Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding

Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding

1999, Penguin Books

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Synopsis: Meet Bridget Jones—a 30-something Singleton who is certain she would have all the answers if she could:

a. lose 7 pounds
b. stop smoking
c. develop Inner Poise

"123 lbs. (how is it possible to put on 4 pounds in the middle of the night? Could flesh have somehow solidified becoming denser and heavier? Repulsive, horrifying notion), alcohol units 4 (excellent), cigarettes 21 (poor but will give up totally tomorrow), number of correct lottery numbers 2 (better, but nevertheless useless)..."

Bridget Jones' Diary is the devastatingly self-aware, laugh-out-loud daily chronicle of Bridget's permanent, doomed quest for self-improvement — a year in which she resolves to: reduce the circumference of each thigh by 1.5 inches, visit the gym three times a week not just to buy a sandwich, form a functional relationship with a responsible adult, and learn to program the VCR.

Over the course of the year, Bridget loses a total of 72 pounds but gains a total of 74. She remains, however, optimistic. Through it all, Bridget will have you helpless with laughter, and — like millions of readers the world round — you'll find yourself shouting, "Bridget Jones is me!"

The Good: Bridget Jones, as a person, was awkward - well before awkward was something people celebrated in TV shows and internet memes. It was humorous at times.

The Bad: It is really, really hard to feel Bridget's pain when her pain revolves around being 120ish pounds and the size of her couldn't-possibly-be-all-that-large thighs. Her issues do eventually move past these trivial things and turn to focus on her love life, which is just plain sad. Completely textbook choices of the whiny girl in her twenties. The fact that it was playing out in her 30s, when she should clearly know better, is more pathetic than anything else. Bridget's issues are all in her own mind and of her own doing. At least the movie managed to make it seem charming more often than not.

In One Year and Out the Other by Cara Lockwood, et al.

In One Year and Out the Other by Cara Lockwood, et al.

2006, Pocket Books

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Synopsis: Out with the old, in with the new, and on with the party!
 

Maybe it's just another midnight...or maybe there really is magic in the air when December 31st becomes January 1st, and confetti kisses and champagne toasts kick off a new year, a new romance, a new look, a new attitude. 

Celebrate the start of something new with In One Year and Out the Other...a sparkling collection of all new stories by today's rising fiction stars: 

Cara Lockwood puts self-improvement to the test with 528 resolutions -- not least of which is "Do not sleep with married men" -- in "Resolved: A New Year's Resolution List"

...Pamela Redmond Satran instructs a single mom in the fine art of partying like the boys (have lots of sex, don't worry that you're too fat) in "How to Start the New Year Like a Guy"

...Diane Stingley shows a twentysomething why there's more to life than waiting by the phone for a New Year's date in "Expecting a Call"

...Megan McAndrew seizes the day -- or just a very special one-night stand -- for a single food stylist hungering for more in "The Future of Sex"

...and more great tales from Kathleen O'Reilly, Beth Kendrick, Eileen Rendahl, Tracy McArdle and Libby Street.

The Good: This was a funny chick lit anthology revolving around the New Year. Resolutions, New Years Eve celebrations, and the aftermath of the choices made.  You get pretty much what you expect going into it. Entertaining stories coming from Cara Lockwood, Pamela Redmond Stratan, Kathleen O'Reilly, Beth Kendrick, Libby Street and Eileen Rendahl.

The Bad: Anthologies are always a mix of good and bad, especially when it's a collection written by a variety of authors. Lockwood had moderate success during the chick lit boom of the early 2000s and the book is an obvious attempt to capitalize on that. A few of the stories are significantly below Lockwood's level of skill and it shows. Feel free to skip stories by Diane Stingley, Tracy McArdle and Megan McAndrew.

The World is Full of Married Men by Jackie Collins

The World is Full of Married Men by Jackie Collins

1997, HarperTorch

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Rating

Synopsis: Succulent starlets ready to make it, rich moguls hungry for hotter pleasures -- on the casting couch, at lavish parties, in plush hotel suites. A Hollywood tale about the burning ambitions, vicious power-plays, and sexual double-dealings of the entertainment world, where wives wait for husbands who never come home, and luscious models pay more than their duties...where talent and drive take you just so far, but sex can take you all the way.

The Good: Jackie Collins never fails to bring sexy, scandalous, and utterly addictive into every novel she writes. The World is Full of Married Men brings everything you would expect. Witty, engaging, ritzy and devious, this is the inside look into the lives of the Hollywood elite that we can't help wanting to know.

The Bad: The World Full of Married Men is one of Jackie Collins' earliest books and it does show. The writing isn't nearly as clear and well crafted as her subsequent books. The characters aren't fully fleshed out and the the sexy is toned down a lot from what we've come to know.

