Katie Chandler is just your average 26 year old who moved from her small town lifestyle in Texas to the magical world of New York City. She lives with her two friends, who also moved from Texas, and works Monday-Friday at a thankless assistant job to an evil boss. Katie wishes she could really do something with her life, make her mark somehow. Be important, wanted, needed. She never thought she actually possessed a talent, a gift, for magic. Katie learns, after much persistence from the company MSI, that she is an immune- someone who can see magic but can’t actually practice it. MSI, which stands for Magic, Spells, and Illusions Inc. wants to recruit Katie and put her gift to use, being able to see past magical shields, cloaks, and invisibility. MSI are the good guys in the magical world, working to prevent evil magic at play. Katie quickly adapts to her new life, magic by day and normal at night. The hardest part is not being able to tell her roommates and parents about what she now does as a living- which includes working for the one and only Merlin. When a former MSI employee turns to the dark side, a battle ensues and Katie finds herself playing a pivotal part. Finally, somewhere she belongs, where she will make a difference. Enchanted Inc. the first in the Enchanted series from author Shanna Swendson, is a fun tale that offers a magical adventure from the norm. The adventures the heroine embarks are comical, and the writing is light and saucy, with a twinge of seriousness and enough of a love story to interest chick lit fans. If you are looking to escape the everyday stories with the usual plot twists and characters, crack open the Enchanted series and get lost in the magic. Rating: 4.5/5
I am a big fan of both Subway and Jimmy Johns. At least once a week I will visit at least one, if not both chains for a lunch sandwich along with some chips and a soda. A few weeks ago, a co-worker and I were discussing (over a chicken breast sandwich topped with lettuce, cheese, and mayo from Subway) which franchise offers a healthier meal. Subway boasts slogans such as “Eat Fresh” and “Build a Better Breakfast” and allows customers to individualize each and every component of the sandwich. And Jimmy Johns also boasts their fresh ingredients, making their own bread on a daily basis and not using frozen ingredients. But, it is harder to customize the sandwiches at Jimmy Johns. So which is healthier? After a few weeks of research on the internet, I really couldn’t find anything conclusive. Each sandwich is good in some areas, others suffer. If an individual loads up on mayonnaise and cheese and only eats white bread or monetary cheddar- well that is definitely unhealthier than chicken breast plain on wheat bread. So even though I couldn’t draw anything concrete from my research, I did see that each website offers all nutritional values on their ingredients. I preferred Jimmy Johns site over Subway because you could literally make your meal, adding cheese and condiments, even your soda and chips, and get the total calorie count and other important values. I used the website to compare my favorite meals from each chain, and found that my Subway meal is slightly healthier over Jimmy Johns. My suggestion would be to check out the sites if you haven’t already, and see which is healthier, and what maybe you should cut out or substitute to have your best meal.
Waverly Bryson has to be the luckiest girl in the world. After years of disastrous blind dates and her hopes of love being dashed, she has finally become a bride to be. Her fiancée? Only the gorgeous and wealthy Aaron Vaughn III. But suddenly things go horribly wrong. Just two weeks shy of becoming a wife, Aaron breaks it off with Waverly, telling her he’s just not in love with her. Ouch. Waverly is properly devastated, and moves blinding through the next year, wondering why love just won’t happen to her. Then Waverly meets Jake McIntyre while on the job in Atlanta. He could be the perfect man, except Waverly can’t seem to keep it together around him. The evening concludes with her getting too drunk to dance with Jake and having to leave his company to throw up in the bathroom. Sure that she has ruined any chance with him, Waverly thinks she may well be single the rest of her life. In addition to her failed love life, her job is sinking fast. Being passed over for an assignment at her sports PR position is tough enough, and now Waverly is unsure she wants to continue on in the industry. It’s the support of her two best friends, McKenna and Andie that keep Waverly’s spirits up. Perfect on Paper: The (Mis)adventures of Waverly Bryson by Maria Murnane is laugh out loud comedy. The heroine goes on laughable dates, finds herself in awkward situations, and is the definition of a klutz. Through each situation the humor shines through, and readers will enjoy the ‘honey notes’ that pop up along the way. This is a definite favorite of mine, I love when books can actually make me laugh and smile throughout each chapter. Murnane does a fantastic job making Waverly so relatable, and the supporting cast including the two best friends, a handful of co-workers, and a lazy father, really help Waverly’s journey along. Chick lit fans will enjoy the complicated romance and strong pull of friendship throughout. Rating: 5/5
