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In My Mailbox: Week of May 19
Chick Lit Plus

In My Mailbox: Week of May 19

Title: The Curvy Girls Club
Author: Michele Gorman
Received: Notting Hill Press
Synopsis: A funny, heart-warming story about overcoming the prejudices we hold, no matter where we tip the scales.

When the pounds start falling off Katie, founder and president of London’s most popular social club for the calorie-challenged, it seems like a dream come true. But as the overweight stigma recedes and her life starts to change, she faces losing more than the inches around her waist. Everything that’s important to her – her closest friends, boyfriend, and acceptance into the club itself – are at stake in a world where thin is the new fat.

Title: The No-Kid Club
Author: Talli Roland
Received: Talli Roland
Synopsis: At almost forty, Clare Donoghue is living child-free and loving it.
Then her boyfriend says he wants kids, breaking off their promising relationship. And it’s not just boyfriends: one by one, her formerly carefree friends are swallowed up in a nonstop cycle of play dates and baby groups. So Clare declares enough is enough and decides it’s time for people who don’t have children to band together. And so the No-Kids Club is born.
As the group comes together—Anna, who’s seeking something to jumpstart a stale marriage, and Poppy, desperate for a family but unable to conceive—Clare’s hoping to make the most of the childless life with her new friends. But is living child-free all it’s cracked up to be?
Title: Right Click
Author: Lisa Becker
Received: Lisa Becker
Synopsis: Love. Marriage. Infidelity. Parenthood. Crises of identity. Death. Cupcakes. The themes in Right Click, the third and final installment in the Click series, couldn’t be more pressing for this group of friends as they navigate through their 30’s. Another six months have passed since we last eavesdropped on the hilarious, poignant and often times inappropriate email adventures of Renee and friends. As the light-hearted, slice of life story continues to unfold, relationships are tested and some need to be set “right” before everyone can find their “happily ever after.”

Title: The Breakup Doctor
Author: Phoebe Fox
Received: Phoebe Fox
Synopsis: A broken leg requires an orthopedist. A broken car requires a mechanic. And a broken heart requires a specialist too. The Breakup Doctor is now in.
Call Brook Ogden a matchmaker-in-reverse. Let others bring people together; Brook, licensed mental health counselor, picks up the pieces after things come apart. When her own therapy practice collapses, she maintains perfect control: landing on her feet with a weekly advice-to-the-lovelorn column and a successful consulting service as the Breakup Doctor: on call to help you shape up after you breakup.
But when her own relationship suddenly crumbles, Brook finds herself engaging in almost every bad-breakup behavior she preaches against. And worse, she starts a rebound relationship with the most inappropriate of men: a dangerously sexy bartender with anger-management issues—who also happens to be a former patient.
As her increasingly out-of-control behavior lands her at rock-bottom, Brook realizes you can’t always handle a messy breakup neatly—and that sometimes you can’t pull yourself together until you let yourself fall apart.
Title: I Like You Just the Way I Am
Author: Jenny Mollen
Received: St. Martins Press
Synopsis: By the actress, writer, and one of the funniest women on Twitter, an outrageous, hysterical memoir of acting on impulse, plotting elaborate hoaxes, and refusing to acknowledge boundaries in any form
Jenny Mollen is an actress and writer living in Los Angeles. She is also a wife, married to a famous guy (which is annoying only because he gets free shit and she doesn’t). She doesn’t want much from life. Just to be loved—by everybody: her parents, her dogs, her ex-boyfriends, her ex-boyfriends’ dogs, her husband, her husband’s ex-girlfriends, her husband’s ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriends, etc. Some people might call that impulse crazy, but isn’t “crazy” really just a word boring people use to describe fun people? (And Jenny is really, really fun, you guys!)
In these pages, you’ll find stories of Jenny at her most genuine, whether it’s stalking her therapist (because he knows everything about her so shouldn’t she get to know everything about him?); throwing a bachelorette party so bad that one of the guests is suspected dead; or answering the eternal question, Would your best friend blow your husband on a car ride to dinner if she didn’t know you were hiding in the backseat?
I Like You Just the Way I Am is about not doing the right thing—about indulging your inner crazy-person. It is Jenny when she’s not trying to impress anyone or come across as a responsible, level-headed member of society. With any luck it will make you better acquainted with who you really are and what you really want. Which, let’s be honest, is most likely someone else’s email password.

