Trashionista

TUESDAY THREE: In the money

One of my recurring fantasies as a teenager (along with the one about George Michael rescuing me from school ... the mean girls would have died of envy!), was inheriting a frighteningly huge amount of money from a relative. It never happened (nor did the George Michael thing, sadly), but inheritance plays a part in the following three books.

Belinda Jones’s I Love Capri features Kim, who is down on love and down on life. Following the death of a grandfather she's never met, Kim inherits £5,000, which she plans to spend on liposuction for her and her long-suffering flatmate. Before she can book an appointment, however, her mother whisks her off to Capri, home of the deceased grandfather, to do the translating as her mother prepares to take over her grandfather's boutique.

Initially terrified of leaving her comfort zone, Kim finds that life in Capri is better than she could have imagined. But self-discovery isn't all that Capri has in store for Kim. Oh no. After all, it wouldn't be chick lit without a love affair, and spokes in wheels, and heartache, and more love, and extra suitors - inappropriate, natch - hiding in the wings.

Practically Perfect by Katie Fforde centres around Anna, a qualified interior designer who decides to spend her inheritance money on a little cottage in Amberford. Quickly Anna begins to wonder if she has bitten off more than she can chew. She feels worse still when her next door neighbour, Chloe, mentions the fact that the row of cottages is listed and extra planning permission is required to do anything. As if looking after a dog - Anna's landed with the care of Caroline the rescue greyhound - and effectively rebuilding a house is not enough to contend with, Anna soon finds herself crossing swords with Rob Hunter who happens to be the one person she could do with keeping on side!

Marina Lewycka’s debut novel, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, turns up frequently in the Tuesday Three. I can only imagine she had that in mind when she wrote it. No? Anyway, sisters Nadia and Vera have an antagonistic relationship, thanks, in part, to their unequally-split inheritance. See, I just wanted to mention that inheritances aren’t always good news. But that George Michael visit would've been ace...

TUESDAY THREE: Fairy tales

Once upon a time (well, last week), my fellow Trashionista Sarah found a book billed as a “feel-good fairy tale” to be anything but, so I thought that for this week’s Tuesday Three I’d look at three books that might really suggest a happily ever after (if only with a novel!).

Deborah Wright's modern magical fairy tale, Under My Spell, features Cara, a 25-year- old witch who, desperate to escape the clutches of her batty mother, applies for a live-in nannying position with the Wilkins family. She’s delighted to get the position, and even more sure that this is the right move for her when she meets her gorgeous next door neighbour Sean. There’s just one thing that could go wrong…

Cara must remember all day, ever day, to act normal. If anyone finds out about her secret double life she’ll lose it all. The combination of normal world disasters and conspiracies of the magical world mean pretending to be normal is nearly a full time job in itself.

The Sleeping Beauty Proposal is Sarah Strohmeyer's second fairytale-themed fiction, following The Cinderella Pact. Despite its title, The Sleeping Beauty Proposal is a modern-day story about Genie Michaels, who has been dating university professor and newly successful author Hugh for four years. So when he proposes to her live on TV during a talk show interview, she's amazed but gratified, and can't wait to start planning her wedding. Until Hugh clarifies that while he was proposing to the love of his life, it’s not Genie.

So Genie's best friend  Patty comes up with a plan: as Hugh goes back to his native England to promote his book (with his new fiancee in tow), Genie will just pretend that he did propose to her after all. It's full steam ahead to a wedding that may or may not have a groom...

In Gemma Fox’s The Cinderella Moment, Cass meets James Devlin, who seems perfect ... well, apart from being married, that is. When James becomes a missing person, suspected of running off with his fancy woman (i.e. Cass), Cass finds herself caught up in the middle of a huge misunderstanding which involves her being watched by the police and gangsters. How will she ever manage to persuade them that she is innocent of whatever they're suspecting her of? The Cinderella Moment is about what happens when a chance meeting with a gorgeous man changes your life forever.

