The title and the cover for "Summer Blowout" suggested that this book was going to be a light, breezy read. Even in the summary, which mentions that Bella's husband and her half-sister had betrayed her with each other, we were given the sense that this was still going to be a fun book. Unfortunately, the reality is that this book was just mediocre for me.
First of all, Bella was a thoroughly unlikable protagonist. She was petty, whiny, flighty, and not incredibly intelligent. At two different points in the book she counts the makeup sponges she uses in order to "see how much she suffered". This just seems so incredibly immature to me. She is supposed to be a grown woman (I don't believe they ever go into how old she actually is, but her step-kids are fully grown, and she'd been in their lives since they were young, so I would imagine she's at least 35, maybe 40.) and she acts like a whiny, entitled 20-something. One of the most idiotic things she did involved dying a dog's fur. THIS IS EXTREMELY DANGEROUS. There are many toxic chemicals in hair dye that can seriously undermine their overall health and well-being. I know that this is just a book and she is a fictional character and 'no dogs were hurt in the making' or whatever, but for someone who never ceases to throw all out of these little tips, tricks, and knowledge, you would think that she would know that giving a dog streaks and later overall dye is cruel and potentially dangerous.
The romance is almost non-existent, and seems incredibly rushed and thrown into the last couple of pages. I didn't really understand what Sean (who she insists on referring to by his whole name) saw in her. There was very little development in their relationship. They went from barely friends to in-a-relationship in the course of one chapter.
Bella's family is quirky, especially her father, who is Irish, but wishes he was Italian. That's about all there is to say about that. The emotional arcs of the characters are almost non-existent. The rift between Bella and her hubby-stealing sister is another point that is solved in a snap. They go from sniping at each other every chance they get and undermining each other to forgiving each other.
All of those things make this a book that I wouldn't be able to thoroughly enjoy normally. But what pushed it over the edge for me was the endless (seriously, I don't think a page went by without this) product pimping. Bella is always going on about what color foundation everyone should be, the fun and crazy names for lipsticks, tips and tricks for makeup and hair, and so on. It was annoying. It took me out of the story. It was like watching a show or movie with really bad, really obvious product placement...the kind that makes you roll your eyes. A little would've been fine. And some of the tips were interesting (I didn't know you were supposed to keep lip gloss in the fridge, for example) but there was WAY too much focus put on this in the book.