Summer Book Review: Career Game by Louise Mensch

Purchase |Goodreads

MY SYNOPSIS 

Imagine This: You have everything you already dream of accomplishing by forty. You run a chain of magazines, you have a successful husband, not-quite-successful kids but their trust-fund would cater for that when the time is right.

Except off late you've realized circulation figures for your magazine is sinking. People aren't buying magazines like they used to. Information is everywhere these days. And blogs are killing your market. 

It doesn't end there. Your husband is being an arse. He's suggesting your kids should be transferred to—shivers—public school! And things are getting bad at home with arguments after arguments.

You can't take all that's going with your family now. It's work you run to. Work in a few hours the board of your company are preparing to fire you from.

There's no one to turn to. Someone out there wants to bring you down, you are aware of this—you are in New York after all, and you stepped on many toes to get successful. You've only got your bestfriend who's also a top-dog in the music industry...

Only she's too wrapped up in salvaging her own record company before it goes down the drain.

Topaz and Rowena's turbulent lives summed up for your delight.

My Review. 

I liked this book.

Great storyline. I love titles featuring women with high-powered jobs dominating men's only environments. They usually set my temperature boiling as they are fast-paced and such a turn-on! This title is no different. A star.──★

The main characters are not hard to fall in love with. As I said above, both Rowena and Tapaz were a turn-on for me with their lives every New Yorker would be envious of... unless you delve into their familial lives and realize they are not as perfect as they put across. Very relatable to women who are trying hard to strike the appropriate work-family balance. A star.──★★ 

Some other characters are winning too. There's Maria, the actress who's trying hard to break-in to the world of Hampton-Hausfrau and New-York socialite by hooking a multi-millionaire husband. There's also Joe Goldstein, the husband of Tapaz you ladies would love because it happens he isn't only successful at work he's... good in other areas too. Stars to all these characters.──★★★ 

Suspense is a big thing in this book. You'd be sitting on the edge of your seat for most part of your reading. The sex is also amazing too—lots of squirming moments in your seat.──★★★★

My only problem is I wish other characters could have been fleshed more. There were lots of characters who weren't well-developed and most of them seemed... not so three-dimensional. Otherwise it would have been a five-star read.

So my rating:  Four/Five stars (4/5 stars).

Louise Mensch's latest is available on amazon.

I recommend this to anyone who wants a fast-paced bonkbuster this summer that they can lose themselves into and make lots of book boyfriends or—if they are not in for a relationship—these boys can equally serve as Good book fuck-buddies. If you also want to read a title set between enchanting L.A, and New York and some glamorous locations all over the world, go pick this. Want to read a book of about women who have it all and are about to lose it all, run for this. 

My work not done here. Off to post my review on Goodreads and Amazon.

Summer Book Review: All Together Now by Gill Hornby

Purchase|Goodreads

My Synopsis. 

Imagine This: You live in a small town and have single-handedly raised your child. You are now in your forties and happy to live with your son who won't move out already—something you are pleased with.

Your new identity in this new town is to stay away from all sense of community, stay at home all day when you have no work and do rock and roll marathons with your son yelling at the top of your lungs. 

One evening, after your son has finally decided to go get a job—which wouldn't last, you know him—you are singing to a soulful rhythm till you hear the doorbell ring.

A novelty. No one has ever rang your doorbell. 

It's a man from the community choir, calling on you to come join. 

Reluctantly, you attend. And here are three things you note about Bridgeford Community Choir:

1. The only singing done is hardly harmonious. More of a group of people butchering songs from Sound of Music.

2. No one in the town cares about the choir.

3. No one in the choir cares about the choir.

You do not care too, really. Till you perform a soulful Abba and everyone's straining to hear more. Soon, all these choir members with their personal dilemmas are crowding into your doorway, convincing your son to leave you for Africa and "training" for a championship they've set their eyes on ever since.

A championship you know they won't win. But everyone needs a little Hope these days. The community needs it. The choir needs it. Apparently, you need it too...

