Category Archives: Chick Lit

I’ve got your number: A Novel by Sophie Kinsella

Posted on February 2, 2012 | 6 Comments

Believe me or not I’ve got your number was released in Italy a few months ago (translation: Ho il tuo numero) , it hasn’t been released in english yet.

The original english version is usually the one I prefer but desperate times call for desperate measures and I needed something fun & entertaining, I knew I could rely on Sophie Kinsella.

From Goodreads:

Poppy Wyatt has never felt luckier. She is about to marry the ideal man, Magnus Tavish, but in one afternoon her ‘happy ever after’ begins to fall apart. Not only has she lost her engagement ring but in the panic that followed, she has now lost her phone. As she paces shakily round the hotel foyer she spots an abandoned phone in a bin. Finders keepers! Now she can leave a number for the hotel to contact her when they find her ring. Perfect!
Well, perfect except the phone’s owner, businessman Sam Roxton doesn’t agree. He wants his phone back and doesn’t appreciate Poppy reading all his messages and wading into his personal life.
What ensues is a hilarious and unpredictable turn of events as Poppy and Sam increasingly upend each other’s lives through emails and text messages. As Poppy juggles wedding preparations, mysterious phone calls and hiding her left hand from Magnus and his parents… she soon realises that she is in for the biggest surprise of her life.

First of all it’s not that UNPREDICTABLE (stop here , spoilers are coming)…I read lots of romantic novels and I am always able to predict who ends up with who by page 10, what’s intriguing is how they end up together.

I’ve got your number is Kinsella at her best: fun & light & romantic & entertaining, I read it in 2 days.

Sam Roxton is DREAMY, not the sort of businessman I ever had the pleasure to work with, he is confident and a little obnoxious, loyal, has a dry sense of humor, has a BIG HEART when it matters.

So far Sam Roxton is my favorite male character created by Sophie Kinsella, this is saying something considering I read them all.

Poppy Whyatt isn’t Becky Bloomberg, she is a little too cute for my taste however she can get carried away and create some exhilarating situations.

Sam and Poppy work really well together, they find themselves sharing a phone for a while, reading each others emails and texts, developing a friendship.

… and then there is a beautifully written scene, I could feel the  butterflies in my stomach, and the ending…oh the ending! is spectacular.

It made me laugh a lot, plus as I mentioned I became very fond of Sam, it always happens when I read a novel written by Mrs Kinsella, by the end of the book we know a lot about HER and not to much about HIM so I sort of wish for a sequel in which I get to know Sam better.

It would be perfect on screen (if if if…I hated Confession of a Shopaholic, the movie!)

Enjoy

My grade: 4/5

Em

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Posted in book reviews, Chick Lit, Grade 4/5

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Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire

Posted on November 13, 2011 | 3 Comments

Summer time is for romance so before I left for my long summer vacation (benefit of being on maternity leave) I spent some time on goodreads looking for something good and I stumbled upon “Beautiful Disaster” by Jamie McGuire.

From  Goodreads:

The new Abby Abernathy is a good girl. She doesn’t drink or swear, and she has the appropriate percentage of cardigans in her wardrobe. Abby believes she has enough distance between her and the darkness of her past, but when she arrives at college with her best friend America, her path to a new beginning is quickly challenged by Eastern University’s Walking One-Night Stand.
Travis Maddox, lean, cut, and covered in tattoos, is exactly what Abby needs—and wants—to avoid. He spends his nights winning money in a floating fight ring, and his days as the charming college co-ed. Intrigued by Abby’s resistance to his charms, Travis tricks her into his daily life with a simple bet. If he loses, he must remain abstinent for a month. If Abby loses, she must live in Travis’ apartment for the same amount of time. Either way, Travis has no idea that he has met his match.

“This book is like crack” says Torie on Goodreads and I can’t agree more.

It’s not healthy for you  (and you know it) but it’s impossible to  stay away until it’s OVER .

