Archive for July, 2010

Cathy Lamb’s latest book Such A Pretty Face is due for release next week on 27th July 2010 and sounds like an incredibly interesting read. It also has a really stunning cover, isn’t it lovely? Here’s the synopsis:

In this warm, funny, thoroughly candid novel, acclaimed author Cathy Lamb introduces an unforgettable heroine who’s half the woman she used to be, and about to find herself for the first time…Two years and 170 pounds ago, Stevie Barrett was wheeled into an operating room for surgery that most likely saved her life. Since that day, a new Stevie has emerged, one who walks without wheezing, plants a garden for self-therapy, and builds and paints fantastical wooden chairs. At thirty-five, Stevie is the one thing she never thought she’d be: thin. But for everything that’s changed, some things remain the same. Stevie’s shyness refuses to melt away. She still can’t look her neighbours’ gorgeous great-nephew in the eye. The Portland law office where she works remains utterly dysfunctional, as does her family - the aunt, uncle, and cousins who took her in when she was a child. To top it off, her once supportive best friend clearly resents her weight loss. By far the biggest challenge in Stevie’s new life lies in figuring out how to define her new self. Collaborating with her cousins to plan her aunt and uncle’s problematic fortieth anniversary party, Stevie starts to find some surprising answers - about who she is, who she wants to be, and how the old Stevie evolved in the first place. And with each revelation, she realizes the most important part of her transformation may not be what she’s lost, but the courage and confidence she’s gathering, day by day.

Hyperion has canceled “Displaced,” the rebuttal memoir by the “Eat Pray Love” author’s ex-husband Michael Cooper. Elizabeth Gilbert broke with Cooper before embarking on a global journey that provided material for her best selling book. The Guardian reports that “Displaced” would have chronicled Cooper’s parallel search for purpose and self-discovery through humanitarian work across the developing world. “Displaced” was originally scheduled for a release timed to coincide with the movie adaptation of “Eat Pray Love,” which will hit theaters on August 13.

According to the New York Post’s Page Six, Cooper claims he finished the memoir, but split with his publisher after Hyperion pushed him to make the book more racy:

“In the end, it seemed to me that Hyperion hoped to push the book in a more controversial direction — something I was unwilling to do. I am exploring options with other publishers.”

Taken from Huffingtonpost.com

What do you guys think, were you interested in hearing Elizabeth’s ex-husbands side of the story?

Judd Harrington is back in England to cause a stir, and he’s intent on succeeding. He brings along his wife Kitty who is petrified of Judd and his awful temper and his 2 sons, Elliot and Sebastian. None of Judd’s family actually like him but live in fear of him. Ace, his third son, is the only one who is still in America and is still being controlled by him.

Life for Judd’s arch-enemy Lochlin isn’t going too well either. His record company Shamrock is struggling against the newly formed Jett Corporation, run by none other than Judd. His relationship with his wife Tavvy and son Shay has seen better days, and he’s trying to stall his talented singing daughter Iris from joining the ruthless showbiz world.

Judd, however, has other plans. He’s determined to sign Iris to his record label, and uses his son Ace to get her despite what Ace wants. Judd wants to make Lochlin suffer, and at any cost - he wants to ruin the Maguire family once and for all. Will the ruthless Judd Harrington succeed in destroying Lochlin and his family?

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Last year I got the chance to read When I Found You by Catherine Ryan Hyde. When it arrived in my mailbox I wasn’t 100% sure I would like it but I found that when I got around to reading it, I absolutely loved it. So it’s safe to say I was pleased when Catherine announced she had signed a new deal with Transworld and her next release would be called Second Hand Heart. It’s due out on September 2nd and I cannot wait for it’s release. The cover has been released and I love it, too. Here’s the synopsis:

One girl: Vida is nineteen, very sick, and has spent her short life preparing for death. But a new chance brings its own story, because for Vida to live, someone had to die.

One man: Richard has just lost his beloved wife in a car accident. He hasn’t even begun to address his grief, but feels compelled to meet the girl who inherited his wife’s heart.

Someone else’s heart: In hospital Vida sees Richard and immediately falls in love. Of course he dismisses her as a foolish child. But is she? Can two people be bound by a second hand heart?

Chick Lit Classics is a regular 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 have chosen one of Tina Reilly’s early releases, Wedded Blitz. Tina now writes under her full name of Martina Reilly, and the books under that name are a bit more serious and have a much more serious looking cover too, but I really enjoyed some of Martina’s early books, and Wedded Blitz is one of them. It’s a funny, heart warming and enjoyable read about a woman who is determined to make it on her own in business after the demise of her marriage, and I loved every page. It originally came out in 2005, and has already been released with an updated cover, but I think it’s a fantastic read and it’s one I’d definitely recommend!

“Warring spouses, embarrassing parents and the battle of the hairdressing salons …When Dublin girl Jane married local boy Jim, she thought it was for ever. But now there are cracks in their marriage that they just can’t seem to fix. When Jim announces he’s moving out, Jane is left to pick up the pieces of their family life. And then her mother decides to visit…Determined to remain upbeat, Jane plans to make a real success of her work, only to discover that Cutting Edge, the hairdressing empire, is opening a shop yards away from her own humble salon. With her staff in uproar and customers deserting them in droves, Jane decides to play Cutting Edge at their own game. Then life deals Jane and Jim one dreadful blow, past hurts rush to the surface, and they are forced to confront what drove them apart in the first place.”

