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Author Profile: Cathleen Holst
Chick Lit Authors

Author Profile: Cathleen Holst

Author Name: Cathleen Holst

Website: http://cathleenholst.webs.com/
Bio: Born and raised in Atlanta, Cathleen is a bona fide”Georgia Peach” with her feet firmly planted in the South. She grew up playing on the lawn of Stone Mountain park, beneath its famous carving, strolling the sidewalks of historic downtown Stone Mountain & Tucker and loving every minute of it. Despite whisking a few of her characters off to glamorous places like New York, she has no intention of relocating herself to a city where good ol’ fashioned sweet tea isn’t readily available. Perish the thought!
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 husband, three children and two rambunctious dogs. She is also unabashedly obsessed with all things Superman. And when not reading or writing you’ll likely find her watching more television (usually Superman related) than any one person should, eating chocolate and then running countless miles to negate the effects of the creamy devil.
Her writing influences include Fannie Flagg, Beth Hoffman, Helen Fielding, Sophie Kinsella, and Lindsey Kelk.

Titles: Everleigh in NYC

See my review of Everleigh in NYC
See my interview with Cathleen!
Bio Retrieved from cathleenholst.webs.com

May 21, 2011
2 Comments
Everleigh in NYC by Cathleen Holst
Chick Lit Review

Everleigh in NYC by Cathleen Holst

I was so super excited to read the first book from Cathleen Holst, someone who has become a friend and mentor of mine since launching Chick Lit Plus and making the plunge into writing. And she did not disappoint! Everleigh in NYC opens with southern belle Everleigh Carlisle visiting New Orleans with bestie Christina. Since Everleigh was just dumped for the other woman- in this case, one of her friends- she knows a vacation to the Big Easy is in order. While there, Everleigh and Christina visit a voodoo priestess, and Everleigh makes a wish. The next morning, unable to remember the past night events, Everleigh doesn’t realize that she made a life altering wish with the priestess.
Two years later, everything is falling in place for Everleigh. She got hired for her dream job- a columnist at the ultra glam premiere New York magazine- Trés Magnifique. Her dream of moving to the Big Apple from Georgia and making a name for herself are finally happening. She also meets a man, the gorgeous and funny and hard working Robert Cates, but there are a few problems. For one, she can hear his inner thoughts. For two, he is her new boss, taking over the small newspaper company that Everleigh works for. Tucker Tales also happens to be started by Everleigh’s father, and is in danger of going under. Can Everleigh really leave for NYC and leave behind the family business? And why can she Robert’s thoughts?
Everleigh in NYC is a hit for Cathleen Holst! The story was fast-paced, the writing was witty, and the characters were full of charisma. I loved the voodoo/hearing thoughts aspect, that mystery gave this chick lit novel a little something extra. But the pages are also filled with to die for fashions, loving friends, boyfriend dramas, and an extremely relatable heroine that faces very real decisions. I highly enjoyed this debut novel, though there were a few odd grammar and spelling mishaps towards the end that I noticed, but overall, really fantastic read. I definitely recommend!
[Rating:4]

April 18, 2011
3 Comments
In My Mailbox: Week of February 27
Updates

In My Mailbox: Week of February 27

In My Mailbox: Week of February 27

Title: Tales From the Yoga Studio
Author: Rain Mitchell
Received: From Rubyna Mansuri @ FSB Associates
Synopsis: The yoga studio is where daily cares are set aside, mats are unfurled, and physical exertion leads to well-being, renewal, and friendship. An aggressively expanding chain of Los Angeles yoga “experience centers,” has Lee and her extraordinary teaching abilities in its sights. They woo her with a lucrative contract, a trademarked name for her classes, and a place for her handsome musician husband. But accepting the contract means abandoning the students at the homey studio Lee runs in L.A.’s Silver Lake district- and leaving behind four women whose friendships are suddenly more important to her than retirement benefits and a salary increase.
Tales from the Yoga Studio is an insider’s look at the current obsession with yoga, told with enough humor, wit, and warmth to charm and delight readers, whether or not they’ve ever done a Downward Dog.

Title: Everleigh in NYC
Author: Cathleen Holst
Received: From Cathleen Holst
Synopsis: Cheating boyfriend aside, Everleigh Carlisle picks up the shattered pieces of her life, determined to put them back together. On a whim, Everleigh and her BFF Christina visit a voodoo priestess while celebrating Mardi Gras in the Big Easy, where an unspoken wish is granted, unknowingly altering the course of Everleigh’s life. Two years later, her dreams are set to come true when she lands her dream job as a columnist for New York’s premiere fashion magazine, Trés Magnifique. Everleigh’s life quickly becomes complicated when her ex re-declares his love for her, and she meets Robert Cates, only to discover three things: 1)She is extremely attracted to him. 2) She has the bizarre ability to hear his thoughts. 3) He is her new boss. Everleigh takes a long awaited bite from the Big Apple, but are her eyes bigger than her appetite?

Title: Rock Bottom
Author: Erin Brockovich & CJ Lyons
Received: From CJ Lyons
Synopsis: Ten years ago, Angela Joy Palladino left home as a pregnant seventeen-year-old in trouble. Now, after winning and losing a career as an environmental activist, dubbed by the media as “The People’s Champion,” she hopes to start over by taking a new job with a lawyer who is fighting to stop mountain top removal mining.
As a single mom of a special needs nine-year-old boy, Angela is happy for any work she can get, even if it means returning to the West Virginia hometown she left in disgrace. But when her new boss turns up dead and his daughter’s life is threatened, Angela discovers that her own secrets aren’t the only ones her mountain hometown has kept buried.
Hitting rock bottom, Angela must face the betrayal of those once closest to her and confront the harrowing past she thought she had left behind.

Title: Little Miss Teacher
Author: Cassandra O’Sullivan Sachar
Received: From Cassandra O’Sullivan Sachar
Synopsis: Told through the eyes of Candace Turner, a high school English teacher straight out of college, Little Miss Teacher details one woman’s struggles through the important initial stages of her career and her life as a grown-up. While teaching her students about writing and literature, Candace learns her own lessons about life. As she worries about fitting in with the faculty and conquering piles of essays to grade, Candace also pursues an old crush. Through her endless attempts to succeed in both her job and life, she has many adventures within and outside of her classroom walls. Ultimately, Candace hopes to finish the school year with a feeling of triumph at having touched the lives of her students… and having survived.

In the vein of both Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus’s The Nanny Diaries and Lauren Weisberger’s The Devil Wears Prada, Little Miss Teacher is a story about a young woman dealing with the ups and downs of work and life. In experiences that are sometimes amusing and sometimes sad, Candace endures everything from chaperoning the prom to helping a friend deal with a problem. In her earnest, self-conscious, conversational manner, Candace gives a voice and an all-access pass to the often embarrassing life of a young educator.

February 27, 2011
2 Comments