August is a relatively quiet month in the Chick Lit world, with not as many releases as July or September, but there are still enough novels to keep us excited. Eleanor Brown’s debut novel The Weird Sisters is released, along with new novels from Claudia Carroll, Tasmina Perry and Sinead Moriarty.

Caroline Leavitt – Pictures of You – 1st August 2011

Two cars collide on a foggy highway, and a woman dies.

The survivor, Isabelle, is left to pick up the pieces, not only of her own life, but of the lives of the devastated husband and fragile son that the other woman, April, has left behind.

Together, they try to solve the mystery of where April was running to, and why. As these three lives intersect, questions arise: How well do we really know those we love-and how do we forgive the unforgivable?

Rebecca Chance – Bad Sisters – 4th August 2011

Three ambitious, rivalrous sisters. And a deadly secret, which one of them is determined to keep buried at any cost …Deeley is the fake wife of a Hollywood TV hunk, who is secretly gay. But Deeley’s five-year contract is up, and his cut-throat publicist wants Deeley out. So, dejected and penniless, Deeley wends her way home to London, hoping to re-establish links with her two estranged elder sisters …Devon is married to the nation’s-favourite-rugby-hunk Matt, and has her own highly successful TV career, as the sexy hostess of her own cookery show. But behind her buxom facade, Devon is lonely and frustrated, and when a live celebrity cook-off shows her up as a fraud, she leaves sweet Matt and runs off to Tuscany, to learn a few lessons - not just in cookery - from an Italian master. Lastly, there’s Maxie: a politician’s wife, Maxie is fiercely ambitious. She’s furious when Deeley, hard on her luck, sells the sisters’ childhood story to a tabloid newspaper, revealing their impoverished roots and unsavoury parentage. The story undermines Maxie’s carefully cultivated image, and the fallout threatens to be devastating. But Maxie is only too aware that there is much more Deeley could yet reveal. What murderous secret lies in the sisters’ past? And just how far will Maxie go to keep it buried?

Eleanor Brown – The Weird Sisters – 4th August 2011

‘See, we love each other. We just don’t happen to like each other very much.’ THE WEIRD SISTERS is a trenchantly observant novel about the often warring emotions between sisters. Unlucky in work, love and life, the Andreas sisters return to their childhood home, ostensibly to care for their ailing mother. But each sister has a secret she’s unwilling to share – each has come home to lick her own wounds. The Andreas family is an eccentric one. Books are their passion (a trip to the library usually solved everything), TV is something other families watched. Their father – a renowned, eccentric professor of Shakespeare who communicates almost exclusively in Shakespearean verse – named all three girls for great Shakespearean women – Rose (Rosalind), Bean (Bianca), and Cordy (Cordelia); as a result, the girls find that they have a lot to live up to. With this burden, as well as others they shoulder, the Andreas sisters have a difficult time communicating with both their parents and their lovers, but especially with each other. What can the homebody and shy eldest sister, the fast-living and mysterious middle child, and the bohemian youngest sibling have in common? Why can’t Rose leave her hometown for the man she loves? Why has glamorous Bean come home from New York City with her tail between her legs to the small college town she swore she’d leave as soon as she could? And why suddenly has Cordy resurfaced after years of gypsy living? Each sister has found her life nothing like she had thought it would be – and suddenly faced with their parents’ frailty and their own disappointments and setbacks, their usual quick salve of a book suddenly can’t solve what ails them. To their surprise, Rose, Bean and Cordy are more similar than they ever imagined. Yet can all three escape their archetypal roots and find happiness in a normal life? As it turns out, the small town of Barnwell and their sisterly bond offer much more than they ever expected.

Tasmina Perry – Private Lives – 4th August 2011

Anna Kennedy loves her career. A young associate with a top media law firm, she’s the lawyer to the stars, hiding their sins from the hungry media. When Anna fails to prevent a damaging story being printed about heart-throb movie star Sam Charles she finds herself fighting to save not only his reputation, but also her own.

