Review: If I Could Turn Back Time

By Beth Harbison
Available now from St. Martin's Press
Review copy

It's hard to remember now why I picked up IF I COULD TURN BACK TIME.  I think it was the promise of time travel, which I tend to enjoy.  But the blurb hints at one of my major problems with the book.  IF I COULD TURN BACK TIME falls into that old pattern of successful, self-made woman figures out what she really needs is to be emotionally honest and find her soulmate.

In the end, I think IF I COULD TURN BACK TIME did some interesting things, but they tended to be too little, too late.  The execution of the beginning didn't grab me.  When Ramie wakes up after her disastrous 38th birthday party as a seventeen year old, she falls into a tendency to repeat information over and over as if the reader might've forgotten a detail from the previous two pages.  The timeline also doesn't quite work.  Ramie is clear that the first time she lost her virginity was six months after her eighteenth birthday, but that she and the guy broke up at their graduation party a few days after her eighteenth birthday.

The biggest problem is that all of the interesting stuff is rushed and crammed into the ends of the novel.  IF I COULD TURN BACK TIME starts to complicate things and introduce the idea that Ramie is driven and motivated and wouldn't be happy as just a housewife having children.  Her career doesn't get completely jettisoned, which I definitely appreciated, but the actual romance ended up being just a sketch of an idea after her romantic life was built up so much.

IF I COULD TURN BACK TIME has some interesting ideas, but I just couldn't get invested.  Does any almost forty-year-old woman really think that her high school boyfriend might've been the one?  I don't think Ramie was fulfilled at the beginning of the novel, but I was never convinced that focusing on her high school romance was a good focus for reflecting on her regrets.

Review: Love and Miss Communication

By Elyssa Friedland
Available now from William Morrow (HarperCollins)
Review copy

LOVE AND MISS COMMUNICATION looked super cute.  It's the story of Evie Rosen, who gets fired for sending too many personal emails and discovers that her commitment-phobe ex got married six months after their breakup on Facebook, and decides to stay off the Internet for a year.  I spent the first half of the book wanting to shake Evie out of her self-absorbed funk.

I wasn't surprised by the zeal she brings to her decision to leave the Internet behind; there's nothing like the converted to disdain they were before.  I did think her characterization needed work.  Debut author Elyssa Friedland describes her as always having her Blackberry in her hand and constantly Facebook stalking people.  Yet, for instance, she's surprised when one of her stepsisters has already made friends at the college she's going to in the fall through Facebook.  It's not like she'd never used the Internet.

Then there's the way she is with her family and friends.  She's weirdly contemptuous of her stepsisters and has inappropriate boundaries with a student at her new job.  For talk of using actual phone calls to get closer to people, she never reaches out to her friends but waits for them to reach out to her.  However, LOVE AND MISS COMMUNICATION did start clicking into place for me once Evie's mother snaps at her that everyone tries to matchmake for her because she's so desperately and obviously unhappy being single.  The characters finally get tired of Evie and start talking to her and helping her realize that she needs to change her attitude.

Thus, the second half did work better for me.  Evie does have a journey to go on and a coherent character arc.  There is room in the world for grating characters.  And throughout the book I thought the romance worked well.  Now, it shows how much Evie idolizes marriage and how bad she is at communication that she never thinks to just ask the guy if she's divorced, but I did like that she holds back from actually making a move until she knows he isn't attached.  I also just thought their flirting was cute.  I also liked the parts about Evie's ex, Jack.  She's still reeling from the bad breakup, and Friedman captures the way you never really forget the people you loved.

I loved the premise of LOVE AND MISS COMMUNICATION.  I feel like it could've been explored more to its full potential with a character who was interested in actually connecting with people instead of being content to just complain about another missed evite.  The romance was cute and I liked Evie's grandmother and mother.  I also enjoyed every time someone pointed out to Evie how self-absorbed she was.  It made for an uneven reading experience, but not a wasted one.

Review: Charlie Glass's Slippers

By Holly McQueen
Available now from Atria (Simon & Schuster)
Review copy

This modern update of Cinderella positions Charlie Glass as the inheritor of a luxury women's shoe company with multiple desirable suitors.  Charlie's life didn't always go so well.  She left school and her dreams in order to care for her terminally ill father.  She was overweight, and struggled with being positive about her body.  Her stepmother was cruel and her half sisters selfish.

I am a sucker for retold fairytales, and I liked the way Holly McQueen updated Cinderella in CHARLIE GLASS'S SLIPPERS.  Charlie's struggle with her body and appearance was more compelling than an effortlessly beautiful heroine.  Her sudden windfall is her chance to become thinner and blonder (with an intensive fat camp), but her new attention to everything she eats and intense exercise doesn't really make her that much happier.  I liked her half sisters quite a bit.  The younger one is a model, quite silly in a bit of a sad way, but mostly tries to be sweet to her sister when she isn't jealous.  The older one has her own family and is dedicated to her career, without much use for Charlie until she comes to respect her.  The sisters aren't the nicest, but they aren't totally awful and they have feelings about family.

As for the two men in Charlie's life, I liked that McQueen didn't make it as simple as Prince Charming just happening to hold a ball.  Both men have their good points and bad points.  In fact, I didn't like her old crush Freddie at first because of how he failed to communicate with Charlie, but he grew on me.  Her new boyfriend is sexy, generous, and really into her, but a bit shallow.  I believed I knew which way things were going, but I was a bit surprised.

