Merry Christmas Everyone!! Last Christmas

Synopsis

For Lucy, the best Christmas present is forgetting the past.

Eager to banish the ghost of Christmas past - when her boyfriend dumped her on the streets of Paris - Lucy is determined to make this the best Christmas ever. She rallies friends and family for an epic celebration that just happens to fall on the same day as her ex's festive wedding. Furious at how she's been treated, Lucy can't help relishing the party v wedding smackdown.

But when the wedding is threatened and only Lucy can help, can she find the spirit inside to save the day, or will this Christmas be even more disastrous than the last


Quick Thoughts 

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

This year I haven't been feeling very Christmasy. I've been grumpy and out of sorts. However this book has put me in a Christmas mood. It's well written, full of romance and perfect for Christmas. A great read for everyone looking for a festive read.

Merry Christmas Everyone. Hope you have a lovely day filled with love and joy.

Review: The Husband's Secret

Synopsis

Mother of three and wife of John-Paul, Cecilia discovers an old envelope in the attic. Written in her husband's hand, it says: to be opened only in the event of my death.

Curious, she opens it - and time stops.

John-Paul's letter confesses to a terrible mistake which, if revealed, would wreck their family as well as the lives of others.

Cecilia - betrayed, angry and distraught - wants to do the right thing, but right for who? If she protects her family by staying silent, the truth will worm through her heart. But if she reveals her husband's secret, she will hurt those she loves most . . .

Review

I once watched a film, The Women. It was a laborious bore from start to finish. This is exactly how I felt whilst reading the Husband's Secret. I should say that the first two chapters of this book are gripping and funny however the rest of the book slides into tedium. The cover is beautiful, I had very high expectation from Moriarty and it failed to deliver.I was unsure what the author was trying to achieve, did she want the serious style atmospheric thriller or is she attempting a a Marian Keyes with wit and humor.

This book falls between the two. Jodi Picoult is the queen of moral dilemmas and intertwining characters and she does this very well. Moriarty fails to do this, the end result being that The Husband's secret is an overly long bore. The end is also predictable and could have been shorter by a couple of chapters.  It suffers from The Dorothy Koomson syndrome, there are too many characters and way too much of everything. It is also as believable as Prince Harry marrying a Katie Price.

There were too many women competing for my attention and unfortunately not a single voice deserved my time.  Now I know how George Clooney feels.

Quick Review: After The Party

Synopsis

Eleven years ago, Jem Catterick and Ralph McLeary fell in love. They thought it would be for ever, that they'd found their happy ending.

Then two became four, a flat became a house. Romantic nights out became sleepless nights in. And they soon found that life wasn't quite so simple any more.

Now the unimaginable has happened. Two people who were so right together are starting to drift apart - Ralph is standing on the sidelines, and Jem is losing herself. Something has to change. As they try to find a way back to each other, back to what they once had, they both become dangerously distracted - but maybe it's not too late to recapture happily ever after ... Purchase

Review

There's no doubt in my mind that Lisa Jewell is a fantastic author, her voice is unique, captivating with a hint of cynicism and although I enjoyed After The Party, there was a part of me that didn't quite believe in the characters or the story-line.

This is the sequel to Ralph's party which I haven't read and after reading After the Party will not be reading. However this also meant that I didn't know the characters or their background as well as someone who has read Ralph's Party.   We meet Jem and Ralph twelve years later (After Ralph's party), they have two children, they've suffered a few miscarriages and fertility issues. They are deeply unhappy with their lives both unknowingly looking for a way out. I had a feeling that this was a great book for those who've read Ralph's party, for those of us who haven't, it was just like any other book about relationships; not particularly unique enough to stick in my mind as an all time great.

Review: The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving

Synopsis

Benjamin Benjamin was at rock bottom. Homeless and down to his last penny, enrolling on a short night course in the fundamentals of care-giving seemed the smart thing to do. But nothing in the manual could have prepared Ben for Trevor, a sarcastic teenager stuck in a wheelchair. And that's assuming Ben read the manual properly in the first place...

The first rule of care-giving is Be Professional. So Ben probably shouldn't tell Trevor why his wife Janet is divorcing him. He probably shouldn't mention that he contemplated suicide last night either.

The second rule of care-giving is Don't Get Emotionally Involved. So Ben definitely shouldn't pack Trevor into the back of a campervan and drive hundreds of miles through the desert so he can patch things up with his father. Especially when Trevor's mother has absolutely forbidden it. Especially when an epic road trip like this could go so disastrously, gloriously wrong...

Funny and tragic, this is the story of an unlikely friendship and a man and a boy's journey back to life.

Review

"I was broke when duty called me to minister to those less fortunate than myself, so maybe I'm no Florence Nightingale. And maybe in the light of all that happened with Piper and Jodi, I'm not qualified to care for anybody."

The Revised Fundamentals of Care giving is a life lesson in appreciating the simplest things in life, in believing in hope and finally a story about a man shrouded in guilt looking for a way out of his own head. It is centered on Ben, a caregiver walking through life remorseful, filled with regrets. Ben, a once stay at home day with a happy marriage and two beautiful children is at his lowest point somewhere between sadness and delayed depression. He gets a job as a carer for a smart-arse, quick witted boy and together they embark on a road trip across America to see the boy’s father with whom he has a difficult relationship. Along the way there is a birth, a teenage girl with attitude, unpalatable food and questionable motels.  

