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The First Husband by Laura Dave
Chick Lit Review

The First Husband by Laura Dave

Annie Adams is almost thirty-two and quite happy with her life. She writes a successful travel column that takes her all over the world, has enough money to enjoy life, and lives with her boyfriend, movie director Nick, in Los Angeles. But Annie’s seemingly happy life is put on hold when Nick announces one night that he needs a break from Annie- to pursue another woman. Annie is rightly shaken, and stumbles through her haze into a neighborhood bar- where everything changes. She meets Griffin, a chef who is visiting town and immediately charms Annie. He is everything she was looking for in a man- and she promptly marries him and within three months is packing her bags to restart life in rural Massachusetts. But when she doesn’t take immediately to the cold weather and Griffin starts to become obsessed with opening his new restaurant and she meets Griffin’s former girlfriend who Griffin’s mother still clearly adores, Annie wonders if she made a mistake with her first husband.
The third novel by Laura Dave, The First Husband, was a very real and down to earth read. The struggles Annie goes through with both Nick, Griffin, and her new life had no blinders on them. Readers can feel Annie’s pain and confusion throughout the pages, and it really sucked me into the story. I thought Dave’s writing was fantastic, with wonderful pictures of life in rural Massachusetts, and the fabulous sprinklings of Annie’s travels. I am a major travel junkie, so this aspect of the story was quite thrilling for me. There is just enough talk about Annie’s travel column and experiences to entice readers but not overload them on her work. I really enjoyed this novel, but sometimes I felt it was almost too fast-paced. There was more than one instance where I became confused because the story line wasn’t adding up, and one where I thought the name Nick was used where Griffin should have been, which threw me off. But overall, the lesson about love and acceptance is very clear, and I thought the story was very sweet yet real at the same time. I would definitely recommend Laura Dave’s latest novel.
[Rating: 4]

July 10, 2011
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Beneath a Starlet Sky by Amanda Goldberg and Ruthanna Khalighi Hopper
Chick Lit Review

Beneath a Starlet Sky by Amanda Goldberg and Ruthanna Khalighi …

Lola Santisi, daughter of Hollywood royalty, is stuck between two worlds. On one hand, she has LA- with her doctor boyfriend who finally isn’t an actor, who seems he could be The One, and where she can wear Crocs and get away with it. On the other end is New York, where she is the CEO of her BFF’s fashion line, Julian Tennant Inc., and always has her Louboutin stiletto’s firmly planted on the ground. The bicoastal life is getting to Lola, Julian Tennant’s fashion line is plummeting, and Lola’s brother just got dumped- by Lola’s best friend, Kate Woods, rising star at CAA. While Lola tries to piece her brother’s heart back together, figure out what got Kate to jump ship, and book Julian’s designs for a magazine cover, her life starts to spin out of control. Add in the backstabbing, ridiculous demands of the Hollywood elite, and a mother with a reality show, and Lola has her hands full. Navigating her way through crisis after crisis, whether with a Croc or Louboutin on her pedicured feet, Lola works to keep her life sane, save her and Julian’s careers, and find happiness with her boyfriend.
Beneath a Starlet Sky is the follow-up from Celebutantes by Amanda Goldberg and Ruthanna Khalighi Hopper. While I haven’t read the first book and worried that might hinder my experience, it really didn’t. I picked up on the character’s lives smoothly and adored Lola. She cared so much about everyone around her; her family, friends, and boyfriend, and I really wanted good things for her. The insider gossip on what really happens in Hollywood is outrageous, but in a laugh out loud, “are you kidding me?” kind of way. I laughed a lot while reading, but felt sometimes that the other shoe dropped on one to many occasions. Every time something good happened to Lola, something worse would occur to wipe out the happiness. I found myself sighing towards the end of the book because I knew something terrible was going to happen every chapter, it got a little stale for me. But the ending was a happy one, and overall I thought it was a fun book, and if you like reading about celebrities and the insane world they live in, I would definitely recommend Beneath a Starlet Sky to you!
[Rating: 4]

July 6, 2011
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Starring in the Movie of My Life by Laurel Osterkamp
Chick Lit Review