McQueen also throws a cold case murder mystery into the mix, which seemed a bit much at times.  It tied into Charlie's past, her recent grief over her father's death and her mixed emotions since he mostly left her alone after her mother's death.  Her mother died in a hit and run, and Charlie and the lead detective (Freddie's father) never give up hope of finding her killer.  It added a darkness to the frothy tone of CHARLIE GLASS'S SLIPPERS.

If you're looking for chicklit with a fairytale bent, you might try CHARLIE GLASS'S SLIPPERS.  It's characters have surprising dimension, and it tackles some surprisingly tough topics (if with a light touch).  I really liked Charlie, with her struggles to maintain her closest friendship amidst change, find true love, and rejuvenate her company.

Review: After I Do

By Taylor Jenkins Reid
Available now from Washington Square Press (Simon & Schuster)
Review copy
Read my review of Forever, Interrupted

In AFTER I DO, the love has gone out of Lauren and Ryan's marriage.  They decide that Ryan will move out for a year, leaving Lauren with the house and the dog.  They'll meet in six months to trade the dog, and then meet in another six months to decide what to do next.  No other contact.

It's a strange solution, but as everyone in the book points out, it is telling that neither Lauren nor Ryan wants a divorce.  The year apart is to give them room to breathe, room to rediscover what they want from life, whether they still want each other.  It is a bit of a strange premise, but Taylor Jenkins Reid makes it work.  Lauren's ups and downs through the year are compelling.

There is the loneliness, coming home to no one but the dog.  There's the difficulty of confessing her troubles to her family, just as her mother and brother are having new success in their own relationships.  There's meeting new people.  There's meeting new men, and deciding whether to date (as they both agreed to be non-exclusive during the year).

The difficulties in the marriage seemed real.  AFTER I DO is in Lauren's POV, but it doesn't let her off the hook.  She's just as responsible as her husband for their failures in communication and microaggressions toward each other.  She isn't a saint in the year off, either.  But it's still easy to root for her to heal from their nasty final fight, and to find out who she is on her own.  (They married young.)

AFTER I DO is less wrenching that Jenkins' debut novel FOREVER, INTERRUPTED.  But it is an equally compelling look at a young woman who suddenly finds herself alone.  The ending is a touch contrived, but heartfelt.  This is definitely a wonderful, emotional read to pick up during the summer doldrums.

Review: Attachments

By Rainbow Rowell
Available now from Plume (Penguin Random House)
Review copy
Read my review of Fangirl

I enjoyed both of Rainbow Rowell's new novels, ELEANOR & PARK and FANGIRL.  Thus, I was excited to go back and read her first novel, ATTACHMENTS.

It's 1999, and everyone's worried about Y2K.  Lincoln is in IT at a newspaper, reading the email messages that get caught in the filter.  That's when he becomes aware of Beth and Jennifer, whose long email exchanges are often flagged.  He keeps reading their email, even though he knows it is an invasion of privacy.  At the same time, he begins coming out of his shell, finding new friends and independence.  He's been stuck in a rut, living with his mom and working at a job he hates and not getting out except to play D&D.

Setting ATTACHMENTS in '99 gives Rainbow Rowell one big advantage: every bit of pop culture the characters reference is still well-known and respected.  There's no obscure references, no ephemeral and forgotten fads.  It also means that the technology involved is still pretty new to people.  Email is easy of course, but print journalism is still going strong.  Employees slacking off on the Internet is new.  Weirdly, no one ever seems frustrated by dial-up. 

The romance didn't entirely work for me.  I kept waiting for Beth and Lincoln to meet.  I liked reading about their individual journeys, but I was in it for the attachment.  The real love story only takes up the last 10% of the book.  At that point it's kind of awkward because of the privacy invasion.  Rowell does her best to mitigate it, but I still found it creepy, even though I really liked Lincoln.

What did work very well were all the depictions of different friendships.  Friendships between women, men, both.  Work friendships, college friendships, friendships that lasted since high school.  The friendship between Beth and Jennifer is particularly great, of course, but I also really liked Lincoln's new friendship with an older coworker.

Rowell's publishers are pushing ATTACHMENTS more now that ELEANOR & PARK and FANGIRL are hits.  It's a good move, because ATTACHMENTS has the same strong character work.  It also shares a theme of anxiety with FANGIRL.  It's a strong debut, and it's easy to see how Rowell has grown.  It also builds anticipation for her upcoming adult novel, LANDLINES. 

Review: Forever, Interrupted

By Taylor Jenkins Reid
Available now from Washington Square Press (Simon & Schuster)
Review copy

I do not like tearjerkers.  I have no desire to cry when I'm reading.  I don't need books to be relentlessly cheery, but I'm just not looking to be depressed.  But something drew me to FOREVER, INTERRUPTED despite the obviously sad premise, about a woman recovering after her recent husband's death.  I think it was the hint of mystery, that her mother-in-law doesn't know she exists.

FOREVER, INTERRUPTED moves back in forth in time.  There's the present timeline, about Elsie and her mother-in-law Susan.  Then there's the past timeline, which shows Elsie and Ben's whirlwind romance.  The past timeline didn't work as well for me.  It just goes so perfectly.  It adds a bit more pathos to the present, as it allows the reader to know Ben, but nothing that couldn't be folded into the story elsewhere.  It just didn't feel real.  Elsie and Ben argue approximately once, a fight toward the end of their relationship that appears to last for less than an hour.  We know they'll end up together, but the stakes don't have to be that low.