California Dreaming by Zoey Dean

California Dreaming by Zoey Dean

2008, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Series: Book 10 of A-List

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Synopsis: College is just a week away: the private jets are booked, the Gucci suitcases are packed, and the A-List crew is ready to say goodbye. Or are they? Sam’s headed to USC film school, but when Eduardo offers her a different ending – moving to Paris as newlyweds – will she go completely off-script? Cammie’s living her own California dream as the owner of Hollywood’s hottest new nightclub, and dating Ben, the only boy who ever really broke her heart. But can she mix love and money, or will she have to pick one? As for Anna, Yale is starting to feel more like a nightmare than her lifelong dream. And with a one-way ticket to Bali burning a hole in her pocket, the future suddenly feels wide open. The clock is counting down for the A-Listers.

The Good: This was a fun, fluffy series to read and I was pretty pleased with the where the characters ended up. Not everyone grew or changed, but that's what makes the entire situation realistic. Some people are going to end up on the same path they started on. I loved that we get pretty definite answers to the few remaining questions lingering from the earlier books and that we knew where everyone is off to, for the most part, now that high school is over.

The Bad: This book didn't flow nearly as well as the earlier novels in the series. It seemed as though the author got sidetracked cramming in everything readers wanted to know that the book ended up weirdly fast paced.

The Pilot's Wife by Anita Shreve

The Pilot's Wife by Anita Shreve

1999, Back Bay Books

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Synopsis: Who can guess what a woman will do when the unthinkable becomes her reality?

Until now, Kathryn Lyons's life has been peaceful if unextraordinary: a satisfying job teaching high school in the New England mill town of her childhood; a picture-perfect home by the ocean; a precocious, independent-minded fifteen-year-old daughter; and a happy marriage whose occasional dull passages she attributes to the unavoidable deadening effect of time. As a pilot's wife, Kathryn has learned to expect both intense exhilaration and long periods alone—but nothing has prepared her for the late-night knock that lets her know her husband has died in a crash.

As Kathryn struggles with her grief, she descends into a maelstrom of publicity stirred up by the modern hunger for the details of tragedy. Even before the plane is located in waters off the Irish coast, the relentless focus on her husband's life begins to bring a bizarre personal mystery into focus. Could there be any truth to the increasingly disturbing rumors that he had a secret? Fighting the impulse to protect herself and her daughter from the details of the crash and the mystery surrounding it, Kathryn sets out to learn who her husband really was—whatever that knowledge may cost. The search will lead her to shocking revelations, testing both the truth of her marriage and the limits of her ability to face it.

The Good: Anita Shreve writes well and he books never fail to suck you in, even if you aren't loving where the story is going.

The Bad: This was a depressing book with a unrealistic ending. To throw some romance in at the end, as if Kathryn would been remotely stable enough at that point in her life for anything to work out, is ludicrous. She's obviously obsessive about the husband, not able to let go of this "secret" even though he's dead and she should just mourn and move on.

All the Summer Girls by Meg Donohue

All the Summer Girls by Meg Donohue

2013, William Morrow Paperbacks

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Rating

Synopsis: In Philadelphia, good girl Kate is dumped by her fiance the day she learns she is pregnant with his child. In New York City, beautiful stay-at-home mom Vanessa is obsessively searching the Internet for news of an old flame. And in San Francisco, Dani, the aspiring writer who can't seem to put down a book--or a cocktail--long enough to open her laptop, has just been fired... again.

In an effort to regroup, Kate, Vanessa, and Dani retreat to the New Jersey beach town where they once spent their summers. Emboldened by the seductive cadences of the shore, the women being to realize how much their lives, and friendships, have been shaped by the choices they made one fateful night on the beach eight years earlier--and the secrets that only now threaten to surface.

The Good: While the issues dealt with in All the Summer Girls weren't the happiest, the book still reads in the manner of most chick lit - short, easy and perfect for the beach.

The Bad: All the Summer Girls is just sort of depressing. These people's lives are pretty bad and I can't understand why they took so long to deal with their issues. Why did it take a mini-vacation and a friendship meltdown for them to even consider different paths in their lives? Ugh. It was was enough to kind of hope they all failed. Letting something they refuse to be truthful about effect their entire lives? To what? Punish themselves? It was hard to care.

The Star Attraction by Alison Sweeney

The Star Attraction by Alison Sweeney

2013, Hyperion

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Synopsis: Sophie is a Hollywood publicist who has a fabulous job, a fabulous boyfriend, and a fabulous life. She even scores her PR firm's most important actor client and every woman's dream—Billy Fox.

But will a steamy make-out session in a restaurant alley with her big-name client cost Sophie her job? And does she really want an escape from her life and her loving, if imperfect, relationship with her investment banker boyfriend? The Star Attraction takes us on a wild ride through one woman's daytime soap come to life.

The Good: A cute insider's look into the world of publicity in Hollywood. I definitely enjoyed the work aspect of Sophie's life more than anything else in the book. On the whole, it was a light, fluffy novel, perfect for a beach read.

The Bad: I didn't get the appeal of the "fabulous" boyfriend at all, but worse what Sophie's childish attitude towards the relationship. Another guy likes her (actor or not) and it makes her disillusioned about her own relationship? But she doesn't end said relationship. She self-sabotages "subconsciously" to give her an excuse to cheat (which is ridiculous anyway.) I just couldn't like Sophie and it made it rather difficult to see why either of the men were the least bit interested in her to begin with.