And singing your lungs out, hearts out, your secrets out, your drama out, your past out, might just be the only way to reignite this Hope for the future.  
Tracey Beckford—who isn't Tracey Beckford at all—'s life summed up for your delight.

My REVIEW. 

I loved, loved this book! So you know in my review I'd be butchering all your fave songs in your ear to go get this book!

The storyline is fantastic! You have never read a book about a community choir this amazing, this inspiring! So Woman with hidden secrets as well as an amazing talent decides to take the community choir under her wing and whip it into something that's close enough to be a choir, at least! Meanwhile, property developers are about ruining their small town and together, with one voice—which no one in the community seems to have at all—they must prevent this.──★ 

Secondly, you'd love the main characters! It's not every author who can pull a multiple character read of both genders and still gain my attention. (Well, some try!) This book's main characters are true, real and engaging! Meet Tracey Leckford, in her forties battling with losing her only son. There's also Annie already approaching sixties too involved with her community to put away the emptiness she feels when her daughters and now her husband have moved on to another life. There's Bennett, jobless, divorced man, who's family gets off making jokes at his expense, who also lacks the enthusiasm for life. A star!──★★

Other characters are also great! My favorites, Lynn and Pat, the two oldies who are always giving of snarky asides to each other about members in the choir. There's Judith, who goes on and on about her boyfriend who everyone believes is imaginary. There's Lewis, whose democratic values lie out of deciding which song the choir should sing—so no democracy then. There's Jazzy, she fancies herself as a soloist but cannot concentrate on her singing because of her junky mother who keeps coming and leaving. Trust me, lots of well-developed minor characters you can't get enough of! A star!──★★★

This book is a laugh-out-loud read! You see this term being used all over on books but no, none are not even (close). But this book would make you laugh till strangers cast weird looks your way and wonder if they are safe around you. (Give reading at public places a go!)──★★★★

My rating is a five out of five stars!──★★★★★

Gill Hornby's All Together Now which I'd never forgive myself for reading too late in the year is available on Amazon! 

I recommend this book to anyone who loves something kicking, and exciting and inspirational to conclude all your summer reading! Anyone who wants a title with likable and relatable and real characters should go grab this! If you have a voice that sucks (—not very much like mine), there's no stopping you from singing at the top of your lungs even if everyone around you wants to jump in front of a moving car than have to deal with your slow torture, because, this book teaches no matter what voice you have, you shouldn't put off singing (a little). Hope is the thing with singing. 😀


My work not done here. Off to post my review on Amazon and Goodreads. 

Summer Book Review: Two Fridays in April by Roisin Meaney

Purchase|Goodreads

MY SYNOPSIS

Imagine This: Your husband died on his daughters’ birthday. He was getting back from his way to pick up a present for her. And well, he died.

Now a exactly a year later, you all are not looking forward to celebrating a birthday. Because that would mean celebrating his one-year anniversary. You are not meant to celebrate his anniversary. You are still mourning. He wasn’t meant to die, how can fate be so cruel?

Apparently, you are not the only one not looking to celebrate a birthday. The daughter cannot, will not get over the fact that, her father died on his way to pick-up a present for her. He was supposed to return on her seventeenth. He wasn’t supposed to die and leave her lost and alone in this world, how the hell does anyone get over survivor’s guilt?

But guess who seems pretty upbeat and is ready to throw up a dinner, get a cake and sing happy birthday? Your unbearable mother-in-law. Well, at least, there’s someone looking up to eating your cake. But all this doesn’t feel right. Why doesn’t that woman own a sympathetic bone in her? Why can she not understand if she’s fecking fantastic and so over her son’s death, you lot are not over his death too? Why does she have to suggest a minor-gathering on a day you’d rather spend staring aimlessly at a headstone and bawling your eyes out?

Unfortunately, you have no idea today, would lead to a chain of events that would teach you to move on, celebrate, and get a fucking life even if your fate has said good riddance to your husband.

Daphne Darling’s life summed up for your delight.

MY REVIEW

I loved, loved this book! So, it’s so obvious I’d be yelling at you to go buy it!