Everything about this story is really quite absurd, not that I have anything against this per sè  but while reading Beautiful Disaster I wasn’t feeling good about myself and especially about feeding my brain with this material, it can’t be good and yet it’s very good and juicy in all the right places.

Travis Maddox is uber sexy, fully aware of his hotness, a fighter who wants to major in criminal law, one of those “larger than life” character, nothing is subtle about his personality and I  usually don’t like this sort of hero (the sort that always behaves as expected, the two-dimensional hero) but somehow you can’t help sympthazing for Travis .

Abby Abernathy is supposed to display some kind of complexity, truth is I found her quite annoying.

Beautiful Disaster isn’t a character-driven novel, it’s a relationship-driven novel  and considering how many contradictions you can find in this story I will say that the title is PERFECT.

So why did I recommend this book in my previous post (a mention that intrigued Janicu who after came up with her review … do yourself a favor and read it!)?

I do think that if you have to spend a few hours on a flight or waiting in a doctor’s hall Beautiful Disaster will distract you completely, if you are feeling bored it will surely help to ease the feeling (more like dissipating it) , it’s juicy.

Your brain won’t like it but your guts will appreciate it so there must be something good in here :)

Em

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Posted in book reviews, Chick Lit, Romance

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A brief Summary

Posted on November 2, 2011 | 12 Comments

I can’t believe that my last post here was written more than one year ago!

For those of you who are interested here it’s a brief summary of my 2011:

* in february I moved back to Milan and for a while we had been renting a VERY little place in Milan;

* in may I had a baby, her name is Carola and she is almost six month old, here it’s a picture of us on vacation:

I had a natural childbirth because by the time I arrived to the hospital it was too late for an epidural, it was better & faster than expected…would I do it again? Next time I’ll make sure to be on time for my epidural :)

* I read a TON of books about babies (The baby whisperer by Tracy Hogg, a book by William and Marta Sears, Your Baby and Child by Penelope Leach and many others) , currently I am exclusively breastfeeding but weaning will be staring soon.  I am lucky because my little Caro is a very sweet baby who sleeps  through the night and sometimes takes a long nap in the early afternoon;

* during the summer we moved again (this time it’s our place, no more renting!) and we are currently decorating, we bought paint & stencils on-line, it’s hard work but great fun:

Right now I am on maternity leave but I don’t really have too much time for reading and reviewing,  here are a few books that I recently read:

Jane by April Lindner, Angie was right, I really enjoyed this retelling of Jane Eyre, although I am not crazy about the original one

You don’t have to say you love me by Sarra Manning, surprisingly I did not love this one, Neve and Max sort of got on my nerves but I must admit that I still haven’t come across a book by Sarra Manning that isn’t utterly compelling and somehow juicy

Pug Hill by Alison Pace, not my kind of story… I was bored from the beginning to the end

Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire, I completely agree with a few reviews that I found on Goodreads: THIS BOOK IS LIKE CRACK

The Help by Kathryn Stockett, a keeper! Now I understand what all the fuss was about, I loved it

My one and only by Kristin Higgins, I regard myself as a very picky reader when it comes to contemporary romance… I love the concept but actual books often disappoint me, this was not the case with My one and only, it’s really really fun

Ciao

Em

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Posted in A history of Love (dazzled and confused), book reviews, Chick Lit, Romance

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Chick Lit September Giveaway

Posted on September 2, 2010 | 1 Comment

September is a very special month, I have a wedding anniversary (1 year!), a birthday (I’ll be turning 29 ), a possible relocation… I am excited and I thought I would share some of the fun by organizing my first  giveaway ever.

Click here to know more :)

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Posted in A history of Love (dazzled and confused), Chick Lit

Sharing is Caring: Chick Lit September Giveaway

Posted on September 2, 2010 | 25 Comments

September is a very special month, I have a wedding anniversary (1 year!), a birthday (I’ll be turning 29 ), a possible relocation… I am excited and I thought I would share some of the fun by organizing my first  giveaway ever.