 

Ben is a sorrowful character, immersed in depression, he wishes and hopes for a better tomorrow where his wife won't hate him and his kids play with their granddad on a sunny day in June.  Instead he is faced with a bleak future without his children or his wife. Ben recounts throughout the entire book his previous life describing the domestic home as stills in a picture frame, he gazes at them knowing that he can never get back those moments of sitting in the park with his children and his wife. We learn early on that his children are dead and he blames himself and it’s almost as if he can never forgive himself.

 

Lyrical almost, the story draws parallels between his life now and his life then, capturing a soft, centered musical fleet of emotions, moments in life painted as a long forgotten memoir. The characters are real and the dialogue is superb. I began to question whether Ben would ever find happiness and the end scene where Ben has a heart to heart with his ex-wife we are given  hope that he will finally be happy. With the death of his children, Ben might never find complete happiness however there’s hope and hope is all we ever have. 

Review: Learn Love in a week

Synopsis

After ten years of marriage, Polly and Arthur are at crisis point:

Polly

'Arthur is the IKEA wardrobe of husbands. He looks good in the pictures, but if you ask him to hold anything, his back pops out.'

Arthur

'I have the libido of the Giant Panda; I know what sex leads to. It leads to a small person who likes to post toast in the DVD player.'

Can they learn to love again? And if they can, will they still choose each other?


Review

Like many relationships, there comes a point where love becomes stale, monotonous, long winded, a never ending surge of dreariness and sexless existences. Love in real life is a disappointment, when the romance and the flowers have stopped, replaced by nappies, Mr Tumble and school runs, that’s when the real challenge begins, this is the point where divorce becomes an option. How do relationships survive past this point?  Why do couple’s divorce and how do so many others make it work past ten years?  As much as I dislike Gwyneth Paltrow she put it perfectly in one of her interviews “I asked my dad once, “How did you and Mum stay married for 33 years?” And he said, “Well, we never wanted to get divorced at the same time”.  

This is where Arthur and Polly are at the beginning; she is tired and fed up with Arthur and his beautiful incompetent body, she longs for what could have been with James, a guy who could have been the one. She is plagued by memories of that one perfect date and wonders how her life would have had she ended up with James. She is tired of being the breadwinner and longs for a house somewhere in the countryside which she cannot afford whilst she’s with Arthur.  Arthur, a stay at home dad loves his wife and children however he is fed up of feeling emasculated and unappreciated by Polly. He loves her and wants to make it work and for this reason they manage to stay together. However getting to that point where they finally find happiness, they go through trials from best friends, nipple licking, pool parties, obnoxious teenagers and hospitals all in a week.

Learn Love in a Week, a simple read, made spectacular by the anecdotal and conversational way in which we are immersed into Author and Polly’s life. This is a story seen from three view pints, Polly, Arthur and Emily (Polly's best friend). Arthur is a lovely characters, self pitying and incompetent at times but all the same just as wonderful. Polly was annoying, constantly nagging and unappreciative, she is unsure of who she is and in her state of confusion, she hurts those around her. Emily was an unnecessary voice, an intruder in a story that should have sorely been about a couple going through trying times. 

In the end this was a great read and as much as I tried I found it impossible to put down. 

Review: Brand New Friend

Synopsis


When Rob's girlfriend asks him to leave London and live with her in Manchester not only will it mean moving cities and changing the only job he's ever had, it'll also mean leaving behind his best mate in the entire world. 

Believing that love conquers all and convinced of his ability to make new friends, Rob takes the plunge. 

Six months, and yet to find so much as a regular drinking buddy, Rob realizes that sometimes making friends in your thirties can be the hardest thing to do. With drastic action needed, his girlfriend puts an ad in the classifieds for him, but after three excruciatingly embarrassing 'bloke dates' Rob begins to truly despair. Until his luck changes . . . There's just one problem. Apart from knowing less than nothing about music trivia, football, and the vital statistics of supermodels, Rob's new friend has one huge flaw . . . She's a girl

Review

I love Mike Gayle for two reasons: one, his books are funny and two, he understands dialogue. I loved His and Hers and Mr Commitment  however Brand New Friend is rubbish, completely and utter nonsense.  Actually it is beyond rubbish, it was so rubbish I fell asleep whilst reading the book albeit it being that I read it whilst I was tired and commuting from work. This is the second book by Gayle that I haven't been inspired to rave about, the first one was The importance of Being a Bachelor which was also a tad bit dry and bland.  Brand New Friend is worse and here's why and for brevity I will list the reasons.

1. Brand New Friend sounds like every other Mike Gayle book (I've read so far.). It has the same stereotypical block characters with similar settings and similar conversations. 
2. The concept could work but it doesn't. It is cliched and lacked feeling. It felt at times that Gayle had given up and was recycling old material whilst watching an episode of Hollyoaks with his mates in a pub somewhere in Manchester. 
3. The book reads like an outline of what the book is about, it lacked content. Some chapters are way too short. I usually love short and snappy chapters but a page is a not a chapter unless you're writing a short story. There is also a half page chapter that made little sense. 
4. And lastly the characters are stale, Rob is caricature and Phil, the only redeeming character in the book wasn't utilized. 
5. And finally the women in this book are ridiculous, self pitying and lacking in personalities. 