TUESDAY THREE: Frenemies

You know what a frenemy is, right? (And if you don’t, Megan Crane explains it here.) Of course, I had to start with Megan’s book, Frenemies, obviously!

Frenemies features Augusta "Gus" Curtis who is on track to having everything she wants: a great job, a gorgeous boyfriend, wonderful friends. That is, until, she walks in on her boyfriend, Nate, kissing her friend, Helen. Gus can't believe Nate would do that to her, but she's actually more upset about Helen's betrayal, especially since Helen won't leave her alone and seems to be doing everything in her power to drive Gus round the twist.

Sara Shepard's first novel, Pretty Little Liars, is the story of Aria, Emily, Spencer, Hanna and Ali, who are the best of friends in the same way many teenage girls are friends, i.e. they know each other's secrets and have a tendency to use them against each other. Particularly Ali, the leader of the pack. So when Ali disappears the girls are of course horrified, but also a little bit relieved. Understandably, they drift apart. Three years later they've all changed a lot and then they start getting messages signed by 'A'. Not only does the mysterious 'A' know their past secrets, he or she knows exactly what they're up to now too...

In The Myth of You And Me by Leah Stewart the teenage Cameron moves to a new town and meets Sonia. Sonia literally saves her life, and the two quickly become the best of friends, with a close, unshakeable bond they assume will last forever. But then Sonia does something that Cameron can't forgive, and she abandons Sonia and their friendship, never to return. Until ... Cameron's boss, the reclusive elderly author Oliver Doucet, whom she lives with and cares for, suddenly dies. With no more ties in the world, and a present that Oliver posthumously asks Cameron to give to Sonia, Cameron sets out on a reluctant road trip...

TUESDAY THREE: Music was my first love...

Ah, who hasn’t had a crush on a musician? I know I have. From Shakin’ Stevens to Barry Manilow, I’ve loved ‘em all (what?). And so, apparently, do chick lit writers. Looking for a dangerous, sexy hero? A musician’s your man!

Dedication, the new novel by Nicola Kraus and Emma McLaughlin (whose first The Nanny Diaries is a Trashionista favourite and whose second, Citizen Girl, received Trashi’s Worst Ever Review), is the story of 30-year old Kate, whose high-school boyfriend and love of her life Jake left town without a word just before the prom ... and then became one of the biggest recording artists of his generation, with a series of songs about their relationship. When Kate's best friend from home Laura calls to tell her Jake's home filming a TV hometown special, Kate seizes the chance she's been waiting twelve years for, and goes back to confront him.

Kathleen Tessaro’s second novel, Innocence, is the story of Evie Garlick, who leaves smalltown Ohio at the age of eighteen to follow her dream. She travels across the Atlantic to London, to study acting and soon finds herself best friends with fellow American actress wannabes Robbie and Imogene. The three girls live together, study together and get drunk together until Jack, a struggling rock musician, comes into Evie’s world and pulls her friendships apart.

But it’s not just men who can be sexy musos, you know - oh no. Heather Wells, heroine of Meg Cabot’s Size 12 Is Not Fat, is a 28-year-old ex-pop star who, after having discovered her boy band fiancée doing the dirty with upcoming star Tania Trace and seeing her mother flee the country with her manager and life savings, is forced to take a job as a dormitory – sorry, residence hall –assistant, overseeing students at nearby New York College. Despite her troubled past, as well as a complimentary weight gain, life isn't all that bad – especially as Heather has lovely private-investigator housemate Cooper to lust after.

However, when two female students are suddenly found dead in what appear to be tragic dares-gone-wrong, Heather is certainly not convinced. Because, quite frankly, 'girls don't elevator surf'. Cue a vital desire to solve the mystery of Fischer Hall, which appears to land Heather in a bit more trouble than she actually expects. But with her pop career having taken a nose-dive and no man in tow, surely it's time for the former Queen of Teen to stop reminiscing and start concentrating on the present?

TUESDAY THREE: Quilt lit?