That brings us to the present timeline.  Now, obviously things happened quickly in the past.  Elsie and Ben know each other for about six months total and are married for nine days.  Still, that enough time to mention your significant other to your not-estranged mother.  I did enjoy seeing the path of how that oddity came to be unfold.  I also liked the questions Taylor Jenkins Reid brought up about marriage and grief.  Is Elsie's pain less real, less valid since she knew Ben such a short time?  Is she less a widow because she was only married nine days?  Since she's so young and the relationship was so short, when should people expect her to start dating again?  As the also widowed Susan points out, she's lucky as an older woman that people are more likely to understand if she chooses to spend the rest of her life alone.

Susan and Elsie's relationship contains the rocky reality that's missing from Ben and Elsie's.  They really batter and bruise each other at first, but for totally understandable reasons.  But they manage to reach out and overcome that terrible first impression.  It was nice to see their familial relationship blossom.  I also liked Elsie's relationship with her best friend Anna, who she leans on during her initial time of grief.  It was interesting to see Elsie be aware that she was taking advantage, but not being able to stop herself.

FOREVER, INTERRUPTED was weepier than I like.  At the same time, it was an intriguing character-driven story grounded in deep emotion.  I wish the past parts weren't so sugary sweet; they still could've provided contrast with a bit of bitter.  But I think Reid has made a nice debut and I'll look forward to her next novel.

Review Preview: The Love Wars

By L. Alison Heller
Available May 7 from NAL Trade (Penguin)
Review copy

I am sorry guys.  I thought I had enough prepped on this week's reviews that I could just knock them out.  But I got a full-time job (yay!) and adjusting to waking up in the dark hours of the morning to drive across town is more difficult than I expected.

Part of the fun of THE LOVE WARS is that there's more emphasis on Molly Grant's job than I expected.  The romance subplot is secondary, maybe even tertiary.  It's all about Molly finding out what kind of lawyer she wants to be.  I also loved that THE LOVE WARS didn't humiliate her as some chick lit loves to do.  She embroils herself in a wacky scheme, but she manages to do so without breaking the law or otherwise setting herself up for a truly horrid fall.

But I have no idea what playing cards have to do with the price of beans in Cairo.

Review: The Girls' Guide to Love and Supper Clubs

By Dana Bate
Available now from Hyperion (Disney)
Review copy

Hannah Sugarman, like many chick lit heroines, is dissatisfied with her life.  She hates her boring job at a think tank, which her parents got for her, and her long-term relationship ended in an ugly and public manner.  Her stress cooking is the best part of her life.  Then her best friend comes up with an idea: Why not start an underground supper club?

Supper clubs, basically, are unlicensed restaurants run out of people's homes.  That would be one of the major complications of Hannah's: she's borrowing her landlord's home, while he's out of town, and he's running for an office with a platform that promises to crack down on supper clubs.  I liked that THE GIRLS' GUIDE TO LOVE AND SUPPER CLUBS was very clear about why they're illegal - no health inspections, unfair competition with licensed restaurants, etc.  What Hannah does seems harmless, but there are repercussions.

Despite all those consequences - and there are consequences - THE GIRLS' GUIDE TO LOVE AND SUPPER CLUBS is a great deal of fun.  This is not weepy chick lit, where the heroine cycles into despair as her life implodes.  In fact, I think THE GIRLS' GUIDE TO LOVE AND SUPPER CLUBS is as much a New Adult novel as chick lit.  It's about Hannah learning to take control of her life.  Not what her parents or her boyfriend want for her life, but figuring out what she wants and how to achieve that goal without becoming imprisoned or impoverished.

I love cleansing my palate with bubbly novels like this one.  It's very optimistic, in the end, and sweet.  There's a little romance, a little character growth, and some happily ever after.  THE GIRLS' GUIDE TO LOVE AND SUPPER CLUBS will put a smile on your face and make you crave a nice bit of braised pork belly.  Thankfully, some of the recipes are included at the back.

Review: Enchanted by Starlight

By Tina L. Hook
Self-published
Review copy

I don't normally review self-published books, but I asked to review ENCHANTED BY STARLIGHT by a PR company through which I've reviewed several fun chick lit novels.  So I decided to give Tina L. Hook's debut a chance.  Thankfully, ENCHANTED BY STARLIGHT doesn't suffer from bad copy editing, also known as my number-one gripe with self-publishing.

ENCHANTED BY STARLIGHT follows the lives of three women who gained a superpower through each of their encounters with a comet.  Grace, my favorite, can make men fall in love with her.  But she quickly realizes that she prefers relationships that don't involve her power.  Skylar can make people like her.  Skylar could've been a really cool character, but she had less to do than the other two.  Most of her growth happens in the chapter where she decides to stop being a kept woman and get a job she likes.  Aside from that, she's mostly there because the other two women know her and she's part of their stories.  Alina's power is that she can influence people based on their thoughts.  And Alina is a real piece of work, driven by jealousy and hate.  She doesn't deserve the abusive relationship she ends up in during ENCHANTED BY STARLIGHT, certainly, but she's not a nice person.  Her chapters made my skin crawl.

ENCHANTED BY STARLIGHT opens with the three women meeting in one place for the first time, on a night when another comet will pass by.  Aside from their powers, they're united through one man, Liam.  ENCHANTED BY STARLIGHT then goes back to their teen years to show how they ended up at that point.  It's a good basic structure, but sometimes the chapters jump back or forth in time with little reason for being suddenly nonlinear.  As for Liam, as we get to know him, it diffuses some of the tension of the upcoming fight between the women because he's a total jerk and loser.

