Posted on February 8th, 2010 by Leah
Isabel Bookbinder makes a return in Holly McQueen’s third novel Confetti Confidential and after flirting with being both an author and working in fashion, Isabel now wants to work as a wedding planner. It’s due out on June 10th 2010 and has a pretty cover.
Isabel Bookbinder dreams of pearly white weddings, happy brides, handsome grooms. And champagne towers that don’t topple over. She dreams of the perfect wedding. But not for herself…for her clients. It’s all about bride management as far as Isabel’s concerned. Even when she misplaces a couple of brides and loses her job working for wedding guru Pippa Everitt, Isabel isn’t disheartened. She throws herself straight into launching Isabel Bookbinder, Individual Weddings, and with a pop starlet and a millionaire as her first clients, business is looking rosy. Unfortunately for Isabel, nothing ever goes quite according to plan…
Posted in 2010 releases, Book News | 1 Comment »
Posted on February 6th, 2010 by Leah
Following on from her first installment back in January (Where It All Began), I now give you Fiona Cassidy’s second (of twelve) blogs we’ll be posting throughout the year!
When penning a novel an important thing to think about is the subject matter that you intend to use for your main storyline and what style of writing would best suit it. I learnt how to find my ‘voice’, as it’s commonly referred to in the literary world, through trial and error and seeing what worked and more often than not what was rejected, commented upon or encouraged!
The subject matter of the first novel I ever wrote entitled ‘Ripped Genes’ (now re-written and called Anyone for Me? and to be published in August) was adoption. It featured a young woman who embarked on a quest to find her ‘birth’ mother. This story meant a lot to me and was of significant importance as I am adopted myself and I found writing ‘my story’, so to speak, both therapeutic and cathartic. This taught me my first important lesson in the art of creating a work of fiction – write about what you know! Now, I am not suggesting that you victimise the aunt you don’t like by bringing her to a sticky end (enjoyable though it would be) or stick members of your family into convoluted love triangles (although it would probably be a good laugh) but crafting a novel from experiences you’ve had or emotions you may feel is a good idea as there is no need for any painstaking research (although I do take my hat off to those who do research their work!) Some people may not be comfortable with the idea of their readers knowing where they got their ideas from but personally I find it warming and engaging when I know that people are writing from the heart, as I was.
When developing characters it is up to you how closely they mirror ‘real life’ people. In my experience as a novelist I think you do inevitably end up putting a little bit of yourself and probably traits of other people you know into your characters – anyone who says otherwise is lying or else wanting to dodge a libel suit (I jest)!! On a more serious note, however, developing your characters is a crucial step and one which shouldn’t be rushed. Your central character is key to whether or not your novel is successful as readers need to find a certain empathy or sympathy with them or at least a common bond! I used to enjoy reading parts of what I had written to my creative writing class as the heroine strangely was five foot and not an inch more (a bit like me), had blonde hair (a bit like me) and adopted and looking for answers (a bit like…yes you get the general drift.) She also got into no end of trouble and attracted disaster from a five mile radius…hmmm.
A story must also have a start, a middle and an end and the first few sentences must be enough to grab the reader’s attention and it must end with a bang having come complete circle throughout with all loose ends tied.
I had always believed that before submitting to publishers you had to have a book completed but was surprised and amazed that this was not the case. On the advice of my tutor I purchased a copy of the Writer’s and Artist’s Yearbook (otherwise known as the bible in writing circles) and began to look for agents and publishers who would be interested in receiving a sample of the type of writing I did – women’s fiction.
And that’s when the fun really started. I wasn’t disillusioned enough to think that I would get published right away but having read the stories of some of my heroines where they told of getting ‘picked up’ almost immediately I thought that the process might have been a bit quicker. I learnt the hard way, however, that patience is indeed a virtue – the only fact that the wise man who created this statement omitted to say was that it was required mostly when waiting for agents and publishers to reply!
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Posted on February 5th, 2010 by Leah
Fiona O’Brien’s fifth book Without Him is due out on the 3rd of June 2010 and the cover is finally up. I quite like the green cover and it would definitely catch my eye in a book shop. The synopsis reads:
One moment, Shelley has everything - three beautiful children, an adoring property magnate husband, and the life of her dreams. Then Charlie’s business empire crashes and he vanishes. While their privileged beautiful daughters Olivia and Emma have to come to terms with being broke, eleven-year-old Mac refuses to talk about what happened. When Charlie’s estranged mother, Vera opens her doors to the broken family, secrets emerge that reveal there was more to Charlie than meets the eye.
But Charlie’s shell shocked family aren’t the only ones asking questions . . . The darkly enigmatic Russian billionaire Lukaz Mihailov arrives in Dublin with some unfinished business. What better way to track down Charlie than befriend his pretty and very vulnerable, abandoned wife Shelley . . . Is blood is always thicker than water? Maybe Charlie’s family are simply better off without him ….
