Scratching the Seven-Month Itch (Amanda Moore or Less #1)

COMEDY:  Amanda and Jason have been together for seven months, and things seem to be going pretty well. At least until her friend, Christine, sees him at the store and at the mall—gasp—talking to other women. In her boredom and determination to prevent Amanda from being cheated on, Christine hatches a plan to catch Jason cheating—even though he isn’t. The results are sheer madness as one uncertain girlfriend, three hare-brained friends, one unsuspecting man, and his man-whore best friend all collide in this screwball comedy. 

This whirlwind of caricatures, typical in screwball comedy, is nicely divided between men and women, leaving no stereotype untouched. Nearly 90% of communication is body language, including all the visual cues that spits out for our eyes to absorb. Slapstick works well in movies and plays because of that. Imagine translating everything you see in “I Love Lucy” or a Jim Carey comedy routine into print, and therein is the difficultly in pulling readers into slapstick.  Mr. Salter does an admirable job of balancing those visual cues we normally see and putting them into written words without going over the top. A few times the female characters are a bit too much, even for screwball, and the men a bit too clueless at times but by having each character describing their feelings and intentions at the same time the action is happening, Mr. Salter avoids the pitfalls many authors fall into when trying to write body language, and what it is actually is supposed to mean. A well-written madcap and a nice mix of screwball and slapstick comedy, created with pizzazz and characters readers will never forget.

Julie York