I selected two chick lit that I loved but don’t seem to have gained much popularity:

If Andy Warhol had a girlfriend by Alison Pace

The Family Fortune by Laurie Horowitz

Contest is open almost internationally (if BookDepository delivers to your country …).

If Andy Warhol had a girlfriend talks a lot about art, contemporary art especially,  to enter leave a comment telling me the title of your favorite painting, why you love it and a way of contacting you.

Here it’s one of my favorite paintings (Gare Montparnasse. The Melancholy of Departure by Giorgio De Chirico):

Gare Montparnasse (The Melancholy of Departure)

I am fond of this painting for its simplicity, the implicit tension, its shadows and lights, its subtlety.

Contest is open until September, 16th (that’s my birthday) , Hope you enjoy!

Em

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Posted in A history of Love (dazzled and confused), book reviews, Chick Lit, Contemporary and Classic Fiction, Romance

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A Good Book is a Good Book Forever

Posted on August 25, 2010 | 7 Comments

Yesterday I came across an excerpt of The Thief on the Harper Collins website.

When you reach the end there is a very interesting EXTRA titled “A Good Book is a Good Book Forever“:

I think a good book is a good book forever. I don’t think they get less good because times change. If I said that about an adult book , most adults would agree. Look at Shakespeare. What’s funny is that people might not think that it is true for children’s books as well.  I think that readers get pushed toward newly published books. Of course the bookstores want you to read the newest books – they need to sell them to you. But look at the library and you will see faced out on the front shelves the new books. It only makes sense to show you what has been added since the last time you were in the library. If you don’t know what is already in the collection and you want to find out, you need to ask a librarian. Say, “I liked Harry Potter, what should I read next?” The Librarian can show you new books and old ones. The disaster comes when the librarian isn’t there.Everybody should have a good librarian in his life, but not everyone does. So what those people see are the new books in bookstores and the new ones in libraries. When I want to buy someone a present, what do I get? Usually a new book, unless I know them really well. Obviously, I want to get them something they haven’t already read. So new books push the old ones aside. I’d like to make an argument for some great old books. It astonished me that some books last as long as they do.

I love it, it’s so simple and so truthful and so well written.

Em

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Posted in A history of Love (dazzled and confused), book reviews, Chick Lit, Contemporary and Classic Fiction, Fantasy, Romance, Ya Books

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I went to Vassar for this? by Naomi Neale

Posted on August 12, 2010 | 6 Comments

We all know how hard it is to discover a  fun-smart-can’t-put-it-down-chick-lit, it’s all  well and good when writers  write about sad things but when comedy kicks in things get complicated.

The way I see it a good chick lit doesn’t rely on sex to keep the reader interested (you won’t find those never-ending steamy paragraphs) and shouldn’t rely on death, illness, catastrophes in all shapes to generate  an emotional reaction.

It’s not easy but Neale (real name Vance Briceland, yes he is a man)  handled everything perfectly well in her/his wondrous novel “Calendar Girl” , I loved that novel, the whole  Elizabethan Failure  Society‘s concept totally applies to my life.

I had great expectations for I went to Vassar for this? but it turned out to be a disappointment.

From  Goodreads:

When modern-day Cathy Voorhees is transported to 1959, screaming and kicking her kitten heels on the board room table, she’s in for a retro treat—her new bosses advances, jello salad, and the granny panties she finds herself forced to wear.

The overall sensation I had while reading this is that the writer  was trying too hard, here it’s a story  that could be sassy-clever-edgy but it’s so overstuffed with references that becomes suffocating.

Plus I had a feeling that Cathy not only time-travelled in time but also had a personality transplant in the process. Overall Cathy displays inconsistent behavior and I did not warm to her character.

There are two very good things: Hank (draws comics about super women, wears framed glasses, unpretentious in that way  geeky types can be , do I need to say more?) and the fact that this could be a perfect screen-play for a movie.  I can imagine  an awesome movie with this storyline and those characters .

