Posted on May 6th, 2010 by Leah
Ann Pearlman’s debut fiction novel The Cookie Club was originally released at the beginning of the year as a hardcover. The paperback version of the book is due out on 14th October 2010 and will revert to it’s American title The Christmas Cookie Club. I loved the original pink cover but I think I love the new, blue cover even more! Here’s the synopsis:
What would we do without one another? It was a statement, not a question. Each of us knew the answer for herself. Every year on the first Monday of December, Marnie and her twelve closest girlfriends gather with batches of beautifully wrapped homemade cookies. Everyone has to bring a dish and a bottle of wine and, as they eat, they take turns telling the story of the cookies they have baked. Stories that, somehow, are always emblematic of the year that has just passed. This year, the stories are especially important. Marnie’s oldest daughter has a risky pregnancy. Will she find out tonight how that story will end? Jeannie’s father is having an affair with her best friend. Who else knew about the betrayal? Rosie’s husband doesn’t want children, but can she live with his decision? Each woman, each friend has a story to tell. The Cookie Club is about the passion and hopefulness of a new romance, the betrayal and disillusionment some relationships bring, the joys and fears of motherhood, and above all, it’s a celebration of the friendships between women.
You can read Chloe’s review of the book here.
Posted in 2010 releases, Book News | 2 Comments »
Posted on May 6th, 2010 by Leah
We have an exclusive for you all today - the synopsis for Katy Regan’s eagerly anticipated second book! It was originally due out this year but has been delayed and now The One Before The One will be released on 15th January 2011! There’s no cover yet but I love the sound of the book:
TO DO LIST
Make something with Quinoa
Pluck eyebrows
Do something ‘cultural’ every week
Dump married boyfriend
Caroline’s life was meant to be sorted when she made the decision to end her engagement, 3 months before the big day. With her to-do list tasks getting crossed off and her career going great guns, Caroline is sure she’s now a fully functioning adult. So when her 17 year old half-sister Lexi, arrives unexpectedly at her door, it doesn’t quite fit with her image that she’s drunk and wearing her wedding dress!
Lexi has come to stay for the summer but their relationship is strained, as Lexi is the result of their father’s infidelity. An affair that led to the divorce that destroyed Caroline’s mother and ruined her own childhood. Needless to say, Caroline is in no hurry to confess her relationship with her married lover Toby.
As the summer wears on, Caroline has decisions to make, and a life to reconsider, but surely a 17 year old can’t teach her anything about how to live well?
Posted in 2011 Releases, Book News | 2 Comments »
Posted on May 5th, 2010 by Leah
Lucy Riddick has always dreamed of going to Venice particularly since it’s been pinned up on her mum’s wall for as long as she can remember. She doesn’t think she’ll ever get the chance to visit Venice but she’s soon proved to be wrong as the secret she’s been carrying has finally caught up with her.
All of a sudden Lucy realises she needs to escape. She immediately decides that Venice is the place for her and sets off, leaving behind a boyfriend and her life in Cornwall, but it’s still not enough and suddenly Lucy finds herself closer to the thing she’s been trying to escape from for most of her life…
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in 2010 releases, Book Reviews, Rating: 4/5 | 4 Comments »
Posted on May 5th, 2010 by Chloe
A few months ago, Tara Hyland released her debut novel Daughters of Fortune with publishers Simon & Schuster. I was lucky enough to read it and found it to be a great read, and Tara was also kind enough to grant us another author interview so here it is. You can read my review of Daughters of Fortune here.
Q1. Can you tell us about your book ‘Daughters of Fortune’ please.