The Accidental Virgin by Valerie Frankel

The Accidental Virgin by Valerie Frankel

2003, William Morrow Paperback

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Synopsis: From: Venus, Goddess of Love, 120 Main, Mt. Olympus

To: Stacy Temple, lapsed temptress

Stacy, Stacy, Stacy.

You were so promising at the beginning: Sexy, smart, personable and funny. Great on dates and really great afterward-if you know what I mean. But this is a sad state of affairs; or, in your case, non-affairs! It's been nearly an entire year and you haven't had your way with even ONE eligible male. You've been working so hard concocting sexy lingerie for Thongs.com -- and really, Stacy, if that little pink velvet bustier didn't put you in the mood, I don't know what to say! -- that you haven't even tried to be coaxed out of your own thong.com!

Are you listening, Stacy? Seven days to find the perfect man -- or else!

Happy hunting!

The Good: The Accidental Virgin is light, funny and doesn't take itself too seriously. Stacey is extremely desperate to get laid and goes to ludicrous lengths to get the job done. The entire book is over-the-top but that's the appeal to reading a novel like this.

The Bad: The book is a very quick, very easy read. So quick and easy that it doesn't make a large impression and that makes it kind of forgettable.

The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown

The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown

2012, Berkley Trade

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Rating

Synopsis: There is no problem that a library card can't solve.

The Andreas family is one of readers. Their father, a renowned Shakespeare professor who speaks almost entirely in verse, has named his three daughters after famous Shakespearean women. When the sisters return to their childhood home, ostensibly to care for their ailing mother, but really to lick their wounds and bury their secrets, they are horrified to find the others there. See, we love each other. We just don't happen to like each other very much. But the sisters soon discover that everything they've been running from-one another, their small hometown, and themselves-might offer more than they ever expected.

Why read: The title mislead me

What impressed me: Not much. This may be a decent chick lit book, but I couldn't get into it enough to even try to enjoy it.

What disappointed me: My disappointment was as much my fault as it was the book's fault. At some point, I got it in my head that The Weird Sisters was a book about witches. Now, given that the actual Weird Sisters were witches in Shakespeare's Macbeth, I'm sure I'm not the only one who went into this book expecting something else entirely. Sadly, instead of witchcraft, the author chose to portray these sisters as seemingly weird to one another, with a father who is a bizarrely obsessive Shakespeare professor. This story was about sisterhood, finding and keeping love and all that chick lit entails. And while, maybe, it might even been good chick lit, I could never appreciate it as I so often wondered why they didn't just do a spell or something.

Recommended: I really can't say. Chick lit fans could very possibly enjoy this book, but it your looking for something magical - go elsewhere.

The Baby Planner by Josie Brown

Book Details
The Baby Planner by Josie Brown
Paperback, 352 Pages
2011, Gallery
ISBN: 1439197121

Synopsis
Katie Johnson may make her living consulting with new moms on the latest greatest baby gadgets no parent should be without, or which mommy meet-ups are the most socially desirable, or whether melon truly is the new black, but the success of her marriage to her husband, Alex, depends on controlling her own urges toward motherhood.

He's adamant that they stay childless. Sure, Katie understands that he's upset over the fact that his out-of-town ex-wife rarely lets him see their ten-year-old son, Peter. But living vicariously through her anxious clients and her twin sisters' precocious children only makes Katie resent his stance more deeply.

While helping a new client—Seth Harris, a high tech entrepreneur who must raise Sadie, his newborn daughter, as a single parent after the tragic death of his wife in childbirth—maneuver the bittersweet journey from mourning husband and reticent father to loving dad, Katie’s own ideals about love, marriage, and motherhood are put to the test as she learns ones very important lesson about family:  How we nurture is the true nature of love.

Review
The Baby Planner is a wonderful novel for anyone who enjoys a great pregnancy story, or several. Taking the concept of a wedding planning and twisting it for prenatal crowd works well and leads to funny and emotional scenes.

Katie is a wonderfully full character. Longing for a baby, but married to man who refuses to impregnate her, Katie fills the void by helping other women get ready for their own children. Having no real life experience, beyond being an involved aunt, she starts her business and quickly finds a niche market that never knew it was waiting for her. Through Katie's work, readers will experience multiple pregnancy situations - all of which lead to surprising ends.

Katie's marriage was something else entirely. She loves her husband, but he refuses to have a child with her. Their relationship and Katie's various pleas and tactics to get what she desires most left me wondering not about her sanity, but about my own. Katie's actions drove me crazy. I was never on the same page as her. I wanted her to "accidentally" get pregnant. She respects her husband and believes she can rationally convince him. I want her to run away from him as fast as she can. She then decides it's a good time to have a condom malfunction. You can tell early on how the story is going to play out, but there are some great twists along the way.