Quilting is a great metaphor for story-telling - or not even a metaphor; quilts tell stories of their own - and, as such, is often featured in women’s fiction to great effect.

Trashionista fave, Lani Diane Rich’s latest book, The Fortune Quilt, sees TV producer Carly McKay going to interview a psychic quiltmaker, Brandywine Seaver. Brandywine gives Carly a reading on a quilt she's made for her and it changes Carly’s life completely. Carly doesn’t believe in psychics, but when her TV show closes down, her runaway mother returns after 17 years and her best (male) friend tells her he’s been in love with her for years, she returns to the arty town of Bilby to ask Brandy what the hell’s going on.

Partly due to the town's charms (not least sexy neighbour, Will) and partly because she's afraid to go home, Carly finds herself making a life in Bilby, but when the quilt inspires her to make things right and get back what she’s lost, Carly's forced to risk everything she’s found.

The Wedding Ring by Emilie Richards - the first story in a trilogy - features Tessa and her mother, Nancy, who are summoned to Helen's (that's Tessa's grandmother, Nancy's mother) home by a concerned neighbour. When Tessa and Nancy reach Helen's mountainside house they are shocked by the level of disarray it has fallen into. Helen has been hoarding anything and everything - refusing to leave the old way of life in which you didn't throw away anything that might be useful.

They begin to clear through the piles whilst Helen hides away, resentful of their presence in her home. Each woman is caught up in her own troubles, each has something they are trying to run away from. Living in close quarters however they start to lern to live with each other, a process that is aided by the discovery of the quilts Helen has spent her life creating. Each one contains stories and memories, and as these are shared the women begin to open up.

Diane raved about each of Joshilyn Jackson’s first two books, gods in Alabama and Between, Georgia
and her new book - due out in March 08 - is called The Girl Who Stopped Swimming and is the story of Laurel Gray Hawthorne needs to make things pretty, whether she's helping her mother make sure the very literal family skeleton stays buried or turning scraps of fabric into nationally acclaimed art quilts...

TUESDAY THREE: Two for one!

Here at Trashionista, we read a lot of books (obviously) and sometimes we get more than we bargained for, in that some books feature a book within a book ... two for the price of one!

In Jo Barrett's debut novel, The Men’s Guide to the Women’s Bathrooms, former lawyer Claire St John has left New York after divorcing her cheating husband Charles. She's now back home in Austin, Texas to write her bestselling book. About what, she's not quite sure. Then she hits on a brilliant idea: she'll demystify women for men. She'll call her book The Men's Guide to the Women's Bathroom and, as we read this book, we also get to read Claire’s book. Not only is Jo Barrett a smart, witty and talented author, but her heroine is too! 

Lisa Beth Kovetz's debut novel, The Tuesday Erotica Club, is the story of four women from very different backgrounds, who form a weekly writing group, which quickly becomes a weekly erotic writing group. As you might suspect from the title, there's a certain amount of erotic writing in the book, as we are treated to the women's creative efforts. It just stops short of being too much, but probably isn't for the squeamish about sex. However, the real plot of the book is about the importance of female friendship and it's a very good, well-crafted read.

A very (very) different novel is A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka. Nadia and Vera’s father, Nikolai, has always been eccentric, but when he announces, two years after their mother’s death, his plans to marry a young Ukranian woman neither of them has met, the sisters are concerned. As the sisters try to remove the woman and her son from their father’s life, Nikolai is working on his book - A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian. Which is exactly what it sounds like...

TUESDAY THREE: Two women

A standard chick lit plot is that of a woman having to choose between two men, but there are a good number of books now featuring a man choosing - or not - between two women.

In Donna Hay's The Two Mrs Robinsons, Oliver Robinson dies, leaving behind two women who love him: the ex-wife he hasn’t divorced and the girlfriend he hasn’t married. The uneasy truce that exists between the two women is stretched to the limit when Eve, the ex-wife, decides to run his restaurant while Anna, the girlfriend, thinks they should sell it. Desperate to turn things around the two women find they have to compromise and soon start to grow closer as they look out for each other.