But Anna is about to uncover a scandal more explosive than even Sam’s infidelities. A party girl is already dead and those responsible are prepared to silence anyone who stands in their way. Not least a pretty young lawyer who knows too much…

Jennifer Weiner – Then Came You – 4th August 2011

Jules Wildgren is a twenty-one year old Princeton college student with a full scholarship and a family she’s ashamed to invite to Parents’ Weekend. Tall, blonde, and outwardly identical to her wealthy high school classmates, her plan is to take the ten thousand dollars she’ll receive from donating her ‘pedigree’ eggs and try to save her father from addiction. Amie Barrow is a thirty-four year old married mother of two who scrapes by on her family’s single paycheck.After watching a TV show about surrogates, she thinks she’s found a way to recover a sense of purpose and bring in some extra cash. India Bishop, thirty-eight (really forty-three), believes she’s found her happy-ever-after when she marries a very wealthy and much older man, Marcus Croft, but decides that a baby will seal the deal. When all of her attempts at pregnancy fail, she turns to technology - and Annie and Jules - to help make her dreams come true. But each woman’s plans are thrown into disarray when Marcus suddenly dies, and his twenty-three year old daughter, Bettina, is named guardian of India’s unborn child. As the baby’s due date draws near, these four women - with nothing and everything in common - discover what makes each of them a mother in her own right.

Sinead Moriarty – Me and My Sisters – 4th August 2011

There’s more than one way of being a modern woman, not that the Devlin sisters would admit it … Julie used to be the easy-going sister. But now she’s a mother of four boys under five, her marriage is under strain and she is struggling to keep sane. She needs support, but her sisters don’t understand. After all, their lives are perfect. Lawyer Louise has always been top of her game, with little time for family and even less for romance. But with a drunken mistake threatening everything she’s worked for, she may need to accept that she needs help to keep going. Gorgeous Sophie got everything she ever wanted: a loving husband, a beautiful, well-behaved daughter and a designer lifestyle. Her sisters consider her spoiled and shallow but she doesn’t care - that’s until her life is turned upside-down and she realises they may be right. Not that she’s going to let them know the trouble she’s in. The Devlin sisters think they have little in common. They might just be in for some big surprises …

Kate Lace – Gypsy Wedding – 4th August 2011

Brought up in a caravan on a settled trailer park, Vicky could not be happier with her life. At 15 she is engaged to her childhood friend Liam, the handsomest man on the park. Not only that, but she can’t help feeling she’s got the balance of her life just right. She’s doing well at school and if she works hard she might even fulfill her dream of becoming a dressmaker. But as she turns 17 the pressure is on for her and Liam to set a date for the wedding, and suddenly Vicky is not so sure. How can she give up her dreams and spend the rest of her life looking after Liam? Especially as her classmate Jordan seems a far more exciting prospect… What on earth is a girl to do? She loves Liam, but Jordan makes her feel things she’s never felt before, and her best friend Kelly’s life seems so much more fun than her own limited options. But can she really turn her back on her friends and family and survive in a hostile world? In the year running up to her wedding, Vicky is about to find out that life outside the traveller community is a lot more complicated than she’d thought…

Hilary Boyd - Thursdays in the Park - 4th August 2011

Jeanie has been a loving wife to George for over thirty years, a devoted mother to their daughter and, recently, an adoring grandmother - all this despite the fact that several years ago, George withdrew from their marital bed with no reason given. At first Jeanie was determined to confront him, but days rolled into weeks, then years, and still she has no idea why it happened. Did she do something wrong? Is he in love with someone else? George won’t talk about it. Every Thursday, Jeanie takes her granddaughter to the park, and there she meets Ray, who performs the same weekly duty for his grandson. Ray seems to be everything George isn’t - a listener, easy to talk to, open-minded - and sexy. Suddenly Jeanie feels attractive again and, against her will, finds herself falling in love with him. She knows all too well that her new passion threatens everything she holds dear. She must make a choice. Family ties, dramas, secrets and lies all weave their way though this beautiful and insightful first novel written by an author who has the perfect experience to write it.

Carrie Duffy – Idol – 18th August 2011

A hugely entertaining and glamorous debut, perfect for fans of the X-Factor, from an exciting new voice in young women’s fiction. Meet Jenna Jonsson and Sadie Laine: two gorgeous, glamorous twenty-somethings fighting to make it to the top of their chosen professions. Beautiful and talented, Jenna is an international pop star, determined to take her career to the next level. And when a chance meeting leads to an opportunity for Jenna to work with world-famous rock band Phoenix, Jenna is quick to agree – although her decision is somewhat influenced by Nick Taylor, the drummer with Phoenix and the most gorgeous man Jenna has ever met… Meanwhile, Sadie is a struggling dancer and a childhood rival of Jenna’s. Ambitious and passionate, she is determined to fulfil her dreams. And a move to Las Vegas yields an unmissable career opportunity and a chance at true love. Jenna and Sadie’s lives are about to collide but will sparks fly? Or will they be able to put the past behind them?