First of all, terrific storyline. I love the whole dark themes this book explores in a very engaging way. A book about loss and dying and mourning could be boring. But not this title. In a day, Woman has rather been flitting through routines without performing them with zest since her husband’s death. And why the hell did he have to be buried in the same grave as his first wife? Why did he have to leave her with a teenager she’s finding hard to connect with? And a mother-in-law who’s as cold, and heartless as, um, a serial killer? Anyway, amazing storyline!── ★

The main characters are fantastic. It’s told in the point of view of four women who need to pick up the pieces after the death of a son, a husband, a father, and a son-in-law. You’d love Daphne for being so… dull (but really, who isn’t after losing their husband), you’d find her relatable if you’ve had to lose someone you love! (Like how I lost my dog and my life would never be the same again!) You’d love Mo, the mother-in-law who’s harsh on the outside, but on the interior she’s warm and does everything with a good thought, but really, who loves an old woman over eighty finding it hard to show remorse and complaining every darn time? You’d also love Una, the daughter who’s grieving her dad’s death, and in my opinion, the boldest of all three women. Isobel is the mother of Daphne who left her when she was only six, she’s worried she’s turning sixty and wondering why she spends her life with the most emotionless man on earth. A star to all these main characters.── ★★

Other main characters are just a delight. There’s Finn, the dead husband who’s ever present in past accounts. There’s Theo, the son of the man who took away Una’s father. There’s the whole bunch related to the man who took away Una’s father you’d absolutely adore. You’d also love Dolly, the dog who someone has to hold on to when another is leaving the house because she’d jump on them and begin licking. There’s Alex,  Isobel’s second husband who probably doesn’t have the right signals that send emotions to the brain, hence is bare. There’s George, Daphne’s stepbrother who’s considerate and sweet with kids. You’d also love Jack, Daphne’s father who backs out of an argument even before it starts whose wife left him for his predictability. A star to all these characters. None redundant, all enjoyable!── ★★★

This is excellent literary piece. It’s hard to find a title that demonstrates literary prowess and experience of the author and still be appealing. This book was all stretched out in a day, yet not boring! You’d love how Roisin connects the dots in each characters’ account explaining your whys and hows to give more depth and understanding to the story. You’d love how Roisin is such a tease, cutting off information, witholding it and supplying it at a later time (in that same chapter, mind you), when she feels it’s most paramount to bring up! Only a writer could admire these attributes of Roisin Meaney. Surprisingly, no backstory is left out, engaging as the present day account.── ★★★★

So this book is not big on OMG-moments, yet it’s hard to put down. You’d find the story engaging, moving and delightful. A star.── ★★★★★

So my rating is definitely a five out of five stars (5/5 stars)!

Roisin Meaney’s amazing latest is available on amazon.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn a few tricks on how to be an amazing storyteller as well as good writer. Anyone who wants something that explores dense themes yet ends on a satisfying note should get this book. 

Anyone who wants a title to steal away their summer hours without noticing (because it all happens in a day!) should go pick this title. 

My work not done here! Off to post my review on amazon as well as goodreads.

Sumner Book Review: My Mother's Secret by Sheila O'Flanagan

Purchase|Goodreads 

My Synopsis 

Imagine This: You are happy for your parents! Forty years! That’s a big deal! Forty years of love, forty years of setting the best example for you to follow. Though, really, let’s face it, they set the bar really high when all you’ve been able to handle is some non-serious friends-with-benefits uncomplicated relationships. A few months of orgasmic fun, that is!

Anyway, you are very much sure your parents would love to have a quiet time together. But your older unbearable sis is having none of it. She wants to throw a surprise party for them, inviting friends, family and neighbours. And you’d rather help than have a rolling pin whacked against your head, really. Besides things look like they’d turn up just alright because nobody seems to be complaining. (But perhaps, maybe they are not teetering around town with three tiers of cake or climbing skyscraper ladders to fix up banners).

Except your mum has decided to release a long-kept secret(s). So things are not exactly going to be booze, cutting cake and making speeches.

