straight answer from a psychic, anyway?

The Review:

This is another book that has languished unread. I purchased it, since I love Lani Diane Rich Crazy for you.  This book had a lot of potential, but in the end it fell short.

The story about Carly, and how her life falls apart was interesting and full of unexpected twists. It was well plotted, and made sense. I enjoyed following her journey. From the time she recieved the quilt, and all the havoc it wrecked on her life. (Though as Brandy pointed out it would probably have happened anyway.)

The characters she met in Bilby were quirky, and felt like they fit the small town setting.  Carly's family annoyed me with the way they forgave her mother when she returned after 17 years. In fact, Carly's reaction was the only one that made sense to me.

Despite the things I loved with the books, I had two major problems with the book.  First, the formatting errors jarred me out of the book several times.  The second problem was the fact that I felt the book had trouble deciding if it should be Chick lit or contemporary romance.  Which might be why I had some trouble connecting with the characters.