It did not work on paper, not for me but others readers think differently.

Vance Briceland writes with different pseudonyms, he is also wrote some ya books (author Naomi Nash) and my next book will be You Are SO Cursed, I see great potential here.

My grade: 2.75/5

Em

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Posted in book reviews, Chick Lit, Grade 3/5

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One for the money by Janet Evanovich

Posted on August 11, 2010 | 11 Comments

I honestly don’t know why it took me so long to consider reading Janet Evanovich, encouragement came from  “casting call” on Lit Snit and I am glad I read this one, it was fun.

The movie is also coming up soon and Katherine Heigl has been chosen to play Stephanie Plum:

katherine_heigl

I love Katherine Heigl but she wouldn’t have been my first choice (while reading this I kept thinking about Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich).

From Goodreads:

Stephanie Plum is so smart, so honest, and so funny that her narrative charm could drive a documentary on termites. But this tough gal from New Jersey, an unemployed discount lingerie buyer, has a much more interesting story to tell: She has to say that her Miata has been repossessed and that she’s so poor at the moment that she just drank her last bottle of beer for breakfast. She has to say that her only chance out of her present rut is her repugnant cousin Vinnie and his bail-bond business. She has to say that she blackmailed Vinnie into giving her a bail-bond recovery job worth $10,000 (for a murder suspect), even though she doesn’t own a gun and has never apprehended a person in her life. And she has to say that the guy she has to get, Joe Morelli, is the same creep who charmed away her teenage virginity behind the pastry case in the Trenton bakery where she worked after school.

Recipe for a bestseller: feisty sexy heroine aka Stephanie Plum, childhood crush turned into hot cop maybe also a dangerous murderer aka Joe Morelli, a grandmother that could be on stage in a stand-up act, a psycho boxer, a mystery plot, a pinch of sarcasm, a generous amount of sense of humor,  blend them together and voilà your summer read it’s ready-to-go.

It actually works, regardless of characters’ predictability there is a certain freshness in this story, Evanovich can write, she manages to create compelling characters that don’t take themselves too seriously, follow their lead and enjoy the ride, start questioning and the whole thing might collapse into a flabby soufflè.

Stephanie Plum might be a clueless bounty hunter but you can’t argue with her determination, I for instance respect a girl who toughens up and faces dangerous criminals.

I read this on vacation and it was great fun. I don’t know if I will embrace those others 15 books in the series but I have already booked the second one.

My grade: 4/5

Em

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Posted in book reviews, Chick Lit, Contemporary and Classic Fiction, Grade 4/5

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My Soviet Kitchen by Amy Spurling

Posted on July 15, 2010 | 3 Comments

I received a free copy of My Soviet Kitchen , as soon as I opened the package I was intrigued because I found a book, a small compendium guide and a tiny bottle of vodka (a welcome addiction in my cabinet).

My Soviet Kitchen by Amy Spurling

From Goodreads:

Memory loss, homo sovieticus, and a wandering phD student. This is Neo-chick lit. with a darker side, a vodka twist and a generous slice of post-Soviet living. It’s 1994 and English Ph.D student, Ivy Stone, wakes up in a Moscow flat with a hangover and a vague sense of unease…
Unable to remember what she did last night or why there is a cryptic Post-It note on her fridge, she begins an emotional, alcohol-fuelled journey via an Uzbek wedding, an Estonian sauna, and a Georgian serenade. What dark past haunts her new Russian man? And will she ever find the author of the mystery Post-It note?

Although I am not sure that we could label this as chick lit I found this novel very interesting, it’s not overly romantic, it’s not that funny, I couldn’t really relate to Ivy Stone and I found her relationship with K.K. as cold as Ivy’s empty sovietic fridge but it’s intriguing, ironic, witty:

“Previous love history: teenage fumblings in the dark followed by a couple of relationship with academia types. The first was volatile soul-searching and state of the nation talks with a classicist, which got pointless after a while; the second was a more predictable biologist, but he was the type that Russians call ‘stiller than water and lower than grass’, i.e. insignificant and small, and we became like Grandma and Grandpa about sixty years too early“

Plus I know nothing about Russia , Uzbekistan and Georgia but after reading this I am considering a trip in this mysterious and resourceful land.