Q: Why do you want to write books? Because it beats working for a living? No, seriously, when I wrote my first novel I was living in Ireland because of my husband’s job (he was an army officer), I had three small children and going out to work was simply not really an option. Until the move to Ireland I’d been running a small publishing business from home but my partner’s husband had been posted to Alabama (she was also married to an army officer) so it was impossible to carry on and I was bored to sobs. Writing a novel seemed a good option, although at the time wrote my first book I wasn’t sure I’d be any good at it. Now I do it because I really love living in a fictional world where my characters can got to wonderful locations and in my head, I’m there too. On a wet winter’s morning, imagining you’re basking in summer sun on a deserted beach on a Greek island is a pretty good escape from real life. Q: When did you know you wanted to be an author? Becoming an author came as a real shock as it was never something I’d ever thought about until it happened. I wasn’t the sort of kid who penned stories for her sibling or friends nor did I write anything other than what I had to for homework. Furthermore I went to the sort of blue-stocking school where we wrote essays, endless essays on mind-numbingly dull subjects – flights of fancy were definitely discouraged. Writing creatively happened entirely by accident. I left school to join the army (a ratio of 500:1 men to women and the chance of foreign travel being the big draw) and served for 8 years before getting thrown out when I began a family – which was what happened 25 years ago. A couple of years later we moved into a quarter next to a woman who edited a magazine for army wives. She asked me to help with the admin because that’s what I was really good at. One day she was short of some copy and asked me to write ‘300 words about anything and make it funny’. I’d spend 8 years obeying orders so I did as I was told and wrote a piece about my fellow army wives. Apparently it was funny, it was well received, I was asked to write more columns and then it was suggested I might like to think about producing a book. I baulked at the idea of a whole book but my neighbour said she’d write it with me. Half a book didn’t seem quite such a huge task, so Gumboots and Pearl, which is a wry look at how to be a perfect officer’s wife, was my first book. And once you’ve written one, even if it’s only half of one… well, the idea of writing another isn’t so scary. Q: How were you able to break into the writing industry? Gumboots and Pearls was self-published – which I suppose is a bit of a cheat. However we only took that step because we hawked the book round quite a few publishers who all really liked it but said there was no market for it. No market?! There were thousands of army wives around and lots of ways to bring the book to their attention – especially in places like Cyprus and German where they are a totally captive audience with special newspapers and radio stations just for the Forces. I mean, just how easy would it be to advertise it? But the publishers couldn’t see it so we decided to go it alone. We sold a staggering 16,000 copies and then went on to publish more books. This meant that when I came to try to sell my first novel I did have a bit of a track record to put on my CV and a readership who might be persuaded to buy something else of mine. But of course I also had the most enormous dollop of luck as my book just happened to land on the desk of an editor who was looking for new authors for a new mass market paperback venture. I have to say that ‘luck’ plays a ridiculously large part in a lot of authors’ writing careers and mine was no exception. Q: Where do your ideas for storylines and characters come from? If I knew I’d bottle it. The glib answer is that a deadline helps focus the mind when it comes to finding ideas but the truth is I generally think of a setting first – skiing, yachting, the movies, whatever – and then think of a character to put into that world and find a reason why she does what she does. In The Chalet Girl Millie (the heroine) needed a job where she gets fed and housed because her father has thrown her out of the family home so working as a chalet host ticks all her boxes. In Moonlighting Jess is a pole dancer, but she’s been professionally trained and dreams of dancing in Cats or the Lion King. However, when the story opens she knows that is never going to happen and she’s so utterly skint that the chance of making some real money, even if it means taking her kit off, isn’t something she can afford to turn down. Q: What do you love about Little Black Dress books? Apart from the fact that they pay me I love them because I think most of the heroines are in very believable situations. Mills & Boon are just fantastic for pure escapist fantasy where billionaires take up with their PAs or secretaries, where the world of the uber-glamorous is brought to life on the page, but LBD