Roll out your tissues! It’s going to be one heck of a stormy summer party.

Steffie’s life summed up for your delight.

My Review 

I liked this book!

Great storyline. A family book you could get cosy with this summer. So Woman decides on her fortieth anniversary, she can no more live a lie she’s kept for years, and decides she cannot wait another day (why? Why?) to reveal it to everyone during the time her children want to throw her the biggest surprise. During the same time her son is bringing in a girlfriend from Denmark to coax her into marrying him seeing just how happy his parents are. A star!──

★

A fun multiple character-read! As with all other family books, you’d find yourself scrutinizing, turning over each character finding who you best relate with. You would find your inner, dreamy, lovechild in Steffie. You would find your inner bossiness and unbearable nature in Roisin. You might also find your inner-unsettled and fussy nature in Jenny, the mother. A star.── ★★

Other characters make this book great as well. There’s Summer the cocktail-mixer who’s a bit of a hit amongst the older men of the family. There’s Colette, the cousin who’s dumped three men at the altar. There’s Dave, the brother who’s searching for a right moment to propose. You’d also love the meddling aunts who can’t stand how happy Jenny and Pascal are.── ★★★

OMG Moments would make this a great read for you. OMG Moments you’d really find yourself giggling at. A star.── ★★★★

I liked this book. But I really, really wished I could have loved, loved it. I wanted less predictability, more surprise. On a general note, it a good book. So my rating…

My rating: Four/five stars.

Sheila O’ Flanagan’s latest is available on amazon.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants a family read to enjoy this summer. Anyone who wants a multiple-character read which doesn’t make all the characters look the same, sound the same, be the same. Anyone who wants a title with lots of heart, warmth and love should look no further than this.

My work not done here. Off to post my review on amazon, as well as goodreads.

Summer Blog Tour and REVIEW: I Followed The Rules by Joanna Bolouri

PURCHASE|GOODREADS

MY SYNOPSIS

Imagine This: You are thriving as a journalist being a single-mum to your adorable daughter of ten. You’ve been single since you dumped your boyfriend—that’s a long time. And that’s fine, really. Who needs a man when you can have sex?

Except you haven’t had sex in a long time.

Now your column in an online magazine is funny and loved by most of your audience who are not leaving shitty comments about your sense of humour being as boring as your writing. Except when these comments are increasing by the day, you are beginning to get worried. And your editor is beginning to get worried about laying you off. Not that she’d care that much, she could replace you with someone funnier (fresh and younger, but no one’s adding that).

You are forced to base your column on a new dating book which every woman considers a dating bible. But according to you it’s actually shit, and sexist and against all feminist principles. How can you not ask a guy out? How can you not be funnier than a guy on a date? How can you not have sex till it’s the fifth date? How are you always supposed to let the man lead?

But your editor wants you following these rules soon and fast and writing on them every week. Because if you do not you should say bye to the job of your dreams, a regular income and lots of time to fit around your daughter.

Before you know it, you are following these rules to the letter; walking all over Glasgow to get asked out by a man, being less funny on dates, laughing at all his unfunny jokes, never swearing, being called sweet by these guys. Sweet! Sweet?!

Then a chance encounter with the writer of this book you’ve been slagging on your blog complicates everything.

Catriona’s funny, complicated, dating-hellish life summarised for your delight.

MY REVIEW

Joanna Bolouri has done it again! Go buy this book or don’t ever return for book recommendations (ever!)

Amazing storyline! After penning a debut such as hers. A debut which should just be your fifth book. The pressure to deliver a stunning book to assure your success wasn’t a one-time-lucky-thing is high. Yet, Joanna Bolouri doesn’t disappoint in her novel. A star to the storyline.── ★

Another character to love! I loved, loved, loved Catriona! Her voice is fresh, funny, sarcastic, witty. She’s all you need from an entertaining lead! You’d love her for her bluntness. Her tendency to cuss a lot! Her amazingly wonderful motherhood skills. Hell, another character by Bolouri I would want to have brunch with! A star.── ★★

