Posts Tagged ‘jane green’

Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus – The Real Real – June
Jesse O’Rourke, coffee barista, high school senior, and unwitting reality TV star. Imagine there was never a Laguna Beach, a Newport Harbor, the shimmering Hills. Imagine that your hometown-your school-is the first place XTV descends to set up cameras. Now imagine they’ve trained them on you. When Jesse O’Rourke gets picked for a “documentary” being filmed at her school in the Hamptons she’s tempted to turn down the offer.

But there’s a tuition check attached to being on the show, and Jesse needs the cash so she can be the first in her family to attend college. All she has to do is trade her best friend for the glam clique she’s studiously avoided, her privacy for a 24/7 mike, and her sense of right and wrong for “what sells on camera.” . . . At least there’s one bright spot in the train wreck that is her suddenly public senior year: Jesse’s crush has also made the cast. As the producers manipulate the lives of their “characters” to heighten the drama, and Us Weekly covers become a regular occurrence for Jesse, she must struggle to remember one thing: the difference between real and the real real.

Heather McElhatton – Jennifer Johnson is Sick of Being Single – 1st June
Body conscious, cubicle-working, and love lorn in the Minneapolis suburbs, Jennifer Johnson is your average American woman. So it’s totally understandable when she freaks out after learning her ex-boyfriend is getting married, as is her younger sister, Hailey. To add insult to injury, this means she’ll have to wear an Asian-inspried kimono bridesmaid dress, which shows every curve and dimple plus more. Approaching thirty, single, and still unsatisfied with her career as a copywriter for the family-owned Keller’s department store, like any woman would, Jen begins to obsess about finding a boyfriend, losing weight, and perhaps chasing her dream job. When Brad Keller, heir to the Keller’s business, comes into the picture, it looks like Jen’s luck just might be changing. But, as often is the case, in reality, things are never quite as glossy beneath the surface and life’s decisions aren’t always about following your dream. We’re with Jen every step of the way from her daily struggle to eat or not eat a Cinnabon to her decision to ruin the kimono with Drano, and finally, to her chance to define her ‘happiness’.

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Holly Macintosh is sitting round her kitchen table with her oldest friends, friends she hasn’t seen since school - now reunited by an unexpected tragedy and catching up on the past 20 years. On the surface, they are all successful and happy.

But scratch a little deeper after that extra glass of wine and it’s not quite so straightforward: Paul and Anna are struggling to have a baby, Saffron the actress is still waiting for that really big break that, at 39, is looking less and less likely, and Olivia, always the wallflower of the group, is newly single and mourning her lost love.

And what about Holly Mac? Can she and her husband Marcus get their marriage back on track for the sake of the children? Or has someone just come back into her life who will change everything forever?

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Jane Green’s eleventh novel, Girl Friday, is released on 11th June. I didn’t really enjoy Jemima J and barely made it to 30 or so pages before giving up I decided to give Jane a second chance - oh the irony - and picked up Second Chance, which I’m currently reading. I’m enjoying it so may try more of Jane’s books (tell me your favourites of Jane’s) particularly since Girl Friday, Dune Road in the US, sounds such a good read:

When Kit and Adam separated after almost fifteen years of marriage, Kit felt like she had lost her lover, her best friend and her identity all in one fell swoop. But now, a year on from the divorce, Kit has found herself again and she loves her life in the idyllic Connecticut town of Highfield.

She has the perfect job – working for Robert McClore, the famous novelist – two wonderful children, a good relationship with her ex-husband and time to enjoy yoga with her friends. Then Tracy, Kit’s yoga instructor and close friend, introduces her to Steve – attentive, charming, the perfect gentleman – and, for the first time in years, Kit thinks she may have found the right one. But is Steve really as perfect as he seems?

And why does it bother Kit when Tracy starts dating Kit’s reclusive boss, Robert? What no one knows is that Tracy is hiding a secret – one that threatens to ruin her new-found happiness with Robert and her friendship with Kit. And now Tracy must decide whether to keep her past hidden from them both for ever or whether she should reveal the truth before it’s too late…