Chick Lit Plus by Samantha March

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In My Mailbox: Week of June 17
Chick Lit Plus

In My Mailbox: Week of June 17

In Samantha’s Mailbox:

Title: Monarch Beach

Author: Anita Hughes

Received: From Audrey @ St Martins Press

Synopsis: Anita Hughes’ Monarch Beach is an absorbing debut novel about one woman’s journey back to happiness after an affair splinters her perfect marriage and life—what it means to be loved, betrayed and to love again.

When Amanda Blick, a young mother and kindhearted San Francisco heiress, finds her gorgeous French chef husband wrapped around his sous-chef, she knows she must flee her life in order to rebuild it. The opportunity falls into her lap when her (very lovable) mother suggests Amanda and her young son, Max, spend the summer with her at the St. Regis Resort in Laguna Beach. With the waves right outside her windows and nothing more to worry about than finding the next relaxing thing to do, Amanda should be having the time of her life—and escaping the drama. But instead, she finds herself faced with a kind, older divorcee who showers her with attention… and she discovers that the road to healing is never simple. This is the sometimes funny, sometimes bitter, but always moving story about the mistakes and discoveries a woman makes when her perfect world is turned upside down.

Title: Construct a Couple

Author: Talli Roland

Received: From Talli Roland

Synopsis: Is any relationship strong enough to survive a string of secrets?

With a great job at a reputable magazine and a man who’s the perfect match, Serenity Holland thinks she’s laid the foundation for an ideal London life. When a routine assignment uncovers a shocking secret threatening her boyfriend’s company, Serenity decides to leave nothing to chance, taking matters into her own hands. Soon, though, she realises keeping secrets isn’t as easy as she thought . . . and the consequences are far worse than she ever imagined.

Read how Serenity met her match in the first book of the series, Build A Man.

Title: Twenty-Nine and a Half Reasons

Author: Denise Grover Swank

Received: Via CLP Blog Tours

Synopsis: When Rose reports for Fenton County jury duty she figures she’s lucky to get out of a morning working at the DMV. Instead, despite a disastrous encounter with the new assistant district attorney, Martin Deveraux, she’s picked as a juror on a murder case. As the case progresses, she realizes an ominous vision she had in the men’s restroom proves the defendant is innocent. And there’s not a cotton picking thing she can do about it.

Or is there?

As if things weren’t bad enough, Rose’s older sister Violet is going through a mid-life crisis. Violet insists that Rose stop seeing her sexy new boyfriend, Arkansas state detective Joe Simmons, and date other men. Rose is done letting people boss her around, but she can’t commit to Joe either. Still, Rose isn’t about to let the best thing in her life slip away.

Title: I Should Be So Lucky

Author: Judy Astley

Received: Unsolicited, TransWorld Publishers

Synopsis: Viola hasn’t had much luck with men. Her first husband, Marco, companion of her youth and father of her only child, left her when he realised he was gay. Her second, Rhys, ended his high-octane, fame-filled life by driving his Porsche into a wall. No wonder her family always believes she needs Looking After, and her friends think she really shouldn’t be allowed out on her own … Which is why, at the age of 39, she finds herself shamefully back at home, living with Mum. Viola knows she has to take charge; she needs to get a life, and fast. With a stroppy teenage daughter, a demanding mother, and siblings who want to control her life for her, where is she going to turn?

In Sara’s Mailbox:

Title: The Gaggle: How the Guys You Know Will Help You Find the Love You Want

Author: Jessica Massa

Received: Nina @ Simon & Schuster

Synopsis: Who cares if he’s just not that into you? You’ve got a gaggle.

It’s easy to feel like your love life is nonexistent. You know you’re great, so why haven’t you been on a classic dinner-and-a-movie date since . . . well, forever? Because as it turns out, you are now living in a post-dating world, where the old rules for sex and relationships no longer apply. Suddenly, everything and nothing is a date. But this means that you have much more going on in your love life than you realize.

Think about all the ambiguous interactions you have with guys: from a brainstorming session with a coworker, to a drink with an old friend, to a late night Skype session with an ex who’s still in your life. Once you open your eyes, you’ll see that you’re already exploring all sorts of connections with the men in your life via these non-dates. And who are all these guys you’re non-dating?