Other characters make this book kicking too. There’s Kierran, the funny friend who’s quite sure men who play golf are not right for her friend. There’s Rose, the play-date mother who’s always lonely and offering to meet up. There’s Helen, the sister who’s always forcing Cat to sit through dates with weirdoes and would club anyone who insults Michael Bublé, because he’s a fucking god! There’s Peter, the annoying ex you’d love to hate! There’s also Guy Wright the writer of the Dating Book who infuriates our lead. You’d also love Dylan, the adorable one-night-shag and Grace, daughter who’d just make you want to get yourself knocked up and say, To hell with men, I have my adorable, witty, smart daughter. These characters and more(!!) are amazing and not redundant in anyway. A star.── ★★★

This book is fast-paced! You wouldn’t be able to put it down. I read it all in a day (that’s even because I am a slow reader!). The only time you put it down would be when you realize you need to change out of your underwear—because the chemistry of the lead characters is so electrifying!── ★★★★

It’s funny. I assure you, there’s no paragraph that wouldn’t get you grinning or cackling with laughter. Even if there’s one, you’d find yourself thinking back to the jokes that made you laugh so hard then you’d be laughing again. A star.── ★★★★★

My rating: Five out of five stars!

Get this book on amazon, people! And get her debut too if you’ve not read it—just because it appeared on all the good lists on this blog!

I recommend this book to anyone who wants a lead they would adore! Anyone who wants an actual Laugh-out-loud book (—you know, most books tagged this way are not really, but this is different!). Anyone who wants another title from Bolouri as shedoesn’t disappoint! The perfect beach read.

My work not done here. Off to post my review on Goodreads and amazon.

Summer Book Review: Dietland by Sarai Walker

                                                                

PURCHASE| GOODREADS

MY SYNOPSIS

Imagine This: You are overweight, obese, huge, big. But never fat. Anyone could call you anything but fat.

You are tired of people poking fingers at you, mothers using you as an example to ward their little girls off ice cream, no guy would ever want to marry you, or fuck you, or kiss you. To the world, you existence is unnecessary. And for so long you have begun to believe it. All the nasty things people and the media refer to you as. It doesn’t help that you work for a glamorous teen magazine. Your life has been one big (literally) criticism after another.

But all this is going to end.  Soon enough. Because in a few months you are going to do the surgery to transform you from being overweight, obese, huge, big (—anything but fat!). And soon, you’d be what society approves of every woman to be!

But then an encounter with a girl you realize has been stalking you changes your life forever. It all happens too fast. Next thing you know, you are hanging out with a group of interesting women who wake up every morning and show a finger to what society expects them to be, and be anything they want to be! By their daring lifestyles and their influences on your own life, you are persuaded to take on some challenges that would deem you ‘beautiful’.

Except no one told you these challenges would be difficult. No one told you you’d be waking up one morning putting on make-up, wearing knee-length dresses at the risk of society perusing your bulbous thighs, no one told you you’d be going out on blind dates, getting yourself mocked by everyone. How on earth could this way of living make you feel beautiful?

As if all the above is not enough, you find yourself entangled in a messy plot involving a guerrilla group of women terrorizing female-offenders. You can’t afford to have the FBI breathing down your neck. You need this surgery more than a feminist group or prison.

Plum Kettle’s ridiculed, complicated and soon-to-be-dangerous life summarised for your delight.

MY REVIEW

I loved, loved this book! So you know in my review I’d be yelling in your face to go buy this book and, in the process, get your own kind of beachbody this summer!

