Trashionista

April is ... big giveaway month!*

I thought I'd tell you about this today because if I told you tomorrow you'd think it was an April Fool (wouldn't you?).

During the month of April, we're going to be giving books away EVERY SINGLE DAY!

You'll need to be quick because the deadlines are going to be tight, but don't worry if you miss the chance to win one, another one will be along the next day.

Make sure you drop by tomorrow for your first chance to win. No foolin'!

*I wanted to call this something exciting and alliterative, but I couldn't think of anything to go with April...

The new Sweet Valley High books are already leaving a sour taste

How excited was I to hear that the Sweet Valley High series was being reissued? This excited.

And then today I learned that the books aren't just being reissued, they've been updated. Ominous, no? Well, yes, particularly when you discover that in the original books the Wakefield twins "wore a perfect size 6" and in the new books they are now "a perfect size 4".

As Gawker puts it "just to make sure preteen and teenaged girl readers are sufficiently insecure about their bodies, the publisher made the "perfect" clothing size a couple of notches more restrictive".

Puts the new Famous 5 into perspective, doesn't it?

(Thanks, Gemma.)

BOOK REVIEW: Since I Don't Have You by Louise Candlish

Reviewed by Amy Sheehan

Since I Don’t Have You is based on a sad premise. Rachel, Mariel and Jenny are best friends who share everything, and their children Emma, Catherine, and Daisy are best friends too. The women make a promise that they will look after each other’s daughters if anything should ever happen to one of them. It never crosses their minds that tragedy could strike elsewhere.

Then the unthinkable happens and Rachel’s life is changed forever. Unable to continue in her marriage to husband Oliver, she leaves him and her friends behind to start a new life on the Greek island of Santorini. There, with the help of new friends Eleni and Ingrid, she slowly starts to rebuild her existence. At the same time, she keeps in contact with the past by hiring a private investigator, Johnny Palmer, so she can keep watching over Catherine and Daisy, and secretly intervene in times of crisis. The interaction between Rachel and Johnny was especially touching and beautifully written.

The book reminded me quite a bit of Cecelia Ahern’s PS I Love You, apart from the writing being more mature; and instead of Rachel receiving guidance in the form of letters from a guardian angel, she is the one guiding others, acting as guardian angel to the children she left behind. Throughout the book, the reader also learns why Rachel chose Santorini of all places for her retreat, as well as about her family’s history with the island, especially linked to the earthquake there in 1956.

Like PS, it has a hopeful, if bittersweet, ending, and the descriptions of Greece are beautiful. This and the gentle, relaxing pace of the book would probably make it a good holiday novel. It’s not just a book about grief and coming to terms with loss; it’s about searching for your path in life; celebrating friendship, and finding out ways to be happy. It’s a very moving, well-written, inspirational read.

Rating: 4/5

Like this? Try My Best Friend's Girl by Dorothy Koomson

GUEST BLOG: Robin Gerber

I'm so excited about this book *and* this guest blog!

Robin Gerber's Eleanor Vs. Ike is a novel featuring real historical characters, which I know some of you aren't sure about, but just listen to the premise: it's 1952 and Eleanor Roosevelt is running against Dwight D. Eisenhower for President. Will she win?

If you can resist that, you're a better woman than me.

Carry on over the cut for a guest blog by Robin Gerber and the chance to cast your vote on gripping issues to win one of the three copies to give away!

Over to Robin...

For the first time in American history, a woman is the Democratic Party's candidate for President of the United States. This might happen in 2008, but in my novel, Eleanor vs. Ike, it happens in 1952 and the woman is Eleanor Roosevelt. Welcome to my fantasy!

There were a lot of parallels between 1952 and today. In 1952, America was caught up in a war in Korea that the public hated and wanted to end. There was fear of foreign infiltration by Communists, and civil liberties were curtailed because of that fear. The incumbent President, Harry Truman, wasn't running for reelection. There was an open primary with fierce competition for the Democratic and Republican nomination. And, similar to the looming fight over the Michigan and Florida Democratic delegates today, the Democratic nomination in 1952 came down to a fight over seating delegates. In the end, none of the candidates who ran in the primary got the nomination. Instead, Governor Adlai Stevenson was drafted to run at the Democratic Convention.

So, watch out! If the Democrats go to the Convention still fighting over Hillary or Barack, all bets are off. It's even possible that someone else could get the nomination. Perhaps Al Gore?

Of course, if Hillary Clinton pulls it off (and the odds are against her now), a former First Lady would be running against a respected military man, just like Eleanor vs. Ike. In the midst of war, could a woman be a credible enough Commander-in-Chief? In Eleanor's case, she had traveled the world, especially during WWII, visiting the troops and foreign leaders. She had fully supported Truman's decision to end the war by dropping the hydrogen bombs on Japanese cities, and had backed his decisions in Korea. But I doubt that would have been enough against Ike, the heroic General of WWII. In the book, Eleanor confronts this problem by saying she would make Ike her Secretary of Defense should she win the presidency.

I don't think Hillary Clinton would have to reach out to John McCain, as Eleanor does to Ike. Clinton has experience on the Armed Services Committee, is well-respected by military leaders and has had extensive foreign policy experience from her years as First Lady. Still, if U.S. security is threatened, especially by another attack on home soil, she will struggle with McCain's background as a war hero and leader.

I don't want to give away the ending of "Eleanor vs. Ike," but I will say that it's an exciting race, with lots of twists and turns, and an outcome that's hard to guess --  much like the Presidential race this year!

For the chance to win one of three copies of Eleanor vs. Ike, simply vote in one of the following two polls (created by Robin) and then leave a comment (don't forget to include your email address so we can tell you if you've won.

Everyone is free to vote and comment (we'd love to hear your thoughts!), but I'm afraid only US entrants can win a book.

POLL QUESTIONS

more at twiigs.com...

more at twiigs.com...

MORE ON MONDAY: Lucky by Alice Sebold

Alice Sebold's memoir of the brutal rape and beating she suffered as an eighteen-year-old college student is something I have been meaning to read for a long time. Knowing it was going to be tough, I kept putting it off, but I am so glad I got round to it in the end...

Yes, it is very hard to read in places, but the majority of the book is about Sebold's (interesting - and a little crazy) family and her triumphant battle to convict the man who raped her.

Sebold writes with amazing honesty and insight. The account of her horrifying attack  is given with terrifying, startling candour and I can only imagine how hard it must have been for Sebold to write it.