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Posted on February 5th, 2010 by Chloe
Through Penguin Ireland, Tara Heavey has a new book out next year called Where the Love Gets In. It’s due out on 1st April 2010, and sounds like a great read:
“In any normal situation Fiona and Sarah would be friends. They are both smart and loving, great mothers, brilliant at life. And they both need a pal. But when Sarah arrives in Fiona’s small town on the Clare coast, it’s not a normal situation. Sarah is on a mission and before either she or Fiona know it - and without her meaning to cause havoc - that single-minded vision has turned both their worlds upside-down. Fiona and Sarah both discover that just as love drains out of lives that are routine and taken for granted, so it can also flow back into those lives in unexpected and breathtaking ways. And where the love gets in, it changes things forever.”
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Posted on February 4th, 2010 by Leah
When Ruth Bussey’s boyfriend Aidan confesses to murdering someone, Ruth is understandably shocked. Her shock deepens when her boyfriend tells her the name of the woman he murdered: Mary Trelease. The thing is Ruth knows a woman called Mary Trelease and she’s very much alive.
Ruth and Aidan separately visit the police to tell them of Aidan’s shocking confession - Ruth is adamant that Aidan hasn’t killed this woman whereas Aidan is even more adamant he did kill her. As Charlie Zailer and Simon Waterhouse begin to investigate, they unravel a series of coincidences in their bid to find out just why a man would confess to the murder of someone who’s seemingly still alive.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in 2009 Releases, Book Reviews, Rating: 3/5 | 3 Comments »
Posted on February 4th, 2010 by Leah
After a three-year break Louise Harwood is back with a new release! Kiss Like You Mean It is due out on 19th March 2010 and as well as having a fab cover also sounds like a fantastic read! Here’s the synopsis for you all:
In 1916, a young cameraman, Ambrose March, was killed on the Western Front. His astonishing and beautiful shots of soldiers, living and dying, remain testament to his talent. Now a major Hollywood movie aims to recreate his final days, but the cast and crew are running into trouble.
Rory Fermoy, leading man and Hollywood bad-boy is giving the performance of his life. Off set he’s the archetypal Hollywood hell-raiser with a lifestyle that very much mirrors the destructive and restless character he is portraying. And Rory has developed a keen interest in Carey Sloan, the new girlfriend of the producer, Russian billionaire Anton Klubcic. It’s well-known that Anton has his girlfriends followed by private detectives, and anyone who crosses him lives to regret it. The thought is enough to send director Hayden Bonnard into melt-down.
With the help of make-up artist, Ella Buchan, Hayden is determined to save the film at all costs and though Ella is tired of egocentric stars like Rory, she s willing to help. She has no idea what s she s letting herself in for.
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Posted on February 4th, 2010 by Leah
I haven’t read Melanie La’Brooy’s first book, Babymoon, which was published in the UK last year, although I think it sounds fab and her second, The Wedding Planner, (in the UK) is due out on 2nd September 2010. It has a very pretty cover and it sounds like a good read, too:
Sabrina Falks is the golden girl - a star actress engaged to the too-good-to-be-true Edward. Her younger sister Mimi is funny and bright but hopelessly lost, with no career prospects, no money, no love life and a string of disastrous mistakes in her past. When Sabrina asks Mimi to be her bridesmaid, Mimi soon learns that ‘bridesmaid’ actually means ‘unofficial wedding planner - servant, slave and general dogsbody’. And, to her horror, she knows that it’s going to take more than just patience to whip up the wedding of the century, especially when the official wedding planner has a murky secret that could rock Sabrina and Edward’s world…
Posted in 2010 releases, Book News | 2 Comments »
Posted on February 3rd, 2010 by Leah
We may well have the word chick lit in our title but the fact is, I also read other genres. I predominantly read chick lit, obviously, but I also enjoy the odd thriller/suspense book - I will in fact be reviewing a thriller title on here soon! Another genre that’s pretty similar to chick lit, though, is Young Adult. It’s becoming more and more popular and I’ve bought myself a few YA books. I’m not saying we’re having a genre change but there will be some reviews of YA books popping up as well as news pieces. Without further delay, here’s our first YA offering:
Lauren Oliver’s debut novel Before I Fall has been getting hugely fantastic reviews everywhere I look and I’m actually currently reading (and loving) it myself. I’m almost finished it and will be reviewing it before it’s release date! Before I Fall will be released 4th March 2010 and as well as having a stunning cover (those green eyes) it has a fantastic premise:
They say that when you die your whole life flashes before your eyes, but that’s not how it happened for me
Sam Kingston is dead. Except she isn’t. On a rainy February night, eighteen-year-old Sam is killed in a horrific car crash. But then the impossible happens: she wakes up in her own bed, on the morning of the day that she died.
Forced to live over and over the last day of her life the drive to school, skipping class, the fateful party she desperately struggles to alter the outcome, but every morning she wakes up on the day of the crash. This is a story of a girl who dies young, but in the process learns how to live. And who falls in love… a little too late.
Posted in 2010 releases, Book News | 4 Comments »
