Archive for April, 2009

This weeks author of the week is Cecelia Ahern. She is the author of 6 novels: PS, I Love You, Where Rainbows End, If You Could See Me Now, A Place Called Here, Thanks For The Memories and The Gift. Her seventh novel, The Girl of Tomorrow is out in October. Here’s a short biography from Amazon.co.uk

Before embarking on her writing career, Cecelia Ahern completed a degree in journalism and media studies. Her first novel, PS, I Love You was one of the biggest-selling debut novels of 2004 and a number one bestseller. Her successive bestselling novels are Where Rainbows End, If You Could See Me Now and A Place Called Here. PS, I Love You, starring Hilary Swank, was made into a major motion picture. Cecelia has also co-created the hit American television comedy series Samantha Who? which stars Christina Applegate. Cecelia lives in County Dublin.

I really enjoy Cecelia’s novels because of their magical element. I enjoyed her first 4 novels particularly PS, I Love You and Where Rainbows End but also enjoyed A Place Called Here and If You Could See Me Now. I have Thanks for the Memories to read, too. I also loved PS, I Love You the film featuring Hilary Swank (who I love) and Gerard Butler. The end of the film made me cry, too. I know a lot of people said the film wasn’t as good as the book but I disagreed - I loved the book and the film.

Amazon have updated the book cover for Sophie Kinsella’s next novel Twenties Girl. (The one on the left). The one on the right is the one I posted a week or so ago which I thought was an American version of the cover. The Amazon cover (left) looks more like Sophie’s other book covers and I actually prefer it to the one on the right. Twenties Girl is due out in July with Amazon saying it is the 16th July. The synopsis reads:

Lara has always had an over - active imagination. Now she wonders if she is losing her mind. Normal twenty-something girls just don’t get visited by ghosts! But inexplicably, the spirit of Lara’s great aunt Sadie - in the form of a bold, demanding Charleston-dancing girl - has appeared to make one last request: Lara must track down a missing necklace Sadie simply can’t rest without. Lara’s got enough problems of her own. Her startup company is floundering, her best friend and business partner has run off to Goa, and she’s just been dumped by the love of her life. But as Lara spends time with Sadie , life becomes more glamorous, she dresses in beautiful vintage frocks and their treasure hunt turns into something intriguing and romantic. Could Sadie’s ghost be the answer to Lara’s problems and can two girls from different times end up learning something special from each other?

It’s never easy putting down new roots!

After the sudden death of her mother, Anna Temple realises she needs to live for the moment and pursue her dream of becoming a garden designer. Swapping hedge funds for herbaceous borders, and shares for scented stocks, she says goodbye to City life for a fresh start in the country.

But on the eve of her sparkling new future she meets the gorgeous Xan and their chance encounter changes her world in more ways than she could ever imagined — enter baby Milly.

Juggling her new business with the joys and fears of motherhood is a struggle, especially alone and when Anna unearths a long-buried family secret, skeletons tumble from the closet. Suddenly nothing is as it seems, past or present! Read my review below
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Ellie Campbell, author of How to Survive Your Sisters has a new novel out on 30th July called When Good Friends Go Bad. The synopsis reads:

All through school tomboy Jen, snobby Georgina, hippy Meg and gentle Rowan were inseparable. But when a childish prank turned bad their friendship was torn apart.

Twelve years later Rowan organized a reunion dinner and all did not go well. Rowan never appeared; Georgina’s shocking secret was revealed; Meg behaved outrageously; and Jen finally decided it was time to move on. And that’s just what she did for the following ten years…

Until now, when in the midst of her divorce Jen receives a desperate call from Meg. On a personal mission to track down Rowan, Meg manages to convince Georgina and Jen to put aside their differences and help her. But none of them even begin to imagine the extent to which their loyalties will be tested as their past finally catches up with them.

I haven’t read Ellie Campbell’s first novel but both sound very readable and interesting.

These are the two covers under which Sinead Moriarty’s new novel is called. Both are beautiful covers but don’t be fooled that they are two separate books. They are one and the same. Keeping it in the Family and Whose Life is it Anyway was released on 16th April and the synopsis reads:

It’s tricky for Niamh O’Flaherty, growing up in a North London home that’s a shrine to all things Irish. But it’s even trickier being an adult and realizing that her family expects her to settle down with a nice Irish lad, especially now that she’s living in Dublin. When Niamh finally meets the love of her life he is the last person she would expect to fall for her. Pierre is older and an intellectual, but she loves his ability to laugh at himself, his calmness and strength of character, and, of course, his stunning looks. There’s just one problem: if Pierre’s parents — Jean and Fleur — are sniffy about their pride and joy hooking up with a girl who writes a fluffy newspaper column, her parents, Mick and Annie, are going to go ballistic when they hear that their daughter intends to marry someone who couldn’t be less Irish if he tried . . .