Really, the main parts of ENCHANTED BY STARLIGHT that I liked were Grace's growth as a character and her friendship with Skylar.  Too much of the book was about women scheming to tear each other down, often because of a man.  It's certainly something that happens, but it isn't a plot that I find compelling.

The ebook of ENCHANTED BY STARLIGHT is only 99 cents, which is very reasonable.  For that price, it's a reasonably entertaining story with no annoying formatting errors.  But I wouldn't recommend paying for the paperback.

Review: Where We Belong

By Emily Giffin
Available now from St. Martin's Press
Review copy

Despite Emily Giffin being one of the most popular authors of contemporary women's fiction, WHERE WE BELONG is the first book I've read by her.  It is told through the points of view of two women.  Thirty-six-year-old Marian Caldwell is a successful television producer, living in New York and attempting to convince her CEO boyfriend of two years to pop the question.  Eighteen-year-old Kirby Rose is about to graduate from high school and deciding whether she wants to go to college, take a gap year, or do something else entirely.  Before she makes her decision, she wants to meet her birth parents, which is why she comes knocking on Marian's door.

Giffin has a talent for characterization.  Marian and Kirby have very different perspectives due to the divide in their ages, goals, and concerns.  I loved Kirby's parents, who want the best for their daughter but are somewhat threatened by her interest in her birth parents.  I liked reading about Kirby's struggle with her future, even though it was one I never experienced.  I never questioned going to college, but now that I'm older, I know it isn't the right choice for everyone.  It's tough to suddenly be in charge of decisions that will affect your entire life.

Marian, meanwhile, is not only having to own up to her pregnancy, but also the fact that she never told the father, Conrad Knight.  Now Kirby wants to meet him as well and Marian has to face the decisions she made at eighteen.  I liked that Giffin didn't try to simplify teen pregnancy to a moral issue.  The characters certainly have opinions about adoption, abortion, et al., but none of the opinions are presented as the absolutely right one.  Marian made the choices she thought best for herself and her daughter, but it was still cruel to not tell Conrad.  In addition to meeting Kirby and figuring out how best to help her, Marian must make decisions about her own love life and career.

I felt like WHERE WE BELONG was a refreshing, original novel.  Kirby's storyline gives it crossover appeal to the young adult audience while Marian's is more typical of women's fiction.  And sometimes it's just fun to read a novel entirely about relationships, with no bad guys in sight.  If you're looking for a complex tale about family and choice, look no farther than WHERE WE BELONG.  I think I'll be reading more of Giffin's books in the future.

Review: Beach Season

Available now from Kensington
Review copy

BEACH SEASON collects four novellas by a variety of popular authors including #1 New York Times Bestseller Lisa Jackson.  All four romances are set in beach towns and perfect for a little summer beach reading.  (Or perhaps summer-wishing-you-were-at-the-beach-reading.)

June's Lace by Cathy Lamb

The anthology opens with my favorite of the four novellas - "June's Lace" by Cathy Lamb.  June MacKenzie is almost at the end of a long, contentious divorce.  It's been two years of fighting with her ex and the last thing on her mind is romance.  But then she's rescued from a sneaker wave by Reece, a hunky songwriter.  Now she's tempted to trust and fall in love again; however, her ex is trying to claim half of her successful wedding dress business.

What I loved most about "June's Lace" was the focus on June's business, friends, and family.  I just believe in a romance more when the leads have a life outside of their relationship.  And June definitely has a fulfilling life with our without Reece.  But he fits with her and I believed in their happy ending.

Second Chance Sweethearts by Holly Chamberlin

Holly Chamberlin's contribution is also about a woman escaping from a bad marriage - in this case, a physically abusive one from a man who turned out to be a thief and a con.  Thea Foss escapes to the seaside town of Ogunquit, Maine only to run into her first love, Hugh Landry.  The two separated, partly due to their parents, but now they're old enough to ignore their parents' class differences.

I thought "Second Chance Sweethearts" was a sweet story, although the confrontation between Thea and her ex was more cartoonish than cathartic.  It's your basic, simple romance, but there's nothing wrong with that.

Carolina Summer by Rosalind Noonan

"Carolina Summer" ups the suspense elements that were slighly on display in "Second Chance Sweethearts" (due to Thea's worry about her ex finding her).  Jane Doyle is on the run from someone who wants to kill her, but she gets waylaid halfway to her brother's house in Florida.  Luckily she gets stuck in a North Carolina town with a hunky sheriff, Cooper Locklear.

There was a bit too much going on in "Carolina Summer" for a novella.  It was an enjoyable read, but both the romance and the suspense were thinly developed.  Not to mention Jane did one incredibly stupid thing that really annoyed me.  I might've forgotten about it except for the fact that she does this boneheaded thing towards the end of the story.

The Brass Ring by Lisa Jackson

Although it is not mentioned on the front or backcover, Lisa Jackson's story is a reprint.  However, I doubt any but her diehard fans already own a copy.  Bantam Loveswept published "The Brass Ring" in 1988 with Jackson writing under the name Susan Crose - not something a casual fan would come across.

Fans of Nicholas Sparks' THE VOW will probably enjoy this one.  I found it overly dramatic.  Maybe it was just the eighties, but I rolled my eyes a few times.  Shawna's fiancé Parker is in a car accident the night before their wedding.  When he wakes up, he can't remember the past several years of his life.  Even worse, an eighteen-year-old girl has shown up claiming he's the father of her baby and he needs to take responsibility no matter what the situation.

There's nothing really wrong with "The Brass Ring," but the plot felt over-the-top to me.  Amnesia and a baby daddy scandal?  It's hard to cover one of those topics in a novel without drifting into cliché, much less a novella.

