Archive for June, 2010

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

Leah’s Books this week: My Sister’s Voice by Mary Carter (LBD), The Liberation of Alice Love by Abby McDonald (Arrow), Men I’ve Loved Before by Adele Parks (Headline Review), Single in the City by Michele Gorman (Penguin), All That Mullarkey by Sue Moorcroft (Choc Lit) & Turning The Tide by Christine Stovell (Choc Lit)

Chloe’s Books this week: The Tapestry of Love by Rosy Thornton, Wicked Games by Sasha Wagstaff, Stolen by Lesley Pearse

Danielle’s books this week: Lit by Mary Karr, A Vintage Affair by Isabel Wolff, Nancy’s Theory of Style by Grace Coopersmith

Maya and Rebecca Ward are both accomplished physicians, but that’s where the sisters’ similarities end. As teenagers, they witnessed their parents’ murder, but it was Rebecca who saved Maya from becoming another of the gunman’s victims. The tragedy left Maya cautious and timid, settling for a sedate medical practice with her husband, Adam, while Rebecca became the risk taker.

After a devastating hurricane hits the coast of North Carolina, Rebecca and Adam urge Maya to join them in the relief effort. To please her husband, Maya finally agrees. She loses herself in the care and transport of victims, but when her helicopter crashes into raging floodwaters, there appear to be no survivors.

Forced to accept Maya is gone, Rebecca and Adam turn to one another—first for comfort, then in passion—unaware that, miles from civilization, Maya is injured and trapped with strangers she’s not certain she can trust. Away from the sister who has always been there to save her, now Maya must find the courage to save herself—unaware that the life she knew has changed forever.

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The box-office returns of Sex and the City 2 may have been underwhelming, but that’s not slowing down Candace Bushnell. Grand Central Publishing has just announced two new books from the initials-sharing creator of Carrie Bradshaw. The first, titled The Two Mrs. Stones, will be about that sturdiest shape in romantic geometry: The love triangle. Details on the second novel aren’t yet available.

Grand Central originally published the paperback version of Sex and the City way back in 1996. The company plans on releasing The Two Mrs. Stones in 2012. Any Bushnell fans out there? After her high-school prequel The Carrie Diaries, are you excited to see her with new material?

Taken from EW.com

After her boss in a high-powered Washington public relations firm is caught in a political scandal, fledgling lobbyist Dempsey Jo Killebrew is left almost broke, unemployed, and homeless. Out of options, she reluctantly accepts her father’s offer to help refurbish Birdsong, the old family place he recently inherited in Guthrie, Georgia. All it will take, he tells her, is a little paint and some TLC to turn the fading Victorian mansion into a real-estate But, oh, is Dempsey in for a surprise when she arrives in Guthrie. “Bird Droppings” would more aptly describe the moldering Pepto Bismol–pink dump with duct-taped windows and a driveway full of junk. There’s also a murderously grumpy old lady, one of Dempsey’s distant relations, who has claimed squatter’s rights and isn’t moving out. Ever.

Furthermore, everyone in Guthrie seems to know Dempsey’s business, from a smooth-
talking real-estate agent to a cute lawyer who owns the local newspaper. It wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for the pesky FBI agents who show up on Dempsey’s doorstep, hoping to pry information about her ex-boss from her. All Dempsey can do is roll up her sleeves and get to work. And before long, what started as a job of necessity somehow becomes a labor of love and, ultimately, a journey that takes her to a place she never expected—back home again.

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We are well into June now, and hopefully that means that summer is officially here at last! We’ve had a good run of sunny weather, and I hope it’s here to stay because that means lovely lazy days in the sun having a read… what could be better?! So for your reading pleasure, I have once again picked out my top 10 Summer Reads, all either out now or coming out over the summer months.

I hope you like my choices, but if you have another 2010 summer read you’d like to recommend to us, please leave us a comment and let us know!

10. Chrissie Manby - Getting Over Mr Right

9. Veronica Henry - The Beach Hut

8. Amanda Howells - The Summer of Skinny Dipping

7. Alison Bond - A Reluctant Cinderella

6. Liane Moriarty - What Alice Forgot

5. Paige Toon - Pictures of Lily

4. Jo Rees - Forbidden Pleasures

3. Tilly Bagshawe - Scandalous

2. Lindsey Kelk - I Heart Paris

1. Belinda Jones - Living La Vida Loca

I was a huge fan of Julie Highmore’s last release The Message so it’s quite an understatement to say I’m looking forward to her next book! Her next book The Birthday is due out on 9th December 2010 and sounds like another fantastic and emotional read. Here’s the synopsis:

It’s easy to make mistakes. The hard part is keeping them hidden. Emily spends a few precious hours with her lover, then picks up her children and returns to normal married life. Her brother Ben’s career has crashed with the banks, and suddenly he has nowhere to go. But they must both put on a brave face for their mother’s sixtieth birthday. Fran doesn’t feel old. Mostly, she’s worried about her increasingly depressed husband Duncan, and his slightly odd behaviour. Why did he think they’d been to Florence? Who is Alexa? And she doesn’t really want a fuss over her birthday, but her daughter insists they must celebrate. Holding tight to their own secrets, the family gathers around Fran, but as one small revelation follows another, no one can foresee the huge repercussions of this birthday.

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 I’ve chosen a “modern classic” from chick lit author Sophie King. Sophie has written 5 books, all of which I’ve read and enjoyed but this one sticks in my mind as being a particularly good read. Mums@Home is based on a load of mums and dads coming together in an online community to chat about their problems and woes, and it makes for fascinating reading.

What I loved about this book is that we know the secrets that the characters are hiding, but they are slowly revealed through the forum which is displayed in the book, and I was so eager to get to the end and find out if everyone works out who everyone is! If you haven’t read any of Sophie King’s books, I’d definitely recommend Mums@Home but any of Sophie’s read are all brilliant!

“Calling all mums!

Caroline, Mark, Susan and Lisa are as different as the parenting problems they face and each has their own reasons for logging on to the Mums@Home website for the very first time. At first they are cynical about the site – how can faceless people possibly help or understand what they are going through? But as the weeks pass and their family problems escalate, each of them begins to realise that Mums@Home has become a lifeline – somewhere to go for advice, to be heard, to escape, or to belong…”

Pauline Lawless’s second book If The Shoe Fits is out in three days on 26th June 2010 and sounds like an interesting read. I quite like the cover, too. Here’s what it’s all about:

‘Calling All Shoe Addicts’, said the advertisement that triggered a response in four very different women, each at a difficult time of her life. Niamh, at 23, the mother of a five-year-old and twin girls aged four, is desperate to have a home of her own. She longs to escape the house of her vicious mother-in-law but her charming, irresponsible husband and the mountain of debts they have makes this seem ever more unlikely. Amber, former air stewardess whose husband Dermot left her for a younger woman, has lost all her confidence and is drowning her sorrows with alcohol. Tessa, beautiful former model, paid the price for living life in the fast lane when she almost died from a heart attack. Her reliable friend, George, persuaded her to come and live with him in Ireland. She now realises that she’s made a dreadful mistake. Rosie, recently widowed, can’t come to terms with the loss of the man she loved so much. Life without him doesn’t seem worth living. All of them, needing a way out, find it with the Italian designer shoe company, ‘If The Shoes Fit’. This leads them to a new career, great friendships and a life-changing experience.