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Welcome to the Real World by Carole Matthews
Chick Lit Review

Welcome to the Real World by Carole Matthews

Fern Kendal certainly doesn’t have it easy. Living in a completely unglamorous flat above and Indian restaurant, Fern must take on multiple jobs just to afford her rent. She desperately hopes to make it as a singer, but performing at a small pub with an unappreciative audience is not helping her case. Her best friend and accompanist Carl convinces Fern that they should try out for Fame Game, a reality TV competition for singers. To Fern’s surprise, she makes the callbacks- but has to go ahead without Carl.
Meanwhile, Fern is struggling to make ends meet while trying to help support her brother and his extremely asthmatic son who needs constant care and dealing with her new housemate- her father. Fern’s parents are on the verge of divorce and her father is quickly becoming more than a nuisance for Fern. She takes on the job of assistant to Evan David, popular opera singer- even though she knows nothing about opera and keeps having to run out on her professional duties to deal with her personal life events. To make matters more confusing, Evan David takes an unexplainable liking to Fern, all while Carl is desperately hoping that Fern will one day love him as much as he loves her.
Welcome to the Real World by Carole Matthews brings likable characters and a scenario that is very real. It was fun to read about the struggles that the heroine is dealing with, and was refreshing to see a character that isn’t just hoping to fall in love- she is pursing big dreams and fantasies. With a supporting cast of hilarious characters (Fern’s father pretending to have Tourette’s to try to win back his wife) readers will enjoy the humor and snappy dialogue that Matthew’s brings to all her novels.

January 31, 2010
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Society Girls by Sarah Mason
Chick Lit Review

Society Girls by Sarah Mason

Clemmie Colshannon is running out of luck. After finding out her boyfriend is a complete slum (him being the main reason of losing her job as a London art appraiser) and having a disastrous trip around the world, Clemmie finds herself living back at home. Her family is eclectic at best, with a drama queen actress as a mother with a passion for wild animals, (including a recuperating seagull), a brother with a secret crush that he is changing all his ways for, and a reporter for a sister that gets Clemmie wrapped up in what turns out to be a dangerous story.
Holly Colshannon, whom readers first met in Playing James, has found a juicy story involving another writer at the newspaper, Emma the society writer. Emma has mysteriously disappeared, and the girls learn she was secretly planning to get married to a man her father did not approve of. While trying to help Emma get her fiancé back, the sisters inadvertently put Emma (and their whole family) in danger.
Society Girls by Sarah Mason delivers a humorous story, with the supporting cast really giving the story line something extra. It was a little slow in the beginning, but the humor kept me going until the real drama started happening. Chick lit readers will also enjoy the love story that is fairly obvious to all but the heroine, and overall Society Girls makes for an entertaining read.

January 29, 2010
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Such a Pretty Fat by Jen Lancaster
Chick Lit Review

Such a Pretty Fat by Jen Lancaster

Such a Pretty Fat from hilarious author Jen Lancaster will keep you laughing throughout. Lancaster pens her journey to try to lose those extra fifty pounds, get healthier, and maybe stop getting called a “fat bitch.” Bitch she can handle, but maybe it wouldn’t kill her to hit the gym, work up a sweat….
Or maybe it will. She joins Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers, starts using her gym membership and hires a personal trainer. So while eating tiny portions of cardboard food and being worked to her workout death, Lancaster gets the idea to track her journey and turn her experiences into her next novel. The money from getting published is the best motivation to keep her going back to Barbie, her perky personal trainer that pushes her to the extreme each time she steps foot in the gym.
After realizing that paying attention to her diet and exercising is actually helping her lose weight, Lancaster becomes more motivated to keep it up, and Such a Pretty Fat turns out not to be only a hilarious memoir of one’s struggles with body image, health, and weight loss, but an inspiration as well. A must read on the chick lit lists.

