Ground-Breaking Titles of 2014: Books That Changed The Face of Chick-lit

I had been meaning to post this way back when I had too much time on my hands but never got around to. So as I have taken a mini-blogging break, I would leave you with my list of:

GROUND-BREAKING Books of 2014: BOOKS THAT CHANGED THE FACE OF CHICK-LIT.

(Not listed in any order)

The List by Joanna Bolouri.

Following the adventures of one shy girl with a naughty list, this book has a plot that sets it apart from all other chick-lit titles you’ve ever read. Told in the form of a diary, this book has lots to keep you engaged and SO MUCH MORE TO KEEP YOU GASPING FOR SHOCK! Not to mention it’s funny as hell, and of course sexy as Helen Mirren.  PURCHASE| READ REVIEW

An Open Marriage by Tess Stimson.

I love Tess Stimson because she’s not afraid to use the letters on her keyboard to talk about issues a lot of society frowns upon (except for the old who are now embracing a YOLO approach to life). Focusing on the much hush-hushed swinging life of older marriages, Tess Stimson pens an emotionally steamy novel stacked with lots of lessons to learn from in our rapidly-changing society blurring the lines between adultery and fidelity as well as morality and immorality.  PURCHASE| READ REVIEW

Christmas In The Snow by Karen Swan.

This book puts down the notion that Chick-lit cannot be fast-paced and very intriguing without guns and women sleuths. Karen Swan speaks on issues of feminism and women in high-ranking positions where male-domination is the opposite of what’s said in a Beyoncé track. Now, a book about ‘dark family secrets’ with dark, twisted family secrets! Absolutely ground-breaking! .  PURCHASE| READ REVIEW

A Husband’s  Confession by Zoe Miller.

This is not your ordinary infidelity book! I never thought the main issue behind a book about infidelity could be something besides the ‘Oh, well, he cheated’ fact. Laced with family rivalry, intrigue, suspense and lots of ‘when the fuck is he going to cheat?’ moments, this book is told in present day and past day narratives that gives it a hallmark character! .  PURCHASE| READ REVIEW

Courting Trouble by Kathy Lette.

Listed as the funniest book of 2014, Kathy Lette’s latest release isn’t all about one big book with so much chemistry between the protagonists and too much to laugh at. Putting across issues such as battling rape and its repercussions for feminists and rape-haters all-alike, Kathy Lette tells a remarkable story laden with suspense and so many issues of sexism swept under the carpet. .  PURCHASE| READ REVIEW

So there you have it. And you can vouch that as it appears on this blog, these books have NEVER, EVER, EVER BEEN DONE in chick-lit/women’s fiction. These titles demonstrate chick-lit is not all about ‘That Pink Book’! And by these titles, CHICK-LIT WOULD NEVER, EVER, EVER BE THE SAME AGAIN!

Review+Giveaway: Diary of an Unsmug Married by Polly James

MY SYNOPSIS

Imagine this: Bridget Jones once said all married women should feel smug. Do you? If you have a husband who no longer fancies you enough, or doesn’t know what you are wearing to bed is a flashy new underwear you bought to impress him, or if he takes long business trips without giving you the hotel information. Should you feel smug then?

Or when you feel your job is the most shittiest job in the world, with no protection, attending some of the craziest constituents and getting backed up against the wall with a knife on your throat almost every time.

You married life, your professional life, and personal (with the super-sexy neighbor who keeps popping in for a cockscrew getting your husband’s attention for a few more seconds than you would) is in shambles. And proving you can still be fun and flirtatious and attractive to someone might mean emailing pictures of your butt to an old flame (or whatever he was you are failing to remember) over at Russia.

The crazy life of Molly Bennett summed up for your entertainment.

MY REVIEW

I liked this book.

The storyline was great. One woman married for long, husband hardly notices her anymore, children hormonal teenagers, shitty job in politics, offering wondering if she would be a happily-ever-after pensioner or one going to be stuck in a nursing home, recently sending pics of your butt to an old lover. Brilliant.── ★★

I loved Molly. Very relatable to all the mothers out there who feel they’ve lost some spark in their relationships, anyone with a super-annoying boss and husband and roughly all men in their lives being assholes.── ★★