I should end by saying that I still love books by Mike Gayle.

Review: Chase

Synopsis

The question that 23-year old Amalia Hastings desperately wants the answer to is: What happens to men when they move to Manhattan? Life in the new city gives Amalia a ride she is not expecting.

 As she tries to find her way on the little island that never sleeps, she discovers she has a harder time navigating through love then she does the streets of Greenwich Village and finds herself truly lost in the complex world of men. 

Review

"If you are supposed to be with someone, you won't have to chase them."

There's something to be said about chasing guys? We women never chase the safe one, the soft-hearted ones, we chase the head-ache inducing idiots. Aamalia Hastings has a perfectly safe boyfriend, Nicholas however she is in love with Micheal, the guy who seems too perfect.

We meet her as a hangover student living in a plush city, she's relatively similar to so many student, confused, constantly rushing around and generally living life. I have a soft spot for this book for the simple reason that not so long ago I was in a similar position, facing similar decisions, running around Sheffield with my head in the sky in love with a moron.  This book should read as a cliche, it wasn't. It is a coming of age story about a young woman with the world at her feet mooning over the small aspects of her life. It was a breath of fresh air, a new voice that wasn't tedious or over dramatic.

The author's voice is refreshing, very current and void of banality.This is New Adult done right. Forget the cheesy Anastasia Steels, this was a genuine character in believable scenarios.  This author has a very mature approach, her book is truthful and reminded me of how foolish I was not so long ago. I felt a connection with Amalia (I was not a fan of the name and had to come to terms with it) but I loved her simplicity as a character, she is an all American twenty something and ultimately this make her very relatable.  Chase was a lovely read, made me laugh and miss my University days. There is a sense of freedom with Manhattan, it made me want to skip and hop around in the rain.   I would highly recommend this.

Review: Growing Up Beautiful

Synopsis

In the summer of 1986, three young American women are chosen to join a modeling agency in Europe’s fashion capitol of Milan.

United as roommates by chance, Star, Joanne and Casey soon find their dreamed-of careers as models taking paths as different as their personalities.

Star, who leaves behind her waitress job along with a handful of crumpled up dollar tips, sees her beauty as a way move to the top of Milan’s social strata.

Joanne, raised in a privileged lifestyle, is expected to continue an Ivy League education, which doesn't interest her as much as a young photographer she meets on a casting.

Casey is a naïve seventeen year old who is ready for adventure, even the dangerous kind.

Together, these three learn the funny, unexpected and sometimes ugly truths about growing up beautiful.

Purchase

Review

I started this book a while ago but, struggled to get into it. I think it might have been the fact that I was reading similar books around the time therefore I was slightly disenchanted when I started reading this. However, I recently picked it up after months to discover it is not that bad (once you get into it.) I’m not a big fan of models or celebrities in general however, the synopsis sounded impossible to ignore.

I struggled reviewing this book since I wasn't sure how I felt about it. On one hand Lori Jones is clearly a brilliant author, the book is fluent, well written and in theory I should be head over heels in love with this book. However I didn't relate to any of the characters. I thought they were a tad self obsessed; they started to grate on me a few chapters. Overall it is not the worst book I've read this year but It is definitely not the best, which is shame really because I wanted to love it.

In a few months I might read this again and have a different opinion. 

Review: Miss Match...Affairs to Remember

Synopsis

Meet Tansy Breakspear. 

A mid-30s journalist, she works for a free newspaper called Urban Trend -- and writes a popular agony aunt column under the pseudonym of Betty Carpenter. 

Betty Carpenter’s advice to her readers is compassionate, clever and practical. She has a reputation for supplying sympathetic, workable solutions to readers who come to her with a bewildering range of relationship problems. 

But if anyone needs the help of an agony aunt, it’s Tansy herself. 

Her own love life is a major disaster area, and that’s putting it mildly. She’s having unsatisfactory affairs with two married men and has been stalking a third. 

As her relationships start falling apart, it seems that there’s nowhere to go for a single, sexy, self-deluding, Rubenesque redhead with a taste for expensive restaurants, illicit liaisons and Aperol Spritzers. 

But then a chance of happiness comes from an unexpected source, and it looks as though Tansy may find true love after all – with the help of Betty Carpenter. 

Will Tansy meet her perfect match? 

Or can Miss Match only match up other people? 

Purchase

Review 

I used to look down on women who sleep with married men until I realised how easy it is to become one of those women. A few days ago I had an interesting conversation with a friend who informed me of how she became her ex-boyfriend’s mistress. It was an interesting story as she found herself in the midst of a messy breakup, new girl friends and hoping she had held on to a past relationship. She described candidly how she had cleaned him up, changed his douche bag ways only for another woman to come and take her well earned prize. The reason she became the mistress was to claim a prize that now belonged to someone else.

Miss Match caught me unaware because it brought to the forefront the topic of married men and women that love them.  I love Nicola Yeager and I knew I would love this however I did not expect to love it as much not did I expect to feel such powerful emotions. Yeager is one of those underrated authors who is brilliant but not celebrated.