May 19, 2014
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Book Review: A Bride’s Guide to Getting Married by Jasmine Clara
Chick Lit Review

Book Review: A Bride’s Guide to Getting Married by …

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Summary:
Crushed by a sudden break up with her slick advertising executive boyfriend, real estate journalist Emily Novat feels like she is the only single girl in a world of happy couples.
At 32, Emily wonders if she will ever get her own happy ending.
Things start looking up however, when a tipsy Emily unwittingly enters and wins the prestigious Glam Bride magazine Dream Wedding Contest.
The only catch is, Emily must blog about her experiences in the lead up to her ”wedding day.”
With prizes including a Tiffany’s Bridal Shower, a High Tea Party – plus presents – at a posh hotel, and a wild Bachelorette party, Emily won’t let a little matter such as not having a groom stand in the way of enjoying the high life for a just little while.
After all the heartbreak she been through, Emily deserves a little fun. And it’s bonus if it makes her ex-boyfriend jealous.
As the popularity of her blog – A Bride’s Guide to Getting Married – sky-rockets, Emily finds herself becoming the IT girl about town,
A blossoming friendship with Glam Bride’s gorgeous nice-guy photographer Luke, assigned to capture the lead up to her big day makes it all the more fun.
As the big day draws nearer though, the guilt starts eating at Emily, who starts to finds extracting herself from her Dream Wedding is not as easy as she first thought it would be…
Review:

Since I’m a newlywed and also currently writing a book based around a wedding, I’m always eager to read a story about a bride-to-be, especially a good chick lit one. While Emily isn’t exactly a bride-to-be, she is the big winner in a Dream Bride contest, and fakes an engagement while reaping the crazy amazing benefits such as a Tiffany’s diamond engagement ring, front row at fashion shows, and rubbing elbows with celebrities and the elite. All of this is happening without anyone actually confirming she is engaged, which seemed pretty unlikely given the magnitude of prizes being handed out. If you forget that idea, the story is pretty cute and I was able to enjoy it. I would have liked it more if the editing had been much tighter – not nearly enough contractions in the dialogue to make it sound realistic was my biggest issue – and the formatting was a little strange to me. New paragraphs started seemingly all the time, so I get getting flustered by who was speaking and why a new paragraph was consistently happening. A good idea for a novel, but the execution wasn’t quite fully there.
3 stars

May 19, 2014
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CLP Blog Tours Sign Up: When Girlfriends Let Go by Savannah Page
CLP Blog Tours

CLP Blog Tours Sign Up: When Girlfriends Let Go by …

Savannah Page will be on tour in July/August with her chick lit novel When Girlfriends Let Go. I am looking for book bloggers to post reviews, guest…

May 17, 2014
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Book Review: Monarch Beach by Anita Hughes
Chick Lit Review

Book Review: Monarch Beach by Anita Hughes

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Summary:
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.

Review:
What a terrific book! I’m a big fan of Anita Hughes, and this book had me hooked from the beginning. I felt so terrible for Amanda after she realizes who the man she married really is, and it was great to follow her journey back to happiness. One of the characters that I found the most appealing was her mother. Her scenes were some of my highlights in the book. The writing is incredibly vivid and pulls you right into the story. I loved being transported to such a different life than my own and feeling so included in the characters’ lives. One I highly recommend!
4.5 stars

May 16, 2014
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Future Tour: Family, Friends and Lovers Collection by Sophie King
CLP Blog Tours

Future Tour: Family, Friends and Lovers Collection by Sophie King

Sophie King will be on tour June 9-23 with her chick lit collection of titles featuring The School Run, Second Time Lucky, and Love is a Secret Love…

May 14, 2014
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CLP Blog Tours Sign Up: Love Me Anyway by JL Redington
CLP Blog Tours

CLP Blog Tours Sign Up: Love Me Anyway by JL …

JL Redington will be on tour in July with her romantic suspense novel Love Me Anyway. I am looking for book bloggers to post review, guest posts, interviews,…

May 14, 2014
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Book Review: The Blonde by Anna Godbersen
Chick Lit Review

Book Review: The Blonde by Anna Godbersen

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Summary:
It’s early spring 1959, and the word desire is synonymous with America’s most famous blonde: Marilyn Monroe. She’s at the height of her fame, the object of a whole world’s worth of want and projection. Being desired is her drug, her kryptonite, the very definition of who she is. It’s so much a part of her identity that her own wants and needs have become fleeting at best, as if she’s seen herself through others’ eyes so often that she’s forgotten what she looks like through her own. But the deepest needs always surface, and there is one thing Marilyn wishes for beyond all else—to meet her real father.