BEACH SEASON is exactly what you'd expect based on the title and cover.  All four authors do address some serious topics, but none of the darker aspects are explored in depth.  I'm not sure they should be, as it would spoil BEACH SEASON's tone.  The four novellas contained within are all a touch underdeveloped, but it's forgivable when they're all meant to be quick, fun reads.

Review: These Girls

By Sarah Pekkannen
Available now from Washington Square Press (Simon & Schuster)
Review copy

THESE GIRLS follows three women as they try to balance their careers and personal lives. Refreshingly, that doesn't involve sacrificing ambition for romance. All three women have romantic relationships, but the book does not end with them being fulfilled by getting a man. The ideal balance for each woman is different, but it truly is a balance--not giving up one thing for another.

Cate has just been promoted to features editor at Gloss magazine and her roommate Renee is competing with two coworkers for the position of beauty editor. Meanwhile, Abby ran from her job as a live-in nanny to her brother's home in New York. That brother happens to be a reporter currently working for Cate and formerly dating Renee. Thus, Abby becomes their third roommate when he leaves the country for an assignment.

Cate doubts she can handle her new job due to a secret in her past. Most everyone in the novel considers Renee beautiful, but Renee struggles with being a curvy girl in a rail-thin magazine world. Things go off the rails when she finds her old roommate Naomi's diet pills. (Through in a bit of cyberbullying to make Renee's storyline an issues twofer.) Abby admits to having an affair with the father at her job, but keeps secret the truth which made her run from a little girl she loved.

Abby's storyline wasn't the weakest, but it fit awkwardly into THESE GIRLS structure. It was the only story told mostly through flashback, and Abby just didn't spend as much time with the other girls. I thought Sarah Pekkanen pulled off a brilliant conclusion that tied the themes of Abby's stories into the novel as a whole, but until that late-coming a-ha moment it just didn't quite work for me.

Pekkanen's verse is imminently readable. I thought THESE GIRLS might be too heavy to read on the drive to North Dakota, but I finished it far sooner than expected. There might not be explosions or car chases, but I found THESE GIRLS almost impossible to put down. (Hey, I had to eat lunch. There aren't that many places selling hot food in rural South Dakota.)

If you read chick lit, then I advise you to pick up all three of Pekkanen's novels. If you don't, then she's a great author to give a chance. She writes compelling stories about relatable, modern women.

Review: Last Night at Chateau Marmont

By Lauren Weisberger
Available now from Atria
Review copy



If you've read a book by Lauren Weisberger before, you know the basics of the experience. It will be set in New York; it will deal with the difficulty of balancing careers and personal lives. Her books also have a nice authoritative tone - you feel like you're getting real dish.

Right now HBO is developing a miniseries about the history of Chateau Marmont. For those who haven't heard of it - I hadn't before Weisberger's LAST NIGHT AT CHATEAU MARMONT - it is a hotel that has been hosting celebrities since the 60's. In the case of the novel, the celebrity is Julian Alter.

Brooke Alter is a nutritionist who has been supporting her husband's musical career. They can only afford a small apartment, where they live with their adorably named dog Walter Alter.  And it pays off when Julian gets a deal with Sony. Soon he's appearing on Leno . . . and both of them are appearing in the tabloids. As her husband leaves home more and more often to make appearances, Brooke feels increasingly stressed and isolated.

Weisberger sets up LAST NIGHT AT CHATEAU MARMONT well. The book takes awhile to reach the promised stay at the Chateau, but that gives the reader time to see Brooke and Julian's relationship before it is strained. When Julian is at his worst, Brooke's continuing hope for their relationship is understandable.

The insider tone was briefly ruined for me. The characters go to the Hula Hut in Austin . . . which is neither a dive restaurant nor famous for its queso. It's a mid-priced Tex-Mex/Polynesian fusion restaurant on Lake Austin. It makes me question how well other locales are described.

But it didn't bother me too long. LAST NIGHT AT CHATEAU MARMONT is funny and quick. Things do reach a low point, but I would not say it gets as depressing as some chick lit.  Ultimately, the book is about Brooke and Julian's marriage and whether it can survive unwanted celebrity and the rock-and-roll lifestyle.

(And can I add that it was super cool to be in New York when the state legalized gay marriage?)

Review: Why I Love Singlehood

By Elisa Lorello and Sarah Girrell
Available May 31 from AmazonEncore (Kindle edition available now)
Review copy



I loved the first AmazonEncore novel I read. I'll admit to being nervous when I started Andrew Xia Fukuda's CROSSING. I've wanted to rewrite the review of CROSSING, as I don't think I captured the novel well. I felt it exemplified the AmazonEncore statement of "exceptional yet overlooked books." I could see why it would be overlooked - the protagonist is often unlikeable and there is no happy ending. WHY I LOVE SINGLEHOOD had a lot to live up to. Unfortunately, I felt like the novel fit "overlooked" more than "exceptional," because WHY I LOVE SINGLEHOOD would be overlooked due to being average.

WHY I LOVE SINGLEHOOD is Eva Perino's journey from lying to herself and playing it safe to doing the things that fulfill her. That doesn't mean her life at the start of the novel is terrible. She has a thriving business – a coffee shop named The Grounds – and a group of fabulous friends. When her ex-who-she-remained-friends-with Shaun tells her he's engaged, Eva is hurt and realizes remaining close to the guy she used to love might not have been the best idea. Unfortunately, she just started the eponymous blog. Thus, she begins to turn it into a chronicle of her forays into dating again.