The Baby Planner is unique and thought-provoking at times. Laughter and tears come easily and often. You may not always agree with Katie's decisions, but you'll care about her from the very first pages.The Baby Planner is the perfect next step for chick lit fans leaving singledom and entering babyville.

Rating

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Beneath a Starlet Sky by Amanda Goldberg & Ruthanna Khalighi Hopper

Book Details
Beneath a Starlet Sky by Amanda Goldberg and Ruthanna Khalighi Hopper
Hardcover, 304 Pages
2011, St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 0312544421

Synopsis
Lola Santisi—CEO of a struggling fashion line, reformed Actorholic and daughter of Hollywood Royalty—is now not only bicoastal, she’s Bi-Lolar: That is the condition which causes her to swing like a pendulum between the opposing poles of the fashion world in New York and the real world with her Doctor Boyfriend in Los Angeles. She hardly knows which shoe fits her anymore: the Louboutin stiletto or the Croc. As Lola tries to launch Julian Tennant’s new dress line, it looks like they’re about to get their next big break: his wedding dresses have been chosen to feature in the top film at the Cannes Film Festival. And suddenly Lola is staging a full-blown couture show on a yacht – in the middle of the Med.  Think those super models had trouble walking down the catwalks at Fashion Week?  With an unexpected finale twist, this time it’s Lola who’s tumbling off the runway.

Having recently endured a disastrous break-up with Lola’s brother Christopher, Kate Woods, Lola’s BFF and CAA’s rising star agent, is newly single, and focused 24-7 on her clients. The only thing worse than thinking it was a good idea for Kate to date Lola’s brother, is thinking it was a good idea for Kate to put one of her most loose-cannon clients, Nic Knight, in Lola’s father’s movie. Among Kate’s other mega star clients is Saffron Sykes whose appearance on the cover of Vain magazine in Julian Tennant could be the difference between Julian Tennant, Inc. weathering the economy or going bust.

As Lola fights to survive the Cannes Film Festival, will she get swept into the French Riviera’s riptide of glamour and superficiality? Are real love and couture mutually exclusive?  Or can Lola have it all – the good doctor and her Louboutins. With her father and brother vying for the same prize, her mother starring in her new reality show, and one heartbroken girlfriend about to declare motherhood, it’s all on Lola to come up with the answers.  And it’s going to take more than one of her mother’s prosperity chants to save the day.

Review
Beneath a Starlet Sky is a wonderfully fun and often times outrageous novel that will appeal to readers who can't help but be mesmerized by Hollywood gossip. Lola's father is a famous movie director. She's done with dating actors and the whole Hollywood scene. She wants nothing more than to success in the fashion world as the CEO of her best gay friend's clothing line and to settle down with her doctor boyfriend. But when her mom gets her own reality show, her brother's film gets accepted to Cannes (to compete against their father's film), her boyfriend gets a taste of fame and her company has one disaster after another, Lola is sucked back into the cutthroat Hollywood world again and again.

Beneath the Starlet Sky will suck in any celebrity junkie from the very start. It's an entertaining look into Hollywood through the eyes of someone trying to escape its grasp. It's both snappy and addictive. Lola is immediately lovable and readers will find themselves rooting for her at every turn. With "cameos" from many well known celebrities, along with fictional movie and reality stars, fame has never looked so decadently and, well, dirty.

I loved just about everything in Beneath a Starlet Sky. Unfortunately it lost me occasionally when Lola's job was the focus. Fashion isn't my thing and I feel many readers will be confused. It seems as though the authors assumed that common folk would be know current trends in the fashion world and have a subscription to Vogue. Those who possess this type of knowledge will be fine. Those like myself, not so much. While I know of Louboutin and Manolo Blahnik, I can't tell the difference between them. When fashion took the stage during the book, I felt less involved in the story.

Beneath a Starlet Sky is scandalous at times and pure emotion at others. It contains a wonderful mix of crazed fame and real life. While some portions of the book may be a bit beyond the reader's understanding, be it film, fashion or celebrity obsession in general, Beneath a Starlet Sky is sure to delight.

Rating

Can You Keep a Secret? by Sophie Kinsella

Book Details
Can You Keep a Secret? by Sophie Kinsella
Paperback, 400 Pages
2005, Dell
ISBN: 9780440241904

Synopsis
Meet Emma Corrigan, a young woman with a huge heart, an irrepressible spirit, and a few little secrets: Secrets from her boyfriend: I’ve always thought Connor looks a bit like Ken. As in Barbie and Ken. Secrets from her mother: I lost my virginity in the spare bedroom with Danny Nussbaum while Mum and Dad were downstairs watching Ben-Hur. Secrets she wouldn’t share with anyone in the world: I have no idea what NATO stands for. Or even what it is. Until she spills them all to a handsome stranger on a plane. At least, she thought he was a stranger.…Until Emma comes face-to-face with Jack Harper, the company’s elusive CEO, a man who knows every single humiliating detail about her...

