Archive for March, 2010

Thank you to everyone who took part in our birthday week celebrations, we hoped you liked all of the giveaways and if you won that you’re going to love your books! Here is a list of all the winners of our birthday competitions, congratulations to them and sorry if you didn’t win this time around.

Monday: Simon and Schuster Bundle
Congratulations to Rachel, Sofie, Debbie, Jackie and Pâm!

Tuesday: Forbidden Pleasures by Jo Rees giveaway
Congratulations to Rhoda, Julie, Sarah, Ann, Danielle, Maggie, Sarah, Helena, Laura, Craig, M Butcher, Kim, Jane, Geri, Lynn, Kayley, Cheryl, Zoe, Ann, and Carolan!

Wednesday: Headline giveaway
Congratulations to Faye, Lisa, Sue, Rachel and Susan!

Thursday: Scandalous by Martel Maxwell
Congratulations to Kelly and Rachel!

Friday: Hodder giveaway
Congratulations to Amanda and Lesley!

Saturday: Heaven Can Wait by Cally Taylor
Congratulations to Julia!

Sunday: Little, Brown giveaway
Congratulations to Katie, Hazel and Lynn!

Fleur O’Farrell thinks that she has a pretty great life. She’s got a little boutique in the sleepy Irish town of Lissamore that does very well, a wealthy boyfriend Corban who seems to dote on here, and wonderful friends in the Kinsella sisters Rio and Dervla. Dervla’s just enjoying her new marriage when suddenly her mother-in-law who suffers with dementia has to move in with them, and Dervla finds herself having to be her carer. She’s horrified at the things she has to do for the elderly lady, but gets on with it to please husband Christian.

Around them, the town of Lissamore has been transformed with the arrival of a movie set called The O’Hara Affair. Fleur’s boyfriend Corban has ploughed a lot of money into the project, and she’s happy because a lot of her friends have got jobs through it. But as the film progresses, dark secrets are revealed, and a young member of the cast finds herself in a situation she doesn’t know how to get out of. With everyone being taken in by the glitz and glamour of the film, have they lost sight of their own problems?

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This is a cover I’ve been waiting for for a while now and I’m pleased to say that it’s definitely lived up to my expectation. I’m a huge fan of Paige Toon’s books and I can’t wait for Pictures of Lily to be released on 8th July 2010. Isn’t the cover fab?

‘Will you marry me?’ I think of you, then. I think of you every day. But usually in the quietest part of the morning, or the darkest part of the night. Not when my boyfriend of two years has just proposed. I look up at Richard with his hopeful eyes. ‘Lily?’ he prompts. It’s been ten years, but it feels like only yesterday that you left. How can I say yes to Richard with all my heart when most of it has always belonged to you? I take a deep breath and will myself to speak…Ten years ago when Lily was just sixteen, she fell in love with someone she really shouldn’t have fallen in love with. Now, living in Sydney and engaged to another man, she can’t forget the one that got away. Then her past comes back to haunt her, and she has to make a decision that will break her heart - and the heart of at least one of the men who love her.

I absolutely loved Gemma Burgess’s debut novel The Dating Detox so when she offered us the chance of an exclusive sneak-peek to post to our readers, I jumped at the chance. If you haven’t yet read Gemma Burgess’s debut novel, then I ask you - why not? It’s fab, it’s funny and you’ll love it. Here’s Gem to introduce you to her extract of book two!

My first book, The Dating Detox, came out in January 2010, and the second is due out in December 2010. Book Deux still hasn’t got a confirmed title (The Dating Virgin? The Late Starter? The Bastardette? The Single Life? Ah, a thousand titles, and everyone has a different favourite, making a decision impossible – the basic premise: girl learns how to be single, rocks out). So it hasn’t got a cover, either. Those things are coming soon, I promise; the talented people at Harper Collins are in the book kitchen, cooking up something tasty. But as I’m dying to tell you about it, I thought an extract might be fun.