While bigamy isn’t the usual subject of a warm, feel good chick lit novel,  Sheila O’Flanagan has produced an engaging read with Yours, Faithfully exploring the bizarre relationship between two women married to the same man. Sally has been married to Frank since they were very young and they have a teenage daughter, Jenna. Iona met and married Frank after a whirlwind romance four years ago. They are now trying for a baby. Neither wife knows about the other until Frank is involved in an accident. When they learn of each other’s existence and meet in the hospital sparks fly, but then after a period of hatred towards what each calls ‘the other woman’ we see how their relationship develops and grows.

Emily Giffin’s Something Borrowed is told from the point of view of Rachel, who is about to turn thirty and having a bit of an early mid-life crisis. Her best friend since school Darcy seems to have everything: a wonderful man, a glamorous job in PR and a wedding to plan. Rachel on the other hand, feels lost and overlooked. Especially whenever she's with Darcy. Life perks up a little when she finally realises she has great chemistry with a man she's known for years... shame he also happens to be Darcy's fiance, Dex...

TUESDAY THREE: Baby makes two!

This week I thought I’d do something different for Tuesday Three. Well, I say *I* thought of it, but actually I got an email from a reader named Therese recommending chick lit books about single motherhood. We haven’t read any of them, but they sound good, so here you go! (And if you have any recommendations, Therese - and we - would love to hear them!)

In Jane Porter’s Flirting With Forty, Seattle single mom Jackie Laurens begins wondering how important happiness is: divorced with two kids and a thriving decorating business, she assumes she's happy, but can't help feeling like something's missing. When her married friend, Anne, arranges for the two of them to indulge in a Hawaiian getaway in honor of Jackie's 40th birthday, Jackie agrees. Anne backs out at the last second, but Jackie decides to suffer through the vacation solo ... and there she meets Kai, a sexy, tan and much younger surfing instructor.

And Baby Makes Two by Judy Sheehan features Jane Howe, who is pretty sure she has attained the perfect life: a well-paying job, fantastic friends, family close by (but not too close), and a Greenwich Village apartment that makes visitors drool with envy. But that’s before she sees the perfect child. There he sits in his stroller, angelic and beautiful, magnetic and serene–and he makes Jane question everything she has and everything she thought she wanted.

Suddenly all she can see are babies and pregnant woman everywhere. Were there always so many of them? And while there was once a man in her life–her one true love, Sam, gone from this world too soon–there is no man now. Jane must make a choice: possibly become a bitter and childless old lady, letting her biological clock tick on ’till menopause, or tend the ache in her heart now, by becoming a single mother.

Single Mom Seeking: Playdates, Blind Dates, and Other Dispatches from the Dating World by Rachel Sarah is a memoir by a single mom trying to get up the nerve to date again. 

TUESDAY THREE: Swapping lives

Have you ever looked at someone and wished you had their life? You know, whoever George Clooney’s currently going out with. Or Marian Keyes, who is not only a fantastically talented author and all-round goddess, but also gets to work from her bed. Well, if you have, you’re not the only one - many, many authors have also wondered about it. Here are three!

Another Man's Life by Greg Williams features twin men with very different lives (one is a single, hot-shot rich businessman, the other a stay-at-home-dad ever since he was made unemployed), who decide to swap lives and to find out how the other half lives, if the grass is greener on the other side... and all that jazz.

So they hatch a plan to pretend to be each other for two weeks, during which Tom (the stay-at-home-dad)'s wife will be away and Sean (the single, hot-shot rich businessman) will be off work. Or that's the plan, anyway. What could possibly go wrong?

In Mary Castillo’s Switchcraft, Nely and Aggie - who have been friends for years, but have grown apart since the birth of Nely’s baby - go on a spa break to try and repair their friendship. During their session with a guru, they end up “switched” into each others bodies, where, it turns out, they have to stay for 28 days. There is nothing they can do but try to muddle through living each other’s lives...