Review
Can You Keep a Secret? completely captivated me. I sat down to read a few pages before bed and didn't put it down until I finished it hours later. I expected humor, and got lots of it, but I didn't expect to care about Emma as much as I did.

Emma's your average girl. She's always willing to tell a little white lie or a lie of omission in order to spare someone's feelings or avoid her own embarrassment. When she believes her plane is going to crash, she tells the man next to her every secret she's ever kept. She goes back to her life, thinking nothing of it until she learns her plane buddy is the CEO of the company she works for. And Jack seems to delight in hinting about those secrets at every opportunity.

Can You Keep a Secret? seemed so predictable until a huge twist made me question everything in the book so far. It was a wonderfully shocking surprise. The relationships between the characters were what made Can You Keep a Secret? so delightful to read. Emma and her boyfriend Connor. Emma and Jack. Emma and her roommates. Emma's parents and cousin. Emma's coworkers. Each character brought something special to the book, some insecurity or secret of their own, that really made them more than just side character's orbiting Emma.

You love and hate Jack right along with Emma, but she seemed to fall too hard, too quick. She needed to fall for him so the twist would invoke strong emotions, but it was too Wham-Bam-I-Love-That-Man for my taste. Sex causing immediate love is a huge pet peeve of mine, so I would have rather it all worked out some other way. Of course, this immediate love goes to show Emma's issues, quite obviously as her roommate points out that she can't love him having only known him a short while.

I will definitely be checking out more books by Sophie Kinsella after having be so thoroughly sucked into this one. Can You Keep a Secret? is a light, fun book that'll lead to both laughter, tears and questioning your own deeply hidden secrets.

Rating

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The Book of Tomorrow by Cecelia Ahern

Book Details
The Book of Tomorrow by Cecelia Ahern
Hardcover, 320 Pages
2011, Harper
ISBN: 0061706302

Synopsis
Born into the lap of luxury and comfortable in the here and now, spoiled, tempestuous Tamara Goodwin has never had to look to the future—until the abrupt death of her father leaves her and her mother a mountain of debt and forces them to move in with Tamara's peculiar aunt and uncle in a tiny countryside village.

Tamara is lonely and bored, with a traveling library as her only diversion. There she finds a large leather-bound book with a gold clasp and padlock, but no author name or title. Intrigued, she pries open the lock, and what she finds inside takes her breath away.

Tamara sees entries written in her own handwriting, and dated for the following day. When the next day unfolds exactly as recorded, Tamara realizes she may have found a solution to her problems. But in her quest to find answers, Tamara soon learns that some pages are better left unturned and that, try as she may, she mustn't interfere with fate.

Review
What if you could know what was going to happen tomorrow? Would you change the future with that knowledge? That's the premise of The Book of Tomorrow.

When Tamara's dad dies, she and her mother move to the country to live with her aunt and uncle. Her mother sleeps all the time, her aunt acts shifty and her uncle doesn't say much of anything. Tamara finds a diary of sorts that already has the next day's entry written. Using this knowledge of tomorrow, she changes the future while trying to help her mom get better and figure out what her aunt is hiding.

Tamara is a realistic, if not always easy to like, character. She's been spoiled all her life and her new circumstances don't please her. She makes poor choices that not only effect her, but the people around her. She learns and grows throughout the book, but it's a long, hard road to becoming a less obnoxious person.

Tamara may rub readers the wrong way, causing them to find it a bit hard to root for her, but The Book of Tomorrow's wonderful fantasy based premise and the unexpected, outstandingly plotted mystery makes it a worthwhile read.

Rating

Links

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Thin, Rich, Pretty by Beth Harbison

Book Details
Thin, Rich, Pretty by Beth Harbison
Hardcover, 352 Pages
2010, St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 0312381980

Synopsis
Twenty years ago, when they were teenagers, Holly and Nicola were the outsiders at summer camp. Holly was the plump one, a dreamer who longed to be an artist. Nicola was the shy, plain one who wanted nothing more than to be beautiful. Their cabin nemesis was Lexi. Rich, spoiled, evil Lexi. One night, Holly and Nicola team up to pull one, daring act of vengeance. But they never dream that this one act will have repercussions that will reach into the future, even twenty years later. And they never realize the secret pain that Lexi holds very close, and how their need for revenge costs Lexi a great deal.

Today, Holly is a successful gallery owner, who has put her own artistic dreams on hold. She struggles with her weight and for approval from her constantly-criticizing boyfriend. Nicola, is an almost-famous actress who believes that one little plastic surgery fix is just what she needs to put her over the edge into fame. And Lexi…Lexi is down on her luck and totally broke.

