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Author Profile: Jennifer Coburn
Author Name: Jennifer Coburn
Website: http://www.jennifercoburn.com/
Bio: Jennifer Coburn is an award-winning journalist who has written for magazines and newspapers in the United States, Canada, and Australia.
She is a native New Yorker and a graduate of the University of Michigan.
She currently lives in San Diego with her husband, William, and their daughter, Katie.
Recent Titles: The Wife of Reilly, Tales From the Crib, Reinventing Mona, The Queen Gene
See my reviews of Tales From the Crib, Reinventing Mona
Bio Retrieved from jennifercoburn.com
Reinventing Mona by Jennifer Coburn
Mona Warren is 31, has a great job and lots of money, but no family and no husband. She is tired of who she has become, someone just fading into the light, going from her day to day activities with no enthusiasm and no spark. She needs to change. She needs to be reinvented. She decides she needs a makeover, and that is easy enough. She exercises, whitens her teeth, straightens her hair and buys a new wardrobe. But she needs more. She needs…a man. Specifically, Adam Ziegler, her accountant and dream man. But since her last real boyfriend had been when she was in her teens and died tragically, she needs help. So she hires male chauvinist/magazine writer Mike “The Dog” Dougherty to help her become irresistible to Adam. His outrageous and female degrading ways actually seem to be working…but somehow, Mona stars to develop feeling for Mike! How could this level headed woman fall for such a man?
Reinventing Mona is the second novel I read from Jennifer Coburn. The first book I read, Tales From the Crib, had me looking forward to another go-around with this comedic author. Unfortunately for me though, I didn’t think this one lived up to what I imagined it would be. Something was just off all the way through. Mona was a nice enough character, but she was someone who supposedly didn’t have a life and didn’t have any idea on how to dress nice or have a real care about her appearance. But pretty quickly, she was dropping designer names and it just didn’t feel real to me. And the background she has was a little strange. Mona lived in commune for the first part of her life, with hippie parents and a terrible tragedy that took away her family. Interesting…but I really didn’t feel that it meshed with the other half of the story- trying to get a man. I think those aspects, combined with a really flat Adam character and way too over-the-top chauvinist turned good boy Mike, just didn’t interest me. The comedic chops that I felt were so on point in Tales weren’t happening in this book either. I think maybe Coburn was trying to fit too many points into one story, and they just didn’t flow well together. I will still keep reading from this author, just because I loved Tales so darn much. I thought the writing was still good in this book, just not the comedy so much, and overall I could recommend Reinventing Mona because the main character was likeable and nice lesson is learned in the end. And there are cute moments along the way, and I didn’t get bored while reading. It just sometimes was a little too unbelievable. While I will say this isn’t her best work, Jennifer Coburn is still an obviously talented writer, and I will read The Queen Gene, which picks up where Tales left off.
[Rating: 3]
In My Mailbox: March 16
In My Mailbox: March 16th
Title: Reinventing Mona
Author: Jennifer Coburn
Received: From Jennifer Coburn
Synopsis: What’s new? Me, for starters… It all began when my job offered me a buyout package. That’s when the realization hit: I’m young, I’m rich (thanks to a hefty inheritance), and I’m boring. Things are gonna change-starting now… Building a better man trap… First things first: Exercise. Carrot juice. Straight hair. Whiter teeth. Clothes that fit. But wait-there’s more. I’m finally ready to take a chance on love with the perfect guy. He’s handsome. He’s smart. He’s reliable. He’s my CPA. Problem is, I’m clueless about winning him over. It’s time to call in an expert. It’s time to call in The Dog. Down, boy. Mike “The Dog” Dougherty is a man’s man. A guy’s guy. Okay, he’s a chauvinist pig, and his sty is “The Dog House,” a testosterone-charged column in Maximum for Him magazine. On one hand, I abhor all he stands for. On the other hand, who better to coach me? So here I am. Learning the complex unspoken language of the American male (Talk, bad. Sex, good.); trying exciting new things (Stripping lessons are empowering. Really.); falling for Mike. Uh oh. But the Mike I’m getting to know is different from The Dog. And the Mona I’m becoming isn’t quite who I expected, either. This whole makeover scheme is getting crazier by the minute. But “crazy” beats “boring”…right?
Title: The Untied Kingdom
Author: Kate Johnson
Received: From Choc Lit
Synopsis: Major Harker is fighting on the losing side of an endless civil war in a third world country. It’s called England.
He’s a man with a lot of problems. His ex-wife has just drafted her little sister into his company. His sworn enemy is looking for a promotion. The general wants him to undertake some ridiculous mission to capture a computer, which Harker vaguely envisions running wild somewhere in West Yorkshire. And some damn idiot has just flown out of nowhere and nearly drowned herself in the Thames.
She claims to be a popstar called Eve. Harker doesn’t know what a popstar is, although he suspects it’s a fancy foreign word for “spy”. Eve knows all about computers, and electricity, and the words to many seditious songs. Eve is dangerous. There’s every possibility she’s mad. And Harker is falling in love with her.
Title: The First Husband
Author: Laura Dave
Received: From Laura Dave
Synopsis: Annie Adams is days away from her thirty-second birthday and thinks she has finally found happiness. She visits the world’s most interesting places for her syndicated travel column and she’s happily cohabitating with her movie director boyfriend Nick in Los Angeles. But when Nick comes home from a meeting with his therapist (aka “futures counselor”) and announces that he’s taking a break from their relationship so he can pursue a woman from his past, the place Annie had come to call home is shattered. Reeling, Annie stumbles into her neighborhood bar and finds Griffin–a grounded, charming chef who seems to be everything Annie didn’t know she was looking for. Within three months, Griffin is Annie’s husband and Annie finds herself trying to restart her life in rural Massachusetts.
