.fraud! and reviews.

So, I did end up finishing Slummy Mummy, and as Erica (of Nautical Wedding and Nursing School) noted, it's not that good. This isn't to say that I didn't thoroughly enjoy it and bring it around with me, and I did absolutely adore the major plot twist at the end, but in all honesty I found the overall distracted and messy attitude of the main character to be a little bit disconcerting. Kind of like reading Curtis Sittenfield's Prep and feeling uncomfortable because of the painful self esteem issues the main character suffered with. All in all, I'd give it a 3.5/5, because while I certainly don't regret reading it and I had to finish it because I had a vested interest in the well being of the characters, I wouldn't read it again or give it as a gift. We watched 21 this morning - a bit much for a hangover morning, given that it's full of bright lights and glitzy Vegas stuff. This was probably a 3/5 star film for me - the main character was absolutely adorable and Kevin Spacey was as creepy as usual, but Kate Bosworth's "I am painfully beautiful and painfully bony" thing wore a little thin by the end of the film. The ending was also a bit cheezy and I enjoyed that the book had more details about the actual card tricks, while the movie skimmed over a lot of the finer points.
Finally, I am currently reading Brilliant, which I forgot to mention in my bevy of books. I wasn't expecting to like this book anywhere near as much as I do - the heroine is 40-something (she may be 50-something) but I absolutely canNOT put it down. I love a good book about jewelry, I love intelligent scandal - not just sex for the sake of attraction, but the manipulative, what have I done? kind, and for all of her years, the main character seems like the kind of lady who'd have you spilling your secrets on the metro ride home. I'm not done yet, but I'm pretty sure this is going to be a 5 out of 5 stars - did I mention it's set in England? And there aren't even any Mums, as the main character is an American!

It's actually so good that I am hesitating heading over to Tuesday Morning and TJ Maxx for a weekend dose of bargain hunting - I don't ever head to the clothing departments, but I love that you can find home furnishings for an absolute fraction of retail, not to mention SCRAPBOOK STUFF! I haven't mentioned my obssession with scrapbooking on here before, but it's my absolute favorite activity :)

Last but not least, I recently ordered a Juicy Couture sweatsuit on eBay (I finally gave in) and, lucky me, realized it was a fake before taking it out of the packaging (it had the wrong color size tag). I contacted eBay about it, but their response was very noncommital. Now what? Contact the seller and tell them the game is up? Or just give in and wear them, even though it's not going to be the quality that I paid for? I know that buying things on eBay means that you are accepting the risk of fraud, but at the same time I definitely feel gypped and don't want to pass the feeling along to someone else by just reselling them and forgetting about it. Help!