Chick-Lit Category Archives

18 January, 2013

1 comment

Assisted Suicide, England, Moyes

Book Review: Collateral by Ellen Hopkins

Collateral by Ellen Hopkins

Method of Obtaining: I received my copy from the publisher.
Published by: Atria Books
Release Date: 11/6/2012 (This edition)

Written in Hopkins’s stunning poetic verse style, Collateral centers on Ashley, an MFA student at San Diego State University. She grew up reading books and never dreamed she would become a military wife. One night she meets a handsome soldier named Cole. He doesn’t match the stereotype of the aggressive military man. He’s passionate and romantic. He even writes poetry. Their relationship evolves into a sexually charged love affair that goes on for five years and survives four deployments. Cole wants Ashley to marry him, but when she meets another man, a professor with similar pursuits and values, she begins to see what life might be like outside the shadow of war.

Collateral captures the hearts of the soldiers on the battlefield and the minds of the friends, family, and lovers they leave behind. Those who remain at home may be far away from the relentless, sand-choked skies of the Middle East and the crosshairs of a sniper rifle, but just the same, all of them will sacrifice a part of themselves for their country and all will eventually ask themselves if the collateral damage caused by war is worth the fight.

Reason for Reading:

Looked like an interesting story and the idea of a book in verse appealed to me.

I recommend:

The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen
The Linen Queen by Patricia Falway

My Review:

Collateral is the first book I’ve read by Ellen Hopkins and I approached it with hopeful optimism – mostly because I had heard that it was written in free verse style and, after having immersed myself in poetry this year, I thought it would be fun to try something like this.

At first the story really worked for me. It was the same story told a hundred times over – girl meets boy, boy is charming/cute/wonderful/strong/respectful/perfect, boy is in the military and is taken away from girl, etc… All of this told through free-verse that was simple and easy to read. The story in its most condensed form.

Then things got a little weird for me. You see, the boy in this case is a poet and the love interest takes his poetry to her professor and has her professor read it, and the professor proclaims about the talent of the boy (essentially indicating that he is talented and wasted in the military). All of those things are fine on their own except for one: the complimenting of the poetry.

This is where things really started to rub me the wrong way. If you are an author who writes in free-style poetry a story and then, in a round-about way, compliments your own poetry, it just makes me go “ick” a little bit. Because, honestly, the book would have been just fine had Cole not been a poet – sure there would have been tweaks needed here or there, but writing poetry and then writing in another poem how wonderful your previous poem was… yeah, it just didn’t work for me.

And, sadly, that spoiled the rest of the book. It’s funny how little things like that can color the way a reader interacts with a story but, as time has proven in my case, one of my biggest pet peeves is the patting of oneself on the pack through fictional characters.

p.s. The rhyming poems really didn’t work for me. Please stick to the free-verse, Ms. Hopkins.

Don’t just take my word for it! Check out what these bloggers say!

Clear Eyes, Full Shelves | The Sweet Bookshelf | The Reading Date

31 December, 2012

0 comments

Hopkins, Marines, Military, Verse

Imperfect Bliss by Susan Fales-Hill

Imperfect Bliss by Susan Fales-Hill

Order from:

Reason for Reading:

The cover on this one roped me in.

I recommend:

The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown
The Murderer’s Daughters by Randy Susan Meyers

Summary from GoodReads:

Meet the Harcourts of Chevy Chase, Maryland. A respectable middle class, middle-aged, mixed-race couple, Harold and Forsythia have four eminently marriageable daughters—or so their mother believes. Forsythia named her girls after Windsor royals in the hopes that one day each would find her true prince. But princes are far from the mind of their second-born daughter, Elizabeth (AKA Bliss), who, in the aftermath of a messy divorce, has moved back home and thrown herself into earning her Ph.D. All that changes when aBachelorette-style reality television show called The Virgin takes Bliss’s younger sister, Diana, as its star. Though she fights it at first, Bliss can’t help but be drawn into the romantic drama that ensues, forcing her to reconsider everything she thought she knew about love, her family, and herself.

My Review:

It’s been a few days since I finished Imperfect Bliss by Susan Fales-Hill. Reflecting back on the read, I have just one question to ask myself – why did I keep reading?