Miss Match follows Tansy a married man loving singleton dishing relationship advice to men and women. Miss Match follows her as she moves from one bad relationship to the next not really finding fulfilment or happiness in any of those relationships. The men she dates are egoistical, conceited morons looking a side dish along with their main meals.  Miss Match is well written, full of surprises and funny moments. The ending was annoying as it felt unfinished and abrupt. Apart from that one fault I loved it. Yeager is highly addictive.  

Author Interview...Emily Harper

Emily Harper is the author of White Lies. She kindly agreed to chat with HerBookList. 

Can you tell us a bit about White Lies and how it came about?

White Lies is about a woman who is unsure of herself and her abilities, but at the same time wants something more out of life.  I wanted Natalie Flemming (the main character) to be a reflection of a lot of women’s insecurities.  Her actions and thoughts are her own, but I think a lot of women can relate to her “waiting for her life to begin” and wondering where her happy ending is.

How did you get into writing?

I started noticing funny things but thought “I know what could make this a lot better…” so I started putting it down on paper.  There is a lot of things going on in my head on a daily basis- my writing is a reflection of that.

What is your average writing day like? 

I try and write every day, but I don’t put pressure on myself for length.  I think about what I want to happen in the story throughout the day and I think that really helps with writer’s block.

Who is your favourite character in White Lies and which character would you most like to bitch slap?

I love Natalie- it’s hard not to, but I also love Hank - because he is fabulous!  I think the character I would most like to slap is Claire- the nasty receptionist.  She isn’t overtly nasty like Angelica, but she just has those moments (that I think we have with everyone in life) that just grate on your nerves but not to the point you would actually say something and confront her.  It’s a subtle hatred lol.

Which character did was most difficult to write?

Oliver, hands down.  Because the novel is written in the first person, from Natalie’s perspective, it is difficult to write how Oliver is feeling/thinking because we only see him through Natalie’s eyes.  I had to write his feelings through his actions, and Natalie’s observations to his actions.

Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?

My favourite quote in life is from Winston Churchill- it’s simple but it’s real.  “Never, ever, ever give up.”

White Lies

Synopsis

Imagine standing in line at Harvey Nichols waiting to buy the most gorgeous silk Gucci dress. The only minor problem? You can’t afford it, it's a size smaller than you are, and you have absolutely no place to wear it. 

Meet Natalie Flemming: a twenty-something woman working in London for a fabulous shoe-designing firm, but the only thing they let her touch is the company’s tax forms. She has decided to give fate a vacation and takes the task of finding the man of her dreams (or Johnny Depp if he would just return her calls...) into her own hands. 


She craves adventure, spontaneity, passion- or will just settle for a decent date.

White Lies can be purchased via (Amazon). You can find her on Twitter (@emilyswhitelies) or on her blog (http://emilyharper.wordpress.com/)

Review: Lovers at Heart

Synopsis

Handsome, wealthy resort owner Treat Braden is used to getting what he wants. When Max Armstrong walked into his life six months earlier, he saw right through the efficient and capable façade she wore like a shield, to the sweet, sensual woman who lay beneath. She sparked an unfamiliar desire in him for more than a one-night stand, leaving his heart reeling and his blood boiling.

 But one mistake caused her to turn away, and now, after six months of longing for the one woman he cannot have, he's going home to try to forget her all together.

Max Armstrong has a successful career, a comfortable lifestyle, and she's never needed a man to help her find her way--until Treat Braden caught her attention at a wedding in Nassau, causing a surge of emotions too reminiscent of the painful past she'd spent years trying to forget. Max will do anything to avoid reliving that pain--including forgoing her toe-curling, heart-pounding desire for Treat.


Review

This book proves one thing: Amazon reviews are nonsense. Why? Well, this book is crap, it's badly written, boring and tepid. I gave up half way through and skipped to the end. However, according to most Amazon reviews it is a captivating, well written read. It is neither of those things. The characters for example behave like teenagers, there's nothing sexy about a thirty seven year old man having a sulk. I was not captivated, I was very aggravated at how bad the write is. One thing I loved about Fifty Shades was that the author knew she was being ridiculous (or at least I hope she knew) and didn't take herself too seriously. This book takes itself way too seriously, there's no humor, the sex scenes are silly and the writing is beyond silly. The dialogue and interplay between the two characters reminded me of a bad lifetime film dragging on with no end in sight.   
Lover at Heart is undoubtedly a Mills and Boon, a cheesy, unrelenting romantic book and I usually have no issues with Mills and Boon, on the contrary I love Mills and Boon. However, this was just awful, so awful I had to stop reading in fear I would smash my Kindle to pieces.

How someone can write such tripe is beyond me. I'm kicking myself for believing Amazon reviewers. I'm now debating whether to give this author another read. 

Review: The Woman Who Made Men Cry

 Synopsis

It’s 1998 and Kim is a journalist in New York City. He thinks he’s found the only woman for him: Elise is beautiful, intelligent and, it goes without saying, a sensational lover. 

The only catch is that she doesn’t want just him – and he’s agreed to it. For months on end, Kim is tormented by the knowledge that his Elise is sleeping with someone else.


