Archive for September 9th, 2010

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 book might only be 3 years old, but I think it’s a great read and one worthy of the ‘Chick Lit Classic’ position this week! It is author Jane Fallon’s debut novel, and really came to promenence because of it being featured of Richard and Judy’s Book Club in 2007, and that’s how I found out about it. It sounded perfect for me, and I quickly got a copy from the library and I loved it. It’s the story of Helen and Matthew, a couple who have been having an affair for several years, but their relationship is turning a bit stale. Helen decides to get rid of Matthew but it isn’t as easy as it seems. It’s a very different view point of an affair, and I surprised myself in feeling sorry for the mistress as well as the wife in this tale! Brilliant reading, recommended by me.

“What to do if Matthew, your secret lover of the past four years, finally decides to leave his wife Sophie and their two daughters and move into your flat, just when you’re thinking that you might not want him anymore . . . PLAN A Stop shaving your armpits. And your bikini line. Tell him you have a moustache that you wax every six weeks Stop having sex with him Pick holes in the way he dresses. Don’t brush your teeth. Or your hair. Or pluck out the stray hag-whisker that grows out of your chin. Buy incontinence pads and leave them lying around PLAN B Accidentally on purpose bump into his wife Sophie Give yourself a fake name and identity Befriend Sophie Actually begin to really like Sophie Snog Matthew’s son (who’s the same age as you by the way. You’re not a paedophile) Buy a cat and give it a fake name and identity Befriend Matthew’s children. Unsuccessfully Watch your whole plan go absolutely horribly wrong Getting Rid of Matthew isn’t as easy as it seems, but along the way Helen will forge an unlikely friendship, find real love and realize that nothing ever goes exactly to plan . . .”

Due to my excellent sleuthing skills (and inability to stop searching Amazon, no matter how fruitless sometimes), I managed to find myself an exciting exclusive book deal for the site! We interviewed the lovely Allie Spencer a while back (and have reviewed both of her fantastic Little Black Dress novels Tug of Love and The Not-So-Secret Diary of a City Girl) and she mentioned she was working on a third book but that nothing had come of it as of yet.

However we can now exclusively reveal that Allie Spencer has moved to Arrow (a part of the Random House group) and her first novel with them, Summer Loving, will be out on 26th May 2011. I for one can’t wait to see what the book is about and to see the cover they design for the book. If it’s anything like her LBD books, it’s going to be good!

Congratulations Allie!

Author India Knight is back with her third fictional novel this November with her festive title Comfort and Joy. It’s due out on November 25th, and while I’m not keen on the cover, it certainly sounds like a book I would really like to read. Here’s the synopsis:

“It’s December 23rd and Clara Dunphy is running around Oxford Street like a blue-arsed fly trying to buy presents. She wants to make Christmas perfect: it’s a lifelong ambition. And a challenging one at the best of times, even without taking her fifteen guests - sorry, “loved ones” - and their varying degrees of social disfunction into account. Meanwhile, something weird has happened to her marriage, and the ho, ho, ho is thin on the ground. Why does Christmas have such an emotional hold over us? Why does family stuff hit the peak of its madness on December the 25th? And is it okay to want more than you have, when what you have seems so enviable from the outside? A blackly funny, tender dissection of the meaning of love – family love, sibling love, children love – Comfort and Joy will make you laugh and cry.”