Starring in the Movie of My Life by Laurel Osterkamp

When author Laurel Osterkamp contacted me to coordinate her blog tour, I was excited to work with her and her novel Starring in the Movie of My Life. The synopsis reeled me in quickly, and once I started reading, this novel was very difficult to put down. There are three characters that are followed: Samantha and Nathan Linden, who are husband and wife, and Melody, a teenage student of Nathan’s. When Melody is attacked at a school dance, it is Nathan that plays hero, getting her away from harm. After that incident, Melody clings to the fact that she will get Nathan to leave Samantha for her, and through a very eerie and calculating plan, it looks like it just may work. Samantha begins to question all the time Nathan spends with Melody, going to her house for dinners and staying late to help her at school. When Samantha’s ex keeps popping up in her life, Samantha can’t help but still be drawn to him, because of what they have been through in their past and because she is feeling ignored by her husband. The complicated drama of the three lives comes to a head when Melody takes her devious plan one step too far, and a serious crisis happens in Samantha’s family.
I loved how Osterkamp blended the character’s lives so seamlessly throughout the pages. While I could never agree with what Melody was doing, it was easy to see why she acted that way, with her complicated family drama going on behind the scenes. This is a great love story, very deep and complicated and messy, but very real. The drama is there from the start, and the story lines will keep you on your toes throughout. The only thing I wished that were different was the ending left me a little unsettled with Nathan’s character. I felt like he really got the short end of the stick throughout, and there was really no happy ending, or really even any sort of ending for him. He just drifted off while Melody and Samantha got the closure. But other than that, I loved this book and highly recommend Starring in the Movie of My Life.
[Rating: 4.5]

July 4, 2011
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Phone Kitten by Marika Christian
Chick Lit Review

Phone Kitten by Marika Christian

Marika Christian is on tour with her novel Phone Kitten through CLP Blog Tours. Christian hits it out of the ballpark with this hysterical, quirky, and endearing story, told through the eyes of Emily. When Emily, a slightly overweight and shy budding reporter gets fired from her job, she stumbles into the world of phone sex. With her soft, breathy voice, Emily can forget about her weight, forget about guys acting like she is invisible, and make some good money on top of it. But when Emily attracts the attention of a hottie in her history class, her two worlds begin to collide. Should Emily confess her profession, or would that have history hottie running for the hills? To make matters worse, one of Emily’s top phone clients is found murdered- right after he meets Emily and threatens her. Now, Emily could be considered a suspect in his death. To try to clear her name and to crack the case so she can be the reporter on the story, Emily begins to put the puzzle pieces together surrounding the mysterious murder- but is she only making more trouble for herself?
Like I said earlier, Phone Kitten is laugh out loud funny from page one. I was immediately captured by Emily and her innocence, and had to laugh at most of the phone sex scenes. From chatting with Christian in my interview with her, I knew that every call taken by Emily was something that really happened to the author when she was doing research for the book, which only made the situations even funnier to me. Emily made a great sleuth while working on the murder mystery case, and I had fun working along with her to catch the killer. The few problems I found with the book were with the editing. There were a lot of mistakes like missing commas or quotation marks, but I even found words that were missing letters, such as “bo” instead of “body.” And I’m not sure why, but I wasn’t as into Emily’s boyfriend as I think I should have been. Maybe because he was a little mysterious himself on his career? I really can’t pinpoint it, but I felt almost like he was a bad guy throughout the story, and I was just waiting for the real him to be discovered by Emily. Overall though, a very entertaining read, and one that will keep you laughing even after you’ve flipped the last page.
[Rating: 4]

June 30, 2011
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Already Home by Susan Mallery
Chick Lit Review

Already Home by Susan Mallery

Jenna Stevens, a recently divorced sous-chef, moves back to her hometown of Georgetown, Texas to start over. Her adoptive parents greet her with open arms, and Jenna decides on a whim to open her own store. While Jenna always had a knack for cooking, her ex-husband worked diligently to place seeds in her mind that she was no good at her profession, so Jenna decides to open a retail store with cooking supplies, instead of doing any actual cooking. Quickly realizing she is in over her head, she hires Violet, a street smart woman that works well with the customers. The duo form an unlikely friendship, and Jenna thinks everything is finally falling into place in her life. But everything changes at rapid pace when her birth parents suddenly show up at her store, claiming they want a relationship with their daughter. Jenna is thrown by these free spirits- Serenity and Tom- who want so badly to reconnect with Jenna after so many years. But Jenna is weary- she loves her adoptive parents, and the timing doesn’t seem right. Why now, why after so many years did her parents decide to come find her? Can Jenna learn to love her birth parents? Or does fate have a different plan?
I adored Already Home by Susan Mallery. This was a book that from page one got my attention and drew me in. Jenna’s character seemed a little fragile after her nasty divorce, but I could tell she wanted to stay strong and make her parents proud. The love between Jenna and her adoptive mother was very touching to read, especially the loyalty Jenna felt to her once Serenity showed up. There wasn’t a whole lot of romance in this story, and I thought that was fine. It was deeper, made me ask myself a lot of questions and really put myself in Jenna’s shoes. Of course, there is a love interest for both Jenna and Violet, and Violet’s storyline really had me invested and shocked. The ending of the story brought tears to my eyes, but I felt satisfied after I flipped the last page. I think this is definitely one to put on your to-read lists!
[Rating: 5]