 Purchase Via Amazon

Review

"She did not set out to men cry. She was too kind for that." 

William Coles can write, there's no doubt about that. The woman who made men cry is a triumph, a truthful, moving exploration of a man in love.  The name attracted me to this book, i was fascinated as to how one single woman could make men cry and as Coles points out so perfectly, she doesn't try to make men cry, "she just listens, she absorbs, she takes it all in. And the she asks questions. Always, always, back come the questions, and often they are very simple questions. There is nothing much to it at all."

Right this a simple formulaic book; man meets woman, falls helplessly in love and disaster ensues.  Kim is a New York journalist for the The Sun, why anyone would want to work for the Sun is beyond me but I wasn't about to fault him for his career choice. That's however where the trouble starts as through he job he meets Elise, the ever elusive Elise who buys him a new knee for his birthday, dates other men and controls the cards.  She's full of contradictions, she's confident. damaged and alluringly beautiful in an era where sexual availability was rife.  Kim is transfixed by beauty, her confidence and blind to her faults.  Coles wanders though the niches of their relationships uncovering how Elise came to make Kim cry without succumbing to cliches and unnecessary narration. It is a funny, brilliant read.

The Medici Mirror

Synopsis

A hidden room

When architect Johnny Carter is asked to redesign a long-abandoned Victorian shoe factory, he discovers a hidden room deep in the basement. A dark, sinister room, which contains a sixteenth-century Venetian mirror.

A love in danger

Johnny has a new love, Ophelia, in his life. But as the pair's relationship develops and they begin to explore the mystery surrounding the mirror, its malign influence threatens to envelop and destroy them.

A secret history

 The mirror's heritage dates back to the sixteenth century, and the figure of Catherine de Medici - betrayed wife, practitioner of the occult, and known as the Black Queen.

Purchase

Review: The Rose Petal Beach

Synopsis

Every love story has a dangerous twist. Tamia Challey is horrified when her husband, Scott, is accused of something terrible – but when she discovers who his accuser is, everything goes into freefall. Backed into a corner and unsure what to think, Tamia is forced to choose who she instinctively believes. 

But Tamia's choice has dire consequences for all concerned, especially when matters take a tragic turn. Then a stranger arrives in town to sprinkle rose petals in the sea in memory of her lost loved one. 

This stranger carries with her shocking truths that will change the lives of everyone she meets, and will once again force Tamia to make some devastating choices...

Review

Tamia is a stay at home mum with a great life. When she finds out her husband has committed a horrific crime her world is turned upside down. The Rose Petal Beach has many voices, all female voices and for this reason to some extent it looses it edge. I would have preferred an alternative male voice.   At first it seems as though this is a book about marriage falling apart but, as the story progresses it becomes a book about the relationship between females.  Tamia is a decent central character that is as far as I can praise her. She is a doorstop, a pushover, the type of woman who never really deals with issues unless she is forced to and for this reason I didn't really warm to her.  I wanted her to stand up and she managers to do this at end. 


Koomsom asks so many questions from "what would you do if your husband was accused with a horrendous crime" to "would you look after your husband's mistress in your home if they were diagnosed with cancer". The problem was that so questions are asked and not all of them are dealt with sufficiently. There are too many plot twists from murder, affairs, miscarriages to sexuality reveals. It felt at times as though I was watching a very explosive episode of Eastenders. The frustrating aspect of this book was the fact that it could have been brilliant, it had all the elements to make turn it into masterpiece but it never reached its climax. It falls flat towards the end with revelations spanning from every angle.

There is no doubt that this book is page turner albeit a slow one. There are elements that work, Fleur is a great character, she is untouched and the most innocent. My favourite character strangely enough happened to be Scott because he was multifaceted, he had textures and flaws. He is at the beginning of the book a bit of a bastard, he cheats, lies and manipulates all the women around him but as the book progressed he attempts to rectify the mess he's created and it would be interesting to find out whether he manages to turn a new leaf.  The story moves at a slow pace with most things explored within an each eventually.

Was is a coincidence that the two villains of the book are white and the two seeming victims are black? I say this because there is a moment in the book where Tamia confronts her husband's mistress who is white. It made me question whether Tamia was ever comfortable with being a white man. Her type as she professes is Wade who is black and it seems as though she fell in love with Scott and over time he became her type. I brought this book a year ago and for some reason I found it very difficult to get into it however once I was halfway through I was captivated and found it impossible to put down.

Take A Look At Me Now

Synopsis

How far would you go to make a new start? Heart-warming and romantic, Take a Look at Me Now will make you laugh, cry and cheer Nell on from start to finish.

What a difference a day makes…

Nell Sullivan has always been known as ‘Miss Five-Year Plan’. But when she finds herself jobless and newly single on the same day, Nell decides it is time to stop planning and start taking chances.

Nell blows her redundancy cheque on a trip of lifetime to a place where anything is possible – San Francisco. 

There she meets a host of colourful characters, including the intriguing and gorgeous Max. Very soon the city begins to feel like Nell’s second home.

But when it’s time to return to London, will she leave the ‘new Nell’ behind? And can the magic of San Francisco continue to sparkle thousands of miles away?

