Book Review: The Assistants by Camille Perri

PURCHASE/ GOODREADS

MY SYNOPSIS

Imagine This: You are thirty. For six years you’ve been an assistant to one of the richest most powerful men in the world. Although you are respected, everyone needs a favour from you, you run his life accordingly, you are still underpaid and overworked.

You are drowning in student-loan debts and your 30,000 dollars a year is kind of sucking at bailing you out. But of course, slowly you’d get that loan off your neck, maybe in six to seven to ten years.

Then a cheque lands on your desk. The exact amount of your student loan debt. No one has any idea of it except you. You’ll keep it in your bag for a few days. You’re not going to use it. Only if they hadn’t invented that app where you snap a checque and immediately it gets cashed in into your account.

Relief! Your student loans-debt are paid!

Except you are not all free, some assistants have caught wind of what you’ve done. And they as well, have student-loans to pay too. And if you don’t help them… they wouldn’t help you too.

MY REVIEW

I loved this book! Since (the Devil Wears Prada) no book has been able to quite capture the not so glamorous life of The Assistant…

Amazing storyline! The Assistants of a multi-billion firm duping their filthy rich bosses to clear off their student-loan debts, because of course what they earn a year is what their bosses spend on a golf-club! Brilliant! It starts out as a chick-lit novel, a random one. Then it evolves into a title subversive and revolutionary. A star to the storyline.—★

You’d love the main character! Tina Fontanna! She’s a loner, known as a dyke back in school, spends too much time making sure her boss’ life runs smoothly yet can’t keep hers in check. The typical assistant. However, you wouldn’t find her seething about her boss being a slave-driver (maybe he is, but he has a good heart) and Tina works for him happily. She’s funny. She’s super timid. And is very generous… with money that’s not her own. A star.—★★

Other characters you’d love are Emily, the ‘bonafide’, Harvard-graduate (press her and you’d find she’s lying), accomplice and roommate. You’d also love Wendi Chan, the Asian, band-drummer, anarchist-at-heart computer geek assistant from the IT department. There’s also Margie Fischer, the burly woman who hates Tina’s guts for whatever reasons. Robert Barlow, the boss being duped who has one too many quotes embedded in our lead’s head. A star to these characters and other more amazing Assistants I can’t mention for fear this review might turn into an epic poem of some sorts. —★★★

And there’s a very amazing, and satisfying ending too.—★★★★

My rating: Four out of five stars.

Go get The Assistants by Camille Perri (it’s her debut!) on amazon.

I recommend it to anyone who wants a chicklit title that isn’t all about sunny summers and jilted vacationers, but one that is full off revolutionary material, checking on some error on society.

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

Review: Psychos: White Girl Problems book by Babe Walker

Walk into the ‘chic’ life of Babe Walker, for drama, melodrama and craziness. It’s like reality TV adapted into writing.

BLURB: In this hysterical follow-up to the New York Times bestseller White Girl Problems, Babe Walker travels the globe as she tries to figure out the answer to the question foremost on everyone's mind—including hers: Who is Babe Walker?

If you’re one of Babe's 800,000+ Twitter followers who devour her daily musings, including “It's so sad when you're not dating Ryan Gosling” and “Good deed of the day: Tell a fat person they’re nice,” then you'll love riding shotgun with Babe at the wheel as she travels the globe trying to figure out just who she is in this hysterical follow-up to her New York Times bestselling book, White Girl Problems.

After spending four months in rehab conquering her alleged shopping addiction, Babe Walker embarks on a personal journey of self-discovery. Her faith in the Universe and its messages leads her all over the world: from Los Angeles to Paris to Amsterdam to Greece and New York City. Throughout this wild string of globe-trotting misadventures, Babe finds herself reunited with—and then torn apart from—an ex-lover, excommunicated by the fashion industry, and trailed by a mysterious stalker who clearly wants her dead. Although the post-rehab Babe and been re-birthed as a "New Babe," something that hasn't changed is the "lack of filter" that allows her to say what it is we're all usually thinking, but are too afraid, embarrassed, or polite to say ourselves, making Babe Walker the “epitome of the urban socialite you love to hate” (Time)

                                             

                                  MY SYNOPSIS

Imagine this: You are a socialite. A kind of celebrity.  Well known for penning a book about your life that became a bestseller and won a huge book deal. On the outside everyone might think your life is perfect. But perhaps they are underrating you because you think your life is more than perfect, it’s ‘chic’ perfect. Might it be the ‘drug addiction’ that landed you into rehab that makes you view your life as let’s say, Lindsay Lohan’s (without the criminal records)? Or that you might have an addiction to shopping that gets you high? Or maybe is it that your mother is a forty-year-old model who abandoned you when you were young?