are a bit more down to earth. And they tend to have a lot of humour in them, which I also like. My favourite sort of read is one where you end up laughing AND crying and LBD can and do deliver exactly that mix. Q: You also write romantic fiction under the name Catherine Jones. Why do you use separate names? I wrote 6 books as Catherine Jones, all about the army and, to be totally frank, my sales were pretty poor. I thought the public would love an insight into the world of macho-men in uniform but apparently soldiers weren’t the turn-on for other women that they were for me. So I needed a change of writing style and a new publisher and when publishers are looking at taking on an author, their past sales figures (if they’ve been previously published) can influence whether or not they take you. So I decided to go via the slush pile again and when you’ve been born with a name like Catherine Lace it’s daft not to make use of it So I dumped Catherine Jones and said hello to Kate Lace. I have to say it came as a bit of a shock to the editor of LBD to discover that Catherine Jones and Kate Lace were one and the same, as we’d met quite a few times at various Romantic Novelists’ Association events. But she didn’t know that until after they’d accepted The Chalet Girl. So that’s twice I’ve made it off the slush pile, which just shows it can be done! Q: Your latest LBD book was just released, Moonlighting. Where did the inspiration for the book come from? My middle daughter has a friend who works as one, but she’s also a hairdresser because she knows that pole dancing is a bit like being an athlete – it’s not a job for life, only while you’re young and fit. I just really liked her down-to-earth attitude and so I built a story around a character who is in the job purely for the money. I then decided to spice it up by giving her a real conflict of interest – in that she’s a Special Constable in her free time. Once I’d got those elements in place the rest of the story sort of fell into place. Q: How do you like to spend your free time? When I’m not writing I love to cook, which is also quite creative, and I adore doing quizzes. In fact I love doing them so much I managed to persuade some of my fellow Romantic Novelists to form a team with me for University Challenge -the Professionals. We got to the finals which was fantastic fun! And if you’re not a politician or a student I can definitely say Jeremy Paxman is very charming. Q: What would be your advice for aspiring writers? To keep going, to keep writing, to get impartial advice (not from your mum or bessie-mate but from a writer’s group or critique partner), to read everything you can lay your hands on of the genre you want to write and to take any advice you might get offered by a professional and really think about it. Agents and editors don’t offer advice or suggest changes unless they really think your m/s has lots of potential. (If they don’t think that you’ll get the ‘our list is full’ standard rejection letter.) But I know loads of aspiring writers who have ignored such advice not realising how rare it is for it to be given and have shoved the rejected m/s in a drawer and started a new one. What they should have done is take the advice, re-write and try again. The chances are they might well have had a really good shot at being published but they let it slip away. Q: Where would be your dream vacation? Blimey – that’s a toughie… I love going off the beaten track and I love critters and so I think the idea of a walking safari in Africa is fairly high up my list but it wouldn’t be very restful, in fact it would be pretty energetic and I do like to re-charge my batteries on holiday. So for restful, I think I’d like to go to a palm-fringed island with a case of books and a snorkel. But I wouldn’t turn either down if offered.
Celine Dion is pregnant- with twins! A rep for the singer, who has undergone in-vitro fertilization multiple times, has confirmed with Usmagazine that she and husband Rene Angelil are 14 weeks along. They will find out the genders next month. These babies will join brother Rene-Charles, 9, who was also conceived via IVF.
Congratulations are in order for Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz. Not only are the couple now engaged- they are expecting a child! The couple, who have been together since the fall of 2008, plan to tie the knot at the end of the year in a private ceremony, according to People.com. This will be the first child for the couple and Alicia, and the third for rapper Swizz Beatz. He has two children, Kasseem Jr., 3, and son Prince Nasir, 9, both from previous relationships.
Gary Coleman passed away Friday at 12:05 pm after suffering a brain hemorrhage. The actor, best known for his role on Diff’rent Strokes, was 42. Coleman had suffered an intracranial hemorrhage at his Utah home on Wednesday night, and was put on life support at the Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo, Utah. People.com reports his manager, John Alcantar, as saying, “He was removed from life support; soon thereafter, he passed quickly and peacefully. By Gary’s bedside were his wife and other close family members.”