It sounds interesting and I really want to read it. Which cover/title do you prefer? I really can’t pick I love the writing and colour of the one of the right but also love the graphics of the one on the left.

Hester Browne, author of the Little Lady Agency trilogy has a new stand-alone novel out in June called The Finishing Touches. The synopsis reads:

In New York Times bestselling author Hester Browne’s delightful new novel, a fading English finishing school is about to get a twenty-first-century makeover. Out with white gloves and flower arranging, in with managing mortgagesand do-it-yourself manicures! Behind this remarkable transformation is business-savvy Betsy Phillimore, with her own unique connection to London’s esteemed Phillimore Academy for Young Ladies….

Twenty-seven years ago, an infant turned up on the Academy’s doorstep, with a note tacked to her blanket by an elegant golden brooch — Please take care of my baby. I want her to grow up to be a proper lady. Loved by Lady Frances Phillimore and her kindhearted staff, Betsy grew up aspiring to be an Academy girl. But when Franny and her husband, Lord Phillimore, advise Betsy to instead hone her considerable math skills at college, she brokenheartedly leaves behind the only family she’s known.

Now, on the sad occasion of Lady Frances’s memorial service, Betsy comes back to find the school in disrepair, the enrollment down, and Lord P. desperate to save his legacy. Enter Betsy, the numbers genius, and her business plan — to replace dusty protocol with the essentials girls need today: cell phone etiquette, eating sushi properly, handling credit cards, choosing the perfect little black dress, negotiating a pre-nup, and other lessons in independent living.

But Betsy may have bitten off more than she can chew. Can she win over the school’s snobby headmistress and its handsome but risk-averse treasurer? Returning to London also means facing her own unfinished business, as she crosses paths with her sexy girlhood crush…and blowing the dust off clues to a lifelong mystery: who were her parents, and why did they abandon her? If knowledge is power, Betsy is on the brink of truly becoming her own woman, and embracing the one thing she’s wanted all along: a place to call home.

Holly Colshannon is a young journalist who thinks her career is about to take a terminal nosedive when she is moved from covering ‘pet deaths’ for her local Bristol paper and made Crime Correspondent - a poisoned chalice if ever there was one.

However, a brilliant idea from the new police PR officer sees Holly shadowing a detective and writing a diary column about his working life. Detective James Sabine is bit of a sour puss - although he does have very nice green eyes - and he’s furious that he has been landed with magnificently accident-prone Holly especially since her arrival comes six weeks before his wedding to faultless Fleur.

Holly, however, has a career to think about and this infuriating man is not going to stand in her way. Meanwhile, her bosses at the newspaper realise that the column is proving extremely popular with the readers who are waiting for something romantic to happen between the handsome detective and the nice young reporter. With only days to go to the wedding Holly realises she’s been waiting for the same thing… Read my review underneath

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OK so Imogen Edwards-Jones’ Babylon novels aren’t chick-lit as they’re set in ficticious places but are essentially non-fiction. However they’re enjoyable and the tales are quite funny. I’ve read Hotel Babylon and have the others (Fashion, Beach, Pop and Air Babylon) ready to read. This time Imogen and Anonymous are telling us what really goes on behind the scenes of a wedding with Wedding Babylon. The synopsis:

It is a truth universally acknowledged that everyone loves a good wedding. Except, possibly, the bride and groom, who spend the day in such an overexcited frenzy that they can’t remember it. And the bridesmaids, who are forced to wear ill-fitting peach taffeta so as not to outshine the bride. And the best man, who has to make a terrifying speech in front of a room of drunken people he’s never met before, then fight off the attentions of the chief bridesmaid. Oh, and the father of the bride, who has to pay through the nose for the whole thing…Now, in the bestselling Babylon tradition, Imogen Edwards-Jones lifts the lid on the excesses of the wedding industry.This title presents the scams which inflate the prices of everything from flowers to cakes to marquee hire. And the wedding disaster stories of high jinks at the altar and disastrous low comedy in the speeches. The potential for things to go horribly, horribly wrong is never higher than at a wedding.

It should be an interesting read and since I loved Hotel Babylon I’m sure it will be. It is out May 21st.