Holly will do anything to be thin. Lexi will do anything to be rich. And Nicola will do anything to be pretty. Thin, Rich, Pretty is the story of three women who believe that happiness is the next dress size down, the next dollar figure up, or the next appreciative glance from a stranger. But mostly it’s the story of how three women save each other, and show each other the path to true contentment. Told with Beth Harbison’s knack for thirty and fortysomething nostalgia, and heartwarming humor, Thin, Rich, Pretty will strike a chord with any woman who has ever got on the scale, looked in the mirror, or the bank, and said, “if only…”

Review
Thin, Rich, Pretty volleys between summer camp twenty years ago and the present day. In the past, we see Holly picked on because of her weight, Nicola self-conscious of her large nose and Lexi being hateful to all those around her because of her mother's death and the introduction of her step-mother. In the present, we see Holly still concerned about her weight, Nicola still fretting about her nose and once rich Lexi left virtually penniless due to her father's will and her step-mother's cruelty.

I loved the portrayal of summer camp and the nastiness between the girls. It was like middle school or high school, 24 hours a day. The girls, assigned to the same bunk, were forced to spend time together despite their feelings towards one another. Holly and Nicola's friendship stemmed from their being picked on by Lexi and her friends, and managed to survive into adulthood.

Thin, Rich, Pretty was often predictable. Holly diets to win a man's approval. Nicola gets a nose job to get better acting jobs. Lexi, on her own without any income for the first time in her life, helps a man with his house to make ends meet. Things backfire, things change and some end up more miserable because of it. The women reunite and, of course, they all learn that what's on the inside matters in the end, with self-confidence and self-reliance being the major lessons learned.

A cute romance develops in Lexi's storyline, but it seemed inevitable as soon as the man was introduced. The story was entertaining and uplifting at times, but I felt like I knew almost exactly what was going to happen every step of the way. Thin, Rich, Pretty has a bit too much in common with most other women's fiction books. It's fun, but nothing really memorable stands out.

Rating

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Secret Lives of Husbands and Wives by Josie Brown

Book Details
Secret Lives of Husbands and Wives by Josie Brown
Paperback, 331 pages
2010, Downtown Press
ISBN: 1439173176

Synopsis
Suburbia is a jungle, filled with lots of vicious creatures.

Take the Paradise Heights Women’s League board. Lyssa Harper should have warned golden-haired DILF du jour Harry Wilder what he was getting into when she invited him to meet the mommies who run their suburban, gated community. At least he brought cupcakes. Since meeting the former Master-of-the-Universe turned stay-at-home single dad, Lyssa has been his domestic Sherpa, teaching him the ins and outs of suburban life. She just didn’t realize her friends would show up at his house unannounced with casseroles, leopard-print bikini briefs, and plans to rearrange his kitchen cabinets.

The truth is, if Harry and his wife, the neighborhood’s "perfect couple," can call it quits, what does that mean for everyone else? Lyssa’s husband, Ted, is a great father, but he pays her Pilates-pumped momtourage more attention than he does his own wife. Her friends gossip about the neighbors while ignoring their own problems: infertility, infidelity, and eating disorders.

When Harry sets boundaries with his new fan club, he is exiled from the neighborhood’s in-clique. But Lyssa refuses to snub him. What she never expects is the explosive impact her ongoing friendship with Harry will have on her close-knit pals—and on her marriage.

Review
Secret Lives of Husbands and Wives is a look at the dark underbelly of the moneyed suburbs where extramarital affairs run rampant. The pitiful "Desperate Housewives" style attempts at attracting newly single Harry make are both hilariously funny and deeply disturbing. The book is surprisingly deep at times and gloriously scandalous throughout.

Each chapter starts off with a famous quote about marriage. These aren't romantic, gushy quotes, but rather funny and realistic ones that pair nicely with the tone of the book.

Lyssa has a tendency to be extremely naive, which makes her both endearing and occasionally annoying. She's a solid mom, with her children always as her top priority. Her marriage is in obvious shambles - her husband is only willing to have sex while watching sports and has admitted to her that he never actually fell in love with her - but she remains blissfully unaware of any trouble.

Denial runs rampant in Secret Lives of Husbands and Wives, which is on par with reactions to real life relationship problems as a general rule. It's almost scary how much you can see the traits of people you know in these characters.

Secret Lives of Husbands and Wives is a funny, touching book with a down and dirty tell-all feel. Frivolity and deeper meaning collide in this book, making it a surprising treat.

Rating

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Lipstick Jungle by Candace Bushnell

Book Details
Lipstick Jungle by Candace Bushnell
Paperback, 496 pages
2006, Hyperion
ISBN: 0786887079

Synopsis
The new novel that fans of the bestselling author have been waiting for, about three sexy, powerful career women who will do anything to stay at the top of their fields. Victory Ford is the darling of the fashion world. Single, attractive, and iconoclastic, she has worked for years to create her own signature line. As Victory struggles to keep her company afloat, she learns crucial lessons about what she really wants in a relationship. Nico O'Neilly is the glamorous, brilliant editor of Bonfire Magazine-the pop-culture bible for fashion, show business, and politics. Considered one of the most powerful women in publishing, she seems to have it all. But in a mid-life crisis, she suddenly realizes this isn't enough. Wendy Healy's chutzpah has propelled her to the very top of the cut-throat movie industry. When it becomes clear that a competitor is trying to oust her, something has to give-and Wendy must decide between her career and her marriage. In Lipstick Jungle, Bushnell once again delivers an addictive page-turner of sex and scandal that will keep readers enthralled and guessing to the very last page.