Now, I do want to say that Imperfect Bliss is not necessarily.. well it’s.. okay, it was kind of like a bit of a train-wreck, and the amusement outweighed the annoyance and that’s the only reason I was able to keep going. The premise behind Imperfect Bliss was that it was a modern-day Pride and Prejudice meets The Bachelorette; however, I hate re-tellings of Jane Austen’s works and I really can’t stand The Bachelorette so I’m not sure what I was doing picking this book up.

Instead of something like a woman stringing a bunch of men along with the idea to marry one – oh wait, that’s exactly what was going on in this book! The show that Bliss’s younger sister stars in is called “The Virgin,” and you can guess what exactly that means. I’m not sure if Bliss was intended to be Elizabeth or Jane – because Bliss’s sister, Victoria, had me majorly confused – which worked well because she was pretty darn confused as well.

I think, had the book been a bit less of a train-wreck, and less modeled on Jane Austen’s classic, that Imperfect Bliss could have been a great tool to put some messages out there. Susan Fales-Hill tackles sexuality, single motherhood, the unrealistic ideas behind reality shows and more – but she does it in such a way that it feels as if there is a flurry of activity happening and not all of it is believable.

Still, I have to admit I was amused, or I would not have finished the book. It was a light, fluffy afternoon read that had me laughing out loud more than once.

Don’t just take my word for it! Check out what these bloggers say!

Five Alarm Book Reviews| Bookworm 1858 |Cozy Little Book Journal

7 July, 2012

Fales-Hill, Pride and Prejudice, Reality TV, Sexuality, Single Motherhood, The Bachelorette

What You Wish For by Kerry Reichs

What You Wish For by Kerry Reichs

Order from:

Reason for Reading:

The blurb for this one struck a chord with me.

I also recommend:

Fathermucker by Greg Olear
The Financial Lives of the Poets by Jess Walter

Summary from GoodReads:

“Having a baby is . . . complicated. ”

Dimple knows. She’s a successful actress who is turning forty–though her agent and her resume insist she’s only thirty-six–and she figures it’s now or never. Certainly it’s not a good time for an intriguing director to show up at her door with a great script.

Eva, fabulous agent to the stars, doesn’t want kids–and “never” wanted kids. Why is her decision so damned hard for everyone else to accept?

When Maryn was undergoing treatment for cancer, she and her husband both agreed to have embryos frozen. But that was way before their divorce and her remission–and now she’s single and childless, and caught in the middle of a controversy she never saw coming.

The traditional and nontraditional couples desperate for a baby . . . the adoptive parents . . . the single mom . . . the two who want “nothing” to do with parenthood. . . . This is a thoroughly modern story of the pursuit of family in all its forms–and of five very different ways of getting there

My Review:

I remember the day it hit me that I was in my mid-30′s and unmarried with no children on the horizon. It was a blow to me, I’m not going to lie. I’d grown up the eldest of nine and, even as a child, fully expected to be married by 21 and a mother by 22. I envisioned a house filled with childish laughter and a white picket fence out front. Now, at 35, I’m wiser and older (although the two did not happen concurrently) and have accepted the very real likelihood that motherhood is not in the works for me, just as I accepted that marriage was not for me about four years ago.

That’s a very personal thing to put out there for a review, I admit. But that’s how this book affected me. What You Wish For is a novel about unconventional parents. It’s about adoption, IVF, natural pregnancy, birth, death, and life. It’s real, honest, and it does not pull any punches. Kerry Reichs lays the facts out with brutal honesty and follows the natural path when it comes to the story of Maryn, Eva, Julian, Wyatt, and Dimple – even if that brings harm or an “unhappy ending.”

Honestly, I loved and hated this book. I loved it for being so engrossing – I didn’t want to put it down. I hated it for being so real. I hated seeing the facts about being a 35 year old woman put down on the page, and knowing that – if I decide to go the same route as Dimple – I may be facing some of the same difficulties. I hated reading about how difficult it is for a single man to adopt, or seeing what happens when zealots get their hands on information for political gains. What You Wish For is more than a feel-good novel, it’s a contemporary study on what life is like now, what it is like to try to be a parent in a world that says that the “normal” parents are one man and one woman.

This is an important story and Kerry Reichs does a great job of pushing past the limits to deliver it.