Each chapter starts with a catchy title (“They Keep secrets” “Conversation with a maniac” “A slap in the face”…)  and a food reference like a russian recipe or just an observation, there are pictures, illustrations , a compendium guide and lots of booze (gosh at some points I experienced a literary induced  hangover).

My Soviet Kitchen

Spurling manages to build a story that also revolves around Vladimir Mayakovsky‘s personal life (it focuses on Mayakovsky’s relationship with Lilya Brik) although I must admit that the storyline is not exactly fluid.

The ending wasn’t exactly a surprise but my issue with  this book revolves around characters, Ivy is an enjoyable character but doesn’t really build relationships with other characters and somehow I never get attached to her or any other character in the story.

It’s not what I would define a heart-warming novel, it’s not exactly swoon-worthy material but I highly recommend reading this because it’s very peculiar in a good way and you might learn a few things on the way.

Other reviews:

West End Extra

Novel Insights

My grade: 3,5/5

Em

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Posted in book reviews, Chick Lit, Contemporary and Classic Fiction, Grade 3/5, Grade 4/5

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Tap and Gown by Diana Peterfreund

Posted on July 10, 2010 | 7 Comments

It’s over.

In the last ten days or so I have exclusively focused on Secret Society Girl Series by Diana Peterfreund, it’s been a while since I have been so absorbed into anything, even my significant other started complaining about my lack of attention towards barbarian things and I justified myself claiming that there is a character (guess who?) that strongly reminds  me of him. To explain why I should probably write a few more posts about how we met and what happened next.

Tap and Gown deserves another top grade, it did not make my stomach flutter as much as Rites of Spring but it’s the perfect ending for a brilliant series, although to be perfectly honest I wish there was more to come.

Peterfreund introduced new characters like Michelle and Topher and I wish I had more time with them, I really enjoyed Michelle’s character and she could be the main character of a new series (I hope).

What I liked most:

* Reflections On  Maturity:

“There was that word again.Mature . Was this what maturity was? Giving up on the things we wanted because we knew we’d never get them?”

“It’s compromise. It’s mature”  “It sucks.”

Amy’s observations about maturity really got me because I sort of have mix feelings  towards this specific subject. One of my favorite songs (an italian songs I fell in love with when I was a teenager) claims “I want everything also what it’s impossible I want everything and I will be implacable“.

Most of the time I think compromising it’s a bad idea, eventually there will be pay back time, on the other side only  fools don’t change their mind. It’s a subtle line, isn’t it? Truth is lately I have compromised a lot so I am trying to come up with a back-up theory for my new attitude.

*Reflections on Love:

If equal affection cannot be / Let the more loving one be me

(The more loving one, W. H. Auden)

The dialogue between Brandon and Amy is one of my favorite part:

Brandon: “It’s the underlying inequality. Someone is always the one who loves more, and it eventually drives the
other—the less loving one—away. Just the pressure of it.”

Amy: “Sometimes you met someone that changed the pattern, who wormed their way past the cracks in your heart, caulked them up, sealed themselves in, and stayed there. Sometimes they did it by insisting you meet them at every step, as Jamie had done to me.”

I couldn’t agree more with Amy, this is why Amy and Jamie are so great together, this is why this series is now possibly my favorite romance on paper.

All my reviews of this series focus on romance but those books are so much more, Secret Society Girl is also about friendship, secret society, pranks, secret islands,  kidnapping, crimes, politics, spies … plenty of action! there is enough to keep any sort of reader engaged.

My grade: 5/5 plus

Em

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Posted in book reviews, Chick Lit, Grade 5/5, Ya Books

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