Archive for October, 2011

Why we like/dislike it: The cover for Shirley Benton’s debut novel’s paperback release is vastly different to its original and, in my opinion, it’s miles better. The colours are beautiful, looking like a Vegas sunset (not that I’ve ever seen a Vegas sunset…) and the pinks used just pop really nicely. I like that the title takes precedence and that it’s the first thing your eyes are drawn to when you look at the cover. For me, it works. For me, it would definitely be noticed should I see it in a book shop and I would definitely pick it up.

Would we buy the book based on its cover? Yes!

Finding Mr Flood by Ciara Geraghty
Publisher: Hodder Paperbacks
Release Date: 13th October 2011
Rating: 3.5/5
Source: Received from the publishers
Amazon Summary:

Dara Flood always says the most interesting thing about her life happened before she was born. Thirteen days before she came into the world, her father walked up the road and never came back.

Now in her twenties, Dara’s life has a careful routine. She lives in Dublin with her mother and sister Angel. She has pizza with friends every Wednesday, salsa class every Friday, and sees her boyfriend every Saturday. It’s safe and that’s the way she likes it.

Then Angel gets desperately sick and Dara’s ordered life falls apart. Neither she nor her mother is a compatible match for the kidney Angel needs. So Dara sets out to find the father who could be their last hope. But on the path to uncovering the truth about her father, Dara learns that to let life - and love - in, sometimes you just have to let go . . .

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Results Not Typical by Catherine Ryan Howard
Publisher: Self-published
Release Date: 1st October 2011
Rating: 4/5
Source: Received from Catherine to review.
Amazon Summary:

Through their Ultimate Weight Loss Diet Solution Zone System, Slimmit International Global Incorporated claim they’re making the world a more attractive place one fatty at a time. Their slogans “Where You’re Fat and We Know It!” and “Where the Fat IS Your Fault!” are recognised around the globe, the counter in the lobby says five million slimmed and their share price is as high as their energy levels. But today the theft of their latest revolutionary product, Lipid Loser, will threaten to expose the real secret behind Slimmit’s success… As Director of Security, hunky Aaron Green is held responsible and threatened with his job. Spying an opportunity to get back into Aaron’s pants, Marianne Brand, head of Slimming Operations, offers to help him track down the intruder – but what she’s really hoping to find is her missing Much, Much More Muffin, a secret prototype she believes the intruder ate. Meanwhile Slimmit CEO Nicola Darcy struggles to stay conscious in the three layers of constricting underwear she needs to hide her new muffin top, while her daughter Emmy – deemed “unacceptably beyond corporate Appearance Policy parameters” – pushes paper in Slimmit’s basement and dreams of a skinny life, one she hopes her secret membership of Fat Club, Slimmit’s main competitor, will eventually bring her. The race is on to retrieve the Lipid Loser and save Slimmit from total disaster. If their secrets get out, their competitors will put them out of business. If the government finds out, they’ll all go to jail. And if their clients find out… Well, as Slimmit’s Slimming Specialists know all too well, there’s only one thing worse than a hungry, sugar-crazed, carb addict – an angry one. Will the secret behind Slimmit’s success survive the day, or will their long-suffering slimmers finally discover the truth?

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Debrett’s: A Modern Royal Marriage
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
Release Date: 29th September 2011
Rating: 5/5
Source: Received from the publisher for review.
Amazon Summary:

Debrett’s: A Modern Royal Marriage offers an exclusive perspective on the marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton. This beautiful book celebrates and commemorates their relationship, from their first dates right up to the marriage ceremony and honeymoon, and is sumptuously illustrated with gorgeous photographs and filled with quirky facts about the royal couple. The Debrett’s experts also provide an insight into the royals themselves, with a biography of both William and Kate, the Royal Family tree and the genealogy of the Middleton family. There is a section devoted entirely to the wedding ceremony, with details of The Dress, bridesmaids, flowers, music and Westminster Abbey, and the role the iconic building has played in Royal Weddings through the ages. Debrett’s: A Modern Royal Marriage is a unique book and the perfect Royal Wedding companion.