About the Author

Information regarding Kerry Reichs:
- Website
- Facebook
- Twitter

For more reviews on What You Wish For by Kerry Reichs, please follow the book tour.

3 July, 2012

Chick-Lit, Contemporary, reviews, Social Issues

1 comment

Adoption, Gay Parents, IVF, Reichs, Single Parents

The Replacement Wife by Eileen Goudge

The Replacement Wife by Eileen Goudge

Order from:

Reason for Reading:

I was in the mood for a little bit of chick lit, and matchmaking has always been a topic of interest to me.

I recommend:

Home to Woefield by Susan Juby
Thanks for the Memories by Cecelia Ahern

Summary from GoodReads:

Camille Hart, one of Manhattan’s most sought-after matchmakers, has survived more than her fair share of hardships. Her mother died when she was a young girl, leaving her and her sister with an absentee father. Now in her forties, she has already survived cancer once, though the battle revealed just how ill-equipped her husband Edward is to be a single parent. So when doctors tell Camille that her cancer is back—and this time it’s terminal—she decides to put her matchmaking expertise to the test for one final job. Seeking stability for her children and happiness for her husband, Camille sets out to find the perfect woman to replace her when she’s gone.

But what happens when a dying wish becomes a case of “be careful what you wish for”? For Edward and Camille, the stunning conclusion arrives with one last twist of fate that no one saw coming.

My Review:

When I read the summary for The Replacement Wife by Eileen Goudge, I got a little bit of a thrill inside. It’d been a while since I had read a straight-up chick lit book and I was craving some emotional, doesn’t-require-a-lot-of-thought, reading and thought this would fit the bill perfectly.

What I was unprepared for was the completely unseen twist that the book would take halfway through and send me spiraling into rage instead of pleasure.

But I cannot blame that on Eileen Goudge, or the story, because when all was said and done, the book delivered what it was supposed to deliver. There was romance, heartbreak, contemporary themes about marriage, struggles and triumphs – I just didn’t like who experienced some of these things.

Y’all, I’ve never been so disappointed in a character in my life. Just bad, bad choices and all I could think is – why? Why did you do this to these poor, innocent people in the book, Ms. Goudge?!

I think if you are looking for a summer read that has the potential to get you worked up in a rage sort of way, The Replacement Wife is a good choice. I didn’t cry while reading this book (I sob like a baby when I read Cecelia Aherns and was hoping for a similar reaction here), but it did inspire a reaction from me. I’m just glad I wasn’t on the beach when I started yelling at the pages.

Don’t just take my word for it! Check out what these bloggers say!

A Casual Reader’s Blog | Bibliophile By The Sea | Melissa’s Eclectic Bookshelf

14 June, 2012

family, Goudge, Marriage, Matchmaking

Little Black Dress by Susan McBride

Little Black Dress by Susan McBride

Order from:

Reason for Reading:

This is one example of the cover grabbing me. It looked like a nice, light read.

I also recommend:

Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen

Summary from GoodReads:

Two sisters whose lives seemed forever intertwined are torn apart when a magical little black dress gives each one a glimpse of an unavoidable future.

Antonia Ashton has worked hard to build a thriving career and a committed relationship, but she realizes her life has gone off-track. Forced to return home to Blue Hills when her mother, Evie, suffers a massive stroke, Toni finds the old Victorian where she grew up as crammed full of secrets as it is with clutter. Now she must put her mother’s house in order—and uncover long-buried truths about Evie and her aunt, Anna, who vanished fifty years earlier on the eve of her wedding. By shedding light on the past, Toni illuminates her own mistakes and learns the most unexpected things about love, magic, and a little black dress with the power to break hearts…and mend them.

My Review:

Little Black Dress provided me with a light, easy read that comfortably filled my Sunday afternoon. I enjoy stories with just a bit of magic in them, as evidenced by my love of Sarah Addison Allen, so with her endorsement on this book I decided to give it a go.

While I appreciated the charm that Susan McBride tried to infuse into the setting, it was just hard to wrap my mind around any of it being set in the midwest. Especially a winery. While I appreciate that it’s possible for them to exist, I think the setting would have proven a lot more.. fanciful if put into Northern California, and I might have enjoyed it a bit more.