I liked that it wasn't immediately apparent which guy in Eva's life would be the one she ended up with. She has several good choices, including The Grounds' manager Norman and regular customer Car Talk Kenny. While WHY I LOVE SINGLEHOOD is chick lit rather than romance, the romantic storyline is the strongest. Other aspects of Eva's life are interesting, but the book meanders. There isn't a strong sense of structure.

In some ways, that's good. The way things unfold in the story feel organic. At the same time, it's sometimes confusing. The Grounds contains the Originals and the Regulars, a reoccurring cast of customers. Members of this supporting cast disappear and reappear. There's quite a few and most are minor, so I kept losing track of who some of them were and what they'd previously done in the story. (I forgot Jan and Dean were dating until it became important, long after it was first mentioned.) It felt like some of them could have been cut.

I also feel like the setting is slightly misued. Elisa Lorello and Sarah Girrell focus on the people that inhabit the coffee shop. The coffee itself is rarely mentioned. (Eva dislikes coffee.) As for the baked goods, two are mentioned in detail - a lemon tart and a halfmoon cookie. Both are excellent, evocative scenes. How is it through the rest of the novel that the sensual power of food is ignored? WHY I LOVE SINGLEHOOD lacks a sense of taste and smell that's right there. Instead it is content to remain floating on the surface of the coffee shop.

WHY I LOVE SINGLEHOOD is definitely the kind of chick lit I prefer. It tends to be humorous and light rather than dramatic and angsty. There are moments of drama. Terrible things happen to some of the characters. But even when a character lands in the hospital, things quickly return to normal.

WHY I LOVE SINGLEHOOD will appeal to those who enjoy stories about women reevaluating their life choices, told in a way that isn't overly serious. Eva is a decent heroine – she's hard-working and a bit controlling, but she's willing to own up to her own mistakes. At the same time, I didn't feel a spark. I found the novel fun, but I'm already forgetting the details and I just finished.

Review: Fly Away Home

By Jennifer Weiner
Available July 13 from Atria (Simon & Schuster)
Review copy



In my mind, there are two major categories of chick lit. There are the light, frothy, and humorous ones, written by authors like Hester Browne and Wendy Wax. Then there are the more dramatic ones, written by authors like Karen Hawkins. From what I've heard of Jennifer Weiner's books like GOOD IN BED, I assumed her novels belonged in the former category. But FLY AWAY HOME is firmly in the latter, which I don't prefer. Therefore, it started slow but picked up speed. It does climax with a disatrous family dinner, and I can't resist the disatrous family dinner setpiece.

FLY AWAY HOME rotates between three points of view. The first is Sylvie Serfer Woodruff, the mother. She gave up her career to support her politician husband, but his affair with an intern has just become national news. With all the politician affair scandals, it's a plotline that's both timely and timeless. Weiner explores the question know one can resist, "Why would a woman stand by her husband while he announces he had an affair?" Sylvie's plotline meanders the most and is the least satisfying to me. She's has the most interesting set-up, but even at the end I'm not sure I feel like she's going any where. She loses her rudder in the beginning and I'm not sure I believe that she gets it back.

Then comes Diana, her oldest daughter and the character I liked most. Diana's the sort of person who can clearly see what people expect of her and lives up to those expectations. Thus, she finds herself in a loveless marriage, obsessed with running, and trying to be a good mother to her son. But no one can be perfect forever, and she gets involved in a passionate affair with a med student who doesn't know she has a son. At first her narration is hard to take because she's so obsessed with Dave, her illicit boyfriend. It's difficult to believe she kept the affair secret when every other word in her thoughts is "Dave." I like her much better in the second half of the novel, when she begins focusing on herself and her son. Diana has the most dramatic storyline, but even with her planned life falling apart she's too controlled to really let loose.

Finally, there's Lizzie, the youngest daughter and a recovering drug addict. She's now working as a photographer and baby-sitting her nephew Milo. She meets Jeff when he helps her with some teenagers who were harassing her in a cafe. It's nice to see her self-confidence grow as she turns her life around, for good reason. I liked Lizzie's voice the most - she has an understated sense of humor - but felt like her storyline needed a little more drama in order to compete.

I'll try another Jennifer Weiner book in the future. I greatly enjoyed the high points of FLY AWAY HOME. But the slow beginning and other flaws kept me from falling in love with FLY AWAY HOME. FLY AWAY HOME is a quiet drama, and when I'm reading drama I'm drawn to something more juicy and over-the-top. But I have to give it props for the ending, which I devoured quickly.

Review: The Summer We Read Gatsby

By Danielle Ganek
Available now from Viking (Penguin)
Review copy



I'll be honest: I didn't like F. Scott Fitzgerald's THE GREAT GATSBY. I thought his writing was overly self-conscious and it took me out of the story. Many of my classmates and the teacher, however, found it to be truly romantic.

That would be Peck, the older half-sister who just inherited their Aunt Lydia's ramshackle Fool's House. Her boyfriend Miles gave it to her and she read it over and over during their relationship, holding late night conversations about the book with him. It would also be Cassie (Stella, as Peck calls her), who read it to the point of memorization. Each summer she read a different book at Aunt Lydia's house.

THE SUMMER WE READ GATSBY does interesting things with memory, as both Stella and Peck encounter men they first met that summer. Miles claims to have never read Gatsby. While I don't want to spoil anything, Cassie doesn't even recognize the man she reencounters because her memories were so distorted! Of course, there's also the memory of Aunt Lydia. Now living in her house, the girls realize how little they knew about her past. What is the great treasure she mentioned in her will?