Love and other indoor sports,

Gem x

SNEAK PEEK! EXTRACT FROM THE SECOND BOOK BY GEMMA BURGESS

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Chick Lit Classics is a new feature on Chick Lit Reviews where we highlight the books we feel are classics of the chick lit genre. Feel free to discuss our choices in the comments section!

This week’s Chick Lit Classic title comes from one of the queen’s of chick lit, Louise Bagshawe. It was actually Louise’s books that got me into the genre of Chick Lit, and I’ve read nearly everything she has written because her books are so good. While I like her more modern books, I do think her older titles are some of her better work, and would definitely recommend that people go back and read some of her older books if you’re stuck for something to read. I’ve chosen Tall Poppies as the classic title because it’s the one story that really sticks in my mind as being a fun read, and one that I can read again and again. The old cover (the one I’ve posted here) isn’t particularly great but they have all been updated the publishers which shows you how popular Louise’s older books still are! If you haven’t read it yet, I think you should definitely get hold of Tall Poppies, and enjoy!

“Nina Roth and Elizabeth Savage come from different sides of the world - from utterly different sides of the social track. But under the skin they are the same: desperate to escape from a past which dragged them down, determined to make an extra mark on the world in spite of appalling personal tragedies. Drawn together by coincidence, held together by recognition, they are both determined to succeed. But they are both unlucky in love - and have enemies who will not willingly let them succeed. And the trouble with being a tall poppy is that people always know where to find you …”

I’m quite the fan of Bernadette Strachan and I’ve read and enjoyed two of her previous novels (Diamonds & Daisies and Handbags & Halos). I also have her latest book How To Lose A Husband (And Gain A Life) on my TBR shelf so I was thrilled when the synopsis arrived for Bernie’s new one Why Do We Have To Live With Men? and now we have the fab cover! It’s due out on 28th October and I can’t wait! Here’s the synopsis:

Well, it’s a good question, isn’t it? And Cat O’Connor, escaping from a ruined affair, is about to find the answer. When she is invited to join a group of women in a huge, decaying farmhouse deep in the West Country, Cat prepares to embark on a life without men. She is promised a nirvana of serenity where the chores are done without mutinous mutterings, nourishing food simmers on the Aga and feelings are taken seriously. But Cat soon discovers that women are no saints either. Vegetable-related subterfuge, secret passions, a misogynist ghost and a pig called Dave all nudge Cat on her way to answering the vital question in every girl’s life with wit, humour and warmth.

Although they are sisters, Grace and Susannah have never really been close. Susannah was always sickly as a child and consequently had the constant attention of their mother much to Grace’s chagrin. Grace, however, worked hard and was determined to make her father proud of her. She managed to do so, and is now happily married to Tom, and the pair have everything they could dream of. Everything, that is, except a baby.

Grace resents Susannah for the way she has treated her own 2 children, and the fact she’s never been a proper mother to them. Susannah sees the opportunity to get the power back from her wealth and successful sister by giving her the one thing in the world that she wants - a baby. But as they say, you can choose your friends, not your family. What happens when the sisters start to clash again, will Susannah keep the balance of power in her favour or is Grace determined to trump her sister once and for all?

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Rosy Thornton’s fourth book is due out on July 8th 2010 and will be called The Tapestry of Love. I have one of Rosie’s books sitting on my shelf waiting to be read and I can’t wait to finally get around to it. The cover has finally been released for The Tapestry of Love and I have to admit I’m really disappointed in it. It looks nothing like her previous covers and I just plain old don’t like it. I do, however, like the sound of the book itself:

A rural idyll: that’s what Catherine is seeking when she sells her house in England and moves to a tiny hamlet in the Cévennes mountains. With her divorce in the past and her children grown, she is free to make a new start, and her dream is to set up in business as a seamstress. But this is a harsh and lonely place when you’re no longer just here on holiday. There is French bureaucracy to contend with, not to mention the mountain weather, and the reserve of her neighbours, including the intriguing Patrick Castagnol. And that’s before the arrival of Catherine’s sister, Bryony…