June 29, 2011
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Sweet Valley Confidential by Francine Pascal
Chick Lit Review

Sweet Valley Confidential by Francine Pascal

I could not wait to read Sweet Valley Confidential, the new adult novel from writer and creator Francine Pascal. I was a diehard Sweet Valley fan back in the day, reading all the books and eventually watching the shows when they came out. So I was pretty excited to catch up on my favorite twins and their friends, and see how their lives played out. And I was not prepared for what I read….
The story starts off with Elizabeth Wakefield, the shy studious twin in high school, walking into her New York apartment. Readers are instantly aware that some sort of feud is brewing between Elizabeth and twin sister Jessica, the fashionista and selfish one. The sisters are now 27, Elizabeth living in NY and Jessica still in Sweet Valley. Turns out, Elizabeth actually fled to New York because she found out her lovely twin sister stole her fiancé away from her. Yes, Jessica is in love with Todd. And has been since SVU days. Huh? Not what I expected, and sadly, not where I wanted the twins to be in their lives. How could Jessica do such a thing to Elizabeth? And how could Todd possibly be interested in Jessica? Befuddling. So the story goes on to show how the characters got to that point in their lives- Jessica going through two failed marriages, Todd and Elizabeth living together, preparing to get married, how the Jessica/Todd fling got started, friendships that got ruined because of it, etc. I thought it was fun checking in on the other lives- Lila Fowler, who hasn’t changed a bit, Ken Matthews, Winston Egbert, and Bruce Patman to name a few. I liked seeing who ended up with who, what careers they were holding, and how they had grown from high school and college days. But of course, the main chunk of story goes back to the Jessica/Elizabeth/Todd love triangle. It made me sad that a sister would do something so horrible to her own twin and supposed best friend, but the book makes it pretty clear all is fair in love and war. But I hate to say it, it just wasn’t very believable. Jessica’s two failed marriages makes more sense, but not truly madly deeply falling in love with her sister’s future husband. And there were quite a few very obvious mistakes made, such as wrong names and completely omitting people that had pretty big storylines in the past. And I really didn’t get the twist with Steven’s character. That came from left field.
Overall, I thought the book was okay. It was a little disappointing as a Sweet Valley fan to have Pascal choose to make Jessica betray Elizabeth in such a way, and have them fighting throughout the story. And many of the supporting cast characters were changed in such ways that it seemed they weren’t anything like their high school characters. Along with all the errors made, it was tough to be really happy with the book. But it was a bit fun to catch up with old characters, hilarious when Elizabeth talks about orgasms, and I actually gasped when Alice Wakefield dropped the F-bomb. I wish the characters lives would have gone a different direction, but I guess that’s why I’m not the creator. Even with a lot of things that I didn’t like about the book, I will say that I got into the story for what it was, and questioned how it would end. I laughed and wanted to cry for the twins and their now dysfunctional family, and I read with enthusiasm throughout. If you were a diehard Sweet Valley like I was years ago, I would still recommend the book just so you can see how it turns out. But don’t be surprised to find your own mistakes along the way, and wonder why the editors didn’t catch what was missed.
[Rating: 3.5]

June 27, 2011
6 Comments
Little Miss Teacher by Cassandra O’Sullivan Sachar
Chick Lit Review

Little Miss Teacher by Cassandra O’Sullivan Sachar

Cassandra O’Sullivan Sachar is on tour with CLP Blog Tours June 13-27 with her novel Little Miss Teacher. This story follows Candace Turner and her first year as an English teacher. Candace lands a high school teaching gig straight out of college, and struggles to deal with her career and life in the real real world. Her lesson plans don’t always go as smoothly as she hopes, both in the classroom and in her personal life. Some of her students are wild, her professional outfits are all wrong, she overdoses on NyQuil and passes out on the job, and a tragedy strikes her classroom. She also can’t get her crush to crush on her, her fling with another teacher turns out to be a disaster, and she can’t seem to fit in with the other instructors.
I found Little Miss Teacher to be humorous yet very real. Cassandra O’Sullivan Sachar is an English teacher herself, and it felt like I was almost reading through her diary. I had flashbacks of my high school days, and I remember when I had a first year teacher who sometimes looked like she just wanted to give up on us. I remember feeling sympathetic for her when she couldn’t tame us. A behind the scenes look on what a teacher really goes through during the first year was extremely interesting. There were funny parts, such as the NyQuil incident, but there were serious moments too that puts life into perspective, like the death of a student and a health scare with Candace’s best friend and roommate. I would have liked to see a little more on Candace’s friend or crush or family member, something to give the story a little oomph. About halfway through, I started to wonder what exactly the point of the story was, and thought maybe a little more drama would have helped speed it along and capture my attention. But once I finished and looked back on the whole story, I enjoyed learning something new about a profession and the struggles and embarrassing moment’s teachers have. I liked how the lessons plans for the classroom could be related to the lesson plans in life, and I would recommend this book. Thank you to Cassandra and the other great bloggers who participated in this tour!
[Rating: 3.5]

