Chick Lit Classics is a new 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!
Our first Chick Lit Classics is The California Club by Belinda Jones. Chloe and I both feel that The California Club is a true classic of the genre. The premise is hugely interesting and I loved all of the twists and turns as the book progressed. If you haven’t already picked up this fab novel, then you’re really missing out!
When Lara Richards jets off to glamorous California, the last thing she’s expecting is to find her old friend Helen transformed from a clipboard-clasping frump into a shimmering surf goddess. The secret of her blissful new life? The mysterious California Club. So the offer of guest membership - one wish, guaranteed to come true by the end of their stay is one Lara and her friends can’t resist. Could this be Lara’s chance to win her best friend Elliot’s heart after ten years of longing? Or does the fact that he’s travelling with his brand new fiancee mean that Lara will have to come up with a new dream…?
I’m a huge fan of Martina Reilly and enjoy the way she manages to insert both humour and grittiness into her novels. Her next book A Moment Like Forever was originally due out in October 2010 but has been bumped up and will now be released on 1st July 2010. The cover has also been released, which I quite like although the choice of font colours leaves a lot to be desired. Here’s the synopsis:
Andrea and Lexi thought they would be best friends for ever. Through thick and thin, growing pains and wild nights out, they were inseparable. But it was their biggest adventure that was to tear them apart: travelling through Australia, Andrea and Lexi are involved in a catastrophic accident. Andrea is left scarred but her best friend is nowhere to be found. What happened to Lexi? Two years later, Andy’s scar means she’s too scared to go out into the real world. Instead, she spends her time with her grumpy cat Baz and her hopeless boss Alistair. And Lexi still hasn’t been in touch. When Andy’s sister needs somewhere to stay, bringing her boyfriend and all their dramas with them, Andy realises she’s been hiding for too long. Just because she’s keeping some home truths buried doesn’t mean they’ll stay that way …
Sadie Drew thinks she’s the world’s worst wife. She doesn’t keep her home spotless, she’s a tad unorganised when it comes to paperwork and bills, and she’s not exactly fond of her mother-in-law either. However, she loves being a mum and wife to her husband Tom, and everything seems just okay as it is.
That is until Tom gets a promotion at works and starts to change towards Sadie. Suddenly, he’s not happy with the Sadie of old and wants his wife to change so she mixes in better with the other high-flying wives and makes him look good. Sadie’s devastated, and desperately wants to make Tom fall in love with her all over again. A chance meeting with Enid at the park might just be the answer to all of Sadie’s problems...
I’ve read and enjoyed two of Sinead Moriarty’s novels so I was thrilled when I saw that her new book Pieces of my Heart is due for release on 5th August 2010. I couldn’t wait to see the book cover and boy, is it gorgeous. It’s definitely one of the nicest covers I’ve seen so far in 2010. Here’s the synopsis for Pieces of my Heart:
The modern woman is a Jill of all trades – wife, lover, mother, daughter, friend, fixer, boss . . . it’s never-ending. Ava is juggling a life that seems to have too many pieces. First, there are daughters Sarah and Ali, two chalk-and-cheese sisters heading into adulthood and testing every limit. Her husband Paul seems more interested in work than home – which might explain why her sex life is practically on life support. That certainly can’t be said about her Viagra-popping dad, a loveable rogue who is heading into old age and also testing every limit. She would envy her best friend Sally, sassy single woman-about-town, if she didn’t know that behind her polished exterior Sally is as vulnerable as a kitten. Somewhere in there is Ava herself, trying to do her best for all of them but lately feeling like she’s running on empty. But when a crisis threatens everything she holds dear, Ava realizes that there is no such thing as empty. She just has to dig deeper than ever before and figure out a way to hold on to the pieces of her heart . . .
Jessica Brody has been a hit with Leah and I with her chick lit fiction novels The Fidelity Files and The Good Girl’s Guide to Bad Men, but now Jessica is branching out into YA. Her first YA book The Karma Club is due out on June 3oth, and sounds like a fun read! Jessica has also got a book trailer for the book which you can view on Chicklitreviews.com below! Here is the synopsis of the book too:
“Madison always thought she understood how Karma works. It’s that mysterious, powerful force that brings harmony to the universe. You know - do good things and you will be rewarded, do something bad and Karma will make sure you get what’s comming to you. A sort of cosmic Balancing act. But when Mason Brooks, Maddy’s boyfriend of two years, gets caught tongue-wrestling with Miss Perfect Body Heather Campbell, and absolutely nothings happens to either of them - exept that they wind up the hot new coupl of Colonial High School, it seems like Karma has officially left Maddy in the lerch. That’s why Maddy and her best friends, Angie and Jade, decide to start the Karma Club - a secret organisation whose sole purpose is to clean up the messes that the universe has been leaving behind. Wheather they’re modifying Heather Campbell’s acne cream as part of ‘Operation Butterface’, or righting a few wrongs when it comes to Angie and Jade’s own slimy exes, they know they’re just doing what karma should have done in the first place. They’re taking care of one another.”
Maeve Connolly is very flighty. She seems to find it very difficult to stay in any place for too long a time. Maeve is also impulsive and seemingly has a lot of bad luck, and on an impulse she decides to drive across America from North Carolina to LA to see her friend Laura. Maeve sets off on her journey along with her bird Oliver and soon finds herself visiting some relatively obscure (and fantastically named) towns across America.