Life Swap by Jane Green features Vicky, a single girl in London who dreams of nothing but getting married. Across the pond, Amber apparently has it all – the house, the husband, the kids, the American dream. But neither is happy, both perhaps wanting what the other has. The two strangers swap lives for a month, as a feature for Vicky’s magazine ‘Poise!’, to see if the grass is greener.

TUESDAY THREE: Knit lit

I can't believe it's a year since we first mentioned the concept of "Knit Lit" - where does the time go? But in the past year, we've actually reviewed three knitting-heavy books so the subject was a shoe-in for this week's Tuesday Three. Funnily enough all three of these books are part of series - knit lit is obviously here to stay!

Kate Jacobs' The Friday Night Knitting Club is the charming story of Georgia Walker - single mother to a mixed-race daughter, Dakota, and proprietor of a knitting shop in Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Encouraged by Georgia’s mentor, Anita, and assistant, Peri, local women begin to gather in the shop on a Friday evening to chat, knit and eat treats cooked by 12-year-old Dakota ... and The Friday Night Knitting Club is born.

But then Dakota’s father James reappears on the scene wanting a relationship not only with Dakota, but with Georgia too. Georgia’s former best friend, Cat, also turns up, unsatisfied with her glamorous life. Everything seems to be changing and Georgia’s not sure she’s ready.

In Debbie Macomber's Back on Blossom Street, Lydia owns a yarn shop where a group of women come together for a knitting class. Alix, who's about to be married but whose wedding organizing has been overrun by her future mother-in-law and another friend. Collette, who is widowed but recently pregnant by her ex-employer. And Lydia's sister, who also has a crisis which affects her whole family. All that and knitting patterns too!

Gil McNeil's Divas Don’t Knit is the story of Jo Mackenzie, a widow with two young sons. Needing a change to get over the shock of losing her husband (even though he was about to leave her), she takes up her grandmother's invitation to move to the country and take over the running of the family's wool shop.

TUESDAY THREE: Shop til you drop

This week I thought I'd look at an alleged chick lit staple: shopping.

Of course I had to start with the queen of shopping - Becky Bloomwood. The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic, the first of Sophie Kinsella's super-successful series is a laugh-out loud cautionary tale of what happens when you lose track of your spending. Becky Bloomwood is a financial advisor who hasn't got a clue how to save. From racing away from work to buy designer scarves to filling her house full of greetings cards for no apparent reason, her impulse spending makes even the most seasoned shopper look like a spendthrift. Despite her (many) faults and unbelievably stupid spending sprees, our heroine is still the kind of character you can't help rooting for throughout. From the hilarious letters to her bank manager that start each chapter to the tales of her burgeoning romance with the lovely Luke Brandon and her warts-and-all friendship with Sloaney Suze, the pages fly by.

But what if you're not a seasoned shopper? How do you know what to buy? Well India Knight's gorgeous, The Shops, will help with that. 'The Shops: How, why and where to shop' is an unashamedly self-indulgent gem filled with tales of the author's shopping excursions and littered with product recommendations, shopping favourites and gift ideas. Whether you're a seasoned shopper or the kind of person who dreads a trip to Oxford Street, this book is a mine of information and a great read to dip in and out of. It covers everything from maternity clothing to organic food, and is full of top tips, personal recommendations and silly stories. Invest in it now and halve your Christmas shopping time!

Of course some people don't like to shop and others don't think excessive shopping is ethical. But could you go a whole year without buying anything? No clothes, no books (argh!), no cinema tickets or meals out? What would you do if you weren't part of the consumer economy and only bought the barest of essentials? And how would other people react?

To answer all those questions and more, Judith Levine (along with her partner, Paul) took on a mammoth challenge: a year of Not Buying It. This book looks at issues of world economics, environmental concerns and social responsibility and in this sense is enlightening, if a bit depressing at times. It's a thought-provoking read, and I can't imagine that anyone who reads it will ever forget some of the lessons of the book.

