Archive for May, 2009

Sam and Laura Diamond are struggling to make ends meet. She’s a doctor working all hours and he’s a script-writer, although he’s hiding something about his employment status from his wife.

Their friends are struggling too. Corporate laywer Janey is expecting her first child with hedge fund manager Steve, and he knows his job isn’t safe. Jonathan and Hannah also have their own problems despite owning a chain of successful restaurants and moving to the country.

Jonathan decides to treat them all to a holiday to celebrate his birthday but secrets are revealed, shocking everyone and changing friendships forever.

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Holly Macintosh is sitting round her kitchen table with her oldest friends, friends she hasn’t seen since school - now reunited by an unexpected tragedy and catching up on the past 20 years. On the surface, they are all successful and happy.

But scratch a little deeper after that extra glass of wine and it’s not quite so straightforward: Paul and Anna are struggling to have a baby, Saffron the actress is still waiting for that really big break that, at 39, is looking less and less likely, and Olivia, always the wallflower of the group, is newly single and mourning her lost love.

And what about Holly Mac? Can she and her husband Marcus get their marriage back on track for the sake of the children? Or has someone just come back into her life who will change everything forever?

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Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus’s next adult novel will be a sequel to The Nanny Diaries titled Nanny Returns. It’s due for release in December. It will apparently pick up a decade later when Nanny returns to NYC.

Their newest novel is called The Real Real and is a teen novel. It’s out in June. The synopsis reads:

Jesse O’Rourke, coffee barista, high school senior, and unwitting reality TV star. Imagine there was never a Laguna Beach, a Newport Harbor, the shimmering Hills. Imagine that your hometown-your school-is the first place XTV descends to set up cameras. Now imagine they’ve trained them on you. When Jesse O’Rourke gets picked for a “documentary” being filmed at her school in the Hamptons she’s tempted to turn down the offer.

But there’s a tuition check attached to being on the show, and Jesse needs the cash so she can be the first in her family to attend college. All she has to do is trade her best friend for the glam clique she’s studiously avoided, her privacy for a 24/7 mike, and her sense of right and wrong for “what sells on camera.” . . . At least there’s one bright spot in the train wreck that is her suddenly public senior year: Jesse’s crush has also made the cast.

As the producers manipulate the lives of their “characters” to heighten the drama, and Us Weekly covers become a regular occurrence for Jesse, she must struggle to remember one thing: the difference between real and the real real.

Deborah Wright returns with her sixth novel after a three-year break with her new novel The Celebrity Mother. It is released on July 23rd and is published by Headline. The synopsis reads:

Ex-girl-band-member-turned-PR-disaster Karina West didn’t see it coming. Her career’s history, her reputation’s in the gutter, and she’s completely on her own.

She needs to get back in the gossip pages, and fast. How better to achieve it than by adopting a child, the sweet, ten-year-old Devika, from a far-off place?

Karina and Devika are soon front-page news, but neither of them realise they are starting a journey that will change their lives – for ever.

It sounds a great read and it’s good to see Deborah back with a new novel.

According to her blog - http://yorkshirepuddingclub.blogspot.com/ - Milly Johnson has finished her as-yet untitled fourth novel. Here’s a snippet taken from her blog:

“Well this big news this week is that I’ve finally finished the big edit on Book 4 and it’s in with my agent being read and decided upon, which leaves you feeling very vulnerable and in ‘what if they all think it’s crap and I’ll have to start again’ land. Yes, it is that worrying and yes that could be a possibility. It’s very brave this book – my darkest yet. I shall be starting book 5 after half-term and that’s a much lighter and frothier affair for a nice change. That isn’t to say there won’t be any high emotion in it – because I want my stories always to reflect real life and all its ups and downs.

…It’s my longest book too – and written about fledgling friendships rather than old established ones. Which is quite difficult.”

Milly’s other 3 books have been hits with us here at the Chick lit blog, and Milly was our Author of the Week just a few weeks ago. Milly also granted us a fab author interview which you can read here. More info about Milly’s fourth book will be blogged as and when we have any news!

Click here for review of Milly Johnson’s Yorkshire Pudding Club, her debut novel.

Amanda Brunker is back this summer with the follow-up to her debut novel Champagne Kisses. Champagne Babes is set for release through Transworld Ireland on 3rd July and brings back the brilliant Eva Valentine from the first book. Here’s the synopsis:

“Eva Valentine is back! Following on from “Champagne Kisses”, the spoilt diva finds that Trouble is still her middle name. After a near-death experience which left her in a deep coma, Eva survives against all odds and quickly marries the man who nursed her back to health. Boozing her way through her wedding and three-week honeymoon in Mauritius, Eva is shocked to learn that she is already three months pregnant. She doesn’t want a baby yet - and neither does her husband, Michael. And when Daisy is born, life is far from perfect. Weight issues and guilt about her daughter ensue as she struggles to keep alive a marriage to a man she hardly knows. Thankfully, her hilarious best friends regularly drag her away for naughty weekends of fun and lust, which see a return of the old Eva the Diva. With all the forbidden sex on offer, she no longer feels like a desperate housewife, but it’s anyone’s guess whose bed she’ll end up in.”

The book sounds like a great read and is definitely one for the beach if you’re heading somewhere hot this summer! Look out for in the shops from 3rd July 2009.

Sarah and David Lewis have been married for years but things are getting stale between the pair.

They have twins, Claire and Tom, who are about to start University, and Sarah is dreading being left at home alone without the children. Sarah decides she needs to get away for a while, almost like a gap year, without David, and she quickly flees to France and her friend Nathalie’s home.

But Sarah’s family life is disintegrating, her daughter is getting out of control, and things aren’t going to plan for Sarah either…

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Gigi Levangie Grazer’s 4th novel, Queen Takes King, is released on June 19th and sounds a very good read:

Jackson Power. A name like the man himself: aggressive, ambitious, bullish. The prodigal son, heir to millions, built his own Manhattan real estate empire and revels in seeing his moniker — Power! — on glittering skyscrapers around the city that never sleeps. Beneath his desk in the towering Power headquarters, Jacks has a stack of newspapers and photographs of himself, shaking hands with the most famous men and women of his generation. Here’s a man who’s always loved to see his name in ink. Until now.

Whether they’re changing the locks on each other in their Park Avenue triplex or sabotaging each other’s dinner parties, it’s The People’s Billionaire vs. The Ballerina, in a split-up that will trump the most scandalous divorces known to polite New York society. Cynthia’s got their twenty-five-year-old artist daughter, Vivienne, in her camp; Jacks has the young bartending playwright Adrian, whom he intends to pay to seduce Cynthia into an easy split. But Cynthia might have a few tricks up her well-tailored Chanel sleeve, and she — like Jacks — is prepared to use every weapon in her divorce arsenal to win the game. It’s a battle of wits, of charm, of two of the biggest egos — and personalities and bank accounts — in Manhattan, and neither side will go down without a fight.