Babe Walker doesn’t get that her life is not as fabulous as she thinks it is (or others do). There are perks in being a socialite and all, but have you thought of a socialite’s life after rehab? Forget ‘chic’, very chaotic if you’d ask me. With your old destructive self competing with your new self to keep you sane, friends who do not get the new you and make you wonder if you have got to ‘throw out last season’s clothes and revamp your closet to something that suits the new you’ (speaking metaphorically), an on-then-off boyfriend behind your back who you can’t get with because being with him reveals a side to you that (kind of) scares him away (for some time). As if all that isn’t enough, you somehow manage to get on Anna Wintour’s, Kim Kardashian’s and Anna Hathaway blacklist (outbidding her on a dress then wearing it to her engagement party), and now you can’t tell who (which one of them) is stalking you and why they are?

A life of fashion, super-annoying besties, psychotic behavior, drama, an ex you want to keep out of the way, a mom in love (I mean, real Brad and Jen love) with Kate Moss, jetting off to Europe (also known as running away), and more drama.

MY REVIEW

I liked this book. A scoop into the life of a real-life socialite. It’s like watching the Kardashians (only short on the number of idiots). Babe Walker bares it all, revealing emotions, real-life situation dilemmas (perhaps) and gives the reader a somewhat glance into the fab parts and not-so fab parts of the life of a socialite. But unlike Ice and Coco and all the fluff you see on telly these days, this book isn’t too orchestrated to make it seem fake. And what’s fun? There are no ad breaks (and no censoring)! Sweet!──★

I liked that this book was non-fiction, but didn’t seem so. Written in a very humorous language, this book made crazy seem just funny and real-life seem so fun (with just a few crazies) to believe.

Certainly Babe Walker might be the character I’d take for lunch. Not sure if I’d like her that much as a friend though (I’d probably think of changing my wardrobe at that thought for less heavy stuff. Again speaking metaphorically).  Very crazy, very chic and sometimes adorable when she hit rock-bottom. I like that when she’s killing it with an outfit after a description of the labels (Celine mostly), she makes sketches for readers to get a complete picture.──★★

I really wished much work was done on the characters, especially the mum and her friends (but not the random guys she’d hook-up with). Not that they seemed shallow, but I felt they could have taken on a bit of flesh (what with being thin and all?) and depth. Either way, I had some favorites like Mabinty, the Jamaican nanny whose accent was humorous; Robert, the so adorable boyfriend she cannot help but not be with; Paul, the junkie who for some reason I thought was Babe’s The One, was actually rooting for him to be though, till… can’t tell. Calisto, the Greek demigod who made you squirm in your seat just at the sound of his name (I really didn’t, just being in your shoes, women, to write this review).──★★

I’m not sure I found this book very suspenseful. Maybe I would have liked it if it was well orchestrated like reality TV and not very crazy Jersey Shore mated with Rich Kids of Hollywood. Much for a younger audience and some oldies who keep in touch with their reality stuff.──★★★

This book had some OMG moments that are note-worthy, but if I do, I might as well request the html from the publishers and paste it right onto this blog. You never did see what was coming until it hit you like a Babe Walker (talking of the hurricane), and when it did, you found yourself muttering a whole lot of colorful language.──★★★★

My rating: four out of five stars.

Pre-order Psychos: a White Girl Problems book on Amazon here. You could also read the prequel, White Girl Problems (although you don’t need the first to get an understanding of the second, but listen, the more the merrier).White Girl Problems

I recommend this book to anyone who loves reality TV. Anyone who wants something focused on the life-after rehab of a socialite should grab this too. And also, anyone looking for drama, humor and fun.

