Ryan Phillippe and actress Abbie Cornish have split according to People.com. A rep for Cornish confirmed the break up, saying, “Abbie ended the relationship with Ryan and she moved out of their home.” A reason was not given for the break-up, but there had been rumors of Phillippe cheating, often hitting up night clubs without his girlfriend. Cornish, 27, and Phillippe, 35, started dating after they met in 2006 while filming Stop-Loss. Phillippe is divorced from actress Reese Witherspoon, and they have two children together. Cornish is currently in Vancouver on location shooting her latest film, Sucker Punch.
Alice Hirsh is trying to adjust to life in the San Fernando Valley after living in New York. Judgmental and borderline unfriendly, Alice relies on her family- Alex, a wonderful husband and father, working as an entertainment lawyer for the stars, and her precious daughter Gabby. But everything turns when Alex announces he needs a “break”- then Alice finds pictures of her husband cuddling with the hottest man-eating actress in Hollywood, also Alex’s newest client. Suddenly, she is on the verge of getting a divorce, and is having to deal with the demise while the paparazzi is stalking her and five year old Gabby asking all the hard questions. Alice struggles to get through each day, trying to pick up the broken pieces around her. She finds friends with the most unexpected people- another mother who loves wearing Winnie-the-Pooh sweatshirts but can swear like a sailor and an ex porn star trying to make a better future for herself. Their friendships help support Alice through her mother’s declining health and a possible love interest- with a former paparazzo. Pieces of Happily Ever After by Irene Zutell is a heartwarming tale of a very real situation and one women’s experience of trying to get her life back on track. I loved the spin with the fairy tale, seeing how Gabby’s love of fairy tales could relate to Alice’s life. The supporting cast really helped shape the novel, with just enough detail on each person’s lives. This is feel good reading material that shows no matter how much you lose, there is more you can gain to get your happily ever after.
Irene Zutell started her career as a newspaper reporter, writing on police and city hall news. After becoming bored with that work, she became a travel writer, touring continents and countries including some of her favorites: Paris, St. Petersburg, Dubrovnik, Prague, Florence, and Rome. After years of writing and traveling, Zutell moved to Los Angeles and started a career as a reporter for People magazine, writing human interest articles and following celebrity lives. Irene Zutell has three books published: They’re Not Your Friends, I’ll Never Have Sex With You Again!, and Pieces of Happily Ever After. Her writing has also been featured in Us Weekly, The New York Times, The NY Daily News, and Newsday. She currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two children.
Born and raised in Atlanta, this “Georgia Peach” has her stilettos firmly planted in the south. Despite whisking her characters off to glamorous places like New York City or Beverly Hills, she has no desire to relocate herself to a city where good ol’ fashioned sweet tea is not readily available. However, she would have her boarding pass in hand in a New York minute for a shopping trip off Rodeo Drive. Cathleen currently resides in a small suburb of Atlanta with her extremely patient husband (and former high school sweetheart) of five years with their three children and two, sometimes over-the-top, rambunctious dogs. She has been writing stories as long as she can remember, and to this day is still perfectly happy to be left alone in a room making stuff up. (Much to the dismay of her husband as he often has to do the lion’s share of the cooking.) Although her love of literature is not confined to one particular genre, it has always been the “feel-good” stories that have resonated with her the most. Calling her stories “chick-lit” does not offend her in the least. All stories, whether they’re an edge of your seat mystery, a decadent regency-era romance, or heart pounding thriller or sci-fi, have their place in our hearts. And for Cathleen, these frilly (yes, sometimes a bit frivolous) delightful easy reads are as perfect as the cherry sitting atop a banana split.
Plum Sykes was born in London, one of six kids, and has a twin sister Lucy. She graduated from Worcester College, Oxford with a degree in modern history. Sykes began her career in fashion by working as a fashion assistant at British Vogue. She then moved on to be a contributing editor on fashion for American Vogue after moving to New York. Plum Sykes love for fashion helped develop her first novel, Bergdorf Blondes, which focuses on New York socialites living their couture lives. Blondes quickly hit the bestseller lists, and paved way for Sykes second novel, Debutante Divorcee. Sykes is married to British entrepreneur Toby Rowland and they have a daughter together, Ursula.
Jessica Stratford wouldn’t change her life for anything. Living in Maryland, working from home as a budget analyst, and enjoying her time with loving husband Kyle couldn’t get any better. Then Jessica joins the popular social networking group Facebook. She quickly finds her old high school crush David Miller and begins an innocent catch-up conversation. The innocence turns into flirtation, which turns into a lunch, that turns into a dinner…and soon Jessica is on the verge of beginning an affair with the one who got away. Jessica finds herself lying to Kyle about where she is, who she is talking on the phone to, even starts fantasizing about David when she is with her husband. Her support group- an eclectic group of five girlfriends- tries to help her through her difficult time, but she even starts lying to all of them about what is really going on with her and David. She only tells Candace- probably because Candace herself has been carrying on affair with a pizza delivery boy underneath her wealthy husband’s nose. Reunion, the debut novel from J.L. Penn, is an excellent contemporary novel about the dangers of social networking and relationships that can be formed over the internet. This is an exceptional story about love, marriage, and friendship, and once I started there was no putting down. This is one of the few novels I’ve read that I was completely hooked within the first few pages. My heart broke when Jessica’s did, I was hopeful when she was hopeful, and devastated when she was devastated. I can’t say enough praises about this book, and I am looking forward to more novels from J.L. Penn.
