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My Top Ten of 2013
Chick Lit Review

My Top Ten of 2013

And another year is in the books! 2013 was fabulous for me – bought a house, got married, got a puppy. Marching Ink published two novels, I finished my third (to be published in February), and went to BookBuzz Toronto – check out my author blog for that experience! Also on that blog are my goals for 2014. Instead of a resolution I thought of 10 goals I would like to achieve this year. I hope to be able to check them all off! I reviewed 189 novels in 2013 on Chick Lit Plus (crazy!) and while I think that number will go down this year because of the different projects I’m doing, I still hope to review around 100. I guess we’ll see…in 2015!

Here are my ten favorite reads of 2013. Enjoy my list and Happy New Year all!

Blogger Girl – Meredith Schorr
Hush Little Baby – Suzanne Redfearn
The Girl You Left Behind – JoJo Moyes
Everybody’s Got a Story – Heather Wardell
The Life List – Chrissy Anderson
How To Eat a Cupcake – Meg Donohue
Becoming Mrs. Walsh – Jessica Gordon
Zoey & The Moment of Zen – Cat Lavoie
Caramel and Magnolias – Tess Thompson
Hard Hats and Doormats – Laura Chapman

January 7, 2014
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Book Review: The Unexpected List by Chrissy Anderson
Chick Lit Review

Book Review: The Unexpected List by Chrissy Anderson

I received a copy of The Unexpected List by Chrissy Anderson in exchange for an honest review.
Summary:
Chrissy Anderson’s The Unexpected List delivers another charismatic combination of romance and anguish, peppered with large doses of wit. In this second novel from THE LIST TRILOGY, Chrissy, who is now divorced from her husband, Kurt, is finally free to pursue a “truly, madly, deeply” relationship with the man of her dreams, Leo.

And it looks like Chrissy is finally going to be able to have her wedding cake and eat it too as Leo valiantly tries to make all of her dreams come true. But once again, Chrissy’s world, and her relationships, are turned upside-down as someone else close to her dies. And, an unexpected gift forces her to grow up– fast. For a second time, Chrissy is pushed to make a choice between love and obligation. What will she choose this time?

Your favorite characters from The Life List are back. Dr. Maria, Slutty Co-worker, and Chrissy’s best friends from high school, Courtney and Nicole, continue to laugh and cry with Chrissy as she learns how to pick herself up and move on to achieve the life she’s always wanted, and now knows she deserves.

As in The Life List, not everyone will agree with Chrissy Anderson’s decisions, but all will pause as they follow along on her journey to ask, “What would I do if I were her?”
Review:
I was super excited times ten to read this book, as I just loved the first in this trilogy, The Life List. I found myself thinking about the characters and if Chrissy ended up Leo, as we are left with a cliffhanger. Now, this is going to be an interesting review. Why? Because I didn’t love all the aspects of this book. I struggled with some of the editing. For example, I don’t like sentences like this: Smiling from ear to ear, “So what?” Taking my hands, “I see very beautiful things.” My editor self was cringing when I read these types of sentences. Also, the beginning threw me off a bit. I thought the prologue was a bit too long, and too much of trying to keep an air of mystery. I just wanted the story to start all right, and stop with all the mysteriousness of it. Now, even after that being said…I’m giving this book a 5 star review. If I ever find something wrong with the editing it’s an automatic no 5 star, a 4.5 at best. So why would I have two things about the book that I dislike and still rate it 5 stars? Because I absolutely loved this story, and did not want to put it down (after I got through the prologue). The ending had me practically panting, and I actually felt crushed – crushed! – when the book ended at yet another cliffhanger. I felt even more crushed when I saw the third and final installment won’t be here until winter. These books are having a profound effect on me, and I’m talking to everyone I know about them. I think the about the characters, wonder about their lives, and find myself continuing the stories in my mind how I hope they will end. Very rarely, and I mean VERY rarely, does this happen. So yes, while I might find aspects that I didn’t totally like, in all I loved this book as a whole. I highly recommend this trilogy!
5 stars

June 18, 2013
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Book Review: The Life List by Chrissy Anderson
Chick Lit Review

Book Review: The Life List by Chrissy Anderson

I received a copy of The Life List by Chrissy Anderson in exchange for an honest review.
Summary:
The Life List, part I of The List Trilogy, is the ultimate chick lit novel and most of the story is true. Chrissy Anderson, a twenty-eight year old fashion executive, created a seven-point life list at the age of sixteen and she’s been steadily checking off the boxes and mocking the style and life choices of everyone around her ever since. Her life begins to run amuck when she unexpectedly meets a much younger, Leo, who makes her question her “perfect life.”

Chrissy’s lifelong friendships and her marriage are put to the test as she tries to sort out her feelings for Leo. With the help of her brassy, no-nonsense therapist, Dr. Maria, Chrissy learns more about herself than she anticipates. But, it isn’t until the untimely death of her best friend that Chrissy is catapulted into long overdue authenticity and scrambles to correct the mistakes of her past….trying to figure out if it’s Kurt, Leo or both that she has to get rid of to make everything right.