Say hello to your gaggle.

The gaggle is the group of guys in your life who play different roles, fulfill different needs, and help you figure out who you are, what you want, and what kind of relationship you ultimately desire. Though no two gaggles are alike, there are ten types of men a gaggle might include, such as the Ego Booster, the Hot Sex Prospect, and the Boyfriend Prospect. Romance, excitement, self-discovery, love . . . all this will be yours, once you stop stressing about dates, labels, and expectations and start thinking of each man you know and meet as a potential guy in your gaggle.

In this clever and groundbreaking debut, based on interviews with women and men across the country, Jessica Massa reveals the ways in which the potential for love is all around you. The Gaggle is the ultimate guide to figuring out what you want—and finding your match—in a world that has left traditional dating behind.

Title: The Ninety Days of Genevieve

Author: Lucinda Carrington

Received: Unsolicited

Synopsis: A 90-day sex contract wasn’t exactly what Genevieve Loften had in mind when she began business negotiations with the arrogant and attractive James Sinclair. As a career move she wanted to go along with it; the pay-off was potentially huge. However, she didn’t imagine that he would make her the star performer in a series of increasingly kinky and exotic fantasies. Thrown into a world of sexual misadventure, Genevieve learns how to balance her high-pressure career with the twilight world of decadence.

June 17, 2012
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In My Mailbox: Week of June 10
Chick Lit Plus

In My Mailbox: Week of June 10

In Samantha’s Mailbox:

Title: Pickin’ Tomatoes

Author: JW Bull

Received: Via CLP Blog Tours

Synopsis: Maggie Malone wants a new life. Who aspires to be a single, forty-year-old, jobless new mother? Driven by the need for an income, Maggie decides to enter a writing contest. Cooking and Women Magazine is seeking a columnist who can compare finding “Mister Right” to cooking. To qualify, an entrant must be single and an experienced chef. Maggie is neither – she can’t even cook. But desperation turns white lies into tasty morsels that whet her creative appetite and she whips up an article comparing finding “Mister Right” to picking the right tomato for her homemade salsa. She wins the contest, is dubbed The Chef of Hearts, and her new life, although a bit shaky, is launched.

Women across America write to her about loneliness, infidelity, insomnia – even to complain about a boyfriend’s snoring. Maggie dissects their problems with a single stroke of her pen, all the while struggling with her own issues. She dishes out therapy in recipes and funny stories and becomes an instant celebrity. As she balances learning how to cook, being a mother and writing a column, her dual lives begin to spin out of control. On the back burner, subterfuge sizzles in the skillet, threatening Maggie’s new recipe for success and she finds herself in the same stew as many of her readers – lost and alone. It’s only when Maggie comes clean with all her lies that she realizes pickin’ the right tomato might not be simply about finding “Mister Right” – sometimes it’s about making the right choices.

Pickin Tomatoes serves up a three-course meal of mayhem, motherhood and middle age flavored with dashes of irony, wit, and wisdom. Throw in a liberal sprinkling of recipes geared towards those who don’t cook, and Pickin’ Tomatoes becomes a must read for anyone who has searched for “Mister Right” but, most of all, wants to find herself.

Title: Ocean Beach

Author: Wendy Wax

Received: From Erin @ Penguin Group

Synopsis: Unlikely friends Madeline, Avery and Nicole have hit some speed bumps in their lives, but when they arrive in Miami’s South Beach neighborhood, they are all hoping for a do-over. Literally. They’ve been hired to bring a once-grand historic house back to its former glory on a new television show called Do-Over. If they can just get this show off the ground, Nikki would get back on her feet financially, Avery could restart her ruined career, and Maddie would have a shot at keeping her family together.