The novel is about the three very different daughters of William Melville, an English fashion mogul. There’s cold, ambitious Elizabeth; gentle, naïve Caitlin; and wildchild Amber. The book follows their lives, loves and tragedies, as they grow from being teenagers to young women. It starts off with the arrival of Caitlin, the illegitimate child, in the Melville household. The product of an affair between William Melville and a shop assistant in the seventies, Caitlin has been raised in secret in Ireland for the first fifteen years of her life. But when her mother dies, Caitlin is sent to live with the father she’s never met and his resentful family. She struggles to adjust to her new, privileged life, and naturally her presence stirs things up in the Melville household, laying the path for events that will have an impact on the family over the next decade or so.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Author Interviews | No Comments »
Posted on May 5th, 2010 by Leah
I’m a huge huge fan of Rowan Coleman and I adored The Accidental Mother and The Accidental Family and I really can’t wait for her latest book The Happy Home For Broken Hearts. I think the title is a bit wishy-washy and twee - I much preferred the previous title The Making of Ellie Woods! I’ll definitely be buying this though when it’s released on 19th August 2010 and I think it sounds fab. I love the cover, too, it’s very cute. Here’s the synopsis:
When Ellie Woods is widowed and left to raise her son, Charlie, alone, suddenly the cosy family home she’s cherished and felt safe in, echoes with the faded memories of a once happy family. Despite rapidly-growing Charlie and his demanding teenage need for space and independence, Ellie can’t help but feel she’s rattling about the big house like a ghost herself. And without her noticing, her haven has become her cage, albeit a gilded one. So, at her sister’s suggestion, Ellie decides to rent out some rooms. Gradually, their lives become filled with an eclectic crowd of lodgers. And Ellie, forced at last to step out of the pages of the romantic novels she so lovingly edits, once more learns to live again…
For all of you Rowan fans out there, I’m pleased to report she has signed a new two-book deal with Arrow and that those books will be released in 2011 & 2012 respectively!
Posted in 2010 releases, Book News | 1 Comment »
Posted on May 4th, 2010 by Chloe
Chick Flick Tuesday highlights the best chick flicks in the movie world as well as bringing you news on upcoming chick flick releases as well as letting you all know about which chick lit books are being made into chick flick movies!
You may have seen my tweets over the weekend that I was watching a movie called The Notebook, and I loved it so much that I just had to choose it for this week’s Chick Flick! It’s based on a book of the same name by Nicholas Sparks and stars Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdam as young lovers Noah and Allie. But that’s not all - there’s a lovely and touching story going on between two elderly residents at an old person’s home too with a hidden secret. It’s utterly charming, made me cry more than once and is just a fab movie to settle down to in the evenings! If you haven’t seen it yet and are a huge fan of romantic movies, then make sure you see The Notebook as soon as you can!
“In a modern-day nursing home, a kindhearted man (James Garner) reads a tender story to another patient (Gena Rowlands). The story begins during one glorious summer in small-town South Carolina in the early 1940s. Noah Calhoun (Ryan Gosling) is a blue-collar log mill worker who courts the wealthy and sheltered Allie Nelson (Rachel McAdams). Before long, sparks are flying and the pair is in love. But eventually Allie’s snobby parents force their separation, and when World War II arrives, Noah heads overseas to serve his country. In the meantime, Allie becomes a nurse and falls for another man (James Marsden), to Noah’s dismay. Nonetheless, he buys and fixes up the mansion he promised Allie he would one day restore, and when he and Allie reunite just before her wedding, their love blossoms once again. Decades later, in the nursing home, the story reaches its heartfelt conclusion.”
Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »
Posted on May 4th, 2010 by Chloe
Now, this book isn’t strictly chick-lit but I just had to post about it because of the cover! I was lucky enough to receive an ARC of it this week and I’m quite excited to read it now. I adore the pretty cover and it’s certainly one I would pick up in a bookshop just because of that! It’s due out 5th August in hardback, and here’s the synopsis:
“Emily Benedict came to Mullaby, North Carolina, hoping to solve at least some of the riddles surrounding her mother`s life. But the moment Emily enters the house where her mother grew up and meets the grandfather she never knew, she realises that mysteries aren`t solved in Mullaby, they`re a way of life. Here are rooms where the wallpaper changes to suit your mood. Unexplained lights skip across the yard at midnight. And a neighbor, Julia Winterson, bakes hope in the form of cakes, offering them to satisfy the town`s sweet tooth - but also in the hope of rekindling a love she fears might be lost forever. Can a humminbird cake really bring back a lost love? Is there really a ghost dancing in Emily`s backyard? The answers are never what you expect. But in this town of lovable misfits, the unexpected fits right in.”
Posted in 2010 releases, Book News | 4 Comments »
Posted on May 4th, 2010 by Chloe
Today is my Co-Editor Leah’s 20th birthday so I wanted to make a post wishing her the happiest of birthdays from me! She’s been a fab blogging parter in just over a year since we started working together so I hope she has a glorious day in the sun, gets lovely pressies and enjoys turning 20 and not being a teenager anymore! Please join me in wishing Leah a very happy birthday.
Happy birthday Leah, have a fab day! xx
Posted in Admin | 20 Comments »