First of all, This is a debut? This is a debut!? What the….── ★

The storyline is off the hook! It’s just one storyline with so many layers that would surprise and intrigue you! Every section (mind you, not chapter) of this book is divided into a new story line that you never saw coming! So Girl working for a teen magazine is FAT, unlike all her glamorous colleagues who whizz by! Girl wants to have surgery to transform into the kind of woman women hate and men want to fuck. Girl is made to undertake a series of challenges that would make her consider herself ‘beautiful’. But can she stand the lure of becoming the girl society wants to be?── ★★

That above is not all the book is made of. The writer pushes real boundaries. Expressing admirable feminism that would change your perception of society’s view of women, the porn industry, the beauty industry. This book is the kind of book that transforms the reader (it did me!), men, women! I believe this book should be a staple of every home! The kind of book Lady Bug should make into a classic fairytale to teach girls from a younger age they should be everything they want to be (and not what society expects them to be)!── ★★★

Plum, the main character is my kind of girl! (Oh, don’t worry, I do share). You might not understand her reasons for wanting to undergo surgery unless you have experienced the predicament she’s going through—only if you’ve been in her shoes can you relate. But really, Sarai Walker does a good job to make you, the reader, be in her (Plum’s) shoes, feel her pain, know her wants. I wouldn’t say she’s the kind of character for a certain kind of woman—by just being a woman you’d love her! Even I am not a woman so making that statement surely means Plum Kettle has the tendency to win every reader over! Her development is so stunning you would want to rush to Brooklyn to hug her. That said, she felt so real!  A star to her.── ★★★★

Other characters in this book are also amazing! I was so in love with Verena, the woman responsible for our character’s change. You’d love Marlowe the ex-American sweetheart who walked out of Hollywood and decided to never go back (because really, a Hollywood career ends when girls do not want to be you and no man wants to fuck you). All the women in Calliope House—the house filled with the women who leave on their own terms—would be much-loved mostly for their individual projects to change the world’s view objectification of women! Leeta, the stalking girl would also be a favourite and a major reader-interest in the novel. There’s also Julia, the secretive Beauty Editor. Other minor characters representing figures of society that mock women who are not considered ‘beautiful’ enough would be adored(?) A star to all the characters in the book, none were redundant!

The writer’s style is amazing! I love how she reported the attacks of misogynistic characters in this novel by the Guerrilla Group (I even loved the font she used! Yes, I am weird). This part of the story held my interest so much. It’s one of the parts responsible for transforming me.── ★★★★★

A star goes to the humour—wouldn’t call it hilarious, but it’s funny.  The mystery, the suspense! Marketers of this book link this book to getting beach bodies, but I worry what beach body you’d get when spending majority of the time knitting your brows together(!) focused on this book! So engaging!── ★★★★★

My rating: Six/Five stars (6/5 stars). (Not mathematically possible, I know. But I run this blog).

It’s a debut to go get on amazon. It’s a debut to go buy this instant!

I recommend this book to anyone who wants a piece of the new age of debut writers who are breaking bounds! Anyone who wants a book that would change their idea about a lot of things and inform so much on a lot of things too. Anyone who wants something to keep them glued to their sun loungers should go get this book—no need for fake tans, please.

I entered this book not expecting anything other than entertainment, but boy do I feel transformed. That’s why my work doesn’t end here. Running over to goodreads and amazon to spread the Hashtag Dietland fabulousity!

Summer Book Review: A Question of Betrayal by Zoe Miller

PURCHASE| GOODREADS

MY SYNOPSIS

Imagine This: Five years since your parents died and you are not in grief mode. Heck, even if you are you do not want to admit it. Their death has created a giant hole in your life, as well as your heart. You find yourself not committing to anything in your professional life, or your social life. You are just staying alive, not so much living.

The only one person you valued in your life has packed out and left. Mostly because you drove him out, and partly because you are not exactly the type to communicate your feelings or even revisit the night of your parents’ death.

Apparently, secrets buried deep are bound to surface. You find out your mum, who so much claimed to be in love with your father was cheating on him when she was a newly-wed. Now this man she had an affair with has something important to tell you. Of course, you do not want to meet him—what with your own fears and your inability to believe your mum did the unthinkable.

Except this man hasn’t anytime left. He’d be dying soon. If he dies, he dies with all his secrets. You tell yourself you wouldn’t see him. But then you man up and fly to Switzerland.

Of course, you have no idea what you are in for. One secret leads to another and another becoming a whole mess of complications you can never believe an easy-going person such as your mother would put away these ghosts in her pasts for such a long time.