She is amazingly brave, not just for the account of the attack, but for honestly recounting the reactions of people to her after the event and her slow recovery.

Lucky is also a book of hope. Sebold survives. She wins against the man in a rape trial and she wins against him by healing and by going on to help others with this important book. Having read and adored The Lovely Bones, I already thought Sebold was an amazing writer - now I believe she is an amazing person, too.

Rating: 5/5

Like this? Try: The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

The return of the Bonkbuster?

While I'm not certain they ever went far away, The Times has an article on their triumphant return, citing Kerry Katona, Katie Price and Olivia Darling (Vintage - pictured).

They claim that women are moving back towards utterly escapist, glamorous, sex-filled romps a la Jackie Collins and away from "angst-ridden chick lit."

Interesting note - Olivia Darling is the pen name of Chick Lit staple, Chris Manby!

Related posts: Bonkbusters archives

BOOK COVER: Janet Evanovich's romances

I've just read Janet Evanovich's How I Write (review coming ... whenever) and it inspired me to have a google around for her romance novels.

Look at these covers! I know this is fairly typical in the romance genre (certainly in a book series called "Loveswept"), but I just can't get my head around the creator of Stephanie Plum having written books that look like this.

Aren't they fabulous? (Oh and Naughty Neighbour? Genius.)

Related posts: Romance novel cover comedy | Janet Evanovich | Did Janet Evanovich invent chick lit?

Ladybird notebooks

Helen tipped me off about these adorable Ladybird notebooks.

The same size as actual Ladybird books, they're actually filled with blank pages to fill with your hopes and dreams or shopping lists (or just demented ramblings in the manner of Kevin Spacey in Seven...). Check out the full range at kiss me kwik, but I'd avoid checking out anything else they sell, if you're easily shocked...

Related posts: Boys and Girls | Don't Quote Me and Love Writing notebooks | Lovely Penguin pencils

BOOK REVIEW: Queen of Babble in the Big City by Meg Cabot

Queen of Babble is, I think, the only Meg Cabot book that actually disappointed me. Of course, it's Meg, so it was still funny and sweet, but it reminded me too much of Sophie Kinsella's Can You Keep A Secret (my favourite Kinsella book).

Queen of Babble in the Big City is the second book in the Lizzie Nicholls trilogy and I enjoyed it much more than the first.

Following their summer romance, Lizzie is staying with Luke in his mother's New York (Fifth Avenue, no less) apartment. She wants to find a job restoring wedding dresses, but, since the only job she can find is unpaid, she has to take a morning job as a receptionist in her friend Chaz's father's law firm.

Best friend Shari is staying with Chaz (her boyfriend) until she and Lizzie can get a place together, but it seems like things aren't going well in her relationship with Chaz. Her job, however, is fabulous. So fabulous, that she's spending all her time there (and with her new boss).

Can Lizzie find a job doing what she loves (and getting paid for it)? Can she get Luke to commit? Can she help Shari and Chaz sort out their problems? And can she cope when Luke's parents come to visit?

Queen of Babble in the Big City is charming, sweet and funny and Lizzie seemed much more mature than she did in the first book (although this time she reminded me of Becky Bloomwood!). She's still sweet and naive, but this time it was more endearing than irritating so I'll definitely be reading the final book (Queen of Babble Gets Hitched).

Rating: 4/5

Like this? Try The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella

Now can we talk covers? The UK cover above is offensively boring, in my opinion. It's almost as if they just couldn't be bothered and so copied the pattern from some leftover wrapping paper... And what's with the back-to-front "B"? Disappointing.

The US covers (hardback, left, and paperback, right) are much nicer.

Which is your favourite?

 

FRIDAY FLICK: Catch Me If You Can

Based on the true-life story of Frank W Abagnale, master-con-man, Catch Me If You Can is adapted from Frank's autobiography of the same name.

Frank's story as a charming fraudster is an amazing one. Before his nineteenth birthday he had spent millions of dollars passing fake cheques and had impersonated a Pan Am pilot, a doctor and a prosecuting lawyer.

The film features Leonardo DiCaprio as Frank Abagnale and Tom Hanks as the FBI agent hot on his trail and is directed by Steven Speilberg.

It would be hard to make a dull movie out of material this good, but I particularly like the way Frank's character and relationships are exlored.

From his adored father (played by Christopher Walken) to Carl Hanratty, the FBI agent who pursues and eventually catches him, Frank shows himself to be strangely upstanding in his relationships and is a sympathetic anti-hero.

A thoroughly entertaining tale, if a little over-long. I now want to read the book!

Related posts: Friday Flick archives

Read the Adventures of Saffron Sally online

I still  haven't read Melanie Lynn Hauser's Confessions of Supermom (it's on my list!), but I can at least read the Adventures of Saffron Sally, an online fiction serialization about a "well-seasoned woman" who is forced to reinvent herself. 

New episodes are added twice a week.

Related posts: Melanie Lynn Hauser on YouTube | Serial thriller

BOOK NEWS: Have I Got a Guy for You

I love the sound of this new essay collection. Edited by Alix Strauss and subtitled "What really happens when Mom fixes you up", Have I Got A Guy for You features true stories of well-meaning matches by writers including Brenda Scott Royce ... and I haven't been able to find out who else! (And, yes, I've tried!)

I have found an extract, though - read it here.

Related posts: Monkey Love review | Monkey Star review | First Kiss (Then Tell)

Chick Lit Heroine Grudge Match: Buffy v Wonder Woman

In the last grudge match, we had a battle of the side-kicks and Lula won out. Well, she's pretty handy with a Taser... This week, we turn to comic books for two female super-heroines; Buffy (the vampire slayer) and Wonder Woman.

Buffy

The comic books: Buffy (created by Joss Whedon) was originally a terrible film and then a wonderful, seminal TV series and, finally, a comic book. The books continue where season seven of the TV series finished, with young women around the world waking up to Slayer strength.

Likes: Shoes, shopping, her friends (the Scoobies) and pointy sticks.

Dislikes: Bumpy foreheads, The Master, math.

Loves: Angel (yum!), Spike (bad boy yum!) and Giles (in a totally platonic Watcher-Slayer kind of a way).

Preferred Method of Kicking-Ass: Kick-boxing, karate, slayer-strength, amazing jumps and, of course, the sharp pointy stick.

Wonder Woman

The Comic Books: Created by William Moulton Marston and first published in All Star Comics in 1941, Wonder Woman is looking pretty damn good for her age. In 1975, Wonder Woman got a TV series starring Lynda Carter and in 2006 the comic book incarnation got a relaunch with some of the stories written by Jodi Picoult.   