At least, that’s the plan – until the women realize that having their work broadcast is one thing, having their personal lives play out on TV is another thing entirely. Soon they are struggling to hold themselves, and the project, together. With a decades-old mystery—and the hurricane season—looming, the women are forced to figure out just how they’ll weather life’s storms…

Title: Loving David

Author: Gina Hummer

Received: Mindi Sue @ Smith Publicity

Synopsis: What would you do if someone like Ryan Reynolds or Robert Pattinson jumped into your car at a stoplight? That’s what happens to Charlotte when out of nowhere, gorgeous actor David King becomes her surprise passenger. Not recognizing him at first, the startled Charlotte’s initial impulse is to mace him. But once she realizes who he is and that he’s making an escape from a crowd of zealous fans, she puts away her pepper spray and thinks what a great story she’ll have to tell her girlfriends! From there, the impossible happens: the two take tentative steps toward romance, and a relationship blooms. But Charlotte is a behind-the-scenes romance writer, and David is an in-the-spotlight and in-the-tabloids celebrity. Could it ever work? Charlotte’s defenses drop one by one. Their age difference doesn’t really matter, and though their realities are worlds apart, they begin to become one. Just when everything seems to be leading to a storybook ending, David’s past intrudes, and Charlotte has to wonder if his romance with fellowstar Olivia Hudson really is over.
In Sara’s Mailbox:

Title: What The Dog Ate

Author: Jackie Bouchard

Received: Jackie Bouchard

Synopsis: The vet handed Maggie Baxter a plastic specimen bag containing a pair of size-tiny lavender thong panties extracted from her dog; but they were not hers. Or rather, they were hers now since she’d just paid $734 to have Dr. Carter surgically remove them from Kona’s gut.

This is how Maggie Baxter, a practical, rule-following accountant, discovers that her husband of seventeen years is cheating on her. All her meticulous life plans are crushed. When he leaves her for the other woman, Maggie and her the-world-is-my-smorgasbord chocolate Lab, Kona, are left to put their lives back together. As Maggie begins to develop a Plan B for her life, she decides to be more like Kona. No, she’s not going to sniff crotches and eat everything that isn’t nailed down; rather she’ll try to approach life with more ball-chasing abandon. Finding herself in situations where she begins to go through her usual over-analysis of the pros and cons, she stops and instead asks herself: What would Kona do? With Kona as her guru, Maggie begins her quest for tail-wagging joy.

“What the Dog Ate” is a funny, tender story of mending a broken heart and finding love and a new life right under your nose, with woman’s best friend at your side. If you enjoyed Claire Cook’s “Must Love Dogs” or Lolly Winston’s “Good Grief,” you’ll love “What the Dog Ate” and be rooting for Maggie and Kona.

June 10, 2012
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In My Mailbox: Week of April 8
Chick Lit Plus

In My Mailbox: Week of April 8

In Samantha’s Mailbox:

Title: The Divorced Lady’s Companion to Living in Italy

Author: Catherine McNamara

Received: From Catherine McNamara

Synopsis: Marilyn Wade, half-Hungarian divorcée and mother of unflinching teens, moves to Milan to remap her womanhood. Rumour had it that Marilyn s old icon Jean Harper met her Milanese lover on a singles trip to Macchu Pichu and went to Italy to bear their love child. But sexy glamorous Milan is about as unfeeling as a Prada bag. The streets are full of mile-high models, immigrants and remarkable men in suits. Who will she meet as she acquires a taste for grappa-laced espresso in bars and learns Italian in a room with George Clooney? Marilyn s entanglements involve punishing grammar lessons with a virile agronomist, stolen D&G heels and kisses with astonishing views, a kinky Hong Kong benefactor and a stirring love scene set in Venice. All this as she moves towards a dodgy Italian nirvana with lederhosen and a spread in Hello! magazine. Will Marilyn ever find herself and a way to conjugate Italian verbs? A non-cautionary tale for mothers of teenagers, late bloomers and lovers of the cocktail hour.

Title: BaSatai: Outside In

Author: Suzan Battah

Received: Via CLP Blog Tours

Synopsis: Seventeen year old, Armani Radnelaq a full blooded BaSatai is plagued by a curse in her blood. A curse created from hate and designed to break the divide between two parallel worlds of Earth and H-trae when Armani’s blood is spilled in attack and she dies.

