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Archive for April, 2010

Book Cover: What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

Posted on Wednesday, April 28th, 2010 by Leah

Liane Moriarty’s latest novel What Alice Forgot was originally due out early in 2010 and I was really looking forward to it but, unfortunately, the book was delayed and is now due out on 10th June 2010. It’s also had a cover make over which I love and I can’t wait for the book to be released as it sounds similar to Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella which I loved. Here’s the synopsis:

Imagine losing the most important ten years of your life … Alice is twenty-nine.She adores sleep, chocolate, and her ramshackle new house.She’s newly engaged to the wonderful Nick and is pregnant with her first baby. There’s just one problem.All that was ten years ago … Alice has slipped in a step-aerobics class, hit her head and lost a decade.Now she’s a grown-up, bossy mother of three in the middle of a nasty divorce and her beloved sister Elisabeth isn’t speaking to her.This is her life but not as she knows it. Clearly Alice has made some terrible mistakes.Just how much can happen in a decade? Can she ever get back to the woman she used to be?

Posted in 2010 releases, Book News | 5 Comments »

Chick Flick Tuesday: Sex and the City

Posted on Tuesday, April 27th, 2010 by Chloe

Chick Flick Tuesday highlights the best chick flicks in the movie world as well as bringing you news on upcoming chick flick releases as well as letting you all know about which chick lit books are being made into chick flick movies!

Today’s choice is going to be the movie of that famous TV series, Sex and the City. I wasn’t a huge fan of the TV series until just before the movie came out as I was too young to watch it when it was originally aired, but I then got the boxset and watched the whole lot in quick succession and loved it. When the movie came out 2 years ago now, I went to see it in the cinema for my birthday and loved it, and also bought the DVD when it released!

It’s utter fun for the few hours it’s on, and is definitely a great addition to the SATC franchise. They do have a second movie coming out later this year, and I’m not sure if that’s a good idea or not because I felt the original movie was the perfect end to the whole thing but there you go! If you enjoyed the show then you’ll enjoy the movie so go and watch it if you haven’t already!

“Carrie and Mr. Big (Chris Noth) are happy as they search for an apartment, Charlotte (Kristin Davis) is blissful with her husband (Evan Handler) and adopted daughter, Samantha (Kim Cattrall) is still with actor Smith Jerrod (Jason Lewis), and Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) is trying to balance life as a mother, wife, and lawyer as she lives in Brooklyn with Steve (David Eigenberg). But Carrie and Big’s apartment hunt leads them down the road to marriage, and the destination may not be quite everything Carrie hoped for.”

Posted in Chick Flick Tuesday | 3 Comments »

Author Article: Kate Thompson

Posted on Tuesday, April 27th, 2010 by Chloe

When I read and loved Kate Thompson’s latest book The O’Hara Affair, I didn’t realise that some of the storyline was closer to home for Kate than you would have thought. Kate has had to care for her own mother-in-law who has dementia, as Dervla has to within the book, and Kate has kindly written us a piece about the experience to share with all of you. Enjoy, and our thanks go to Kate for taking the time to write this for us.

“Recently I saw that the role of carer was up for discussion on a television chat show. Having covered for my mother-in-law’s carer a couple of years ago while she took a three-week break, I was keen to watch and find out how the experience of other people might mirror my own. I hoped that at least one of the three interviewees appearing on the panel might concede that they had found themselves fearful and panicky, suffering from feelings of isolation and persecution, or full of anger and self loathing. For I confess that those three weeks looking after my demented mother-in-law were the most difficult of my life.

I had thought that time spent in her country cottage, miles away from the city centre where we live, would be a good thing. I would bring my laptop, get some work done on the novel I was writing. I calculated that a little light housework, a little cooking, a little time set aside to read the newspaper or help my mother-in-law with the crossword might add up to three or four hours a day.

I couldn’t have been more wrong. While I lived with my mother-in-law, I was at her beck and call twenty-four/seven.

The first inkling that life as a carer might not be as rose-tinted as the cottage in which I was living came when I brought her breakfast in bed on the first morning. Not only did she have no idea who I was, she treated me as though I were a servant. When the cereal I served was not to her satisfaction, she threw the spoon at me. When I suggested she might like a wash, she took it as a personal affront. She never said please, she never said thank-you. It was like living with a stranger – an autocratic, unpleasant one at that.

I became fearful – locking my bedroom door at night because she wandered and I found it unsettling. I would lie there, listening to her moving around, on tenterhooks that she might fall, yet powerless to make her stay in bed. I discovered that the easiest way to survive was – like Epictetus – to adopt the course of least resistance and embrace my slave-like status. However, when she had an accident one night and I was obliged to change not only her bed linen, but her mattress, there was a clash of Titans. It took every determined ounce of my persuasive powers to get her into the bath she insisted she did not need.

During my three weeks as Dobby the House Elf I got no work done on my novel. I lost weight, my self esteem plummeted, I felt as though I were living in a mad house – which, in effect, I was. The woman for whom I had once harboured only feelings of love, admiration and respect, became a dementor. Sometimes I found myself hating her.

But the people on the television show I watched were saint-like in their devotion to their charges. They bore no ill-will or resentment; they harboured no feelings of hatred or anger; they spoke only of the compassion they felt, and their willingness to sacrifice all for their loved one. They made me feel worse than inadequate: they made me feel like a failure.

I did my best. I fed my mother-in-law nutritious meals; I kept her warm and clean; I made sure she was entertained, whether by going through old photograph albums or settling her down in front of a favourite DVD. But – mea culpa - I could not love her. And that, to my mind, was the most grievous failure of all.”