As it was, I enjoyed it as much as I was able to – the setting, as mentioned, threw me a little bit, as did a glaringly obvious “twist”. I’ve spoken in another review about how seeing twists coming don’t necessarily mean something bad, or ruin my enjoyment of the book – but when the character affected by the twist is so oblivious to the glaringly obvious turn of events.. it makes it a little harder to swallow and changes the tone of the book a bit.

Little Black Dress is a magical story of forgiveness, of family relationships – especially those of mother and daughter. It’s a story of being given an opportunity to start over and to begin again on establishing relationships. A sweet, if a bit mundane tale with just enough magic to infuse it into being more than just another title on a shelf.

About the Author

Information regarding Susan McBride:
- Her website

For more reviews on Little Black Dress by Susan McBride, please follow the book tour.

31 August, 2011

3 comments

Magic, McBride, Mental Illness, Winery

The Gin and Chowder Club by Nan Parson Rossiter

The Gin and Chowder Club by Nan Parson Rossiter

Order from:

Reason for Reading:

I received the opportunity to read this through the Unputdownables Early Reader Group

I recommend:

T he School of Essential Ingrediants by Erica Bauermeister
Stealing Lumby by Gail Fraser

Summary from GoodReads:

Set against the beautiful backdrop of Cape Cod, The Gin & Chowder Clubis an eloquent, tender story of friendship, longing, and the enduring power of love. . .

The friendship between the Coleman and Shepherd families is as old and comfortable as the neighboring houses they occupy each summer on Cape Cod. Samuel and Sarah Coleman love those warm months by the water; the evenings spent on their porch, enjoying gin and tonics, good conversation and homemade clam chowder. Here they’ve watched their sons, Isaac and Asa, grow into fine young men, and watched, too, as Nate Shepherd, aching with grief at the loss of his first wife, finally found love again with the much younger Noelle.

But beyond the surface of these idyllic gatherings, the growing attraction between Noelle and handsome, college-bound Asa threatens to upend everything. In spite of her guilt and misgivings, Noelle is drawn into a reckless secret affair with far-reaching consequences. And over the course of one bittersweet, unforgettable summer, Asa will learn more than he ever expected about love—the joys and heartache it awakens in us, the lengths we’ll go to keep it, and the countless ways it can change our lives forever. . .

My Review:

My review of this book is double-edged. First, what I enjoyed about it.

The Gin and Chowder Club began with exactly what a summer read should be. With beautiful descriptions of the Cape, the ocean, good food and strong family relationships I settled down to enjoy a relaxing, idyllic story.

Now, I’ve read books with affairs in them. While I have moral objections to the subject matter I expected to be able to handle it thinking that, typical of this type of literature, a lesson would be learned.

Be careful there are some spoilers ahead.

Instead, what I got was a book that almost bordered on Christian Literature (many verse references, bible passages, a strong church background, pastors daughter (and can I just say I hate that stereotype being one myself), prayer and a Godly home portrayal), but that threw out all of that base groundwork to focus around a story that was so clearly out of character for the people involved.

First, there’s Noelle, a young woman married to a man many years her senior who has absolutely no respect for that man, nor his friendships and is willing to risk it all for a few moments in the sack – and then there’s Asa, a teenager, not even old enough to drink, being given beer and other alcohol freely, being encouraged by this older woman and forsaking his “strong, moral upbringing” with lies, an affair and straying from the path.

I was raised in a strong Christian home. I can tell you right now that it is not normal to do what Asa did and not feel strong, almost crippling guilt – especially considering that special care was made by the author to let us know that the lie he told his mother in one part of the book was the first of its kind. It simply is not that easy to forsake years of training, of examples, of strong, kind fellowship with a close-knit family to do something of this magnitude.

At the end, I felt blase and had a bad taste in my mouth. It seemed to me as if Nan Rossiter tried to go both ways for a novel of this kind – by giving it the gentle, heartwarming ending a summer read book should have, but also the intrigue and carelessness that would keep a reader wanting to read more. It just didn’t work – it seemed completely unreal and I was disappointed.

Check out these reviews!

Book Chatter

Affairs, Beach Read, Cape Cod, Rossiter

Folly Beach by Dorothea Benton Frank

Order from:

Reason(s) for Reading:

I was looking for some summer beachy-type reads and this looked the part.