Women of all kinds–twenty-somethings, housewives and superwomen wanna-bes–will all be able to relate to the pressure of constructing the ideal life, only to fall short. Not everyone will agree with Chrissy Anderson’s decisions, but all will pause as they follow along on her journey to ask, “What would I do if I were her?”
Review:
Whew. What a book. When you read this (not if, when) be prepared to be entertained, to learn, to question, to laugh, to cry. This book was hard to put down from the first page, and even though I think it was a little on the long side, it was worth ever moment. I finished this book last week and I’m still talking to people about it. The characters are still sticking with me, and I’m even still questioning some of life choices after reading this very thought-provoking novel. I’m not sure I can really list all the reasons why I loved this book so much. There was drama and heartbreak and betrayal and friendships and …. truth. The emotions are raw, the storyline is not pretty at times, and there is some deep stuff to be uncovered throughout the chapters. I am so excited that this is a trilogy, and after begging Anderson for the second novel, I am happy to say The Unexpected List is now on my Kindle. Truly not one to miss.
5 stars

May 14, 2013
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Guest Post: Chrissy Anderson
Chick Lit Authors

Guest Post: Chrissy Anderson

Buriiiiiing, buriiiiing, buriiiiing….
“Hello?”
“Hi, is this Chrissy Anderson?”
“Yes, it is.”
“Hi, hunny, this is Rita Wilson. It’s an honor to speak to you.”
(Long dubious pause on my end of the receiver)
“Hunny…are you there?”
“Rita Wilson? The Rita Wilson…as in Mrs. Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson?”
“Yep! Hey, listen, I read The Life List and I have to tell you I was blown away. It’s not your average chick-lit read and Chrissy’s not your average chick-lit heroine; she’s opinionated, judgmental…snarky. I found her personality hysterical, clever and totally relatable!”
“You did?”
“Are you surprised?”
“Well, no, not surprised with what you said. It was my intention to write about myself as an authentic person that women of all kinds-twenty-somethings, housewives and super woman wanna-bes- could relate to. I think all of us can connect to the pressure of constructing the ideal life, only to fall short. I guess…I’m surprised the book found its way to you. I’ve been trying to get a copy of it in your hands for over a year. I think the closest it got was to your agent’s assistant’s assistant.”
“Are you kidding? I found my way to your book! Everyone in Hollywood is reading it. You’ve created something really special and I want to help you take it to the next level. It’s got to be a movie.”
“That’s exactly what I think!”
“You know what I love the most about it…well, beside the fact that the role of Chrissy’s therapist, Dr. Maria, is made for me!”
(OMIGOD, OMIGOD, OMIGOD! I’ve been blogging about that for over a year!)
“I love that The Life List is part I of a trilogy. This whole project has the shelf life of a can a soup! It’s going to last forever. And the whole love triangle thing happening between Kurt and Leo, and how you took two men who are polar opposites, sexy and compelling in their own right, and made them both these guys that Chrissy could easily fall in love with…it makes me giddy with excitement! I went to your website and voted for my choice. Love how you have the ability to do that there! It’s so cool to see how the votes are split between the two guys, isn’t it?”
(OMIGOD, OMIGOD, OMIGOD! Rita Wilson went to my website!)
“I go crazy thinking about the marketability of your work, Chrissy!”
“I know, right? Show me one woman who can’t identify with something I went through in this book, and I’ll show you a woman who is either very young, very much in denial, or the very luckiest woman on earth.”
“Well, hunny, I hope right now you feel like the luckiest woman on earth, because we’re about to make all of your dreams come true. Your convoluted and chaotic real life love story is about to become the American version of Bridget Jones’s Diary. Are you ready?”
******
Aaaaaaand this is where you hear a record scratch.

******
I’m chick-lit novelist Chrissy Anderson, and the pipe dream above has been my pipe dream ever since I wrote the first word of the first chapter of The Life List. Introduce me to one chick-lit novelist who says she doesn’t have a pipe dream like mine and I’ll slap her senseless for being a big fat liar! Isn’t world-wide recognition and critical acclaim for a story well-written why we stay up long after our day jobs are done, our families have been fed, the laundry folded and our kiddos have fallen asleep? Don’t we write with the hope that women everywhere will benefit in some way from the distinctive words we scour the thesaurus to find and fill our novels with? Every single time we hit CTRL-S before logging off of the computer don’t we let out a big sigh and say a little prayer that something huge will happen with our work? Don’t we all secretly wish that someone like Rita Wilson will stumble upon our books and be so moved by them that she insists on acting as a force accelerator, catapulting our work to Twilight-like proportions?
No?
Well, poop on you. I do! In fact, most days it’s that pipe dream that keeps me going. It’s that pipe dream that pushes me to enroll in promo day after promo day on KDP select, pimping myself out to any book blogger and website that’ll help me get more downloads than the month before. It’s that pipe dream that eggs me on to spend countless hours (and dollars I don’t have) promoting those promo days on e-reader websites, knowing that half of them forget to plug me on the right day. It’s that pipe dream that gives me the courage to shamelessly promote myself to my 799 facebook fans. It gives me the strength to draft another blog for my website (www.askchrissy.net) and SEO the crap out of it. To spend my weekends doing book signings…scouring the internet for opportunities to advance my rankings on Amazon’s best sellers list…Oh, and let’s not forget about cramming in some time to write the last novel in The List Trilogy.
For me, my pipe dream is my lifeline. I mean, I’m certainly not failing (far from it actually), but if you’re a relatively un-known writer like me, you know the struggle I’m talking about here. You know how hard it is to beat last month’s downloads, to make a buck from a sale, get a 5 star review, get another facebook fan, pull off a higher ranking on Amazon….to get the time to write an actual book, let alone read one! My pipe dream is what makes me smile through all of the trials and tribulations of being a small fish in this big intimidating literary ocean. It’s what gets me excited and…hopeful- hopeful that all of my creativity, hard work, and wit will pay off. If you’re an ounce of the dreamer I am, you know the kind of motivation I’m talking about.
So I know I’m not alone, share your pipe dream with me in the comment section. Who knows…maybe one of us reading this has the ability to fulfill one! C’mon, let’s get silly and support each other. Anyone know Rita Wilson?

April 25, 2013
5 Comments