Posted in Author Article | 1 Comment »

Cover Coincidence: Men I’ve Loved Before by Adele Parks

Posted on Tuesday, April 27th, 2010 by Leah

I was just browsing on Amazon, minding my own business when the cover for Zadie Smith’s book Changing My Mind caught my eye. I thought it looked incredibly familiar and I soon realised where I’d seen it before - barring the colours, it looks identical to Adele Park’s new cover design for Men I’ve Loved Before. Similar, no? I would assume they were both designed by the same person, otherwise it’s one heck of a coincidence!

I have to admit, seeing a cover design so similar makes it feel a little less special considering this is Adele’s new look with her new publishers! I’m not even a fan of the cover, anyway, to be honest - as it’s a bit blah for my tastes. What do you think of the similar covers?

Posted in 2010 releases, Book Cover | 6 Comments »

Book Review: Spotlight by Ilana Fox

Posted on Monday, April 26th, 2010 by Chloe

A fallen star. A runaway bride. They’re about to be pitted against each other by a very powerful man. Madison Miller has everything - beautiful, talented and just a little bit naive; she’s the small-town girl who swept to victory on America’s hottest talent show to become the nation’s sweetheart. She’s also head-over-heels in love with the man who’s masterminded her career - the head-spinningly powerful, lethally attractive Beau Silverman. But there’s trouble in paradise… Jess has bolted from her approaching wedding and a dead-end job in London to chase dreams of being a fashion designer in New York. But she’s finding life in the Big Apple tough, until she meets a man who makes her an offer she can’t refuse. It means a taste of a life she’s never had - glamorous parties, paparazzi, haute couture - but at what price? Sweeping from the hotspots of LA to the coolest bars of New York, SPOTLIGHT cuts a gloriously fun swathe through the world of celebrity and glamour, with a page-turning story at its heart.

(more…)

Posted in 2010 releases, Book Reviews, Rating: 4/5 | 3 Comments »

Rowan Coleman’s Short Story Competition

Posted on Monday, April 26th, 2010 by Chloe

The lovely Rowan Coleman told us about her new short story competition, and we think it is one to share with all our readers in case there is a budding author out there looking for akick start to their writing career! Rowan’s career actually began when she won a short story competition, so she knows what she is talking about, and the prizes are just amazing too. You have to write a story no longer than 1000 words on the subject of starting over, and the entries will all be judged by Rowan Coleman and some fellow published authors.

For more information on the competition, visit Rowan’s blog with more details about the prizes, Rowan’s own journey into being an author, and most importantly - how to enter! Good luck!

Posted in Book News | 1 Comment »

Book News: Diane Chamberlain

Posted on Monday, April 26th, 2010 by Leah

Diane Chamberlain has been compared to the ever fab Jodi Picoult and she had her first book released in the UK last year called The Lost Daughter. 2010 brings three more releases from Diane - The Bay at Midnight was released earlier this year - and the other two are Before The Storm due out on May 21st and Secrets She Left Behind which is out on 20th August 2010. I have The Lost Daughter on my shelf and love the sound of her other releases. Here are the synopsis and covers for both books (first Before the Storm, second Secrets She Left Behind):

Her little boy has been accused of murder. How far will she go to protect him? When the local church is razed to the ground, dozens of trapped children manage to escape - many helped by fifteen-year-old Andy Lockwood. Born with Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, Andy is more like a little boy than a teenager, but in the eyes of the people he saved, he’s a hero. Laurel lost her baby once through neglect and has spent the rest of her life determined to make up for her mistakes. Yet when suspicion of arson is cast upon Andy, Laurel must ask herself how well she really knows her son - and how far she’ll go to protect him.

Nineteen-year-old Maggie Lockwood spent a year in prison for her part in a fire that cost three lives. The scars carried by the surviving victims - inside and out - are still raw and Maggie’s release from jail does nothing to free her from the guilt. Returning home, Maggie hides herself away, too afraid to see Keith, the boy she grew up with, played with as a child - and recently learnt is her half-brother. Keith nearly lost his life in the fire and the emotional and physical wounds he carries have changed him forever. With childhood innocence gone, Maggie and Keith must learn to come to terms with their new lives, but trying to move forward will have deadly consequences.

Posted in 2010 releases, Book News | 2 Comments »

In Our Mailbox: 25th April

Posted on Sunday, April 25th, 2010 by Chloe

In My Mailbox was created by The Story Siren and let’s us show off the books we’ve acquired this week (in the post, from the library, bought). We’ll post the titles of our books and, in brackets, where they’re from and we’ll post the picture below!

Chloe’s Books this week: Moonlighting by Kate Lace (LBD), Hard To Get by Jessica Fox (LBD), Mother of the Bride by Kate Lawson (Avon), Desire by Louise Bagshawe (finished copy), The Tudor Wife by Emily Purdy (Avon), The Castaways by Elin Hilderbrand

Because of the volcanic ash cloud, Leah has had no books this week. Stupid ash cloud. Normal IMM should return next week.

Posted in In Our Mailbox | No Comments »

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Archive for April, 2010

Book Cover: What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

Chick Flick Tuesday: Sex and the City

Author Article: Kate Thompson

Cover Coincidence: Men I’ve Loved Before by Adele Parks

Book Review: Spotlight by Ilana Fox

Rowan Coleman’s Short Story Competition

Book News: Diane Chamberlain

In Our Mailbox: 25th April

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