Likes: Animals, Greek mythology (Wonder Woman was often described as "beautiful as Aphrodite, wise as Athena, swifter than Hermes, and stronger than Hercules" and her friend Etta Candy.

Dislikes: Bad guys. Wonder Woman has had a fair few enemies over the years, including Doctor Poison, Doctor Psycho, and the Duke of Deception.

Loves: Steve Trevor, her crime-fighting partner.

Preferred Method of Kicking-Ass: Well, she has super-human strength and throws some painful-looking 'kapow' punches and flying kicks, but Wonder Woman has another trick up her sleeve... The Lasso of Truth. Oh yes.

Conclusion: It's a very tough call. Both Buffy and Wonder Women are strong women with more ass-kicking power in their little pinkies than the rest of us put together.

Wonder Woman has been around a long time and been credited with too many powers and weapons to list. However, Buffy is a resourceful fighter and tough-as-nails; as well as saving the world several times, she has died twice. Will Wonder Woman's show-stopping costume tip the scales in her favour? You decide...

Anne of Green Gables is 100

We all seem agree that the Famous Five update isn't a good idea, but what about  prequels to classic novels? How do you feel about those? And what if the prequels aren't written by the original author? Still in favour?

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of Anne of Green Gables, Puffin has published Before Green Gables, written by Canadian author Budge Wilson, who was chosen from hundreds of writers.

[via The Puffin Blog]

Related: Five books

BOOK REVIEW: Fast Women by Jennifer Crusie

Fast Women is the first Jennifer Crusie I ever read and as such it retains a very special place in my heart.

It's also a fantastic, fast-paced read with some of my Crusie favourite characters. In fact, I've read this book so many times, I have difficulty remembering that they're not real...

Recently divorced, Nell Dysart seeks work at a down-at-heel private investigation firm. Gabe McKenna, the owner, is in need of a secretary to organise his office and Nell is in need of a paycheck.

Nell is feeling decidedly grey after her divorce. She has been so focused on being controlled and grown-up about the break-down of her marriage, she has forgotten her own needs and desires.

Gabe works with his cousin, Riley, but is used to being the boss. He inherited the agency from his father and wants everything to stay exactly the same. Utterly in control, he also feels utterly miserable.

As Nell organises the hell out of the office sparks fly, and Nell, slowly, returns back to life.

Much as I love the romance between Nell and Gabe (and I do), I love the supporting cast and subplots in Fast Women even more. Nell's two best friends are also her ex-sisters-in-law. There's sweet Margie, who obsesses over her china collection, and Suze - a gorgeous blonde with an older-man husband who is continually searching for meaning in her life.

There is also a lovely subplot between Nell's son, Jase, and Gabe's daughter (from his previous marriage) Lu. They have fallen in love and the way they mirror and reinforce the mistakes their parents are making/have made in relationships is brilliantly poignant and funny.

It's a book full of spectacular arguments, dog-napping, mystery, Clarice Cliff pottery, astrology and strong, smart, funny women. What more do you need?

Rating: 5/5

Like this? Try: Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie

BOOK NEWS: Instructions For Living Someone Else's Life

We loved Mil Millington's debut Things My Girlfriend And I Have Argued About so have high hopes for his latest... It's got another whopper title: Instructions For Living Someone Else's Life and it sounds high concept and rather brilliant.

It's the end of the eighties and Chris, a twenty-five year-old, hates his job in advertising and spends all of his free time with his girlfriend and two best mates from university.  He goes to sleep drunk and wakes up in 2006 - hungover, married and with an unnerving about of body hair. Genius.

Apparently, it's for 'anyone who has ever felt like a twenty-five-year-old stuck in a middle-aged body'.

According to Orion, it's out in July,  but look out for the Trashionista review coming soon.

Related posts: Top 10 Lad Lit | Lad Lit blogs

The Ivy Chronicles casting news

The Ivy Chronicles by Karen Quinn is being made into a film. Yes, I know we already told you this but wait - there's more!

Having worked together on Ocean's 12, producer Jerry Weintraub is being reunited with Catherine Zeta Jones. I assume she'll be playing the main character Ivy Ames. It's been a while since I read the book, but she strikes me as a good choice. What do you think?

[Via Hollywood Reporter]

Related posts: Book Review: Wife In The Fast Lane | Karen Quinn competition

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Elise Chidley

Elise Chidley's debut The Wrong Sort of Wife? is getting rave reviews, so we were delighted to have her answer our questions:

Describe your book in 15 words or fewer?

Fairy-tale ending goes pear-shaped when motherhood wreaks havoc on Lizzie Buckley’s joie de vivre.

OR

Lizzie marries her prince, has twins—then wants to sleep for a hundred years!

Where do you like to write your books?

I used to write in a dismal attic surrounded by junk, so that the children wouldn’t bother me. They much preferred the sunny playroom complete with TV downstairs. We’ve moved house and there’s no attic, so now I write on my laptop, mostly lying on my bed, but sometimes sitting cross-legged watching my son at soccer practice, or even at the car wash. My dream is to write in Starbucks, but I never seem to manage to get there before the school bus brings the children home.

Your favourite chick-lit book?

Catherine Alliott’s latest (A Crowded Marriage) made me laugh out loud. There’s an absolutely hysterical  scene where the heroine raises a false alarm about foot-and-mouth disease. Her portrayal of motherhood in the book is both touching and hilarious.

Your favourite female heroine and why?

I love Bridget Jones for charming us with her imperfections.

Tips for readers who may want to become writers?

Be prepared to work hard when you don’t feel inspired. Inspiration often comes after you’ve picked up your pen and paper, or opened your Word file. Try to make constructive use of any rejections you receive; the comments of a rejecting agent are often priceless in helping you edit your work. If you don’t get any useful feedback, send your manuscript to an objective third party such as The Literary Consultancy. Above all, if you think you have talent, don’t give up.

What are you reading at the moment?

At the moment I’m reading Josie Smith in Spring by Madgalen Nabb with my eight-year-old daughter. When I’m in the middle of writing something, I find that reading anything in the same genre is too distracting. 

What are you working on now?

I’ve nearly completed my second novel, which is about a woman who has to morph from busy publisher into stay-at-home mum when she marries a widower with a young daughter. A bit like I Don’t Know How She Does It in reverse.

Do you have a theme song?

My husband says it’s Irving Berlin’s “Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning.”

Thanks, Elise!