The characters in the book are amazing. From Molly’s mum who’s worried about her painful backside, to Molly’s dad who loves a little hank-panky with his neighbors even though his hitting seventies, to Greg the annoying coworker, Andrew the dickhead MP who’s more than occasionally not sure what views he’s standing for. Josh, the skateboarding son with no talent (for skateboarding). Connie, the daughter who always, always tells the truth even during an interview for questions when you are supposed to give a static lies to earn the job. A star to these characters and the all the many others that made  reading this book a blast. (I could go on and on)── ★★★

The humor in this book is sick. Very hilarious, laugh-out-loud funny. And everyone knows I love my chick-lit hilarious. So more humor means more points for me. But at certain times I thought the author was trying too hard. Anyway, a star to the humor.── ★★★★

I liked this book. But I would have loved it if there was a particular direction to the story, some suspense something moving enough to keep me reading for a long time besides the humor.

So my rating: Four stars.

You can get The Diary of an Unsmug Married Married on amazon.

We are also giving away a paperback if you enter this rafflecopter.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants something funny this summer, all the mothers out there who feel there’s something wrong with their relationships with their husbands and children, anyone who feels their job or their bosses are shitty. And most importantly, anyone who’s receiving those emails from an old flame their itching to reply to (but for the sake of common sense—and a marriage they’d want to keep—don’t).

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

Review+Giveaway: The Time Of Our Lives by Jane Costello

 

MY SYNOPSIS

Imagine This: You are a single-mum. Work always seems hectic on its own. Now even more so with a four-year old in the picture.

Thank God you can afford a holiday these days. Or your friend can win one of those rafflecopters on Facebook no one ever seems to win. Hola, Barcelona!

You ditch your four-year old with your mum amidst tears, you tell your boss you’d like to switch on your phone in case he needs help. He tells you, you are on a holiday so you should really try relaxing.

You’re super-excited to be taking this holiday with your friends since this would be your fist holiday in six years.

Tragedy strikes, when you bump into a super-sexy guy after piling up your plate on the plane, when the kid behind you keeps kicking your seat and getting his cookies all over your hair, when you get to Barcelona and your room is not ready yet, when your boss keeps ringing you about some PR work you need to be attending to(!), when you can’t move on and forget your ex, when you have no time to read past the first line of your book, when you can’t seem to avoid Super-sexy Guy, when you chase down a pickpocket, when you are told to avoid all journalists on your holiday (who want to get info out of you about some scandal at work), when you can’t seem to talk right but blab in the presence of Super-sexy Guy, when you find out super-sexy guy is a journalist… FUCK. Tragedy still keeps coming.

MY REVIEW

I liked this book.

The storyline was perfect. Three friends on holiday, meet up to have a blast, yet Main character cannot seem to get off work related matters, and avoid all journalists no matter how sexy they seem. A star to the storyline.

I loved Imogen. So relatable. Mums out there would dig her, because it’s not always easy to juggle a job as the (acting) manager to one of the biggest companies in the UK and still get enough time to spend with your four-year old who cannot manage to say I love you back. You would love her when she chases pickpockets, when she’s supportive to her two friends, and when she cannot manage to get past the first line of her book because she can’t afford turning deaf ears to her phone.── ★

I loved the other characters. Meredith, the funky pregnant friend with an on-an-off relationship; Nicola, the over-protective friend. To Imogen’s mum who’d call about the (slightest) unimportant issue. To David the boss, and Carmel his wife. All the character were worth reading about.── ★★

The suspense in this book is also a feature that kept me on the edge of my seat. One minute you are unsure of if Imogen would be able to rescue her company, next you are worried if she’d be able to rescue her job. I couldn’t wait to find out what happened in the end. And trust me, I was fulfilled.── ★★★

I liked this book. But I really wished I could have loved, loved it. It had a shaky start, it took me time to really get involved. But of course, it beat my fifteen percent specification for books I’d review.── ★★★★

My rating: Four-point-five stars.

You can win Time of Our Lives by Jane Costello here.

You could also buy Time of Our Lives by Jane Costello on amazon.

I recommend this book to all the mums out there. The ones finding it difficult juggling between their jobs and their babies. Anyone who wants something to relax to this summer should get this.

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

Birthday Review: Size Matters by Robyn Peterman

MY SYNOPSIS

Imagine this: You run a women’s shelter. Not really profitable, but wait, is anything for charity profitable? You take your women’s shelter seriously, the same for your knit shop inherited from your grandmother, your relationship with your best friend/flat mate, Rena, and the nonexistent kinda cop boyfriend you are kinda seeing, Ethan. But nothing ever goes smoothly. 

