Synopsis:
Faced with a marriage proposal on the one side and the chance to travel around the world on the other, Hallie Palmer chooses the unfamiliar, hoping to find herself in the process.
Review:
While I admired Laura Pederson’s strong prose skills, I was not drawn in by the story at the center of Best Bet. I lost interest after about 100 pages.
Many thanks to iUniverse for the review copy.
Synopsis:
Sent to Oxford to present at a Jane Austen conference on behalf of her sister, an unemployed young woman pretends to be a pediatrician to impress a handsome bachelor and makes the acquaintance of a dotty old woman claiming to have the manuscript of Austen’s first draft of Pride and Prejudice.
Review:
Before I get into my review of Mr. Darcy Broke My Heart, I need to make a confession. The book’s editor–who also receives a heartfelt dedication from the author–is a good friend of mine. Like I was at her (small) wedding, and used to meet her for lunch at least once a month. My mother-in-law watched her cats. Her husband was instrumental in getting me and my husband together. I tell you all this because I get a lot of review copies of books but don’t let that influence my reviews. If I like a book, it’s because I liked it. And if I don’t like a book, I’ll tell you my opinion, too.
However, when it comes to books by friends I won’t pretend to be objective. I like to support their efforts in the world and give them a boost when I can. And in the rare event I couldn’t do that in good conscience, I’ve opted not to review the book at all. (It’s happened once or twice; I know a lot of writers.)
Fortunately, Mr. Darcy Broke My Heart is well-worth recommending to fans of Austen-inspired chick lit. It’s got some good musings on the nature of love and attraction, and gets in some nice jabs at some of the more overly zealous Austen fanatics.
I don’t think that Pattillo quite caught Austen’s voice in her fictionalized version of Austen’s first draft, but she did capture the spirit of her work. The prose just felt a bit too modern, not quite complex enough–though the other characters do admit that it’s not quite up to par with Austen’s published work. And I’m always bothered when a heroine tells an “accidental” lie that then goes on to color the plot o the book in a significant way. It’s a plot device that’s just a bit too convenient.
Many thanks to Guideposts for the review copy.
I don’t ordinarily do promotion-only books–I pretty much only post book reviews. But recently I got an unsolicited package in the mail from the publishers of Little Black Dress Books, and the books just looked so cute that I wanted to let people know about them in case I don’t have time to read every single one of them.
If you like British chick lit, then I think you would like these–they’re contemporary and just a bit sassy. I will post reviews when I get to them, which may take awhile. Superfast Toddler has really slowed me down!
Synopsis:
UConn transfer student Natalie finds that her lack of worldly experience can’t stand up to the pressures of a hot frat brother.
Review:
College Girl is really just a poor woman’s I Am Charlotte Simmons. I didn’t get sucked into Natalie’s story the way I had hoped to, because I usually love these kinds of tales, and I found myself frustrated with her relentless passivity (which she shares with Charlotte, but Wolfe made this almost an heroic quality in his heroine). Believe it or not, I read it in an evening, mostly because I didn’t want to have to pick it back up in the morning. If it were longer, I would’ve just stopped reading but it was so short I figured I’d see it through.
Synopsis:
A quartet of unlikely best friends deal with a post-feminist, post-grad life out of Smith College.
Review:
The appeal of Commencement is in its depiction of Smith College, caught between poles of conservative femininity and radical lesbianism. Each of the four protagonists deals with life issues that have something to do with the plight of the modern women. Their struggles are portrayed with nuance and pathos, but I wondered if the story would have resonated had it been set in a less idiosyncratic place. Only one of the characters–April–really differentiated herself from the other three, who, apart from their differing circumstances, didn’t seem to be all that different. I enjoyed the read but it didn’t blow me away.
Synopsis:
When a yoga-loving vegetarian gets knocked up by her deadbeat boyfriend, her cruise ship hostess mother moves on in, and hilarity ensues.
Review:
Stretch Marks was cute enough, but it wasn’t the most original take on the subject I’ve ever read. I liked Mia well enough, but at many points I felt like her struggles were genuine enough. It also bugged me how blind she was to her ex-boyfriend Lars’s shenanigans. It’s not like my expectations were that high, but I was hoping for a little more than I got.
Synopsis:
Taylor’s lucky break landing a job as an assistant at a major film studio turns into a disaster, until she enlists the help of her boss’s alpha girl high school daughter to help her navigate the social landscape.
Review:
Hollywood is Like High School With Money is not the most original book to come down the pike, but it’s a quick and relaxing read. There’s some good insider-y stuff, which I found amusing because I was a “creative associate” for a film producer once upon a time. The dish could’ve gone deeper, and the plot could’ve been less predictable, but it moves along and has a certain charm about it.
Synopsis:
At 38, TV personality Tiona Tomlinson is starting to be considered over-the-hill, and she’s not going to give in and get plastic surgery.
Review:
Jane Porter writes chick lit for women on the cusp of middle age, and her stuff tends to have some substance to it. Easy on the Eyes is an easy read, and I appreciated its message about how our culture is so awful to women as they age. I also liked that her backstory included a Daniel/Marianne Pearl-type marriage and tragedy. But I knew that she would end up going to a third world country, because I’ve seen that a million times before. It helped that Tiona is from South Africa, but I think I would’ve appreciated it more if she were black, too. The spirit behind the idea is a good one, but it’s just a little cliched at this point.
Synopsis:
A guy decides to write a chick lit novel, and finds love and loses himself along the way.
Review:
Ms. Taken Identity could’ve been a big huge miss. It’s a great concept that the author could’ve coasted on. Happily, Ms. Taken Identity has humor, heart, and a whole lot of smarts.
Mitch is a PhD candidate with a 750-page magnum opus that nobody wants to buy. On a lark, he decides to write chick lit because in his mind, any idiot can do it. He adopts a false persona and infiltrates a dance class, where he meets the winsome Marie and falls in love. Of course, since he’s living a lie it’s all bound to blow up in his face. I usually hate stories where this happens, but Dan Begley makes it work because he goes for real emotions instead of relying on the circumstances of the plot. You can see where the story is going from page one, but it’s still really enjoyable. As Mitch learns, there’s nothing wrong with formula if the characters are people you can believe in. Fun stuff!
Synopsis:
Lucy only wanted to save her sister after a accident, but a lifetime escorting souls to hell wasn’t quite the price she had in mind, and now she wants out.
Review:
The Sinful Life of Lucy Burns was a quick, breezy read. Elizabeth Leikness has imagination to spare when it comes to her plotting, and I never quite guessed what was coming next. She has a wonderfully satirical wit, but her book isn’t superficial at all.
Lucy’s job is to wrangle the truly wicked and send them to hell, and has been paid handsomely for it. In addition to her sister’s life being saved, Lucy has a perfect body and all the worldly goods she wants. However, she’s estranged from her family and prevented from falling in love. She wants a normal life desperately, but afraid she’ll end up transferred to the (very hot) Main Office.
The theological underpinnings of the book aren’t exactly orthodox–they’re more Gnostic than anything else–but that didn’t detract from the pleasures of the book. Sure, this Faustian tale won’t cut the Reformed or Catholic muster, but the voice that Leiknes creates for Lucy is a lot of fun to experience.