Review
Lipstick Jungle had a good message and a decent story. The problem was that is was always obscured by some problem. Everything felt scattered, from an all over the place time line to almost interchangeable, and therefore easily confusable, main characters.

Lipstick Jungle follows three strong, professional women who found that they could be vulnerable, but only among their female friends. The story showcased the idea that highly successful women have the same problems as average women, only on a somewhat larger scale. While managing work, family, and romantic relationships, the women predictably learn that friendship is the most important thing.

I found it difficult to always be able to decipher which woman we were focusing on at each point in time, especially when the main women interacted with minor characters usually related to another story line. This was compounded by the fact that each of the three women were basically the same. They had different careers and families, but they all had the same basic voice.

The timeline was equally hard to follow. Often we would be shown the outcome of an event and then immediately be told about the things that lead up to that outcome as if the character was thinking back on it. As the book was written in third person, that these mini-flashbacks left me wondering not only which character was which, but also where in the story we actually were. There was a lot of going back and re-reading with this book.

The problems mentioned above ultimately make this book average. Lipstick Jungle is chick lit with a clear female empowerment message. Being a strong women isn't as easy as everyone assumes. The story is entertaining, but what should be a fun indulgence becomes harder than it should be. I would only recommend this to Candace Bushnell fans and huge chick lit fans.

Rating

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Candace Bushnell's
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Second Time Around by Beth Kendrick

Book Details
Second Time Around by Beth Kendrick
Paperback, 336 pages
2010, Bantam
ISBN: 0385342241

Synopsis
Every summer, four college friends hold a mini-reunion. They laugh, reminisce, and commiserate about their soul-sucking jobs. Maybe they should have listened to everyone who warned them to study something “practical.”

Then an unexpected windfall arrives—one million dollars, to be exact—with the stipulation that they use it to jump-start their new careers. Almost overnight, a professor, a bartender, a copywriter, and an administrative assistant reinvent themselves as a novelist, an event planner, a pastry chef, and a bed-and-breakfast owner. But the changes in their professional roles create unexpected turbulence in their personal lives, and soon the secrets and scandals from their past start to resurface.

For anyone who has ever wondered “What if?,” this engaging novel provides a sweet, funny look at friendship, romance, and second chances.

Review
Second Time Around is female bonding at its best. Five women, friends since college, get together for a mini-reunion once a year. One dies, leaving a million dollars to be split between the rest. The catch? They need to use the money to follow their dreams.

Each woman has a job she doesn't love. Each has a seemingly impossible dream. The money gives those dreams a chance. While changing their careers, the women are forces to deal with personal problems ranging from guilt over accepting their dead friend's money, infertility, poor choices in love and one is haunted by a secret she has kept for over a decade.

Second Time Around is full of fun and sorrow, potential and regret, hope and fear. It really makes the reader question what they would change in their lives if given $250,000. Imagine the possibilities. The enduring friendship of the four women left mourning their friend is inspirational, a wonderful example of what friendship between women should be.

Beth Kendrick has written a book that does what all books should do. She put ideas in my head. She made me consider my life. She gave me something to think about. The message that life is too short to waste time on things you don't love is an important one and it couldn't have been written more beautifully. Second Time Around is chick-lit that focuses on the whole of a woman, not just her romantic life. I would love to see more books of this nature and highly recommend Second Time Around to any woman willing to reexamine where her life is headed. Funny, entertaining and meaningful - Second Time Around hits the trifecta.

Rating

Links
Beth Kendrick's
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Nancy's Theory of Style by Grace Coopersmith

Book Details
Nancy's Theory of Style by Grace Coopersmith
Paperback, 384 pages
2010, Pocket
ISBN: 1416598863

Synopsis
Lively young socialite Nancy Carrington-Chambers has always believed an excellent sense of style and strict attention to detail are what it takes to succeed, but her own husband Todd is showing symptoms of incurable tackiness, so Nancy flees their McMansion for her posh San Francisco apartment. She knows her event planning company, Froth, is a real winner, but she must prove herself by reinventing the turgid Barbary Coast Historical Museum fundraiser. Luckily, Nancy now has the perfect assistant. Derek Cathcart is British, impeccably dressed, gorgeous, and clearly gay—so why does Nancy find him so attractive?

Before Nancy can unravel her feelings, her irresponsible cousin Birdie abandons her little daughter with Nancy and takes off. Nancy, Derek, and Eugenia make an unlikely “family,” but strangely it seems incredibly right. Now Nancy’s parents are pressuring her to return to Todd, and she still has to pull off a spectacular party. For someone who’s always known exactly where she’s going, Nancy is in dangerously uncharted waters.

Irresistibly funny and romantic, Nancy’s Theory of Style shows that happiness and
love—just like fashion—aren’t about playing it safe.