1. Maria Carey (I mean it) is always causing trouble at your shelter, breaking noses and spleens.

2. Your grandmother’s shop is run by two nasty, cantankerous old Lesbos who love to insult every customer and make big construction guys cry. 

3. Your best friend and flat mate always has her boyfriend lazying around in your apartment and fucking around with him on the couch you are supposed to make your own memories on watching shitty reality TV. 

4. As if all that isn’t enough, let’s add the tidbit about you not having sex for some months.

So when you take a bet with your best friend which results to you losing and escorting her Aunt Moon-Unit to her ridiculous Bigfoot meetings with totally ridiculous characters present discussing a mythical creature who they think might be alive, you know you’ve hit rock-bottom, really.

Your life is boring. And that includes your social life. Isn’t there a rule out there about this state being less interesting than death?

But what if after dumping your boyfriend for finding out he’s rather a Nathan, not an Ethan and some other mortifying stuff you wouldn’t want to think of (he’s a Dallas Cowboy fan!), you swear off cops only to tumble in the arms of another who you dump because you find out might just be in need of a booty call, and what if you get heartbroken?

Taking a vacation from summer, men, cops, and your whole deprived sex-life might be a fun idea. But do you have the money for it?

So when an offer comes out of your Bigfoot meetings to be a host of a TV reality show, which would make your shelter fifty thousand dollars richer, and serve as an escape from your pathetic life, but not an ideal vacation since you would be spending time with the world’s biggest cuckoos searching for a mythical creature that doesn’t exist, you take it! Ignoring the fact that the producers of the show are really sneaky and that really, who would want to watch reality TV with cuckoos searching for Bigfoot? Too bad for trashy reality TV.

But hey, there’s Jersey Shore! And this Bigfoot thingy might be a hit as well.

MY REVIEW

There’s no telling how much I love Robyn Peterman’s novels. Read three of her books, and even the first book that commenced the Happily Ever Afters and Handcuffs series, How Hard Can It Be. So reading the second, Size Matters, I really had hopes for this. And were they met? Let’s see.

As usual storyline isn’t something that comes difficult with Robyn Peterman. She always finds a way to come up with creative and never-been-done-before stuff that really gives you anticipation right after reading the blurb of her books. Size Matters was no different. Never have I read a book with characters shooting some TV series in the middle of nowhere, the aim? Searching for some mythical character who of course they weren’t going to find because this creature happens to be…. Non-existent.  A star to the storyline.── ★

I loved Kristy. I thought she was fab, funny, kooky yet amazing, someone I’d like to take out to lunch and envision tearing her clothes behind all the talk of her really huge, um, ‘badoinkies’. Robyn’s main characters are crafted in that light. And as much as I’d love to get to know the mains of every single book she creates, I sometimes find myself wondering how she, Robyn, would be. Alter-egos, ever heard of that?── ★★

Sure thing to love the mains in Robyn’s works. But frankly, it’s the supporting characters that make you feel like jumping off a cliff. So crazy to make you wonder with torture. So hilarious to keep you guffawing throughout the book. From Mariah Carey with her anger management issues, her love for odd hair coloring, and her voice usually equated to that of a quarterback on a football team. There’s also Hugh and Kim, the couple who lead the Bigfoot meetings with Kim doing the talking and Hugh offering the background music from his vast collection of songs. You would shit in your pants enduring the annoying, utterly ridiculous and cussing-loving old, cantankerous Lesbos who always, always, want to get in a fight with our lead for claiming her boobs are fake. For Stuey and Stan, the shady directors of the reality show you’d find yourself dying out of hilarity from their super-suspicious motives. Rena and Jack from How Hard Can It Be didn’t disappoint as usual, offering our lead some comfort whenever she felt she was done and over with cops. Now, Mitch. Really, I promise, I have loved all of Robyn’s male leads, but I really wasn’t connecting with this Mitch guy (except his creativity when it came to sex, of course). I don’t know, I felt he was dodgy and didn’t really love our lead. Or maybe I was just jealous and thought I was better off with Kristy (a fictional character that seemed so real, really?).── ★★★

The humor in this book is fantabulous! Does Robyn ever hold back at all? No, no, no. She really makes you laugh like she’s heard somewhere you had a bad day and are craving it. I really hate it when an author figures it all about her readers.── ★★★★

The suspense―mystery, I’d rather call it was discomforting. I mean, write a book about loads of kooky characters searching for some mythical creature, and people would still want to know what happens in the end? That’s some skillful shit. Other than that, I didn’t think Robyn handled her suspense well. That was the only feature that got me to thinking this book was nowhere as good as How Hard Can It Be? The suspense seemed rushed and I felt if there had been a little prolonging I would have been constantly reaching for my face towel and wiping the perspiration on my forehead (which was achieved from the mystery).── ★★★★*

So all in all, my rating would be a four-point five/five stars.