TUESDAY THREE: Lost in Austen

I felt the urge to mix it up a bit with Tuesday Three this week. Instead of featuring books we've already reviewed, I thought I'd choose three books we'd like to review. But still connected. I'm not an amateur.

First up ... oh, yes - the subject is Jane Austen (see how pride comes before a fall?!).

First up is Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler in which, after nursing a broken engagement with Jane Austen novels and Absolut, Courtney Stone wakes up and finds herself not in her Los Angeles bedroom or even in her own body, but inside the bedchamber of a woman in Regency England. Who but an Austen addict like herself could concoct such a fantasy?

I've mentioned Lost in Austen: Create Your Own Jane Austen Adventure by Emma Campbell Webster before, but I've just discovered it's called Being Elizabeth Bennet in the UK (and out at the beginning of next month).

The book gives the reader the opportunity to star in Pride and Prejudice. "You will be faced throughout this book with delicate challenges and dangerous choices. Whether you're accepting Mr Darcy the first time he professes his attachment, deciding to elope with Mr Wickham or avoiding a murderous Lady Catherine de Bourgh, this is a chance to rewrite Austen's most famous book. You must complete five stages - and successfully negotiate your way through Austen's five other novels - before can choose to accept Mr Darcy. But if the outcome does not suit, simply return to page 1 and create a new Jane Austen adventure."

Shannon Hale's Austenland features Jane Hayes, a seemingly normal young New Yorker, but with a secret obsession with Mr. Darcy, as played by Colin Firth in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Her obsession is ruining her love life - no real man can compare - but when a wealthy relative bequeaths her a trip to an English resort catering to Austen-crazed women, Jane’s fantasies of meeting the perfect Regency-era gentleman suddenly become realer than she ever could have imagined.

Related: The influence of Austen

TUESDAY THREE: Searchin'

"... lookin' for love, all the time I can." Ah, whatever happened to Hazell Dean, eh? Anyway, I'll stop singing 80s pop classics long enough to do this week's Tuesday Three on the subject of, yes, searchin', looking for someone.

Lady Luck’s Map of Vegas by Barbara Samuel features India: 40, with a well-established career, a boyfriend she sees only once a month, a bombshell of a mother and a schizophrenic twin sister who went off her meds and on the run when their father died a few months earlier. When her mother, Eldora, suggests a road trip both to try and find India’s sister, Gypsy, India flat out refuses. Her mother annoys the hell out of her and she can’t bear to spend that much time cooped up with her. Plus, she’s just discovered thiat she’s pregnant and she needs to work out how she feels and what she wants to do about that situation.

But eventually her mother wears her down and they set off together. India finds herself both enjoying the trip more than she expected and missing her boyfriend Jack more than she imagined. But he didn’t seem interested when she told him about the baby and she hasn’t managed to get hold of him since she’s been on the road. Plus her mother seems to be using the trip as a chance to tell India all sorts of secrets that India would really rather not know...

Lucy Blue, the heroine of Louise Harwood's third novel, Lucy Blue, Where Are You?, is in the process of extricating herself from an unsuitable relationship with an overbearing, controlling man. In an act of liberation, she accepts a New Year’s Eve party invitation from an old friend in Scotland. The party is a disappointing flop, but, after being stranded at the airport, Lucy finds herself reluctantly “lumbered” with giving a lift to a devastatingly attractive stranger, Jude.

Having spent the best part of a day cooped up in a small hire car together, passion suddenly strikes and Jude and Lucy make an unscheduled detour to a roadside motel. Job done, they agree that this should remain one magical, never to be repeated memory. All is fine until a poster in a tube station declaring “Where are you, Lucy Blue?” throws them back together again, bringing to the surface buried emotions, family issues and consequences they couldn’t possibly have foreseen.

The debut novel by Morag Prunty, Dancing With Mules introduces Xavier Big, an Irish American billionaire looking for an Irish wife. Cue a selection of ladies hoping to be swept off their feet...

