Big Girls Do Cry

One of the best parts of being a feature writer is perusing the piles of romance novels we receive for review purposes.

Unfortunately, the majority of those novels are never mentioned in the paper -- it's hard to write about them without the tie-in of a local author appearance.

"Big Girls Do Cry" was the exception to the rule. Its author, Carl Weber, signs books at 4 p.m. Saturday at Barnes & Noble in Columbus Park Crossing.

So I had pleasure of reading the book -- all in the name of journalism, of course. What did I learn? Never discount a romance novel's worth.

Call them cheesy, but the books have an escapist appeal that's hard to find elsewhere. No matter how broke or stressed you are, you can't help feeling a little better after reading lines like these:

I'm sure I have only one purple thong, Leon. So I want to know, how did this get in the living room if I'm wearing my only pair?

What kind of woman leaves her panties behind anyway? She had to know they were missing with an ass that size.

Mister, the last time someone told me we had a friend in common, she ended up telling me it was my husband and she was sleeping with him.

What he didn't understand, and quite frankly what most men don't understand, is that when women get mad, all their parts get mad. In other words, Big Sexy's Sex Shop was closed!

(All excerpts are from "Big Girls Do Cry" by Carl Weber. Order the book here.)