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

Review+ INT Giveaway: Cassidy Lane: A Novel by Maria Murnane

Blurb: From the author who brought us the unforgettable Waverly Bryson and the bestselling Perfect on Paper series.

Bestselling author Cassidy Lane walks into her twentieth high school reunion with several novels under her belt, but no date on her arm, and deep down she still feels like the smart girl no one asked to the prom. Then handsome Brandon Forrester confesses his teenage crush, and soon Cassidy finds herself swept up in a modern-day fairytale romance not unlike the tales she spins for a living. While their relationship blossoms, however, the new book she’s writing isn't going as well, and for the first time in her career she considers crafting an ending that doesn't include a proverbial walk into the sunset. Contemplating the simultaneous reversal of her own romantic fortune and that of her protagonist’s is daunting, but maybe it’s time for both her writing and her personal life to take a new path. Or is it?
Filled with Murnane’s trademark wit and optimism, a charming cast of secondary characters, and loads of heart, Cassidy Lane will have you cheering for its heroine down to the very last delightful word.

                                            MY SYNOPSIS

Imagine this: What’s your stance towards high school reunions? Hesitant to attend or eager to show up? The feeling is mixed, for you actually. It’s fun to go see who’s bloated the size of a barnyard, or who became what, and who’s still a bitch. When you are forty, you look out for:

1. Who is recently divorced?

2. Who's had their face done and by whom?

3. Who is close to death, faced by an illness or is aging like a breakup letter received with ire?

Your high school life wasn’t what everyone would wish their high school life would be. You weren’t asked to Prom. You didn’t have the body of a cheerleader. You had crushes on the jocks who didn’t notice you. And even the nerds couldn’t even acknowledge you, because who would like to be a braces-wearing geek anyway? But your best pal wouldn’t let you decide against attending. So you have no option than to face your past, which was much of a blur to everyone else anyway. And hark, you are not only going a successful writer with so many books under your belt, you are going single. There’s a whole look they give to single spinsters at forty in a high school reunion and you would soon find out.

You admit to yourself, you were overreacting a bit. The high school reunion didn’t turn out bad, or great either. The cheerleaders have grown the size of Cindy Crawford’s mole. Jocks that had muscular thighs and legs as long as Lindsay Lohan’s criminal records now have arthritis. Apparently rehabs couldn’t contain the crack junkies. The dorky nerd whose proximity determines the degree of your embarrassment, is still who she is, except she might be a mother of two (equally dorky kids). The school bitch, is still pretty, plastic and divorced. But there’s someone you never noticed, someone whose transformation has taken on a ‘woah’ factor according to everyone. Brandon Forrester.

So what if you get back to New York and everything returns to normal? Your life is as solitary and mundane as ever, being a successful writer and all. Your deadline, as though it isn’t already looming, has been pushed forward. The pressure to produce something that might be your finest to date is daunting. You know reading fan mails are the only perks of your job.  But what if you open your inbox one time, and saw Brandon Forrester, an email from him. With your deadline, you can’t afford to be distracted. It isn’t an option. But what if you reply, and within a twinkling, he does back? Then the messages keep piling, and piling. Can a long distance relationship work, you begin asking yourself. And even if it can, perhaps, can you rewrite your entire high school life and get back the happy ending you missed out on when no one asked you for prom?

Cassidy Lane’s life summed up for your delight!                                        

MY REVIEW

The story-line of this book is a winner. Reunions, forty year olds, life after high school, spinsterhood. Perfect! I mean, who hasn’t wanted to find out what their high school mates have become after over twenty years. Another reason to be nuts for Murnane’s settings.──★

Everyone wants to write full-time these days, a few people have accomplished that. So the appeal this story would hold to all the wannabe full-timers, shouldn’t be debatable. Not only wannabe writers per se, on odd days who wouldn’t wish they had their work right at home. The perks are that perky. The trip to the fridge is short, you have no boss looming around to call on your mistakes, and perhaps no one to monitor if your emails are work-related, no one to tell you when you can leave work and when to actually work at work. To create a character like Cassidy who’s very relatable──on the outside appears very successful, an equation we give to all full-timers, but behind closed doors not really feel like the million-dollar book deal she is, is what would draw in readers to pick this title.──★★

