You Are Viewing Rating: 2/5

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.

(more…)

An Autumn Crush by Milly Johnson
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
Release Date: 29th September 2011
Rating: 2/5
Source: Received from the publisher for review.
Amazon Summary:

After a bruising divorce, headstrong Juliet Miller invests in a flat and advertises for a flatmate, little believing that in her mid-thirties she’ll find anyone suitable. But along comes self-employed copywriter Floz, raw from her own relationship split, and the two woman hit it off. When Juliet’s twin brother Guy meets Floz, he is overcome with a massive crush. But being a shy, gentle giant, he communicates so clumsily with her as to give her the opposite impression. Guy’s best friend Steve has always had a secret, unrequited crush on Juliet. After a night of too much wine, Steve and Juliet end up in bed, after moaning about the lack of sex in their lives. Convinced that Juliet doesn’t feel the same way, Steve agrees to a ‘just-sex’ relationship, until they can both hook their dream partners. Just when Guy has finally plucked up the courage to tell Floz how he feels, he finds she has rekindled an old romance. Floz has never had much love in her life and is obviously thirsty for affection. She loves the whole Miller family, from Juliet and Guy’s warm, loving parents, to their ancient one-eyed black cat. But can Guy turn Floz’s affection for his family into something more - into love for him? Then Juliet makes a series of discoveries which will turn the lives of all four friends upside-down and turns that Autumn into a season where love can be harvested.

(more…)

A Scandalous Secret by Jaishree Misra
Release Date: 26th May 2011
Publisher: Avon (a division of HarperCollins)
Rating: 2/5
Source: Received from the publishers.
Amazon Summary:

The truth will tear them apart…

They had the perfect marriage…

Glamour, money, and a beautiful home– the golden couple of Delhi, Neha and Sharat appear to have it all. But a dark secret from Neha’s past is about to resurface, a heartbreaking moment in her past that she has tried to block out.

While studying at Oxford, a naive eighteen year-old Neha fell pregnant and made the difficult decision to give the baby up for adoption, vowing never to contact her child again. But now, years later, her little girl – Sonya – is now a fully grown woman and determined to find her birth mother.

With the foundation of Neha’s and Sharat’s world rocked to its very core, will Sonya’s arrival in Delhi push it over the edge? And as Sonya begins to confront Neha, can mother and daughter allow themselves to forgive and forget?

(more…)

Slow Love: How I Lost My Job, Put on My Pajamas, and Found Happiness by Dominique Browning
Published by Plume
Release Date: August 30th 2011
Rating: 2/5
Source: The publisher via NetGalley, thank you!
Summary:

In late 2007, Dominique Browning, the editor-in-chief of Conde Nast’s House & Garden, was informed that the magazine had folded-and she was out of a job. Suddenly divested of the income and sense of purpose that had driven her for most of her adult life, Browning panicked. But freed of the incessant pressure to multi-task and perform, she unexpectedly discovered a more meaningful way to live.

Browning’s witty and thoughtful memoir has already touched a chord with reviewers and readers alike. While untold millions are feeling the stress of modern life, Slow Love eloquently reminds us to appreciate what we have-a timely message that we all need to hear.

(more…)

What You Don’t Know by Lizzie Enfield
Publisher: Headline Review
Release Date: 18th August 2011 (paperback)
Rating: 2/5
Source: Received from the publisher for review.
Amazon Summary:

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?

(more…)

Gypsy Wedding by Kate Lace
Publisher: Arrow (An imprint of Random House UK)
Release Date: 4th August 2011 (paperback)
Rating: 2/5
Source: Received from the publisher to review.
Amazon Summary:

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…

(more…)

Hidden In Paris by Corine Gantz
Publisher: Carpenter Hill Publishing
Release Date: 19th April 2011
Rating: 2/5
Source: Bought
Amazon Summary:

In a tale of friendship, self-discovery and love, three women running away from their lives become unlikely friends in a beautiful house in the heart of Paris. Lost in France, a country she mistrusts, among French people she hardly understands, Annie has trouble venturing away from home since the death of her husband. And since home happens to be a small jewel of a house nestled in the heart of Paris, why would she ever want to? But when bankruptcy threatens her beloved house, her one anchor in life, Annie has no choice but to find renters, and quick. Leave it to someone socially phobic to phrase a want ad in all the wrong ways. With shimmering promises of ‘Starting over in Paris’ –– a concept she has no intention of applying to her own life––Annie attracts tenants with the kind of baggage that doesn’t fit in suitcases. A long-legged, cool-headed ex model (everything Annie is not) on the run from her abusive husband, a frail young woman harboring a possible death wish, a mysterious French artist, and an infuriating blue-blooded French man soon threaten Annie’s way of life in ways she never anticipated. But when Annie finds herself reluctantly yet actively engaged in the rescue of her tenants, she discovers that she might just save herself in the process. 

(more…)

The Promise of Happiness by Erin Kaye
Publisher: AVON (A division of HarperCollins)
Release Date: 28th July 2011 (paperback)
Rating: 2.5/5
Source: Received from the publisher for review.
Amazon Summary:

Louise McNeill arrives home to the idyllic Irish town of Ballyfergus, hoping that it will provide the sanctuary she desperately craves. Starting again with her three-year-old son Oli, Louise’s heart is full of apprehension. To make matters worse, Louise’s sister Joanne seems far from happy as she watches Louise’s little family blossom. But as Joanne grapples with her ‘perfect’ marriage, is everything as idyllic as it seems? Meanwhile Louise’s youngest sister Sian has decided she doesn’t want children and wants to dedicate her life to ecological living with husband Andy. But is this a mask to disguise a bigger issue? And is Andy ready to sacrifice parenthood? Join the McNeill family as they attempt to come together to provide the love and support that they all need — whether they know it or not

.

(more…)