However, Maeve’s bad luck doesn’t seem to have left her and she ends up stranded in Unknown, Arizona when her car Elsie breaks down. As the townsfolk of Unknown rush to help Maeve on her quest to get her car fixed, Maeve finds herself becoming part of the community. However Maeve begins to fall for her boss Noah and her only option appears to be to run again…
Melanie Rose has become an instant favourite with chick lit fans since the re-release of her debut novel Could It Be Magic?. Chloe absolutely loved it and also really enjoyed Melanie’s second book Coming Home which was only released earlier this year. The synopsis and cover is already up on HarperCollins’ website and her third novel will be called Down To Earth and is due for release on 14th October 2010 (although at the end of Coming Home it says beginning of 2011, so it could change). I adore the cover and I also think it sounds fab:
When Michaela Anderson signs up for a parachute jump she gets more than a case of vertigo… Suffering last-minute panic, Michaela’s three colleagues go first. But just as she takes her leap of faith, an almighty gale blows up from nowhere. When she returns to the ground, she finds the airfield deserted, her car gone and the seasons mysteriously changed. Posters nearby proclaim Michaela to have been missing for the last six and a half years… But Michaela is determined to find out the truth. Was she kidnapped? Is she now suffering amnesia, or has something even more extraordinary occurred? With the help of handsome pilot Matt, Michaela sets out to find the truth. And what she discovers rocks everything she has ever believed in to the core… A magical tale that will enchant and enthral fans of Cecelia Ahern and Sophie Kinsella.
Following on from her first installment back in January (Where It All Began & What’s The Story?), I now give you Fiona Cassidy’s third (of twelve) blog we’ll be posting throughout the year!
On my quest to become a published author and after short listing a selection of agents and publishers from the Writer’s and Artist’s Yearbook I decided to contact a few of them and learnt several valuable lessons along the way!
First lesson of the day is…when you ring an agent looking for information expect to be greeted with the phrase “can you email that enquiry to me?” DO NOT expect them to be interested or gush about the fact that you are seeking representation…you are one of many eager little fish in a very big pond. Many agents will not accept manuscripts without first receiving some information regarding what the book is about, what genre it falls into, what the word count is etc. So it’s best to be prepared and send a polite email whilst saving your phone bill. I actually have a very amusing story about my experience of ringing one particular agent in my rather ‘green’ and naïve days….Picture, if you will, an enthusiastic wanna-be writer who was nursing the phone at her ear whilst balancing a laptop on one knee and jiggling a very small baby on the other. Add in a rather pompous agent who asked her for a word count which she wasn’t prepared for and hadn’t a hope off getting without dropping either the baby (who had decided to wail at 400 decibels) or the computer and you ended up with a rather red-faced novelist who vowed to be better prepared in future and simply email people her queries…whilst letting somebody else nurse the infant of course!
If you’re approaching one of the bigger agencies that have many agents working for them ensure that you’re in touch with the right person as some agents will represent various genres within the fiction sector whilst others are looking for writers of non-fiction, educational literature etc. Most of the bigger agencies will have websites which give information about each agent, what their role is and what they’re looking for. In other words DO YOUR RESEARCH!!
When penning an email to an agent I would advise you to be polite and to the point and always ensure that you spell their name correctly! They don’t need to know the entire ins and outs of the plot. A brief overview will do along with a word count if you are finished. They do not need to know that your mother absolutely loved it (of course she does; she was in labour with you for fourteen hours) and they do not need to know endless rants about how all your lifelong dreams will be fulfilled if you get the agent and publishing deal you’re after. They also never need to see any attached photos of yourself posing with the manuscript that you think may be the next bestseller (an agent speaking at a writer’s event I was at one day told that story and I nearly fell of my chair laughing…the word desperate also sprang to mind!)
Agents are busy people therefore don’t expect a response within a week or two. Give them up to six weeks and then perhaps give them a nicely worded nudge but don’t hassle them. If you’re a nuisance and they haven’t entered into a contract with you it won’t exactly instil confidence or make them want to jump at the chance to work with you.
When I entered into a contract with my own lovely agent (you’ll hear all about that later) she very wisely suggested that the relationship between author and agent should be compared to taking on a life partner. I think that this is a brilliant analogy and very wise advice. Just like within any monogamous relationship you must look for an agent with whom you can instantly develop a good rapport. You must have mutual respect for each other, learn to compromise and work as a good team to achieve the end goal of ‘a happy marriage’ or rather an excellent writing career with strong editorial support, good contacts and the promise that you will always work hard for each other and do your best.
Be under no illusion for the majority of writers this will be a lengthy process. For the privileged few who get snapped up right away it will be a painless journey that they will talk about at length making everyone else feel inadequate when they discover that it’s not quite that easy. For me it was a soul destroying experience that made me constantly question myself as to why I was putting myself through this torment (and concluding that I must have been a very bad person in a past life or a masochist?!)
I do promise, however, that perseverance will pay off as it did with me but that’s a blog for another day…
Chick Lit Classics is a new 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!
When Lara Richards jets off to glamorous California, the last thing she’s expecting is to find her old friend Helen transformed from a clipboard-clasping frump into a shimmering surf goddess. The secret of her blissful new life? The mysterious California Club. So the offer of guest membership - one wish, guaranteed to come true by the end of their stay is one Lara and her friends can’t resist. Could this be Lara’s chance to win her best friend Elliot’s heart after ten years of longing? Or does the fact that he’s travelling with his brand new fiancee mean that Lara will have to come up with a new dream…?
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