Summary from Goodreads:

With its sandy beaches and bohemian charms, surfers and suits alike consider Folly Beach to be one of South Carolina’s most historic and romantic spots. It is also the land of Cate Cooper’s childhood, the place where all the ghosts of her past roam freely. Cate never thought she’d wind up in this tiny cottage named the Porgy House on this breathtakingly lovely strip of coast. But circumstances have changed, thanks to her newly dead husband whose financial—and emotional—bull and mendacity have left Cate homeless, broke, and unmoored.

(Read more summary from Goodreads here.)

My Review:

One of the things I enjoy most about being on book tours is discovering authors I might not have been exposed to otherwise. I’ve seen Dorothea Benton Frank’s name before, but never considered that these books might be something I’m interested in. A series of steps led up to me asking to be on this tour – most of those steps involving an introduction of some sort to southern literature, and the final culmination being that I am, hands down, a fan of it. Beth Hoffman, Rebecca Rasmussen, Sarah Addison Allen, Kathryn Magendie – all names of authors who have thrilled me, taught me to love this easy-going, sweet, magical style and now I’ll be adding Dorothea Benton Frank to the list.

Folly Beach is book number #8 in the Lowcountry Tales series. I haven’t read books 1-7 (and have already started to request them from Paperback Swap) but it didn’t make a lick of difference, because this book had me hook, line and sinker with the opening act of the play involving the Heywards, Gershwin, and The Porgy House. Frank did a beautiful job of weaving the story around each act of the play, and kept me completely mesmerized and in love with both sets of characters – that of Dorothy Heyward and Cate Cooper.

Now, in the interest of full honesty, there were a few parts that were so obvious, and worked out so conveniently well that I did roll my eyes a little bit – but just a little bit, because I was too happy at the progression of the story and loved the characters so much that I wanted the best for them, even if it was predictable.

This is the perfect beach-time, summer read. The only thing that was missing while I read Folly Beach was the sound of the ocean, the warmth of the sun on my legs and a drink at my side, complete with little umbrella.

About the Author

Dorothea’s website
Her Facebook

For more reviews on Folly Beach by Dorothea Benton Frank, please follow the book tour.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from TLC Book Tours. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

6 July, 2011

Chick-Lit, reviews, Southern

Frank, Gershwin, Heywards, Lowcountry, South Carolina

Thanks for the Memories by Cecelia Ahern

Thanks for the Memories by Cecelia Ahern

Order from:

Reason for Reading:

I saw P.S. I Love You and loved the story – and had heard good things about Ahern’s books, saw this one on sale and decided to go for it.

I also recommend:

Brava, Valentine by Adriana Trigiani
Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson

Summary from GoodReads:

How can you know someone you’ve never met? Joyce Conway remembers things she shouldn’t. She knows about tiny cobbled streets in Paris, which she has never visited. And every night she dreams about an unknown little girl with blonde hair. Justin Hitchcock is divorced, lonely and restless. He arrives in Dublin to give a lecture on art and meets an attractive doctor, who persuades him to donate blood. It’s the first thing to come straight from his heart in a long time. When Joyce leaves hospital after a terrible accident, with her life and her marriage in pieces, she moves back in with her elderly father. All the while, a strong sense of déjà vu is overwhelming her and she can’t figure out why …

My Review:

In 2000, a movie was released with Minnie Driver and David Duchovny starring in it titled Return to Me. As a read Thanks for the Memories, I kept thinking I was reading the text version of that movie (even though there were some differences, it was very similar).

This book is based on the theory that the blood being pumped from one person’s heart and then used for the purpose of blood infusions is enough to impart knowledge, feelings, likes and dislikes and memories. Pretty far-fetched, but it makes for a pretty, feel-good, emotional story.. which was what I was in the mood for or this review wouldn’t be nearly as positive as it’s going to be.

I was in desperate need of something “chick lit” and this book gave me just that. It was a feel good story, despite the sorrow that started it out, and it made me laugh out loud and enjoy reading again.

If you are looking for a good summer beach read, I’d highly recommend this book. Cecelia Ahern lives up to the hype of her previous books and really delivers with this story.

Check out these review(s):

Book Bliss

5 June, 2011