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Hodder & Stoughton has acquired the first two novels by debut women’s fiction author Emma Garcia. Senior editor Isobel Akenhead bought British Commonwealth rights, including Canada, for the first two books in the “Never Google” series from Madeleine Buston at the Darley Anderson Agency.

Hodder plans to publish the first title, Never Google Heartbreak, in August 2012 as a trade paperback original, and in mass market paperback in spring 2013. The second book, Never Google Baby, will follow a year later. Never Google Heartbreak tells the story of Vivienne who, having been dumped by her fiance Rob for the third time, Googles heartbreak and sets up her own relationship website.

Akenhead said: “Everyone here at Hodder is enormously excited about this novel-and rightly so. It’s almost painfully funny, but more than that-it’s completely original, and readers won’t be able to help seeing themselves and their friends in it, nor will they be able to resist recommending it to everyone they know.”

(Taken from The Bookseller.com)

I love the sound of this series and I definitely can’t to see the proper synopsis and cover. It definitely sounds unique and in a time when Chick Lit is said to be stale, well, acquisitions like this rather prove the doubters wrong!

Falling Together by Marisa de los Santos
Publisher: William Morrow & Company
Release Date: 1st October 2011
Rating: 2/5
Source: Publisher, thank you!
Publishers Summary:

What if saying hello to an old friend meant saying good-bye to life as you know it?

It’s been six years since Pen Calloway watched her best friends walk out of her life. And through the birth of her daughter, the death of her father, and the vicissitudes of single motherhood, she has never stopped missing them.

Pen, Cat, and Will met on their first day of college and formed what seemed like a magical and lifelong bond, only to see their friendship break apart amid the realities of adulthood. When, after years of silence, Cat—the bewitching, charismatic center of their group—e-mails Pen and Will with an urgent request to meet at their college reunion, they can’t refuse. But instead of a happy reconciliation, what awaits is a collision of past and present that sends Pen and Will, with Pen’s five-year-old daughter and Cat’s hostile husband in tow, on a journey across the world.

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As I prepped the October releases for yesterday’s post I came across Claudia Carroll’s upcoming novel here in the US, If This is Paradise I Want My Money Back. Now, when I saw the US cover the last thing I thought was “Chick Lit”, but what I did think was that the publisher was trying to reach literary fiction fans as well. Maybe? This was all a bit odd considering her past covers for Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? and Personally, I Blame My Fairy Godmother as well as others. Obviously these other covers were with completely different publishers who have varying ideas on what the cover should represent.

Now, I need to say that I know Claudia has expressed her views on genre labels thanks to a fabulous interview with Leah that was posted a couple of months ago, but I’m wondering how Claudia and her readers feel about the sudden very different change of this cover in particular?

To me personally, though I’m not a huge fan of labels per se, I tend to think the cover seems more “serious” than the description. I’m also a bit thrown off by the headless dress with wings, but that could be entirely my own perception. This is exactly why I’m throwing this out there to our readers and loyal fans of Claudia’s. She no doubt writes fantastic books with wonderful characters, but does this cover one that you’d pick up?

Which do you prefer? The US version (on the left) or the UK version (on the right)?

Velva Jean Learns to Fly: A Novel by Jennifer Niven
Publisher: Plume
Release Date: 30th August 2011
Rating: 5/5
Source: Publisher via NetGalley, thank you!
Publishers Summary:

After Pearl Harbor, Velva Jean signs up for service and gets her wings, risking her life-and her heart.

Velva Jean Hart, the fiercely independent heroine of Jennifer Niven’s spectacular debut novel, Velva Jean Learns to Drive, returns in a captivating adventure that literally sends her soaring. Bristling at the limitations faced by a woman in rural Appalachia and fuelled by the memory of her late Mama telling her to “live out there,” Velva Jean hits the road to pursue her dream of singing at the Grand Ole Opry. But after a string of auditions, she begins to lose hope- until her brother pays her a surprise visit and treats Velva Jean to a flying lesson that ignites a brand-new dream: to become a female pilot. Funny, poignant, and utterly unforgettable, Velva Jean Learns to Fly will have fans cheering all over again.

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