Should You Learn to Be a Gossip Hound?

Gossip Hound by Wendy Holden (who also wrote Farm Fatale) is your typical, approximately 200 page chick-lit novel. Holden introduces us to Grace Armiger, a publicist at Hatto and Hatto, a woefully inept publishing house in London, England. Grace, at the beginning of the novel, is not only trapped in an awful, dead end job, but is also ensnared in an awful, loveless, thankless and miserable relationship with lefty liberal Sion. She must also deal with her mother, one of the elite, attempting to set her up with "suitable" men, men that Grace wouldn't look twice at, let alone actually connect with. In the course of a few, short chapters, Grace also manages an inappropriate, unprofessional one night stand with one of the authors that she does public relations for and must decide whether to leave the relationship that she is in to pursue the author or not.

This appeared very complicated for a fairly short book and it got even more so with the introduction of another character - Belinda Black - who is a gossip columnist at one of London's newsrags. Belinda longs for the day that she can interview A-list celebrities instead of the B-list ones she gets for her column. When she finally gets the opportunity, after sabotaging the journalist who originally wrote the column, Belinda manages to not only screw up the first interview that she did, but embark on a course of conduct that should have gotten her fired the minute that she thought it up.

Holden's novel is woefully predictable in regards to plot development (how she ties up the plotlines). The reader can see what will happen from miles away, as if the story were a large, freight train bearing down upon them at 100 miles per hour on the plains of Kansas, with nothing marring their view. Her character development is non-existent and Holden gives us stereotypes that we are already too familiar with. The main characters are shallow and do not learn anything from the actions that they have taken. The writing style was mediocre at its best and painful at its worst, using recycled puns that are no longer fresh and witty.

This book was absolutely awful and a waste of my time and my ability to read. I would not recommend it to anyone. If you are looking for Chicklit that is "quality," stick with Bridget Jones because that will at least make you giggle if not outright laugh in parts.