June 23, 2011
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The D Word by Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke
Chick Lit Review

The D Word by Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke

Jordan Daniels knows her marriage to Kevin is over. Even though they have a young son together, Jordan hasn’t been happy, and knows she wants more. But a year after she files for divorce, Jordan isn’t so sure she made the right choice. Even more frustrating- her career. Jordan makes a living as a spiritual counselor, and relies on her feelings and dreams to help others see their future. But she can’t see hers, and wonders if it’s too late to get Kevin back. Kevin seems to have moved on easily from the divorce, while Jordan can’t put clothes on his side of the closet yet. Can she win him back?
Elle Ryan knew something felt off when she agreed to marry Chase. But it took just weeks before the wedding before Elle got the strength to call it off- hurting her boyfriend and his sister, who happens to be her best friend. Elle never thought she could meet a great guy at the dog park, but when she runs into Kevin Daniels and his dog Georgie, the sparks fly immediately. Though Elle comes with her own baggage, so does Kevin- his ex-wife Jordan and five year old son Max. Elle can clearly see Jordan wants Kevin back, and will try to do anything to get Elle out of his life. Can Elle win the battle?
The D Word, co-authored by Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke (the ladies behind the fabulous blog chicklitisnotdead.com) bring chick lit readers a story full of love and heartache, with twists in the story and enough light-hearted situations to make you smile even when you are reading about a not so happy topic. The story is told from both Jordan and Elle’s point of view, and it’s always interesting to get inside two character’s minds and see how they think- and what they think of each other. I loved that Jordan was jealous of Elle for her red hair and fresh face, and Elle was jealous of Jordan for being blonde and sophisticated. Spot-on for how woman usually think! I was curious throughout the way about how all the characters would end up, because there was no clear path. And I could easily side with both Jordan and Elle, so that made me invested in both characters. The only think I didn’t like was all the flashbacks. Those would yank me out of the story, and some I thought were really unnecessary. But other than that, a lot of fun to read and I think chick lit fans should put this on their to-read list!
[Rating: 4]

June 22, 2011
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Trace of Fever by Lori Foster
Chick Lit Review

Trace of Fever by Lori Foster

Lori Foster is keeping hearts racing and palms sweaty with her latest novel Trace of Fever. This book picks up after When You Dare, and follows Dare’s friend and partner Trace Rivers as he works undercover as a bodyguard for Murray Coburn. Murray runs a human trafficking business, and Trace has a personal interest after the kidnapping of his sister Alani. Just when Trace thinks he has gotten enough information and amo to take down Coburn and his business, Priscilla “Priss” Patterson shows up at the offices claiming to be Coburn’s daughter. Priss is set for revenge against Coburn, who used and abused her mother and eventually led to a terrible and fearful childhood for Priss while her mother had to cope with her nightmares. Now Trace’s plans are foiled while he tries to protect Priss, all without blowing his cover and exposing the real him to Coburn and his associates.
I was really excited to pick up Trace of Fever after I gave When You Dare a five star review, but the book fell a bit flat for me. There is so much odd sexual tension and innuendos between Trace and Priss during the beginning chapters that I started to feel a bit lost. I felt that Dare had a lot more action and kept the story moving with a seat of your pants feel to it, while Trace focused more on the sex. Every character seemed only to care about sex, and it started to get stale for me after so many chapters. Once the end started approaching and I didn’t know if Trace of Priss would get out alive after confronting Coburn, the story started to pick up for me and I became engrossed in the last few chapters. If you are a big romance fan, I would definitely recommend checking out the book, but if you like the action more, you might become a bit bored with the beginning. It was fun to catch up with Dare and Molly and even Chris from the first book, and see how their lives have progressed. There is a third book coming out, Savor the Danger, that follows Jackson and Trace’s sister Alani, and I will be interested in reading that one as well. That will be available June 28th.
[Rating: 3.5]

June 21, 2011
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