The in-depth view into Cassidy’s life would also win another star from me. The thing about writing what you know really comes into play for Maria Murnane here. It’s an insightful take on what really goes on behind the pastel chick-lit covers. The struggle to stay focused, the editors who keep pushing forward the deadlines, the writers’ workshops you are invited to speak at with the pressure of what to give away and what-not-to-tell, the fear of losing your fans if you ditch the ‘walk into the sunset’ endings for a more realistic one, the fight to stay inspired always around everyone and everywhere. This book puts down the notion that after signing a book deal with a big, big Traditional Publishing house, all is roses. Perhaps the most annoying feature into that aspect of a full-time writer’s life would be the fact that, whatever happens, whatever masterpiece you create, you are always, always going to be among the D-List of celebrities (when even shits like the Jersey Shore cast are proportioning to incredible levels).──★★★

I had some fav characters that made reading this book fun. Danielle and Patti, the kickass friends, were the stars of this book. Brandon Forrester was also one of the characters I constantly looked forward to reading about. I wish like him (and me of course) all men knew women hated mixed signals and men who keep them thinking on their feet for meaning to their words.──★★★★

The humor is subtle. I loved Cassidy’s voice, very insightful, very without-the-fluff (which is basically saying, very forty). And it has been very well established I love Older Women Books.──★★★★★

The suspense in this book is very unsettling. One feature that got me glued to this book. I wanted to find out what would happen, and perhaps test its predictability. But Maria Murnane never made her plot stand out like a skanky see-through top, it was all fed at a read, no prescience by me could figure the turn of events. But thinking of it, that’s just life. A feature about this book that makes it very realistic.  I wished though, it wasn’t that rigid. I wish it was a bit predictable enough for me not to slash one of its stars into a half.──★★★★★★

So my rating: 4.5 stars!

Buy Cassidy Lane, Maria Murnane’s so-true-to-life latest on Amazon in both kindle and paperback: http://www.amazon.com/Cassidy-Lane-Maria-Murnane/dp/1477849947

B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/cassidy-lane-maria-murnane/1117243364?ean=9781477849941

Three print copies are up for grabs. This is an INTERNATIONAL giveaway. Enter the rafflecopter below. a Rafflecopter giveaway

I recommend this book to anyone who loves their women’s fiction very real. Anyone who wants anything that’s not easy to predict at all. Anyone who loves their Women’s fiction with ample romance to keep them glued. Anyone who has always wondered what goes behind closed doors of very successful authors should also pick up this title.

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

Valentine's Book Review + Giveaway: Big Girl Panties by Stephanie Evanovich

Stephanie Evanovich pens a fine debut that deals with weight-loss, body image and redefining what society considers 'obese' from the point-of-view of a not-so-size-zero character.

Blurb: In BIG GIRL PANTIES, Evanovich introduces readers to Holly Brennan—a 32-year old grieving widow in need of a change. Having spent too much time mired in sadness and grief-eating, Holly heads out of town to settle her husband’s estate and try to move on. Enter Logan Montgomery—a personal trainer to the country’s most famous professional athletes who also happens to be sitting next to her on the flight home.

Holly’s mortified by the way she’s squeezed into the airplane seat, butas they chat, Logan quickly realizes she has a sharp wit and keen insight—a welcome change from the sexy but superficial women he usually dates. When he impulsively offers to train her at his private gym, Holly surprises even herself and agrees.

Holly discovers she’s a natural athlete, and as her fitness level increases, so does a new found confidence. When Logan finally introduces Holly to his best friends, baseball superstar Chase Walker and his wife Amanda (a feisty curvy woman herself), they instantly see what Logan doesn’t; Holly is knockout. As their smoldering attraction starts to spark in earnest,Holly and Logan will have to decide if their love is for real…or just about looks.

BIG GIRL PANTIES is a fun, sexy, smart, and exceptionally saucy romp—a must-have book for the summer and a debut not to be missed.