TUESDAY THREE: Celeb Flings

Despite the fact that it's sunny today, I think I'm finally going to have to accept that we're probably not going to have a summer. So instead of a Summer Special Tuesday Three, I thought I'd cheer myself up with some Celebrity Flings!

Laura Caldwell's The Year of Living Famously is the story of unsuccessful fashion designer Kyra who falls in love with and marries a relatively unknown Irish actor who then becomes incredibly famous. The celebrity lifestyle - stalkers, paparazzi, staff - completely freaks her out and she's not sure whether she can put up with it, even if it means giving up the lovely Declan.

Sadie Price, heroine of Libby Street's Accidental It Girl is a member of the paparazzi. When she's involved in a chase in which she totals her car and gets on the wrong side of Hollywood bad boy Ethan Wyatt, she thinks the damage is only physical. Wyatt decides to try to turn the tables on Sadie, and give her a taste of her own medicine, with predictable, but entertaining results.

Kristin Harmel's How to Sleep With A Movie Star features Claire Reilly, celebrity editor at Mod magazine, who can’t understand why her layabout boyfriend Tom has lost interest in her. Sent to interview Hollywood megastar, Cole Brannon, Claire expects him to be a typical egomaniac, but he's not - he's down to earth, sweet and even more gorgeous in real life. And he seems interested in her, but he couldn’t possibly be ... could he?

TUESDAY THREE: Life's a beach

Yes, despite the weather, we're continuing with the Summer Special. This week I thought I'd look at beach reads since I've actually started compiling my own holiday reading list (about which more later).

First up is Chocolate Beach by Julie Carobini. Inspirational chick lit, it's the story of free-spirited Bri Stone who begins to worry that her hard-working lawyer husband Douglas may be bored with her. When friends and family urge her to change to hang on to her man things start to fall apart. With pressure from her mother-in-law to make her beach house more suited to a man of Douglas’s stature, bitchy comments from a former friend, and a new, erratic boss at the tour company, Bri doesn’t quite know what to do for the best.

Sexy Shorts for the Beach is a collection of short stories with a summery theme.
Featuring a brilliant mix of styles and feels to the stories - some are amusing, some are poignant and and some are downright romantic - we recommend it highly.

How could I write about beach reads without mentioning Belinda Jones? The Paradise Room takes us to Tahiti, and islands so beautiful they even melt the heart of Amber Pepper, a woman who's usually much happier with a brolly than a bikini. But in Tahiti she really begins to find herself, and that means a few very important decisions need to be made...

TUESDAY THREE: Messing about on the water

The summer theme continues with books about boats and boating (and apologies if I get any of the terminology wrong - I don't want emails telling me that "yachting" isn't "boating" or anything like that).

Sarah Mason's Sea Fever is the story of Erica Pencarrow, who longs to compete in sailing's toughest challenge, the America's Cup. When her dream finally comes true she must conquer not only the sea but also her team's prejudices - a fight she looks set to lose when she falls for a rival sailor. Review coming soon.

Love Overboard, the second of the Janet Evanovich romance novel re-releases, features Ivan who is the proud owner of a two-masted schooner, and a descendant of pirates. During the holiday season he takes a charter of passengers out every week, the success of which relies on his trusted crew. Imagine his horror when, as he's preparing to take his final trip of the season, he's greeted by Stephanie - the woman he sold his beloved family home to only a matter of weeks ago.

Jacquelyn Mitchard's Still Summer is the story of four school friends, who get together for an idyllic sailing vacation – meant to comfort recently widowed Olivia – expecting two weeks of gossip, sunbathing and drinks with little umbrellas. Instead, two days into their crossing, a single small mistake turns paradise a sun-baked hell. Surrounded by water, but with almost none to drink, with refrigerators filled with gourmet food rotting before they can used it, and a deluxe communication system ruined in an instant, the women must hide from the punishing sun and use all their strength and intelligence to try to outwit nature, their own demons and human predators.

There's a review of this coming soon(ish) too, but you'll actually find a (glowing) Amazon review written by no less than Jodi Picoult!