S’teuqoubs have been travelling back and forth across the divide for centuries without trouble. The BaSatai and Guardians monitoring activity and enforcing rules to ensure peace and harmony but if the divide splits and opens, a much greater number of supernatural S’teuqoubs will filter into earth destroying equilibrium which the BaSatai and Guardians will be unable to control. Humanity and the BaSatai will suffer and perish. The parallel divide must remain secure at all costs.

Armani has remained hidden on earth with her adopted father Elijah since her birth. She has been raised in the human way and fights her natural instinct to evolve into a BaSatai. The BaSatai in her requires her to evolve and shift, use her powers and strength. Yet Armani is freaked out by the need to shift. She smokes, has a bad attitude, must deal with aggressive bullies and control her natural BaSatai instinct. Her Guardian with BaSatai Warriors are coming for her. She refuses to accept her fate and doesn’t believe any BaSatai should die to protect her.

The blood curse maturing in her veins makes her a target for her enemies. Her Guardian Karhl and an elite BasSatai Warrior Rafael are the first to arrive and prepare her for her crossing over. Her attraction to Rafael complicates her purpose to stay on earth even more. They both insist she fall into line and follow their lead but she is not ready to leave earth just yet…

Title: Cinnamon Roll Murder

Author: Joanne Fluke

Received: Unsolicited, Kensington

Synopsis: When Hannah Swensen hears that the Cinnamon Roll Six jazz band will be playing at a festival in Lake Eden, Minnesota, she bakes up a supply of their namesake confections to welcome them. But tragedy strikes when their tour bus overturns on its way into town. And keyboard player Buddy Neiman’s minor injuries turn deadly serious when someone plunges surgical scissors into his chest…Turns out, Buddy Neiman isn’t the victim’s real name. In fact, no one is really sure who he is. Hannah’s investigation digs up a few local suspects. There is Doctor Bev, who seems to know more about “Buddy” than she’s willing to admit. And Devon, an aspiring keyboard player who may have had a fatal case of jealousy. Hannah isn’t sure how she’ll unravel the mystery, but one thing’s for sure: there’s nothing sweeter than bringing a killer to justice…

Title: The Runaway Actress

Author: Victoria Connelly

Received: Unsolicited, Avon Books

Synopsis: When the stresses of being an A-list actress get too much for her, Connie Gordon decides to escape to a tiny Scottish village. But little does she realise that whilst Lochnabrae might be quiet, it’s far from sleepy…
The latest charming novel from chick-lit’s answer to Richard Curtis.

Beautiful, rich, famous – and seriously stressed, actress Connie Gordon is ready for a change. Deciding to accept an invitation from her fan club in Scotland, Connie kisses goodbye to her ex-boyfriends, stalkers and double-crossing agents, and prepares herself for complete relaxation.

But swapping the Hollywood Hills for the Highlands of Scotland doesn’t make for the easiest of transitions and, when she meets local playwright, Alastair McInnes, who’s sworn he’ll never become involved with another actress again, sparks fly, and the sleepy village of Lochnabrae will never be the same again.

The Runaway Actress is a romantic comedy about friends, fans and family, and finding a place that you can call home.

In Sara’s Mailbox:

Title: + One

Author: Brian Baleno

Received: Brian Baleno

Synopsis: In + One, Brian Baleno has rendered in vivid contours and colors the age-old human struggle between love and work, a conflict made all the more acute when one happens to love one’s work, as well as one’s romantic partner. Jake, our protagonist, finds himself wedged into an impossible predicament, and what endures most within the reader—besides the sheer, smooth skill of the language—is this man’s valiant attempt to navigate between the Scylla and Charybdis of his existence. This novel will stand as an emblem for all those whose life course takes them down the road less traveled, a road not meant only for couples.

Title: Surprise Me

Author: Nancy Goodman

Received: Aaron Goldfarb

Synopsis: “Surprise Me!” is not your typical chick lit. Though it is a novel about a woman, Genie Burns, who runs a company that plans surprise parties for people even as she struggles to find Mr. Right amongst three suitors, at the crux of the book is the story of Genie’s emotional eating issues and how she overcomes them.

April 8, 2012
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