January 24, 2010
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The Chocolate Lovers’ Club by Carole Matthews
Chick Lit Review

The Chocolate Lovers’ Club by Carole Matthews

Lucy Lombard and her three friends are addicted. To chocolate. The foursome often meet up at their safe place, Chocolate Heaven, to divulge in chocolate and digest each other’s problems. Lucy has found her boyfriend cheating on her yet again, and has to decide if she can give him a second chance- for the fifth time. Nadia, who gave up her career to be a stay at home mom, is struggling with her husband’s own addiction- the much more dangerous addiction to gambling. She is watching their money dwindle down to nothing, and has to make the decision to stay with her husband or take their son and leave. Chantal is struggling through her marriage; even though the money that came with her husband is fabulous and keeps her bejeweled can’t make up for the complete lack of any sex life. She often enters into extramarital affairs, until one man steals $30,000 worth of her jewelry and an escort she was hiring turns out to be otherwise involved- with another friend. And do-gooder Autumn is having her peaceful life broken up by her drug abusing brother moving in with her.
The Chocolate Lovers’ Club by Carole Matthews focuses on these four friends and the challenges they are facing in their lives. The usual Matthews humor is there, but I could also find a serious tone underneath all the chocolate talk. The plot centers around the friends and their addiction to chocolate, but if you look deeper, each friend is struggling through other addictions- Lucy’s addiction to a cheating boyfriend, Nadia’s husband’s gambling addiction, Chantal’s addiction to sex, and Autumn’s brother with a drug addiction. The Chocolate Lovers’ Club is a favorite of mine simply because of a well designed plot, enough humor to keep me laughing, yet enough real life drama’s to let me really take something away from the women’s stories.

January 19, 2010
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Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner
Chick Lit Review

Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner

Certain Girls, the sequel from Jennifer Weiner’s Good In Bed, gives readers another glance at the complicated life of Cannie Shapiro. Cannie is struggling with her daughter Joy, who is about to turn 13 and become a women with her bat mitzvah. Joy has other ideas about how her bat mitzvah should go, including a mature dress and more exciting theme than The Sound of Music, but Cannie can’t get past her over-protection. Joy was born prematurely, and that caused her to have to wear hearing aids in both ears. Because of this and her own hard childhood, Cannie becomes an overbearing mother and causes Joy to rebel.
Matters only get worse when Joy suddenly becomes fascinated with building a deeper relationship with her biological father, the elusive Bruce, and her maternal grandfather, the man that Cannie despises. On top of everything else, her physician husband, Peter, has decided he wants to try to have baby, which would require a surrogate mother, and her writing career could be on the verge of ending.
Certain Girls is written from two different perspectives- both Cannie’s and Joy’s. It was hilarious to see the different viewpoints from mother and daughter, and made my connection to the book so much more. This was a heartfelt story that took me on a verge of emotions- from laughing out loud to shedding a few tears. Weiner’s writing style is unique and beautiful, and her novels are a must for all chick lit fans.

January 16, 2010
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Table Manners by Mia King
Chick Lit Review

Table Manners by Mia King

Table Manners, the follow up novel from Mia King’s Good Things, introduces Deidre McIntosh back into reader’s lives. Everything seems to be going so smoothly for our heroine: she has her own line of pastries with a fabulous company and secured the perfect boyfriend, Kevin Johnson, one of the most eligible bachelors in all of Seattle. Deidre’s perfect world suddenly comes to a halt though when everything falls apart at once. The company she is working for isn’t letting her run with her creative ideas for her pastries, Kevin’s snarky sister Marsha seems out to get Deidre, and worse- Kevin’s sexy seductive ex-fiancé suddenly enters into the picture- with her eyes on Deidre’s man.
Mia King brings another fabulous and delectable novel to readers, who follow Deidre and her friends along their difficult journeys. Deidre’s best (gay) friend is soon to get married to his partner, but what they envision for their special day is difficult to achieve. And Deidre’s friend Lindsey from Jacob’s Pointe is thinking about selling the beloved Wishbone diner after suffering a heart attack and losing any positive outlook on life. During her time of crisis, Deidre finds that she has no one she can turn to. But like all good chick lit stories, readers will get that happy ending albeit a few unexpected bumps along the way. Table Manners left me hoping for a third novel from the truly gifted Mia King.