As always, Chloe and I are looking at ways to make the site bigger and better, and we’ve had lots of fantastic new features appear since the site started; Chick Flick Tuesday’s, Chick Lit Classics, Industry Interviews and now we have some more features we would like to announce.

Sophie Kinsella Week: Official Dates
First off I would like to let everyone know that Sophie Kinsella week will officially be running from Sunday 29th August right through until the 4th of September. We will be reviewing every single Shopaholic book to date (including the new one Mini Shopaholic), we will be interviewing Sophie as well AND we will have a competition for one lucky reader to win the entire set of Shopaholic books. To win it though, you’ll have to answer some Sophie/Shopaholic related questions so get brushing up!

Chick Lit Reviews Book Club
Starting soon, we will be having our very own Chick Lit centered book club.

Cover Stories
When Chloe and I post up a book cover, we always give you guys an opinion on what we think of it. That got me thinking a while back, and I started to wonder what authors think of their covers so starting fairly soon, we will be presenting ‘Cover Stories’, where authors tell us how their covers came around and how they’ve evolved (which will be particularly fun with authors like Jill Mansell, whose earlier works have fairly basic covers).

Week In Review
The one thing Chloe and I are always worrying about is how few review spots we have compared to how many reviews we’ve got ready to go. So we’ve decided to bring in a weekly post featuring mini reviews about the books we read the previous week. Each review will be between 100-150 words with the full review to follow at a later date. We would also like you lot to be a part of it, so each week we want you to leave a comment and tell us what you’ve been reading!

When Carla Kelly marries Robert Gardiner after a whirlwind romance, their happiness is complete when Carla discovers she’s pregnant. Tragedy strikes two days after baby Isobel is born, though, when Isobel is snatched without reason. Meanwhile, Susanne and David Dowling are celebrating the birth of their miracle child Joy. However Susanne is hiding a terrible secret and in her bid to keep her secret a secret, she rears Joy in near-isolation.

As Carla and Robert begin the search for their daughter, their marriage begins to crumble under the strain. Carla refuses to move on, believing that her baby is still out there somewhere, waiting for her to find her. As the years pass, Carla’s determination to find her daughter never wanes, despite the dwindling hope whereas Susanne carries on rearing Joy by shielding her from the world. As secrets come to the fore, can either mother find the strength to face their demons?

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One of the most baffling things surrounding chick lit (and undoubtedly other genres) is the pseudonym. I can absolutely understand why some authors like to choose themselves a pseudonym when changing the genre/tone of their books - Madeleine Wickham/Sophie Kinsella is a prime example. What I don’t understand is the secrecy surrounding some well-known pseudonyms. I could reel off quite a list of authors I know for sure are pseudonyms as well as a list of possible authors writing under a pseudonym. I won’t, because I respect their privacy, but I sure as heck will question it.

There are a few authors whom we know about who write under pseudonyms. Madeleine/Sophie is a prime example. Chris Manby also writes under Olivia Darling and Anna Maxted now writes under the name of Sasha Blake (which was probably the worst kept secret in publishing history). All of those were for a genre change. Madeleine Wickham’s earlier books were more women’s fiction than chick lit whereas her books under Sophie Kinsella are light-hearted chick lit books. Chris Manby and Anna Maxted’s books under their own names are chick lit whereas their works under Olivia Darling and Sasha Blake are big, fat blockbusters of books. Josie Lloyd also fits under the same category. She wrote novels by herself before writing with husband Emlyn Rees before a genre change means she now publishes under Jo Rees. I find all of those name-changes perfectly acceptable because the fact is we now know who exactly they are.

What really gets me is when there’s so much secrecy about an author changing her name to help promote her books because her books under her own name didn’t sell well or whatever the reason may be. As a reader I want to know who these authors are. I want to be able to do an author interview with them or email them to tell them I loved their book without feeling cheated because they aren’t who they say they are. If, for example, Katie Fforde wrote under a different name I would want to know because I adore her books and would want to read anything she’s written. The same goes for a number of authors I suspect of having different pen names - I, the reader, would want to know so I could seek out all of the books a certain author has had published.

Surely if a well-established chick lit author decided to write something different to her usual stuff then the best way to market her new stuff would be to tell everybody exactly who that person really is so that people who love the author can buy her new work? The entire Anna Maxted affair was really stupid. We were told that she was writing under the pseudonym of Sasha Blake but that the publishers didn’t want anybody to know. Why? Why, why, why? The fact is, it has all come out now so why did the publishers feel so strongly about keeping it a secret? Wouldn’t the publishers have been better off telling us all from the off that Anna Maxted had decided on both a genre change and a name change and that if we wanted to buy it, you could find her under the name of Sasha Blake? Easy. And there’s no need for secrecy. I felt a bit of a fool when we posted up our interview with mysterious author Sasha Blake only to find that everyone knew it was Anna Maxted.

What makes it even worse is that when I buy a book I always look for an author photograph and a biog just to get a feel of the author. When they’re missing, it becomes blindingly obvious the author in question is undoubtedly writing under a pen name. They might as well have a neon sign on the cover declaring “I am not an actual person, I’m writing under a pen name!” in big letters. I would very much like if anyone could tell me just what use using a pen name is. People are more likely to buy a book by an established author than they are an author they’ve heard absolutely nothing about and can’t find any information about, either. Be honest, authors, and tell us who on Earth you are. We don’t care if you had poor sales or if you’re writing a different genre now, just tell us who you are so we can get all of your books. Easy.