Review
Nancy's Theory of Style is a fresh feeling novel of life, love, losing control and finally realizing what's truly important. Surprising plot twists really make this novel something special. Only readers extremely well-versed in chick lit plot staples will see any of the big reveals coming.

Nancy's Theory of Style started a little rough for me, taking a few chapters to get used to Nancy's way of speaking. It took slightly longer to get used to her completely self-involved lifestyle. Nancy's priorities in life aren't what the rest of us would call normal. She values style and the physical aspects of the world around her well beyond the people around her. While never cold-hearted, she strives for order and finds the messy quality of real, emotional life distasteful.

Nancy separates from her husband, acquires her dream assistant (British and gay with impeccable taste) and her world is perfect. That is, until it's turned completely upside down again and again. Nancy picks herself back up and carries on, each time forcing her to relinquish the control she cherishes a little more. When the final string of disasters happen, I found myself completely choked up with tears in my eyes. Nancy had found her way into my heart.

You will not like Nancy when the novel starts, but you can't help but love her in the end. This first novel from Grace Coopersmith is fabulous fun.

Rating

The Cougar Club by Susan McBride

Book Details
The Cougar Club by Susan McBride
Paperback, 336 pages
2010, Avon A
ISBN: 0061771260

Synopsis
They are middle-aged, hear them roar. And so they do, this trio of 40-something careerists and lifelong BFFs—Kat, an out-of-work and out-of-love New York advertising exec; Carla, a St. Louis anchorwoman who's protecting her turf from an invading bimbo; and Elise, a successful dermatologist wife and mom who's undone by her empty nest and empty sex life. Kat's abrupt job loss sends her running home to St. Louis, which triggers a reunion of the three friends and prompts their rediscovery of each other and the awakening of their inner cougars. In the process, the gals rifle through a slew of good-looking young hunks in the search for love and meaningful employment.

Review
Reading The Cougar Club was a sad and joyful and even a bit scary experience. The women in The Cougar Club were not anything like how cougars are usually portrayed. Three friends are reunited just as their worlds threaten to crumble. The book shows the importance of having real friends you can count on to be there for you in good times and bad.

Getting older as a woman can be terrifying. The toll aging takes on women in their business and romantic lives is the main focus of The Cougar Club. It's dealt with beautifully here with a lighthearted humor that makes the book comforting and reassuring.

None of the women were out to randomly score with young guys in the predator-like way the name cougar suggests. Women feel bad about themselves when men abandon them for newer, shinier models both personally and professionally and that was the message here. The younger men were mostly in the background. The Cougar Club is a humorous and hopeful novel about truly finding yourself after 40.

Rating

Links
Susan McBride's
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This One Is Mine by Maria Semple

Book Details
This One Is Mine by Maria Semple
Paperback, 320 pages
2010, Back Bay Books
ISBN: 031603133X

Synopsis
Violet Parry is not Anna Karenina. Witty, affectionate, and fearsomely resourceful when she wants to be, she's a modern woman who has traded a great job for a picture-perfect Los Angeles life with her rock-and-roll-manager husband, David, and their darling daughter. She can speak French, quote Sondheim and whip up dinner from the vegetables in her garden. She has everything under control—except her own happiness. Driving the hills of Los Angeles, her sense of isolation grows with every curve. She has a chance encounter with Teddy Reyes, a roguish small-time bass player with a highly-evolved sexuality. He shows an interest. That's all it takes. Heedless of consequences, Violet embarks upon her monomaniacal journey towards destruction.

David’s sister Sally, in great shape but pushing forty, is on a mission of her own to attain exactly that status and security which Violet is so quick to abandon. Nothing can stop her—as is discovered by the unfortunate bystanders in her path, and by Jeremy, the sportswriter-savant she's desperate to marry before he achieves the television celebrity she knows is his destiny.

Consumed with recklessness, Violet and Sally overlook the possibility that David and Jeremy may deal some surprises of their own.

Review
Reading This One Is Mine was an unexpected pleasure. The book tackles some painfully messy situations that come up in family relationships with a light humor that keeps the book from becoming depressing. Every character is unhappy. Each is desperate to find one thing they believe will cure all of their problems.

Violet finds herself obsessively infatuated with Teddy, a recovering drug addict. He's clearly not good for her and she's willing to throw her family and all of her money away to be with him. This was the one aspect of the book I didn't find realistic. Not that a woman would give everything up in an unhappy relationship to get the affection she craves, but that she would chose someone so very unattractive. He's missing a tooth and kind of dirty. It can be thrilling to be involved with someone from "the other side of the tracks," but Teddy is more disgusting than edgy.

Every other aspect of this novel felt authentic, from Violet's unhappiness in her marriage, to David's longing for the woman she used to be, to Sally's desperation to be married. Each of the characters deal with heart-breaking emotional situations that make you see past their flaws and eventually root for them.

Maria Semple shows the ugly side of relationships and does it with a highly enjoyable mix of lightheartedness and gritty reality. This One Is Mine is a fresh debut novel marking Semple as an author is keep your eye on.

Rating

Links
Maria Semple's website