Review: Can't Let Go

Synopsis

Grace thought she had it all- a successful business in New York and a long term relationship with Mitchell Price, most eligible bachelor and co-owner of her business. 

Everything comes to a crashing halt when Mitchell discovers a positive pregnancy test he believes belongs to Grace. When Mitchell reveals that he knows about family secrets Grace has gone to great lengths to keep hidden it irreparably damages their relationship. 

A year later a tragic accident leaves Grace the sole guardian of her seven month old niece and turns her ordered life into chaos. Despite wanting to keep him at arm’s length, Grace is forced to accept help from the only man she’s ever loved and doesn’t know if she can trust.

Quick Thoughts

I didn't hate this book. I wasn't blown away by it either. It is a mixture of Mills and Boon and Fifty Shades without the sex. It is very underwhelming. At least with Fifty Shades there was an element of surprise, this book is ridiculous. It centers around Grace and Mitchell, a pair of lovers who are torn apart by secrets.

The author has potential, there were snippets where the story worked however majority of the book fails to entertain. It is neither funny nor is it gripping. 

Review: Sex Lessons

Synopsis

Straight-talking city trader James Kennedy has a problem. He's a flop in the bedroom. When his latest romance hits the buffers, James reaches the end of his tether. 

To make matters worse, his new bombshell of a boss might just be interested. What he really needs is someone to show him how to be a Don Juan between the sheets. To teach him where he's going wrong. But who?

Sex Lessons is a frank but humorous tale about one man's extra-curricular inactivity.

Review

James Kennedy is smart, rich and has great job, what could possibly be wrong with his life?

Well, he can't get it up. He suffers from every man's worst nightmare: erectile dysfunction.

He's traumatized by his first sexual experiences which causes him to suffer from impotency. To cure this problem without resorting to viagra, he hires a stripper to teach him how to get it and how to stay up in order to impress the new girl at work, Lauren. I first met Lauren in Three Way and to be honest she was a bit of a b*tch. She may be beautiful however, she comes with a headache, she is self centered, mysterious but inevitably a complete failure when it comes to relationship. In Sex Lessons she more or less the kind of girl every man dreams of, great body, sassy and mysterious. James predictably falls for her and after getting sex lessons from a stripper he attempts to impress her with his newly found prowess in the bedroom.

Sex lessons is a nice journey into the male brain. I enjoyed it so much I spent an entire day immersed in its brilliance. Grant is honest in his portrayal of a confident man living with a crippling and embarrassing illness. There are some sexual scenes as would be expected from a book about sex but they are not crude no are they very prim.

I should apologize to the man standing behind me on the tube who saw the title of my book and cringed profusely.I wanted to explain that sex lessons isn't a self help book on how to have sex but unfortunately he wouldn't look me in the eye. I would have recommended that he reads Sex Lessons as it is funny and extremely entertaining.  

Review: Father Found Daddy School

Synopsis

Jamie McCoy is the ultimate guy: thirty years old, carefree and professionally successful as the writer of a nationally syndicated humor column called “Guy Stuff.” Nine and a half months ago, he spent a week basking on the beach in Eluthera and indulging in a fling with a woman at the resort. Never did he expect to find the unplanned result of that fling—a healthy, wailing baby named Samantha—strapped into a car seat on his back porch, along with a suitcase full of diapers and infant apparel and a note informing Jamie that he’s her father. 

Maybe he is and maybe he isn’t. But first things first. He’s never fed a baby or changed a diaper in his life. He doesn’t own a crib or a stroller. In a panic, he phones the nearest hospital, where neonatal nurse Allison Winslow takes his call and tells him about a class she teaches called the Daddy School. 

Classes on how to be a dad are exactly what Jamie needs. But when he attends his first class and sees the tall, earnest, amazingly beautiful and even more amazingly competent Allison, he realizes that he might just need more from her than her lectures on how to hold a baby.  Jamie’s efforts to be a father to this precious baby touch Allison. His sense of humor amuses her. His striking good looks turn her on. But how can she trust the sort of guy who’d sleep with a stranger on vacation, without giving a thought to the consequences? How can she give her heart to such a reckless man?

Quick Thoughts

This book is awful. It is so bad I felt my brain start to melt towards the end.

The book centers around Jamie, a single, newly turned thirty year old man who wakes up one morning and finds a baby on his porch.  Jamie joins Daddy school because he is incompetent (as the author keeps repeating), falls in love with the teacher and they live happily ever after. Yawn.

Okay, to be fair this is not meant to be a serious read, it is meant to be easy and fun. It was neither fun nor easy.. I struggled to get through the first half and soon after got bored and skipped to the end. I was not impressed. 

Unlike A Virgin

Synopsis

Is Gracie in love for the very first time?

You know that bit in The X Factor, when the singer tells everyone about the rocky road they travelled to pursue their dream? Well, that’s Gracie Flowers’ story.

Gracie is very focused for a woman of almost twenty-six. Her favourite book is ‘The 5-Year Plan: Making the Most of Your Life’. And her five-year plan is going very well. That is, until she is usurped from her big promotion by a handsome, posh idiot; she is dumped by her boyfriend; and discovers her loopy mother is facing bankruptcy.