BOOK REVIEW: The Girl Who Stopped Swimming by Joshilyn Jackson

I first read about Joshilyn Jackson's The Girl Who Stopped Swimming when we interviewed her in August 2006 and I've been keen to read it since. I loved Jackson's first book gods in Alabama and former Trashionista co-editor Diane adored her second, Between, Georgia (it's been on my bookshelf for over a year).

It's an inspired idea - Laurel wakes up one night with a ghost beside her bed. It's her 13-year-old daughter's best friend, Mollly, and she shows Laurel her body, floating in Laurel's swimming pool.

The police rule it as an accidental death, but Laurel's not so sure. Didn't she see a shadow in the garden just before finding Molly's body? And wasn't that the hair of local oddball, Stan Webelow, she glimpsed as the police arrived? She's also concerned about her own daughter, Shelby's, evasive behaviour.

And then there's the family's houseguest, Bet, who has come to stay from DeLop, a beyond-depressed and depressing former mining town where Laurel's mother grew up and got away from.

To get to the bottom of everything - and particularly to stop Shelby becoming a suspect - Laurel needs her sister, Thalia, but she and Thalia are no longer speaking. Neither approves of the other's lifestyle and any attempts at finding common ground always seem to end in misery. Inevitably, Thalia's visit results in the exposing of family secrets that Laurel, not to mention her mother, have been trying to deny for years.

I could barely put The Girl Who Stopped Swimming down, although it would be hard to say I enjoyed it. I found it such a sad book on a number of levels. Pretty much every relationship in the book is painful and strained. It's beautifully written and evocatively imagined, which is probably why, by the ending, I felt utterly drained.

Rating: 4/5

Like this? Try Be Mine by Laura Kasischke

Another reason we love Meg Cabot

This really needs no introduction. (Except that one.)

 

Related: Little Women interpreted by Meg Cabot

BOOK NEWS: No Good Girls by Jean Marie Pierson

No Good Girls is the debut novel of Jean Marie Pierson. It started life as a screenplay (Pierson has a degree in film and video production) and focuses on four best friends in New York.

I'm not in love with the cover, but the book trailer is fantastic. Take a look here, I promise you won't regret it.

Related posts: Book Trailerpark | Book Video Awards 2008

Another reason we love JK...

Reason I love JK Rowling Number 67: She has spoken (again) about the depression she suffered in her twenties. It warms my heart when people in the public eye speak candidly about mental health issues (I'm thinking of you, Mr Fry!)

While talking to an Edinburgh student magazine, JK explained that she had had suicidal thoughts and that counselling was "absolutely invaluable". She added: "The funny thing is, I have never been remotely ashamed of having been depressed. Never." Finishing by urging anybody suffering to "go and get help".

[Via BBC]

Related posts: JK Rowling's £40,000 book | Self development archive

BOOK REVIEW: Finding Margo by Susanne O'Leary

Reviewed by Helen Redfern

Margo Hunter feels trapped. Her husband is sitting beside her in the car swearing at her, calling her a half-wit with venom in his voice and she has had enough.  In a split second decision she decides to hitch a lift to Paris, leaving her husband whilst he is sitting waiting his turn for the petrol pump.

Margo and her husband Alan had been driving on the French motorway when he asked her which exit they needed. But Margo hadn’t read the map correctly and Alan goes into his usual rage. This time, however, enough is enough. To be fair, if I had been driving all the way through France and my husband had lost the way I would have been pretty annoyed too. So in that respect I can see where Alan is coming from and I did mentally roll my eyes a little as I assumed what kind of woman I was going to have to read about for the next 400 odd pages.

Realising she is in France with no money, Margo looks for a job and gradually she starts to win me over. I realise she isn’t a silly woman, but one who was driven to taking this drastic action because of the man she was married to. My initial assumptions were incorrect (which is fabulous because it means I didn’t guess the plot of the story straight away). As I found out more about her and see how she reacts to her new employers I began to really enjoy the story. Then I found I couldn’t put the book down. So even though I had the onset of flu I read the book late into the night.

Yes the characters are clichéd. Her employer, a spoilt Comtesse with her two sons, one a playboy, one a career man in high office. Alan, the highly strung husband who puts his career before everything (including his wife) and Gráinne, the earthy Irish woman who offers Margo no-nonsense advice. But I didn’t care about the clichés. I just enjoyed the plot, which had some good twists including a few I didn’t see coming – always a bonus. I enjoyed the well described French setting. I liked the relationship between Margo and The Comtesse. Margo wasn’t put upon but answered her back, with respect of course, and took absolutely no nonsense from the sons. What I liked most though was how Margo came to realise she is actually doing all right on her own. Did she need Alan after all?

So from a slightly nervous start this book surprised me. If I looked hard enough there may be a few faults but the flow of the story didn’t let me see them. It kept me highly entertained (and my mind off the impending flu).

Rating: 5/5

Like this? Try When to Walk by Rebecca Gowers

HELEN'S HEROINES: Celie

Helen Redfern's weekly column on her favourite fictional females...

The Color Purple by Alice Walker, in which Celie appears, is a Pulitzer Prize winning novel. Since it’s publication in the 1980’s it has been used as a subject for English literature exam texts the world over. Anything I say here about Celie, in the next few hundred words is going to be brief, and will not in any way touch the enormous scope, meaning and layers of this book.

Celie, a young black girl, born into poverty during the 1930’s in the American South, is the narrator of the story through her letters to God and then later to her sister, Nettie. This book has a wealth of strong secondary characters who I could also have chosen to be this week’s heroine. Shug, Sofia, Squeak. A group of women who, despite the racial and sexual oppression of the times, come together and unite, finding strength in each other.

The opening of the book shows Celie to be poor, uneducated, confused, having just been raped by the man she believes to be her father. Behind the raw and honest words she uses in her writings to God, she demonstrates an unknowing powerful strength, an instinct for survival.

Over the coming years that is what she does. She survives. She is given to a widower to be his wife. Someone to look after his motherless children, someone to cook and clean for him. He beats her, forces himself on her, but she just behaves like a plank of wood. Knowing she will never be good enough for him as she isn’t Shug Avery, her husband’s mistress, she has no self respect, no confidence and no fight. Then one day Shug comes to stay. Shug is mean to Celie at first but eventually they become close, and Shug awakens Celie’s mental strength leading to Celie seeking the truth from her ‘father’ and standing up to ‘Mr___’, her abusive husband.