Buy Links Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Big-Girl-Panties-Stephanie-Evanovich/dp/0062224859/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=1-1&qid=1387392610

B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/big-girl-panties-stephanie-evanovich/1113200658?ean=9780062224859

Holly suffers a loss hard to deal with: the loss of a spouse. For two years she's been locked up in a world of tears and comfort-eating. Who knew too much bingeing and ice cream could make you bloat over proportions that could crash a beam balance? There must be an exception for when you are grieving. But no, besides lack of time to apply any amount of makeup, do your hair and have reason to get into that Little Big Black Dress, there's the ginormous strata of belly, the unflattering stretch-mark ridden thigh, the double chin that might just give way for a third and the back that looks like a sword was run through it vertically. Still, Holly might think she's a fat, walking disaster (only if she has the courage to stare herself in the mirror), no man wants an obese walking disaster. But little does she know personal trainers would kill to trim that fat arse.

Logan Montgomery—hot, sexy, personal trainer, rumoured to date the thick-headed plastic size-zero blond types and dumps them right when they manage to string words together for a sentence—meets Holly. It's disgust at first sight. Surely there must be a reason someone would horde that much food in her system and he's aching to find out why. He's struck with sympathy for Holly after finding out the reason behind her BMI being fatter than a woman's overnight bag. He proposes to help trim that ass, Holly agrees tentatively.

In a matter of weeks, Holly doesn't expect to be turning heads of guys neither does she ever think she'd ever be able to shop at the size twelve section at Macy's. Now thanks to Logan she's even hanging out with baseball star, Chase Walker and his wife Amanda chinking glasses with the crème de la crème of the sports scene attending charity galas and enjoying front row seats at baseball games.

Logan is watching Holly morph into a confident, sassy and sexy woman. You heard right, sexy woman. All he wanted to do was trim that ass, but for some reason, he wants to tap,tap all over it.

There are somethings everyone wants to see these days in a chicklit title before clicking the ADD TO CART icon.

1. Everyone wants a relatable heroine. Holly is relatable. I love that she holds this appeal for the plus-sized for being, well, plus-sized. It's such a nice change when it isn't a size-zero silhouetted glamazon dangling shopping bags on her arm on a chicklit cover. After this novel, maybe meat-on-bones might be the in-thing in chicklit. Also, our slim, trendy sisters should dig this title because, the ginormous self-pity you see in some Big characters is hardly seen in Holly thanks to her funny cynicism and wisecracks.—★

2. Everyone wants a title with a lesson that is timeless in society. Stephanie Evanovich picks up a touchy subject and delivers it so perfectly without rising tempers. We all care about our cellulites, or the little flags we have pulling down our underarms, or whether we need to have that chin tuck surgery or the lipo. Holly says, "It all doesn't matter as long as you are healthy!" Society isn't every guy! We all have preferences, we are human we don't look alike. Why then for some reason it should ever cross your mind that because you shop at a two-digit section, you can't attract attention! Lessons about dealing with loss, Body Image are paramount in this title, and definitely earns it a star from me—★★

3. Everyone wants something steamy. The sex in this title is hot, naughty. Who knew gym sex could be so fun? Especially when it is with a trainer you ladies would roll your eyes into your heads for the numerous mouth-watering positions he's capable of getting you into, all in the name of losing that extra pound. You wouldn't believe me. But every time there was a sex scene I'd hop onto my bed, lie down and read. All. Through. The. Killer. Orgasm. Abstinence till marriage can be a real sucker, you know. —★★★ (Sorry for that much details into my sex life).

4. Rom-coms go with super-romantic and swoon-worthy endings. I loved, loved the ending of this title. It was creative and left me feeling all ooey-gooey. Big Girl Panties' ending might just get on my list of best rom-com endings in life—★★★★

On a general note, I liked this book. It was fine. But it could have been fantastic if it hadn't limited me to one LOL moment, everyone knows humor is a Big thing for me and I wish the humor was amped a bit. I also wished much job was done on the supporting cast, I'd love that they had a little—How do I put it?—flesh (pun very well intended).

My rating stands at four stars!

I totally recommend this title to anyone who's the least worried about their body image. Anyone who's quite the fitness goddess. Anyone who wants something with lessons they can nod to. Anyone who loves their chicklit steamy and sexified!

You can stand the chance of winning Big Girl Panties!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Fingers-crossed to read The Sweet Spot, Stephanie's second coming out this July.

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