Hormones awry and ice cream over-ordered, a dream Gracie thought she’d buried ten years ago starts to resurface. A dream that reminds her of the girl she used to be and everything she wanted to become.

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Review: Looking For Alaska

Synopsis

Miles Halter is fascinated by famous last words – and tired of his safe, boring and rather lonely life at home. He leaves for boarding school filled with cautious optimism, to seek what the dying poet Francois Rabelais called the "Great Perhaps."

 Much awaits Miles at Culver Creek, including Alaska Young. Clever, funny, screwed-up, and dead sexy, Alaska will pull Miles into her labyrinth and catapult him into the Great Perhaps.

Looking for Alaska brilliantly chronicles the indelible impact one life can have on another.

Review

Firstly I should start off by saying I haven't read a young adult book since I was a young adult. However I was drawn to Looking for Alaska after this paragraph on Goodread, it summed up so many emotions I felt as teenager. 

 "No," she said, and I couldn't tell at first whether she was reading my kiss-obsessed mind or responding to herself out loud. She turned away from me, and softly, maybe to herself, said, 

"Jesus, I'm not going to be one of those people who sits around talking about what they're gonna do. I'm just going to do it. Imagining the future is  a kind of nostalgia."

 "Huh?" I asked.

 "You spend your whole life stuck in the labyrinth, thinking about how you'll escape it one day, and how awesome  it will be, and imagining that future keeps you going, but you never do it. You just use the future to escape the present."

John Green is a fantastic author. Looking For Alaska shows off his exceptional skills as a story teller and observer of life. Looking For Alaska is a coming of age story about Pugde, a forlorn, sensitive teenager at a Culver Creek Preparatory High School in Alabama. On his first day at Culver Creek,  he meets his roommate (the colonel) and Alaska, another student on campus. 

Pugde, the colonel and Alaska as well as a group of friends get into life at Culver Creek, the group dynamics change as Pudge falls helplessly in love with Alaska who is the most popular girl in school, she is confident, beautiful with self awareness.  However behind that cool exterior lies a damaged young girl in search of direction. Green is very good at exploring teen emotions and dealing with these emotions with rawness and sensitivity.  He explores themes that are transcendent of all ages, love and death.  This book is about identity more than anything else, the search for answers and the meaning of life. Pugde is at the moment in his life where the smallest of incidents could alter his life. He is susceptible to change and as a result a great tool to use when searching for answers. 

Looking For Alaska is a captivating, charming read littered with humorous moments.  

White Lies

Synopsis

Imagine standing in line at Harvey Nichols waiting to buy the most gorgeous silk Gucci dress. The only minor problem? You can’t afford it, it's a size smaller than you are, and you have absolutely no place to wear it. 

Meet Natalie Flemming: a twenty-something woman working in London for a fabulous shoe-designing firm, but the only thing they let her touch is the company’s tax forms. She has decided to give fate a vacation and takes the task of finding the man of her dreams (or Johnny Depp if he would just return her calls...) into her own hands. 

She craves adventure, spontaneity, passion- or will just settle for a decent date.

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Review: This Child of Mine

Synopsis

Sophie is a happy 18-year-old living in London with Anna, her Irish mother. Anna has devoted her life to Sophie. It may be just the two of them but Anna has more than enough love to give. Sophie has everything she could ever need.

Laura is a not-so-happy artist. She too has a daughter, Mandy. But Laura is haunted by the loss of her first child, Jody. Happy-go-lucky as she is, Mandy lives in Jody's shadow and wonders why her mother can never let go.

Both mothers carry secrets and cannot forget the day their paths crossed. But a chance discovery is about to bring everything into the open and mothers and daughters, love and lies, past and future, will spectacularly collide.

Review

Would you take another woman's child to save their life?

Initially my answer was straightforward. No, I wouldn't take another woman's child. However whilst reading this book, the story of Amanda Hutton who starved her child to death came to light and I was left wondering whether if I had the chance to save the child's life I would taken it. How does an author tell a such a story without condemning or passing judgement.

This Child of Mine attempts to discuss this issue by building a complex story of two mothers from different backgrounds whose lives collide with explosive consequences.  At the beginning of the book we learn that both women are pregnant however unlike Anna, an Iris school teacher who wishes for a child and see the pregnancy as her only way of having a child,  Laura, a teenager sees hers as an hindrance on her social life. When Anna miscarriages, she decided to decides to move away from her small town and start afresh. On board a ship to London she sees Laura and her child Jody who is neglected and abandoned by intoxicated mother. What ensues is a tale of love, loss and forgivness.

I sympathized with Anna the most because of her struggle to have a child whereas Laura who has a child neglects hers and see her as a burden. As the story developed my dislike for Laura grew, she is as self-centered as a teenager as well as an adult. Laura and Anna are relatable, believable and genuine as characters. Sinead Moriarty, an Irish author handles the matter with sensitivity and humor.She reminds me of Jodi Picoult except that where Picoult lacks in humor, Moriarty exceeds.  This Child of Mind is insightful without hinging or distorting the topic with its careful and thoughtful exploration of a tough subject. 

Review: Three Way

Synopsis

TV news producer Ollie Hayward needs to get over his ex. Like right now.