Size Matters is available on amazon.

Robyn Peterman is giving away Six e-copies. Enter rafflecopter to win:a Rafflecopter giveaway
 

I recommend this to anyone who wants to read something different this summer, that has nothing to do with taking off to the beach but the woods instead. Anyone who loves Robyn Peterman should grab this as she doesn’t disappoint. Anyone who loves their chick-lit sexified, hilarious and mysterious should grab this.

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

Book Review: The Perfect Match by Katie Fforde

MY SYNOPSIS

Imagine this: You’ve moved to a new town due to a reason you’d rather not think about. You are now an estate agent fairly happy, living with your sixty-year old aunt sipping teas in a garden of roses and all that kind.

You are good at your job, caring and loving. Not shrewd as all estate managers are pictured to be with a pitch fork. All your clients love you. And so does your boss, who you’ve indulged yourself in a two year relationship with. God knows you love him as much as he… loves himself.

So maybe if perhaps your job entails convincing old people out of their houses into retirement homes, or searching for homes for the most indecisive people on earth, or what of the stingy ones with low budgets and big dream houses, and your aunty getting involved with a younger man, or your boyfriend ACCIDENTALLY proposing to you after he’s taken you out.

Enough trouble for you to deal with!

But not when illegal criminal activities come into the picture. And your boyfriend―oops, fiancé is acting suspicious lately. God help him, you might cut his balls if he’s cheating on you!

But we all know of someone who might want to cut your balls. The reason you left your previous job. He’s back. And it seems like he’s pissed at you, for, perhaps, letting his wife abandon him?

MY REVIEW

I liked this book. The storyline was perfect. The whole girl runs away, starts a new life as an estate agent (new), finds a guy who wants her cutting carbs as much as he wants her claiming the necessary documents of a senior citizen’s house (new), aunty in love with a younger guy (new), aunty having to deal with the pain in the arse daughters of younger guy (new), then the old life comes back to cut her balls (new). Cheers to Katie Fforde, and cheers to the complications of life.──★

Told in third-person points of view narrative of Bella and Alice, her aunt, (don’t you just love reading non-gender benders?), I found each of their voices unique and personalities as well. I know writers who’d just jumble them all up that you’d think each character had a split personality of the other. But Katie Fforde handled it well. The younger audience would place their shoes in Bella’s, the thirty-something’s, and root for Alice undergoing the perils of loving a younger man, and vice versa.──★★

The characters in this book were well-crafted besides the mains. From Jane, the sweet old woman who wouldn’t let go of her house for a retirement home, To the Agnews, the indecisive couple who wanted more for less. Mrs. Macey, a cantankerous woman who wanted her house off the market quick yet didn’t consider the damp smell of cat pee was the reason no one might have wanted it. Tina, the take-charge hilarious secretary. Ed Unsworth, the dickhead who’s lived his life outsmarting people out of their homes. Dominic, the George Clooney look-alike who’s out to get our Bella’s balls (not really, and speaking metaphorically). Michael, the super-charming sweet divorcé who has the hots for Alice. Nevil, the fiancé who plans the wedding down to the gown he wants his bride wearing. I loved them all!──★★★

Humor in this book was OK. Throughout I think there were two or three really laugh-out-loud moments and lots of chuckling ones in there. ──★★★★But everyone knows I love my Women’s Fiction (or all other books) utterly hilarious, so I wished this was too.  

So my rating: Four/Five stars.

You can purchase The Perfect Match by Katie Fforde in both Kindle and Paperback (but I believe paperback does it more justice!)

Amazon:  http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Perfect-Match-Katie-Fforde/dp/184605656X

I recommend this book to anyone who’s always been a fan of Katie Fforde as she never disappoints in this title too. Anyone who wants to know the ins and outs of an estate agent’s life (so they can finally sympathize with the world’s most shrewd characters). Anyone who enjoys reading books about older women starting all over again in the romance department and seeking some action in their private lives as well. Anyone who wants a good suspenseful book should also read this.

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