That’s the part you already know, the legend—but here’s the part that’s never been told.

Ten years earlier a man named Alexei Lazarey met Marilyn before she was Marilyn, starving and alone at Schwab’s in Los Angeles. Before the day was out, he got her signed to the William Morris Agency and eventually transformed her from a poor, failed actress to America’s most famous sex symbol.

Now that Marilyn has reached her pinnacle, Alexei comes back for his repayment. When she hesitates, he plays his trump card: pulling out a photo of her estranged father with a promise to reunite them. The next day, Marilyn’s on a plane to Chicago with Alexei’s instructions ringing in her ear: John F. Kennedy is the favorite for next year’s Democratic presidential nomination. Find out something about him that no one else knows.

At first, Marilyn is almost bored by the thought of yet again using a man’s attraction to get what she needs. But once she meets the magnetic Jack Kennedy for the first time, she has a feeling that this isn’t going to be a simple game—for her or Alexei. As she gets herself in deeper and deeper Marilyn discovers that there’s something much more sinister at play. What started as the simple desire to meet her father now has grave consequences for her, for the bright young Kennedy, and for the entire nation.

Part biography, part spy thriller, and part love story, THE BLONDE is a whip-smart reimagining of history that reads like a chillingly true account. With a voice that explodes off the page, this novel is a massive ice cream sundae of American celebrity, sex, love, violence, power, and paranoia.
Review:
I was really interested in reading The Blonde, as I love Marilyn Monroe and all the theories out there about her. I thought it was an intriguing and unique concept, and was eager to see how this book would play out. Unfortunately, it didn’t really work for me. The beginning was too slow and by the time anything interesting was happening, I was pretty bored and felt like the book would never come to an end. The plot became tedious and quite far-fetched at times, and the last few chapters were really the only parts I was interested in. Interesting idea, but a flat delivery for me.
2 stars

May 14, 2014
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Book Review: Cure For the Common Breakup by Beth Kendrick
Chick Lit Review

Book Review: Cure For the Common Breakup by Beth Kendrick

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Summary:
Welcome to Black Dog Bay, a tiny seaside town in Delaware known as “the best place in America to bounce back from your breakup.” Home to the Better Off Bed-and-Breakfast, the Eat Your Heart Out bakery, and the Whinery bar, Black Dog Bay offers a haven for the suddenly single.

Flight attendant Summer Benson lives by two rules: Don’t stay with the same man for too long and never stay in one place. She’s about to break rule number one by considering accepting her boyfriend’s proposal—then disaster strikes and her world is shattered in an instant.

Summer heads to Black Dog Bay, where the locals welcome her. Even Hattie Huntington, the town’s oldest, richest, and meanest resident, likes her enough to give her a job. Then there’s Dutch Jansen, the rugged, stoic mayor, who’s the opposite of her type. She probably shouldn’t be kissing him. She definitelyshouldn’t be falling in love.

After a lifetime of globe-trotting, Summer has finally found a home. But Hattie has old scores to settle and a hidden agenda for her newest employee. Summer finds herself faced with an impossible choice: Leave Black Dog Bay behind forever, or stay with the ones she loves and cost them everything….
Summary:
Okay, am I the only one who wishes Black Dog Bay was a real place, and close to my hometown? Not that my newlywed self needs it, but hey – in college it could have come in handy for a nice vacation spot when suddenly myself and four of my girlfriends all found ourselves single. I loved the concept of this book, and Kendrick was the perfect writer for this novel. There is snappy dialogue, tons of charm and wit throughout the pages, and a sassy heroine who constantly had me in giggles. A perfect beach read for the upcoming summer months, and chick lit fans should snap this one up!
5 stars

May 14, 2014
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On Tour: Hold Her Down by Kathryn R Biel
CLP Blog Tours

On Tour: Hold Her Down by Kathryn R Biel

Kathryn R Biel will be on tour May 19-June 9 with her novel Hold Her Down Elizabeth Zurlo is lost. She’s a wife, a mother, a…

May 13, 2014
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