Through it all the love for her sister keeps her going and Celie matures into a strong, wise woman. No longer is she the woman who advises her stepson to beat his wife to make her ‘mind’.

Through Celie’s journey we see how, not just one woman, but many women, can do anything they set their minds to. Her story is encouraging and inspiring to anyone who has suffered.

If you have never read this book, or did so for A-level (like myself) and not re-read since, then do so. I have gained so much more from Celie, Shug, Sofia and Squeak this time round than I did the first.

More Helen's Heroines

MORE ON MONDAY: When You Eat At the Refrigerator, Pull Up A Chair by Geneen Roth

I know, I know, I'm always reviewing non-diet books, but they're such a revelation to me after years of reading actual diet books (okay, WeightWatchers magazine). Geneen Roth's When You Eat at the Refrigerator, Pull Up a Chair is a classic, given credibility in my eyes by having a foreword by Anne Lamott (who I love).

When You Eat... consists of 50 very short chapters (some are only a couple of pages in length) with titles like "Carry a chunk of chocolate everywhere" and "Remind yourself that it's already broken." Weirdly, the word that came to mind when I was typing that was "Californian" so I checked the About the Author page and discovered that Roth does indeed live in Northern California - what was my point? Oh yes, if you're not comfortable with self-development, if, like Beth Lisick, it's way outside your comfort zone and you're smirking now, I'd say read the book anyway.

I found it reassuring, funny, inspiring and frequently more down to earth than the chapter headings (and that "Californian" business) would have you believe. The subtitle is "50 ways to feel thin, gorgeous, and happy (when you feel anything but)" and that's not to be sniffed (or smirked) at, surely?

I kept it on my bedside table and read one short chapter each day. Now that I've finished it, I've turned back to the beginning to read it again until I get the chance to read another of Roth's books.

Rating: 4/5

Like this? Try The 4-Day Win by Martha Beck

TELEVISION NEWS: The New Famous Five

I admit I was kind of horrified when I saw this picture of Disney's new, updated Famous, um, 5 series, but I know that I have to accept that things move on and classics have to keep up with the times in order to find a new audience.

Don't worry, though, pictured aren't the characters you grew up loving, no - Jo, Max, Allie and Dylan are the children of Enid Blyton’s original characters and together with their pet dog Timmy embark on a new series of adventures. The new series starts in May.

What do you think? A relevant update or Blyton blasphemy?

Related posts: Thursday Trailblazer - Enid Blyton | Helen's Heroines - George Kirrin | Best children's book of all time

BOOK REVIEW: The Meaning of Sunglasses by Hadley Freeman

Despite having no discernable interest in fashion (I work from home, mostly in pajamas, so there's no real need), I absolutely love Hadley Freeman's Guardian newspaper column. She's so dry, funny and down to earth. I think I gave a little squeal when I heard she'd written a book.

The Meaning of Sunglasses is subtitled "A guide to almost all things fashionable" and it's certainly that. Set out in alphabetical order (which took me a shameful amount of time to work out - I kept wondering how the topics had been organised. D'oh.), the book features everything from Accessories to Yoga.

The thing I love about Ms Freeman is that she often says just what I've been afraid to admit (sometimes even to myself) about fashion (see Coats, stuck at the nexus point between dull and stressful). She's totally straightforward in her criticisms of magazines (the products are featured because the companies have paid for the advertising - I know this and yet I still always fall for those "must-have" or "products of the year" articles) and even certain designers, and she's practical about the ridiculousness of much fashion.

And yet ... I didn't enjoy this book anywhere near as much as her column. Often, either me or my husband (yes, my utterly fashion-ignorant husband loves her too) will read bits out to each other. I didn't feel the need to share any of this book with  him. Her column frequently makes me laugh out loud. The book had me smiling once or twice. Granted, I did read it straight through and it may be a better book to dip in and out of.

If you haven't read any Hadley before, I'm confident you'll enjoy it as a common sense explanation of the madness of modern fashion, but Hadley fans may be disappointed.

Rating: 3/5

Like this? Try Fashion Babylon by Imogen Edwards-Jones

BOOK NEWS: The Love Of Her Life

Harriet Evans continues with the fine romantic fayre that has served her so well in A Hopeless Romantic and Going Home.

The Love of Her Life is out in July and it features a woman who lost everything she had worked for on one, catastrophic day. Ever since, Kate Miller has hidden in New York, working for a literary agency and trying to put the past behind her. But when her father becomes ill, she has to return to London.

Facing her friends - Zoe, Francesca and Mac - and everything she left behind is hard. Mac is the man she thought was the love of her life but now they don't even speak. Can Kate be happy in her old life again?

There's no cover available yet, but we'll keep you posted!

Related posts: Book News archive

BOOK COVER: Beginner's Greek

This, left, is the US cover of James Collins' debut. And if I'd seen this I certainly wouldn't have picked it up. In fact, I might have specifically avoided it. And it certainly doesn't say chick lit, does it?

I'm not sure what it does say, in fact (flight manual?), but I much prefer the UK cover.

Related posts: Beginner's Greek | US versus UK covers | Petite Anglais covers

Why chick lit authors love Lizzie Bennet

In our weekly interview, we always ask authors to name their favourite heroine. Some say Bridget Jones, others Jane Eyre, one even chose her own granny, but the most common response by a long chalk is Pride & Prejudice's Lizzie Bennet.

"I'm sure that I am in no way alone in this choice," said Zoe Rice, perceptively, "but my favorite will always be the very first chick-lit heroine: the feisty, intelligent, warm-hearted, and witty Elizabeth Bennett of Pride and Prejudice."

Glossing over Jane Green's answer - "I feel like I ought to say someone like Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice, but that feels horribly pretentious" - I thought I'd take a look at the reasons the authors give for loving Miss Bennet.   

Tanya Lee Stone: Because she's strong and stubborn, speaks her mind, follows her heart, and is brave - including, brave enough to swallow her pride when she is wrong and right things properly.

Laura Ruby: It's her wit and generosity that make her beautiful. After the book was published, Jane Austen herself said, "I must confess that I think her as delightful a character as ever appeared in print, and how I shall be able to tolerate those who do not like her at least, I do not know."

Polly Williams: Her intelligence, wit and withering asides.

Lorelei Mathias: She knows her own mind, and she doesn't give up on things.

Libby Street: She is confident and smart, but willing to recognize that she has faults. I want to be just like her.

Other Elizabeth fans include Sarah Webb, Gil McNeil, Shannon Hale, Sarah Bilston, Lauren Baratz-Logsted.