But be careful, there’s someone out there who doesn’t want you to uncover these secrets. Because doing so would lead to their demise, and they’d rather have you silenced forever.

Carrie Cassidy’s complicated and messy life laden with secrets and dark pasts summarized for your delight.

MY REVIEW

GO BUY THIS BOOK!

First of all, Zoe Miller carves a complicated storyline that looks simple from reading the opening hundred pages (or so). A storyline I rolled my eyes at, I must admit, thinking this might be so predictable, you know what secrets would be revealed…. Blah blah. But then I forgot Zoe’s excellence, her very rare talent of making the reader carve out their own storyline and throwing the reader off course with shocking revelations that make her titles hard to predict anymore. All I am saying is, this book doesn’t seem as easy as it is on first glance. And the storyline you might be creating for it, would be so different from what you find out! A star!── ★

Secondly, there’s great character development. It was hard to fall in love with the main character at first, because I found her so dull. At times I’d closed the book and wonder what was off with Zoe’s lead character this time (as I very much loved the main characters of her previous title). But when our lead begins to face her fears, begins finding joy in little things, begins living and learning to confront all stages of grief, she leaps off the page and become lovable—one every person who’s gone through the loss of someone they loved (five years earlier!) can relate to! A star.── ★★

Other characters make this book great too. There’s Mark, the adorable guy our lead has hurt so much you could feel his anger simmering over the pages with any argument they have. There’s Sylvie, our lead’s mum who for most of the story we think she’s someone else till she surprises us and leaves us shocked. There’s Beth, the timid Beth whose inactions you would find yourself enraged by, but she inadvertently becomes the smartest and bravest character in the book. There’s Adam, the bad guy who’d do anything to make sure Carrie doesn’t discover past secrets. A star to these characters.

Zoe Miller offers a beautiful portrayal of Ireland in the eighties and Ireland now you cannot help but adore the past and present narratives of this book. Heck, for most part I adored the past when our lead wasn’t delivering in the opening pages.── ★★★

This book is laced with romance and some very good love-making that is so sensual (and not the tacky kind you’d find yourself skipping). The mystery would get you so confused you’d find yourself wondering why you ever tried predicting its outcome anyway. And the suspense… marvellous!── ★★★★

These are one of the many reasons I love Zoe Miller: she shows chick-lit/women’s fiction can embrace other genres without totally altering their chick-lit/women’s fiction sense. Beautiful.── ★★★★★

My rating: I am tempted to slash half of the stars I intended for the book because it really began at a slow pace. But upon further deliberations, I found out its pace was relevant and significant to our lead character’s development. Her growth wouldn’t have been significant, if the story wasn’t plotted that way. So five stars!

Zoe Miller’s amazing and different(—you always want that in a book!) story is up on amazing. Just go get it!

I recommend this book to anyone who loves their women’s fiction with a slice of dark. Anyone who wants something to keep them on their thinking feet trying to connect dots before the writer reaches her resolution should go get this! Anyone who loves Zoe Miller should go get this book as she doesn’t disappoint!

My work not done here. Off to post my review on Goodreads as well as amazon.

Summer Book Review: TechBitch by Lucy Sykes and Jo Piazza

AMAZON| GOODREADS

MY SYNOPSIS

Imagine This: You’ve taken a ‘sabbatical’—which everyone in fashion knows is a term used when you’re recovering from going under a blade—from your job as Editor-In-Chief of one of the most popular fashion magazines. Only to come back to work to find your assistant twirling around in your office chair—in clothes that do not look like they are from the supply closet.

Turns out, she’s fired all your editors, replaced them with twenty-somethings who do not acknowledge your presence when you walk into the conference room because they are too busy on their phones, she’s banging on about organic traffic, referral traffic and other kinds of traffic you have no idea about. And most importantly, she’s turning your magazine into an app. An idea you’d later find out your publishing executive is on board with.

As Editor-in-Chief of your magazine (now becoming an app), it’s obvious you are supposed to call the shots. But what do you do when you have no idea about tech stuff, when you used to have your assistant print out your all emails, when you’ve updated your status on Facebook three times since you created it (a long time ago).

