Just a quick snippet of news here. The title for Katie Fforde’s next book has been released, and its called A Perfect Proposal. No word on the synopsis yet but the book is due on a fabulous day… 10th June (my birthday LOL!). We’ll post the synopsis when it’s available!
Laura Horsley is devastated when the bookshop where she works is about to close. With no immediate plan for future work, she ends up agreeing to organise a literary festival deep in the English countryside.
Laura has no idea how to organise a literary festival and soon starts to panic. Not only that but Laura inadvertantly makes people believe she knows Dermot Flynn, a reclusive writer struggling with writer’s block.
Laura sets off to Ireland with her friend Monica to track down the elusive Dermot Flynn…
Sarah Stratford is a wedding planner with a difference - she doesn’t actually believe in love. She is great at her job and loves organising wonderful weddings for people but that’s as far as it goes - she’s got no love life herself. She’s got 2 friends she counts on for help at her weddings - hairdresser and make up lady Bron whose stuck in a loveless relationship, and dressmaker Elsa who likes it behind the scenes.
When Sarah manages to sign herself up for 2 very important weddings on the same day, she needs her friends more than ever and they all have to pull together to pull off the amazing weddings their clients want. They’re so busy, they haven’t got time to even think about their own love lives, but is love coming out from the most unlikely places?
There’s an art to choosing men …but Thea’s just discovering it.
Fed up with looking after a houseful of students, Thea Orville throws caution to the winds and takes off to Ireland with Rory, a charming but feckless artist. But Thea’s old life isn’t so easily cut off. The arrival of Molly, her bossy friend, demanding to see Rory’s stunning paintings (and to find out what Thea is up to) is bad enough, but why did she have to bring Petal, Thea’s most annoying lodger, along for the ride?
And worst of all, Petal is accompanied by her uncle, the enigmatic Ben, a man Thea has sworn never to like. The timing is terrible - Rory’s dog is about to have puppies - but even more alarming is that the more Rory pursues Thea, the more maddeningly attractive she finds Ben…
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’.
REVIEW BY DOT
I discovered Katie Fforde’s books only last year and I have enjoyed all that I have read so far. With my own wedding fast approaching, I thought I would give Wedding Season a go.
Sarah Stratford is a wedding planner with a secret, she doesn’t believe in love, her skills are tested to the limit when she has to organise the celebrity wedding of the year plus her little sister’s tiny budget wedding, all on the same day. Luckily she is able to enlist the help of two new friends; Elsa is a dress designer who prefers to stay out of the limelight and Bron is a hairdresser, among many things, who is embarking on a new and exciting life. So from sourcing the perfect venue, making a fairytale dress and constructing an impossible wedding cake, these three definitely have their hands full.
Following on from Katie being Author of the Week, here we have Katie’s Author Interview. If you haven’t heard of Katie Fforde, she is the author of 15 novels, the latest is Love Letters out in June, and is a favourite here at chicklitreviews. If you want to try one of her books I suggest you try Paradise Fields, Restoring Grace or The Rose Revived but all of hers are a great read.
1. Describe your latest novel in a sentence.
Love Letters (out in June) is about a girl who sets up a literary festival.
Because we have quite a few Author Interviews, I take my time deciding which to use every week. This week’s Author of the Week and whose Author Interview will be posted tomorrow is Katie Fforde. Here is a small biography from fantasticfiction.co.uk:
Katie Fforde lives in Gloucestershire with her husband and some of her three children. Her hobbies are ironing and housework but, unfortunately, she has almost no time for them as she feels it is her duty to keep a close eye on the afternoon chat shows.
We love Katie here at chicklitreviews, me especially, and I have all of her novels bar Flora’s Lot and Living Dangerously. Out of her 15 novels, bar the two I don’t have, I only have Wild Designs and Wedding Season that I haven’t already read. Her 15th, Love Letters, is out next month and you can read all about it here. I for one can’t wait for Love Letters and will try my best to get it as soon as it is released.
Katie’s books are always enjoyable and are always humourous and you always know you’ll get a good read and good laugh out of her novels. My personal favourites are: Paradise Fields, The Rose Revived, Artistic Licence, Highland Fling & Restoring Grace but I love her others, too.
I also love the covers of her novels. All of her book covers have been re-designed and are really beautiful. You can visit Katie at her website.
So… what do you think of Katie - what is your favourite of her novels?
And can we also say good luck and congratulations to Katie on her impending grandmother-hood!
