The Sapphic Inquisition by Ashley Halladay

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Just wrapped up The Sapphic Inquisition. Yes, the title gave one of my co-workers and fellow readers a good chuckle. And, really, that’s the best thing that this book offered: humor.

Here’s the blurb and, yes, it’s longer than my review.

Problems just keep piling up for Nicolette ‘Nic’ Saracini.

The biggest? Her best friend Will is getting married, which is fine except it means the end of an era. Since childhood the two have been inseparable, sharing the same tastes in music, movies, and, most importantly, women.

The two have been wingmanning each other for the better part of a decade. From highschool prom, to frat parties in college, to smoky dive bars in adulthood, the two have been helping each other score for as long either of them can remember. But weddings have always been their favorite hunting ground.

Now, on the precipice of what they have dubbed The Summer of Weddings, Nic is without a wedding date, and more important, a wingman.

Enter Will’s younger sister Skylar, a beautiful and brilliant surgeon, who offers to fill in for Will at the six weddings that stretch across the summer. It’s not a bad idea, as far as things go, but Nic soon realizes that there are a couple major issues.

To start, Skylar is a hopeless and helpless flirt. This ostensibly straight girl can’t help but tease and touch and make inappropriate innuendos that drive Nic wild.

Which would be bad enough, but when Nic’s dreaded ex Ally starts sniffing around, wanting Nic back, the two hatch a fake dating scheme to keep Ally off her back.

The lines between what’s real and what’s not quickly blur as Ally’s attempt to expose their fake relationship finds the girls off balanced and unprepared.

After all, no one ever expects the Sapphic Inquisition.

So what to say… Well, there were lots of laughs, some fun situations, and very low angst. Some of the prose was really nice, too. But the editing/proofreading was shit. Lots of words missing from sentences, a bit of continuity problems, and characters who were pretty flat. There’s very little background given on any of the characters, most of the characters sound like the same person and don’t have unique voices, just a generally shallow, flat deal. But very funny. And delightfully smutty.

It’s a good palette cleanser after reading murdery or dark stories or a quick, mostly mindless read when you need that but it’s certainly not going to be a classic. And not all books need to be. This one does what I wanted it to do. It made me laugh and who doesn’t need some laughs right now?



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