It’s no news your assistant, now Editorial Director, wants to prove you redundant enough to get you to lose your job. But you wouldn’t let that happen. Not if you could tell the difference between an instagram and a tweet before your magazine turns into an app.

But watch out, your assistant wouldn’t wait around for you to catch up. No. Not if she has anything to do with it.

Imogen Tate’s life summed up for your delight.

MY REVIEW

Go buy this book before I can afford a Louboutin in time to hurl one at you! I loved, loved this book!

Fantastic storyline! Woman survives breast cancer only to come back to work battling a force that might be so powerful than cancer: a back-stabbing assistant. Woman tries all she can to get with the times or find herself with no job in the cutthroat world of fashion. Woman needs to stand her assistant who has now become a version of Anna Wintour with everyone in the office tiptoeing around her. Beautiful! A star to the storyline.── ★

It’s so nice when a book transcends the vision a reader has for it! This was more than a book about fashion, to my surprise! It’s more of the handbook every woman in business must own to stay on top of things. It talks about a new age where twenty-somethings (like me!) are getting all the jobs at high places because they have all the knowledge about using technology to boost sales and you, like our main character, might be trying to wrap your head around Facebook only to find out now everyone is popularizing a new app called ‘Instagram’ more. Mothers dealing with the negative effects of technology on their children! So much more lessons for the contemporary woman! You can be sure this book is a book of the times and would never be irrelevant for thousands of years to come. Consider it a classic! A star!── ★★

You would love the main character Imogen. An epitome of class and style! You’d expect her to eat off her assistant’s head right when the latter is being a bitch, but she handles it with a dismissive nonchalant manner that makes her assistant more pissed off. Like I am calling this woman an old mare that has to be put out to pasture, why isn’t she reacting?! She’s not your stereotypical fashion bitchy boss—she listens(!), she’s the mother who’s always sneaking out of the office in time to go read her children to sleep. I loved her!── ★★★

Other characters made this book fab! There’s Eve, the assistant now Editorial Director who is such a bitch you’d find yourself plotting Imogen’s revenge and asking yourself why they hell isn’t Imogen taking your advice to end her. There’s Alex, Imogen’s adorable husband who’s so supportive and kind of the husband you ladies would dream of having if you have high-powered jobs—one who works like crazy and finds time for his family like crazy. There’s Annabel, Imogen’s adorable daughter who’s a Youtube sensation in some circles and posts videos of herself making smoothies—aww! There’s Rashid, the multi-million tech geek who’s Imogen’s go-to person for anything she doesn’t understand in tech. There’s Addison Cao the fashion journalist who always wants to get scoop of something juicy. There’s so much characters yoi wouldn’t find redundant including real-life stars making appearances. A star!── ★★★★

Reading this book is like watching a candle dissolve into wax (do I even get my analogies??), you do it slowly because you are scared it would end leaving you with the worst book hangover (not that watching candle wax could gives you any hangover). You are so enamoured by the world of fashion and its (the book’s) setting you are in no rush to finish it. You can trust that if I wasn’t a book blogger I would have read it a page a day! A star.── ★★★★★

My rating: I could give this book eighty-eight out of five stars (88/5) if my math teacher wouldn’t come clubbing me to death.

TechBitch by Lucy Sykes and Jo Piazza is available on amazon! Go get it! These kind of books come out a few times in a millennium—revolutionary books that would be made into movies five years (or sooner!) later. I wouldn’t be surprised if this book is the next biggest fashion motion picture since The Devil Wears Prada.

I recommend this book to anyone who loves their chick-lit oh-so-true! Anyone who wants a book that fits with the times! Anyone who wants a book they could do over and over again—like when we book geeks say ‘I read  that book like five times and I still love it!’. Anyone who wants a chick-lit title that’s two words made into one… fan-frigging-tastic!

My work not done here. Off to post my review on Goodreads and (shitty) amazon (that would make me edit a chunk of this review! L)