If you too love Elizabeth Bennet, tell us why. (And if you can't stand her, we'd love to hear about that as well!)

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Lee Harrington

I loved Lee Harrington's memoir, Rex and the City and Lee did this interview ages ago, but I haven't had a chance to put it up until now. I know I seem to be saying this more and more, but it's a good thing, really - it's because so many authors want to answer our questions. No really! They're clamouring! Anyway, back to Lee...

Please describe your latest book in 15 words or fewer:

A witty city memoir about adopting an abused spaniel that has been called "The ‘Sex and the City’ for the dog set."

Where do you like to write your books (in bed, a coffee shop, an office)?

I do my best writing at Starbucks in Soho in New York City. Something about the lethal strength of their French roast coffee, combined with the presence of so many artists, writers, trendsters, and hipsters, really gets my writer-brain whirring. 

When I am upstate (I live part time in Woodstock, NY and part time in New York City), I write in a gorgeous office with huge windows facing pine trees, birch trees, elms and oaks, and a well-landscaped lawn that slopes down toward a little swimming hole. (Well, it used to be a swimming hole; now it’s more of a frog pond).

This is quite different from Starbucks in Soho, needless to say, and the writing I do in this space is softer and more languid. 

Oddly enough, I always have to be facing south when I write. No matter where I am. It has something to do with the energies of the planet, I think, or the polarities or something. I’m no scientist, but I would advise anyone who is interested in writing to face South!   

Your favourite chick-lit book?

I still think Jane Austen writes the best chick-lit out there, especially because her heroines are plain and bookish, and yet they always get to marry wealthy, titled, English lords who love their heroines for their wit and brains.  Beauty, in Jane Austen’s world, is secondary. I think women really respond to that, because even the greatest beauties among us are still convinced we have some hideous physical flaw. Austen leads us to believe that goodness is the most essential quality—in men as well as women. And who doesn’t lust after good, rich Mr. Darcy??

I also often cite Candace Bushnell’s Sex and the City as a seminal chick lit book for me. I was lucky enough to have been living in NYC when Candace was a columnist for the New York Observer.  (Her first book was a collection of these columns). She has a wacky, cunning sense of humor, that Candace. And her columns were full of what the eventual TV series is famous for: a focus on food, friends, fashion, and useless men.  What I loved about Candace’s writing is her eye for detail, and, again, that wacky humor that often only a real New Yorker will get. And I loved that all of the “characters” she wrote about in that column (who were real) were so matter-of-factly and unapologetically shallow. New York is full of shallow people—crammed with them, as a matter of fact. But Candace was one of the first trendsters to admit that.

In fact, I loved this notion—of the unapologetically shallow narrator—so much that I decided to mimic it in my own book, REX AND THE CITY. That’s why we chose that title, after all. It’s sort of an homage to Candace.   

When I first adopted my dog, I was a completely shallow, money-hungry, clothes-and-status obsessed city chic.  I was so shallow I didn’t even realize I was shallow. If you’re a dog person, you’re going to understand how my dog cured me of all that. If you’re not, well, read the book anyway and see!

Your favourite female heroine (if different from above!), and why?

I love Bridget Jones. I wish I could be more like her, but I don’t smoke or drink (all that much). I also love Elizabeth Bennett and Jane Eyre, but you better believe I would never have left Mr. Rochester the way she did. And I love Carrie Bradshaw, for aforementioned reasons.  I love how she used to date men she didn’t like just so that she could spend the summer at their Hamptons beach houses (and meet other men at parties)!

What tips would you give to any of our readers who want to become writers?

You’re asking a writer who secretly wants to be a rock star! Can anyone out there tell me how to become a rock star?

But seriously, I’ve always like the maxim: “Success is 10% talent and 90% applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair.” If you want to be a writer, sit down and write. I hate to be simplistic, but now that I am approaching Middle Age, I am encouraging people to just sit down and do what you say you want to do. That’s why I am forming a rock band called MidLife Crisis.

What are you reading at the moment?

I actually just re-read Jane Eyre! It’s a good hole-up-by-the-fire-in-the-winter book. Right now, in the States, PBS is airing all sorts of programs based-on-popular-Victorian-romance-novels. This month Masterpiece Theater is doing a different Jane Austen novel every week. They must know that, in winter, in New England, everyone wants to shoot him/herself because of the darkness and the cold, and that the only thing that can cheer us up is to watch period pieces set in Great Britain. 

What are you working on now? (If you can give us a hint!)

I’m working on a literary novel called NOTHING KEEPS A FRENCHMAN FROM HIS LUNCH. Well, I’m calling it literary but the plot is definitely chick lit! It’s about a jilted woman—her lover breaks up with her on page one—who decides at the spur of the moment to move to the South of France, hoping that he’ll follow her and beg her to come back. Instead, he moves in with another woman; leaving Gayle, my main character, stranded in France. She decides to stay there, and befriends a bunch of kooky British ex-pats, and has her fair share of affairs, shenanigans, etc.  She meets a good man, a bad man, and a very old man, and ultimately has to choose among the three. Blah blah blah. See, I’ve already said too much--

Goodness, books sound so stupid when you try to describe them. This is why a lot of writers choose to say nothing until the book is done. NOTHING KEEPS A FRENCHMAN FROM HIS LUNCH also includes lots of sex, attempts at lucid dreaming and astral projection, lots of food and wine (it’s set in France after all), and trips on yachts with gorgeous male triathletes, none of whom Gayle sleeps with.   

Do you have a theme song?

I love this question! No one has ever asked me that before! I have at least a hundred theme songs, for the hundred different moods I can cycle through in a month (or sometimes all in one day if I have PMS.) Two musicians have also written songs about me, but I cannot disclose the bands or the song titles, for the sake of preserving my reputation.  Today, this minute, my theme song is “Celebration” by Led Zeppelin. 

What question have you never been asked in an interview, but think you should have been? (Tell us the question and answer it too, if you like!)

Q: What’s it like being married to Viggo Mortensen?

A: I’ll never tell. :)

Thanks, Lee!

BOOK REVIEW: Silver Bay by Jojo Moyes

Reviewed by Jennie Hughes

Ignore the little tag-line on the front cover – “You have nothing to lose but your heart” – because this book is not the heap of slush that that phrase would imply. (Publishers must really annoy their authors sometimes, because I suspect that Jojo Moyes would have taken those simpering little words and thrown them overboard to rot on the beach.)