Some things, like the beautiful and quirky Fool-in-Residence seem like something that would only occur in a book. (The author seems caught between supporting the arts and laughing at contemporary art.) Others, like Cassie and Peck's steadily improving relationship seem real and emotionally effective. I thought Danielle Ganek created a nice balance between the two.

THE SUMMER WE READ GATSBY is the kind of summer book I like. It's fully of silly ostentatiousness, although Cassie and Peck are both strapped for cash, sudden romance, and an absorbing setting. Fool's House sounds like a fun place to live even if Southhampton sounds a little crazy. And I do like characters who love classic literature - even if it isn't the same classic lit I love.

Review: Hollywood is Like High School With Money

This is apparently my 300th post. Pretty exciting, no?

By the way, I finally added an end date to the SIMPLY IRRESISTIBLE contest. August 17th, my sister's birthday.

By Zoey Dean



My confession: I've read the A-list series. It was summer, the local library didn't have much in stock, I was bored. What I got was pretty much what I expected - fun enough to read but not really memorable or well-written. (Except for the book where the main character and the girl who once had a lesbian crush on her get high on mescaline and wander around Mexico. It was so weird.) Unlike that series, HOLLYWOOD IS LIKE HIGH SCHOOL WITH MONEY is for adults. Like it, I knew the trajectory of the story when I started.

Zoey Dean does a good job with the classic nice girl must become like mean girls to survive, becomes too mean, gets slapped down, becomes nice again and her life falls into place. (Reading the novel, I started thinking while Taylor made a terrible decision, "I want someone to write this story where the protagonist remains true to his or her ideals. It will push the moral conflict, but the protagonist never crosses the line." If anyone has read this book, please tell me. If anyone is trying to get it published now, you know who to put on the ARC list.)

I was worried that the book was going to be awful after I finished the chapter, due to a simile on page 10:

She reminded me of Sienna Miller in the film Factory Girl, playing Edie Sedgwick, except that her hair was long and wavy and dark gold, with butter-colored highlights that framed her face.

Why not just compare her to Edie Sedgwick? I felt like the simile was trying to be hip, but then why reference a several years old movie that was never popular?

But things quickly improved. Taylor Hennings is quite charming, with her weekly notes to the director who inspired her to work in the movie industry and begging a teenager to teach her how to act cool. I really fell in love with the way she dropped clothing brands after teen queen Quinn gave her a wardrobe of last year's clothing. She describes the events of a night out and then gives a little squeal at the end of the chapter, "And did I mention I was wearing Zac Posen?" She's cleary overwhelmed but reveling in the pricey clothing, and what normal girl wouldn't?

When she does step over the moral line, it feels fake. She knows it's wrong and says it, before being instantly convinced to do it. Like her roommate says, she's like a cute little dog. Her mean girl persona never feels as real as the awkward, friendly Taylor. It really is relieving to see the real deal return at the end.

HOLLYWOOD IS LIKE HIGH SCHOOL WITH MONEY isn't groundbreaking, but I didn't expect it to be. It's a fun summer read, with a far more likeable protagonist than the A-list series. Zoey Dean is also the author of TALENT and PRIVILEGED, now a show on the CW.

Review: Ms. Taken Identity

By Dan Begley

I sometimes feel embarrassed when I go to write a review and the first thing in my mind is, "Don't forget to mention that odd quibble you had with fact X!" I sometimes have a compulsive need to correct people, which my friends fortunately find adorable. (There have been people who have had problems with it. I try to keep it in, honest.) But I'm going to call Dan Begley on this since he is part of the Department of English at the University of Missouri. Protagonist Mitch is a Phd candidate in medieval literature. Throughout the book he mostly makes allusions to more familiar eighteenth, nineteenth century works. Then someone asks him why Scheherazade was telling those stories in the Arabian Nights - and he doesn't know. That's a basic fact about one of the most popular pieces of medieval literature. I found it hard to suspend disbelief that Mitch wouldn't know the answer.

Okay, odd quibble over. MS. TAKEN IDENTITY is a very funny and very cute story with an often frustrating narrator. It begins with Mitch frustrated from a series of setbacks, especially the rejection of his novel HENLEY FARM by a former student who works at a small press, who had been his last resort. I do love the way Begley describes it, so that you know it's terrible and pretentious even if the narrator doesn't:

It's a sweeping saga about America that spans several generations of the Henley family and their relationship to the land: think The Grapes of Wrath meets The Good Earth, with bits of King Lear and A Thousand Acres sprinkled in. Seven years and seven hundred pages to get it just the way I want it, and I won't lie to you: it hasn't been an easy ride.

Then he's really tipped over the edge when he sees Katharine Longwell on tour for her newest novel, which he reads and finds facile. Then he meets her in a coffee shop and pretends to have a cousin writing a romance novel. The fact that he thinks he's pulling a really funny fast one past her baffles me, but it does get the plot moving.

Soon enough, Mitch is writing an actual chick lit novel. He's being a real prat about it to, planning to use it to showcase his contempt for the genre since the readers are too dumb to get it. (My prediction? The reviewers would crucify him.) Luckily, the women he meets in the ballroom class he takes for research help him realize there's a lot more to the fairer sex.

And he just keeps lying. Yeah, you can back yourself into a hole with lies. But at the point you're ready to propose to someone, you need to reveal the truth because at some point you're going to need to procure a marriage license. I sympathize with Marie's actions, since the extent of Mitch's lying does not deserve instant forgiveness.