January 15, 2010
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The Infidelity Pact by Carrie Karasyov
Chick Lit Review

The Infidelity Pact by Carrie Karasyov

Four friends living in L.A are bored with their family lives, especially their husbands. Ringleader Victoria schemes up the perfect plan for them: an infidelity pact. Each woman will have one year to have an affair, and the only people they will confide in will be each other. Though the other friends seem hesitant at first, it doesn’t take long for them to dive in to their new lives.
Victoria starts sleeping with her husband’s biggest nemesis, another agent who is always competing with Justin over clients and prestige. Eliza is following the pact reluctantly, knowing that her marriage to Declan isn’t perfect but still not wanting to be unfaithful. Until she sparks the flames with an old crush, Tyler, who also happens to be a huge movie star who is willing to give up his family life for Eliza. Helen jumps right into infidelity, sleeping with random men and even women. She was having doubts about her marriage anyways, thinking her husband Wesley was too old and boring for her, but staying together for their daughter. And LeeLee takes the pact seriously, planning to run away with her other lover, long time friend and Senator Jack Porter. Her husband Brad doesn’t care about her, and doesn’t support her financially like Jack could do for her. Splitting up the family would be difficult for her two daughters, but she was ready to think about herself.
At first, each of the friends are loving their new lives, feeling the freedom and exhilaration that comes from cheating. But each of their situations takes serious turns, and life decisions need to be made. After their secrets are found out and a possible murder is committed, the women begin to wonder if they made the right choices.
The Infidelity Pact by Carrie Karasyov gives a startling eye-opener to L.A’s own desperate housewives, and if you are wanting a behind the scenes the look of the steamy lives of the wealthy elite, look no further. Each woman offers her own unique problems with her marriage and family life, and once situations take dangerous turns, the book becomes even more irresistible to put down.

January 9, 2010
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Sweet Life by Mia King
Chick Lit Review

Sweet Life by Mia King

Marissa Price is living a great life in New York City. Always busy, she doesn’t spend as much time with her husband Paul and daughter Pansy that she would like, but both she and Paul are busy with their careers and eight-year old Pansy has plenty of activities to keep her busy. When Paul’s job suddenly offers him a position to move his family to Hawaii and secure a management position at a prestigious hotel, the family quickly packs up their belongings and heads off to paradise.
Turns out, The Big Island is nothing like Marissa was expecting. The constant rainfall, the cows in the backyard, and the house that looked so beautiful and inviting online turns out to be a falling apart fixer-upper. Trying to adjust to suddenly being a stay at home mom, Marissa finds herself resenting moving to Hawaii, while Paul is having the time of his life. The strains in the marriage become evident, and soon Paul is moving out. Marissa suspects he is having an affair with his secretary, and tries moving on with her own life. This includes getting female tenants to help with the growing stress of bills, women who eventually become incredibly supportive friends.
Sweet Life, the second novel from Mia King, is an inspiring story about love, family, and friendships. Wondering which life changing decisions Marissa will make keep readers engaged throughout, and the ending provides a nice surprise and happy ending for all. The supporting characters, Marissa’s housemates, are a wonderful addition, each character with an incredible story. Their struggles really seal the plot line together, making Sweet Life a favorite for chick lit fans.

January 8, 2010
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All Eyes on Her by Poonam Sharma
Chick Lit Review

All Eyes on Her by Poonam Sharma

Monica Gupta is an ambitious junior associate at the elite Steel law firm, trying to work her way up the ladder despite a bitter rival in the office. She works with Hollywood celebrities, representing them as they brave the tricky world of divorce along with the public and tabloids capturing their every move. Her newest clients, Cameron and Lydia, are proving to be a tough couple, keeping Monica more and more distracted from her own crumbling love life. Fiancé Raj won’t speak to her, and jetted off to the other side of the Pond while continuing to ignore her calls and emails. To top everything off, her irresistible ex-boyfriend is requesting Monica’s help representing his own divorce, causing more confusion for Monica about what she really wants.
All Eyes on Her by Poonam Sharma is a page turner until the end, keeping readers wondering how Monica’s love life will play out. The mix of celebrities and an “average” character fits together nicely, giving chick lit readers a taste of the Hollywood hoopla. The only problem I had with this book is that the plot seemed to jump around too much. I found myself confused when story lines would end abruptly, or not enough information was given on a character. Because the main character was written so well and I felt I could really connect with her, I was able to stay interested and intrigued throughout the entire novel, wondering who Monica would eventually end up with. Look for All Eyes on Her to be overall charming- bringing you laughs and making you think.

January 8, 2010
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