When his editor sends him to interview a beautiful city trader, his luck might just have changed....

Then an old school friend shows up on Ollie's doorstep and things get...complicated.

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Quick Thoughts

It's fair enough to assume that I might be in love with Ollie Haywand.

Ollie, Ollie, Ollie, oi, oi, oi (sorry)

Once in a while,  a fictitious man comes into my life and sweeps me off my feet and Ollie Haywand swept me off my feet. He is funny, charming and utterly clueless when it comes to women. I did not expect this book to any good since it was free however, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I connected with Ollie, the lovable but unfortunate twenty something with more females around him than George Clooney.

This is a hilarious read with humiliating moments, idiotic boyfriends,an extremely beautiful woman and a poo on  the floor. This is worth a read for anyone looking for a light and entertaining read.Grant's writing reminds me of Mike Gayle with a hint of Nick Spalding, two of my favorite authors. I would highly recommend this read to anyone looking for a funny, charming read.

Excerpt 

"Do you want to see my tits?" 

"What?"

"You heard me."

"Ash, what the fuck?"

"I'm just saying."

"I know what you're saying."

"So?"

"What about Gabriel?"

"He's seen them?."

"Ashley."

"It's a simple question, Ollie. Yes or no?"

Yes or no. Yes, life goes one way, no life goes another.  I'm not sure key life moments should necessarily hang around questions like. "Do you want to see my tits?"...

Review: Every Seventh Wave

Synopsis

Have you ever just clicked with someone? 

Emmi and Leo met, fell in love and broke up via e-mail. After a year of silence, they find themselves in contact once more. Yet Emmi is still married to Bernhard, and Leo is just back from Boston with Pamela, his American girlfriend.

As the e-mails grow increasingly passionate, Emmi and Leo are faced with a difficult decision: could their romance survive the transition from digital to actual, or is it the distance that is keeping them together?


Review

Will they? Won't they? Will they? No they won't...Oh wait may they will...Oh wait...hold on... I spoke too soon..

The will won't they conundrum, probably the most used devise in romance. It becomes weary in the wrong hands, however with Glattauer at the helm, the device works by creating atmosphere and intensity. Every Seventh Wave could have been repetitive and mind numbing, on the contrary it is bold, creative and credible in its build up to the finale.  This is the sequel to Love Virtually which was triumphant read, fully of surprises all conducted via email. This is a story about people; Emmi and Leo who meet by accident via email and develop a virtual relationship which intensifies as the book develops.At the end of Love Virtually Leo leaves Germany for Boston and the reader is left with no clue as to whether these two will ever get together.  Every Seventh Wave carries on a few months where Leo comes back to home from Boston.

These two are perfect for each other in every way except for the fact that Emmi has a husband and Leo has a girlfriend. As the book develops they start to question what they mean to each other and most importantly if they do mean something what is that something. As I read Every Seventh Wave, I was able to connect with the sense of not knowing, the uncertainty of their relationships like most things in life became frustrating, i wanted to know right there and then, I didn't want the complication, or the family, I wanted the two characters to come in an explosive end with no complications.

This book was tedious to read at times, the not knowing started to frustrate me, the emails were getting longer as both characters despaired and the longer they got, the more tedious it was reading them. However Glattauer brings it back at the end with his punchy one liners and funny anecdotes. I think of this book as a packet of Pringles, once opened it must be consumed in one sitting. It is impossible to put down this book, even with long emails, this book has a tremendous pull that draws the reader deeper and deeper as the characters complicate the situation even more. Glattauer rivals Gayle or dare I say if they were to battle it, Glattauer would win by a small margin. Glattauer reminds me of a younger Mike Gayle before he published the truly awful Brand New Friend.

Every Seventh Wave is a fantastic read, well crafted and superbly written.

Review: Single Woman Seeks Revenge

Synopsis

Suzie Miller, a disillusioned agony aunt, can't believe she's been dumped from a great height yet again (this time by text, straight after they've had sex... twice!). So she decides the time is right to make every one of her exes feel the pain she felt when they carelessly cast her aside. 

Her methods are unusual but humiliation on a grand scale is no less than they deserve. 

Euphoric that she's finally stood up for herself she starts suggesting outrageous ways for her readers to deal with their relationship nightmares too. Suddenly everyone wants Suzie's advice. Finally content with being single and enjoying her blossoming career it seems as though happiness is within her grasp. That is until a man gets in the way. 

Review 

The moment a boyfriend break up with you over the phone can be humiliating, soul-crashing and can as a result cause sudden anger that creeps upon you as you simmer and think of what an lousy creep he is really is.  Single Woman Seeks Revenge is a guide on how to exact revenge on your devious, idiot of an ex-boyfriend. 

The book centers around Suzie, an agony aunt who in the past has been treated badly by various ex boyfriends. She decides get exact revenge on all her exes with help from her Drew and in the process she gets closure and clarity.

This is is a melodramatic exploration of a very angry woman seeking to punish the horrible men in her life. This book doesn't try too hard with forced jokes and overly thought-out moments, it is an easy read with great characters and funny mements.  Tracy Bloom is the type of author who can keep you entertainment page after page after page. There is no single page wasted with every conversation bursting with humor.