Silver Bay is a sparsely-populated paradise in New South Wales where Lisa McCullen is hiding herself and her daughter Hannah from past tragedies and communing with the whales which pass by on migration every year.

Then, real-estate developers arrive in the shape of Mike Dormer who has come to scope the place out for a hotel and leisure complex designed to make mega-bucks for his boss in London, his future father-in-law. The different pace of life, the beauty, the whales, the dolphins, Hannah – and Lisa - all get to him, however, and his priorities change.

This is a well-crafted book with an interesting plot-line revealed in appropriately timed snippets. It is written from the alternating first-person point of view of each of the main characters which serves to bring them alive extremely well. It can sometimes be difficult to remember whose skin you’re in as it is difficult to write an authentic voice for everyone from an 11-year-old girl to an Aussie beach-bum who thinks he’s God’s gift to women, but confusion is surprisingly rare.

As the story of Lisa’s past life is gradually unfolded, along with the tales of the other residents of Silver Bay, there are enough twists and turns in the plot to keep you reading, and although you know from the start there’s going to be a happy ending (it’s a romantic novel, okay?) the actual ending is so impossibly happy that you really don’t foresee it. I cried, dear reader, real tears.

Rating: 4/5

Like this? Try: Truffles By The Sea by Julie Carobini

SPOTLIGHT: Jojo Moyes

I only heard about Jojo recently - her book Silver Bay was shortlisted for the RNA Romantic Novel of the Year Award (look out for the review coming tomorrow!) but when I did my research, I discovered she's been writing books since 2002 and Silver Bay is actually her fifth.

She won the RNA Novel of the Year Award in 2004 for Forbidden Fruit and was short-listed in 2006 for The Ship of Brides.

Jojo was born in 1969 in London. Prior to writing fiction, she worked at The Independent for ten years, including stints as Assistant News Editor and Arts and Media Correspondent.

Jojo now writes books full-time and lives on a farm in Essex with her journalist husband and three children, plus some "badly-behaved animals including an ex-racehorse and several rescued battery hens."

Jojo's third child, Lachlan, was born profoundly deaf. He had cochlear implant surgery and Jojo wrote about his (and her) experience of this for the Mail On Sunday.

Want more? Well, since it's you...Jojo has a blog and has just announced the title of her next book - Night Music. It's due out this summer and this is the blurb from Amazon:
The Spanish House has long been known as an architectural folly to locals, and is now nearly derelict to boot. When its reclusive owner dies intestate the Spanish House is left to his city-dwelling niece. For Isabel, recently widowed, the house is a potential lifeline -- the only hope she has of providing for her two children. But for neighbour Matt McCarthy, the house is revenge -- on the family who ruined his father. For his wife it's the key to the perfect family life, while a struggling property developer sees in it a whole new future. As desires clash and intertwine, lives and loves are demolished -- and the Spanish House becomes a true folly indeed...

Jojo's Bibliography:

Sheltering Rain
The Peacock Emporium
Foreign Fruit
The Ship of Brides
Silver Bay

Related posts: Spotlight archive

BOOK REVIEW: When to Walk by Rebecca Gowers

Reviewed by Sarah Hague

Do you know the feeling of meeting someone and immediately all your hackles rise?  For some reason, you dislike on impact the person before you.

There are books like that too. It may have nothing to do with the quality of the book but everything to do with a clash between the mindset of the author and yourself. When to Walk is one of those books for me.

One lunch time, Ramble's husband declares, in an offensive speech, that he is leaving her mainly due to her own shortcomings which have come to grate to a degree he can no longer stand. He gets up and goes out and leaves her to contemplate... well, everything.

Which is why the story grates on me. It is oppressively contemplative. I felt sucked in to the inner workings of a brain I didn't wish to know. Brains are notoriously unconnected when distressed and hers left me with an impression of irritation rather than compassion. Basically I didn't care what became of her.

Despite my antipathy to the story, it is very well written, and if you like that sort of thing, you'll probably find it funny in places and a beautiful portrait of a bewildered woman.

Me, I just wanted to smack her.

Rating: 1/4

Like this? Try The Ivy Chronicles by Karen Quinn

BOOK NEWS: Don't Hex with Texas

I loved Enchanted Inc, the first book in Shanna Swendson's Katie Chandler series, so why it's taken me two years (two years!) to read any more I don't know. But I have indeed ordered the second in the series, Once Upon Stilettos, and it will be with me in time to read over the Easter weekend (which I did plan to spend with family and friends, but will now be spending with my chicken pocked child - all the more reading time for me!)

Anyway, as I was ordering the second book, I noticed that a fourth will be out in April. It's called Don't Hex with Texas and features Katie returning to Texas for a family visit, but finding things have become a lot more magical there since she left.

Related posts: Shanna Swendson guest blog | Enchanted Inc movie news

Jane Green writes for Dove (and Alicia Keys)

Dove - the toiletries company - has created a micro-series called "Fresh Takes," which has been "inspired" by  author Jane Green and stars singer Alicia Keys.

I don't know what "inspired" by Jane Green means, although I did get an email from Ms Green a while ago in which she said she was writing for Alicia Keys, so I guess she's written at least some of the episodes.

The series, which follows the lives of three roommates in their mid-twenties living in New York City, will be broadcast as five 3-minute episodes each week, to be shown during The Hills on MTV (just in the US, as far as I know). Carry on over the cut to watch the trailer. [via Seattlepi.com]

Orange Prize 2008 longlist

The Orange Prize is awarded for excellence in fiction by women and the longlist for 2008 has just been announced. I was excited to see a blast from my past - Stella Duffy - there. I read her early Saz Martin noir crime thrillers and then 1998 and 1999's Eating Cake and Singling Out The Couples (twisted, ironic tales of the heart) but had kind of lost track of her...

In fact, I haven't read a single title from the list. Not even the fabulously titled  The Voluptuous Delights of Peanut Butter and Jam. Have you? (Head over the cut for the list in full).

Tessa Hadley, The Master Bedroom
Nancy Huston, Fault Lines
Gail Jones, Sorry
Sadie Jones, The Outcast
Lauren Liebenberg, The Voluptuous Delights of Peanut Butter and Jam
Charlotte Mendelson, When We Were Bad
Deborah Moggach, In The Dark
Anita Nair, Mistress
Heather O'Neill, Lullabies for Little Criminals
Elif Shafak, The Bastard of Istanbul
Dalia Sofer, The Septembers of Shiraz
Scarlett Thomas, The End of Mr Y
Carol Topolski, Monster Love
Rose Tremain, The Road Home
Patricia Wood, Lottery

Related posts: The Orange Prize for the best book club | Orange Broadband new writers

Abracadabra bookmark

You know when you go to open your book at the right page (guided by the scrap of paper/antique leather bookmark* you shoved there) and you can't get your finger in between the pages? No? Me neither, but these designers have obviously experienced difficulty in this area...