Fiona Neill – What The Nanny Saw – 18th August 2011

Nanny required to take care of needs of busy professional London family. When penniless student Ali Sparrow answers Bryony and Nick Skinner’s advertisement her life changes overnight. She is catapulted into the privileged and excessive world of London’s financial elite. At first everything is overwhelming - from twins who speak their own language to a teenage girl with weight issues and a son almost her own age. Then there is Bryony, who has one eye on her dazzling career and the other on Ali’s failings. When boom turns to bust and a scandal erupts that suggests something corrupt has been hatched behind the Skinners’ front door, their private life is suddenly public news. And as Ali becomes indispensible, she realizes she’s witness to things she probably shouldn’t see. But is she principled enough to keep the family’s secrets when the press come prowling for the inside scoop? Or will she dish the dirt on the family who never saw her as anything other than part of the scenery?

Lizzie Enfield – What You Don’t Know – 18th August 2011

You’ve been together for fifteen years. You’ve got two gorgeous kids and a great career. All the boxes are ticked. You wouldn’t be tempted by a plain, slightly balding man called Graham… Would you? When Graham Parks walks into Helen Collins’ life, the last thing she expects is to fall for him. He’s nothing like her handsome, successful husband, Alex. But fifteen years is a long time and Helen can’t help wondering what it would be like to sleep with someone else. Has Alex secretly been thinking the same thing? As harmless flirtation develops into something far more complicated, Helen’s perfect world begins to look shaky. It’s exciting, alluring, all-consuming. But is it worth the risk?

Claudia Carroll – Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? – 18th August 2011

Absence makes the heart grow fonder…doesn’t it? What happens when two people decide to give themselves the year off…from each other? Annie and Dan were the perfect couple. But now the not-so-newly weds feel more like flatmates than soul mates and wonder where all the fun and fireworks went … When Annie lands her big break in a smash-hit show that’s heading for the bright lights of Broadway, she’s over the moon. Goodbye remote Irish village of Stickens, hello fabulous Big Apple! But with their relationship already on the rocks, how will Annie and Dan survive the distance? They’re hitting the pause button on their marriage. One year off from each other – no strings attached, except a date to meet in twelve months at the Rockefeller Centre to decide their fate. Will they both turn up? Or is it too late for love? Lose yourself in a fabulously entertaining and poignant love story – perfect for fans of Sophie Kinsella and Marian Keyes.

Vanessa Diffenbaugh – The Language of Flowers – 18th August 2011

The Victorian language of flowers was used to express emotions: honeysuckle for devotion, azaleas for passion, and red roses for love. But for Victoria Jones, it has been more useful in communicating feelings like grief, mistrust and solitude. After a childhood spent in the foster care system, she is unable to get close to anybody, and her only connection to the world is through flowers and their meanings. Now eighteen, Victoria has nowhere to go, and sleeps in a public park, where she plants a small garden of her own. When her talent is discovered by a local florist, she discovers her gift for helping others through the flowers she chooses for them. But it takes meeting a mysterious vendor at the flower market for her to realise what’s been missing in her own life, and as she starts to fall for him, she’s forced to confront a painful secret from her past, and decide whether it’s worth risking everything for a second chance at happiness. The Language of Flowers is a heartbreaking and redemptive novel about the meaning of flowers, the meaning of family, and the meaning of love.

Carole Matthews – Wrapped Up In You – 25th August 2011

A Christmas fling, or has Janie found the real thing? Thirty-something hairdresser Janie Johnson’s single status is a constant source of gossip for her friends and clients. So after too many nights in with her cat, a blind date disaster and news that her ex is getting married, Janie realises it’s time to do something dramatic with her life. It’s time for an adventure! Leaving winter behind, Janie takes the plunge and books an exotic trip to Africa. Her friends think she’s mad and Janie thinks they may very well be right …but then she falls head over heels for her tour guide ? and fully fledged Maasai Warrior ? Dominic. But can Janie now face spending a snowy Christmas back home without him? Packed with unforgettable characters, romance and laughter, Wrapped Up In You is your very own perfect Christmas Carole!

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