I really enjoyed the novel and watching Mitch mature. I felt a subplot with one of his students didn't really go anywhere, but at the same time I kind of wanted to see more of his class. They seemed pretty sharp. But at points I wanted to crawl into the book and slap him, especially at the beginning. Begley was in control, since that's the reaction he was trying to illicit, but I don't want my pleasure reading to raise my blood pressure. Also, I wished I could read Mitch's novel CATWALK MAMA. It sounds sassy.

Review: Mating Rituals of the North American WASP

By Laura Lipton
You can also visit her blog.



I must admit, I partially wanted to read this one because the main characters got married in Vegas. No, really. I think I have a Vegas obsession. Luckily, I've never woken up there (fully clothed), next to a man, while I needed to catch my flight, like Peggy Adams.

Peggy runs a bath accessories business with her best friend, but it's no longer posting profits and a bigger store is moving in just across the street. Luke Sedgwick, her new husband, doesn't have much of a head for business and his family's finances were already in disrepair. Almost all the family has left is the Sedgwick house, in equal disrepair. But his Aunt Abigail refuses to sell. That is, until she realizes Luke intends to divorce.

She makes a deal: if they stay married for a year, she'll give Luke the house with no stipulations. The money from the sale could save Peggy's business and give Luke enough money to get on his feet. So, the two agree to pretend to be a happily married couple for the year. But as New Ninevah and Luke grow on Peggy, she begins to realize her fiance Brock's shortcomings. Luke begins to draw away from his on-again off-again girlfriend as he becomes closer to Peggy.

And this is when I knew Laura Lipton had sucked me in, as she kept me reading despite a plot that relies on Big Misunderstandings. I hate when the character's problems could be cleared up if they bothered to talk to each other for a minute or two. How hard is it to say, "I'm no longer engaged." The two act more like high schoolers with a crush than adults. But I still enjoyed the story.

Peggy's a little neurotic, but she clearly cares for her friends and business. She bonds and sticks with Tiffany, a fellow WASP-wife who isn't a WASP, though it could blow her cover. She quickly becomes passionate about New Ninevah. It's easy to like her, since she has a good heart, even if she does need more of a romantic spine. Everyone has flaws.

Luke wants to be a poet, but knows there's not enough money to support that inclination, so he tries to be an investor. He dislikes his WASP heritage, but he isn't giving up the trappings lightly as people suspect. And he's not just doing it so he can live comfortably - he wants to be able to afford a home for Abigail, where she can get the care she needs instead of the little he can offer. He's a little cold and childish, but I liked him.

Yes, I did want the characters to talk to each other more, but I enjoyed the novel. At least Peggy and Luke talked to the supporting characters, who were smart enough to take matters into their own hands when it was needed. Lipton's conceit was fun and she managed to present convincing reasons of why Peggy and Luke would put themselves through the trouble. Not the best read, but a good choice if you like your romance with a literary style.

Lipton is also the author of IT'S ABOUT YOUR HUSBAND, which was recently featured on Alexa Young's Worst Review Ever.

This was part of an Early Birds Blog Tour. You can read the other posts at the following sites:
http://thereviewfromhere.wordpress.com/
http://librarygirlreads.blogspot.com/
http://hiddenplace.wordpress.com/
http://kylees2009.blogspot.com/
http://www.devourerofbooks.com/
http://burtonreview.blogspot.com/
http://bookopolis.blogspot.com/
http://carolsnotebook.wordpress.com/
http://www.foreigncircuslibrary.blogspot.com/
http://www.xanga.com/bravehsgirl
http://books-movies-chinesefood.blogspot.com/
http://www.bookconfessions.com/
http://peekingbetweenthepages.blogspot.com/
http://www.readingwithmonie.com/
http://www.sheistoofondofbooks.com/
http://2kidsandtiredbooks.blogspot.com/
http://www.squidoo.com/bookbin
http://www.acircleofbooks.com/
http://www.myspace.com/darbyscloset
http://www.thisbookforfree.com/
http://dreyslibrary.blogspot.com/
http://cindysloveofbooks.blogspot.com/
http://lastexilewords.blogspot.com/
http://unmainstreammomreads.blogspot.com/
http://martasmeanderings.blogspot.com/
http://www.bermudaonion.wordpress.com/
http://bookinwithbingo.blogspot.com/
http://abookbloggersdiary.blogspot.com/
http://bookingmama.blogspot.com/
http://bookslovejessicmarie.blogspot.com/
http://www.thenovelbookworm.com/
http://proudbookworm.blogspot.com/
http://kayespenguinposts.blogspot.com/
http://booksiesblog.blogspot.com/
http://epicrat.blogspot.com/
http://cafeofdreams.blogspot.com/
http://purplg8r-somanybooks.blogspot.com/
http://luanne-abookwormsworld.blogspot.com/
http://www.thebookzombie.com/
http://thetometraveller.blogspot.com/
http://www.myfriendamysblog.com/
http://www.linussblanket.com/
http://donnasbookreviews.blogspot.com/
http://www.skrishnasbooks.com/
http://www.morbid-romantic.net/
http://www.writeforareader.blogspot.com/
http://www.brimfulcuriosities.com/
http://mindingspot.blogspot.com/
http://diaryofaneccentric.blogspot.com/
http://savvyverseandwit.blogspot.com/
http://danys-san.blogspot.com/
http://www.iheartmonster.com/
http://debbiesworld.wordpress.com/
http://www.bookwormygirl.blogspot.com/
http://ebogie.blogspot.com/