They've designed the Abracadabra bookmark. It has an air-filled chamber, half of which is flattened by the weight of the book. You squeeze the exposed side to lift the page. Okay then...

*Delete as appropriate

[Via BoingBoing]

Related posts: Ex-libris table | Brian Dettmer's book autopsies

Remember when we asked if chick lit was bad for your love life...?

Well, it's not just us! Look!

Mr. Right . . . is Stuck in Traffic is a one hour documentary that investigates the impact "chick flicks" and "chick lit" have on real-life love. Using humorous re-enactments, film clips, interviews, animation and social experiments we'll explore whether chick culture is harmless fun or a ruthless relationship saboteur.

Best-selling authors Marian Keyes (Anybody Out There?) and Jane Green (Second Chance), relationship expert Dr. Michelle (The Today Show & Tyra) and many others will share their thoughts on nasty cases of "inflated expectations" and possible cures for this pop culture pandemic.

It's apparently currently in post-production. I'll keep a look out for it and let you know if I ever get to see it (and of course, feel free to tell us all about it if you see it first).

[via Canada.com]

HELEN'S HEROINES: Heather Wells

Helen Redfern's weekly look at the fictional women she loves...

I love my job. Not just because I can lie on my bed all afternoon on a Saturday reading and therefore working (this is, to be fair, one of the major highlights). It’s also because I occasionally find fascinating, gutsy but down to earth characters making for a cracking story that I just completely and utterly submerge myself in.

For the past week my attention has been grabbed by Heather Wells. Heather appears in a series of books for adults written by Meg Cabot. She is a residence hall assistant director of a New York College and amateur detective on the side, as there appears to be a series of murders at her residence hall.

This week’s heroine was going to be about someone completely different but Heather has just barged into my life and would not leave me alone until I was hooked (and a few pounds poorer as I had to go out and buy the third book in the series immediately after finishing the second one). Heather grabs you like she grabs the scent of the murderer in the books. She determinedly holds on and hunts the killer down even though people have told her to leave well alone. And this is how you feel when you are reading the books. You just have to keep going.

The titles of the books she appears in are Size 12 is not Fat, Size 14 is not Fat Either and Size Doesn’t Matter or Big Boned in the US. (I believe the size 12 referred to is a UK size 16 and the size 14 is a UK 18). The titles are great, but do not mean in any way shape or form that Heather rules her life by her weight. Far from it.

Because of her background Heather could have been a diva, as she’s an ex pop starlet, a child star used to touring the malls and then going on to live with the singer of a boy band. She is not like that though. She’s down to earth, funny, sharp yet, like most women, also worried about her looks and whether Cooper (her landlord and ex fiancé’s brother) is interested in her. Unlike a lot of so called heroines though she doesn’t sit around waiting for him to announce his love or live her life by the amount of calories she eats. No she works in Fischer Hall, which allows her to get an education, something she missed out on whilst touring the malls, and gets on with her life (and saving others whilst she’s at it).

Despite her mother disappearing with her money and her father being in prison for fraud she creates a family with those she works (and lives) with. They care for her and look out for her and she in turn for them. Some even fancy her. And when someone is murdered in her residence hall she gets angry and will not let it rest until the real killer has been caught. Even if it means putting her own life in danger. I am also happy to say that she never relies on a man coming to save her. She is well able to handle herself.

Heather is principled. She left the world of pop music because she refused to churn out any more sugary lyrics. She turns down an offer to get back into the business (of sorts) too. Refusing the easy money for her work and an education. You’ve got to admire her for that.

So. I have come to the end of the three books in the series and feel bereft. I enjoyed having Heather around. She has spunk and drive and a personality. But then all is not lost. As reported yesterday on Trashionista, Meg is writing two more books in the Heather Wells series. They will be out sometime next year and I can’t wait.

Related posts: Size 12 Is Not Fat review | Size 14 Is Not Fat Either Review | Size Doesn't Matter review

Please bear with us...

You may have noticed we're having some technical problems here at Trashionista.

It may be different on different, er, systems, but, for example, you may not be able to see the comments. Or the pictures. Or you might not be able to see this, in which case I'm talking to myself. Wouldn't be the first time.

Don't worry, the techy elves are beavering away and hopefully we'll be fully functioning again soon.

BOOK REVIEW: Perfect You by Elizabeth Scott

I loved Elizabeth Scott's Bloom and, following my review, Trashi reader Little Willow commented that Perfect You is even better so I could barely wait to read it. I didn't actually prefer Perfect You to Bloom, but I loved it almost as much and that saying a lot (because I really loved Bloom!).

Kate's father has given up his job to sell Perfect You vitamins in the mall. While it may be his dream job, it's not going at all well. So badly, in fact, that the family is in danger of losing their home. Kate's older brother living on the sofa and failing to find a job isn't helping either.

Kate's not thrilled to be working for her dad on a failing mall stall, but since her best friend Anna lost a load of weight, dyed her hair and started hanging around with the popular crowd - dropping Kate like a sandbag - it's not like she's got anything better to do.

Until, that is, Will starts meeting her in the supply closet to make out. It can't be more than that, because she can't stand Will and there's no way he's interested in her. Is he?

I sympathised with Kate throughout because everyone around her was so irritating. (Irritating in a good way, I mean - realistically irritating, rather than irritatingly written!) Her grandmother is condescending and rude. Her father, inconsiderate and unrealistic. Her former friend, Anna, well, I wanted to wring her neck. I loved Will and I loved the banter Kate had with him, but he wasn't quite as sexy as Bloom's Evan.

I found Kate's mother - trying to stay positive and support her husband, while simultaneously wanting the best for her family - the most poignant character (possibly because this is a YA book and, depressingly, I'm closer in age to her than to Kate).

But really I just loved Perfect You. And I'm so thrilled to have discovered Elizabeth Scott's books.

Rating: 4/5 (I would like to give it 4.5, but I can't)

Like this? Try Bloom by Elizabeth Scott

BOOK NEWS: The Miracle of Grace

I enjoyed Kate Kerrigan's first book, Recipes for a Perfect Marriage, but I've got a problem with her new one.

From the Amazon blurb:

Grace's mother Eileen is a gr