Archive for July 20th, 2010

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!

One of my favourite ever films is Clueless. It was released in 1995 and became a sleeper hit (something that gains unexpected recognition). I watched it years ago and I absolutely loved it. It’s a perfect teen movie and has aged surprisingly well. Cher’s “whatever” catchphrase is legendary and all of the actresses did a fantastic job. Alicia Silverstone was stunning as Cher and it surprises me even now to see just how young Brittany Murphy looked back then! It is a must-watch for any chick flick fan and if you haven’t seen it, you ought to go and buy it on Amazon for only £2.99, which would be money VERY well spent!

Cher Horowitz and her friend Dionne, two of the most popular sophomores in school, play matchmakers for two teachers. Inspired by their success, Cher takes under her wing Tai, a “clueless” transfer student. While trying to make an advantageous match for Tai, Cher attempts to find a boyfriend of her own. Several misfires take place, due to poor communication, before she finds the Baldwin of her dreams. (Taken from IMDB.com)

I recently read and loved Alison Bond’s new book A Reluctant Cinderella, and was delighted when Alison was kind enough to answer some of my questions about her and her books. If you haven’t read A Reluctant Cinderella yet, I would definitely recommend that you do because it’s a brilliant book, and don’t let the cover fool you because it certainly isn’t what you’d expect from that. Without further ado, here is my interview with the lovely Alison Bond.

Q1. Tell us about your book ‘A Reluctant Cinderella’.

It’s been a huge stretch between books, almost four years, and while I’d like to say I’ve been busy having children and moving to the Cotswolds (both of which happen to be true) the more honest reason is that my first attempt at a third novel was abysmal. I tried my hand at romantic comedy that the likes of Sophie Kinsella and Jenny Colgan do so well and it didn’t quite work out. We spent a lot of time (too much time maybe) trying to make it better but in the end I threw up my hands and started all over again with A Reluctant Cinderella. Obviously it was all terribly frustrating but looking back it was a very valuable lesson in writing what you truly want to write. A Reluctant Cinderella is the kind of glamorous, twisting tale I feel much happier with. Samantha Sharp is a powerful woman who encounters scandal at work, in her family life and in her love life. It’s about how she deals with adversity by facing up to her past.

Q2. What sort of research did you have to do to be able to write this book?

Samantha Sharp is forced out of her high-powered job when evidence suggests that she’s been involved with some dodgy dealings. She relocates to Krakow in Poland and a lot of the book is set there. Krakow is one of my favourite cities so it wasn’t so much a case of research as writing about what I know. We lived in Krakow for a while and I had such an affinity with the place that I think I must have been a Polish princess in a previous life. Hopefully I managed to capture some of its mysterious charm in this book. For everything else I used my imagination.

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A lot of you left comments telling us you didn’t like the UK version of Sophie Kinsella’s new book Mini Shopaholic, due out in September, because it doesn’t match the earlier books in the series and the colours aren’t great. Sophie’s American publishers just released the US version of the book cover, and I am not overly keen on that either, it’s quite plain! Which do you prefer and why?