If the above's whetted your appetite for the water, you can also read about Katie Fforde's Dutch barge, sailing the Med, and cruising with Monroe.

Summer Special Tuesday 3 - Change your life on holiday

Another Summer Special Tuesday Three. This week, rather than picking one place, I've picked three books that will show you how a holiday can change your life.

When her horrendous divorce is followed by a devastating break-up, Elizabeth Gilbert decides to take a year out just for herself. She comes up with a plan to spend the year pursuing three very different things in three very different countries: pleasure in Italy, devotion in India and balance in Indonesia - Eat, Pray, Love. The fact that the countries all being with "I" is coincidental, but, Gilbert thinks, a good sign. Can she recover from her past and find herself and her future all in the space of a year?

If you've ever wanted to take a year off, if you've ever wondered if there's more to life than this, if you've ever had to recover from a bad break-up - surely that covers everyone? - you'll enjoy this book.

We haven't actually reviewed the book of Under the Tuscan Sun, but we've reviewed the film and that's good enough for me. It stars Diane Lane as Frances, who, following a bitter divorce, heads to Italy to try and learn how to be happy again. Frances is only supposed to be there on holiday, but she falls for a run-down house and buys it on the spot. As you do. And you know the rest. She charms the locals, makes friends, walls fall down, things/hearts break, etc. We've seen it many times. But I never stopped wanting it to work out and I never doubted for a moment that it would.

When Felix Huber is diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, he and his wife Rina decide to retire and spend however many years they have left sailing around the Mediterranean. Starting in France, they spend the next Nine Summers sailing their yacht Galatea from Italy to Greece to Turkey, even Israel.

On the way, they have numerous, significant problems - Felix suffers a stroke practically before they've set off, Rina contracts breast cancer and also has to have a potentially paralysing back operation, and then Felix has a heart attack - but their positive attitude, lovely natures and deep love for each other carry them through everything. It's a charming and inspiring book.

Has a book ever inspired you to change your life? Let us know.

Summer Special Tuesday 3 - Australia

I've never been to Australia, but I'd love to go. There are only a few things that put me off: spiders, a 24 hour flight, Russell Crowe. I can't actually think of any Australian chick lit off the top of my head, but I'm sure there must be some and I will now proceed to find it. Wait there.

I haven't read Leigh Riker's Strapless, but the tagline - "Australia or bust" - sounds intriguing. It's the story of Darcie Baxter, sent to Sydney to set up and launch the newest Wunderthings Lingerie store. She begins a romance with sexy sheep rancher Dylan, but while she wants to pursue her career, he wants a wife who will give him children. Will they be able to work it out?

Carrie Tiffany's first book, Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living - shortlisted for the Orange Prize - is the story of Jean, a seamstress with no family who joins the Better Farming Train, which travels round Western Australia at the end of World War One, educating farmers on new methods to increase productivity. She falls in love with the taciturn and meticulous scientist Robert and together they disembark to start a new life as crop farmers in a particularly isolated and barren part of the country.

The novel flicks between past and present day as we learn more about the main character's backgrounds and despite the hardships the novel covers, it's carried along at a light, breezy pace, propelled by a wry humour and peppered with moments of unbearable poignancy. Quirky, clever and educational, this is a great read.

Australian author Jaclyn Moriarty's epistolary YA novel, Feeling Sorry for Celia I didn't *love*, but Marian Keyes really, really did - she described it as a book she'd like to have written herself and the book she most frequently recommends to other people.

Non-fiction and non-chick lit-wise, try Bill Bryson's Down Under. Not as funny as some of his other books, but a great, entertaining introduction to Australia.

Summer Special Tuesday Three - Venice

Yep, I'm back from my romantic mini-break in the subject of last week's Tuesday Three - Paris - and am focussing this week on Venice.

As we've already mentioned, Belinda Jones's latest - The Love Academy - is set in Venice and is the story of journalist Kirsty Bailey who is sent by the magazine she works for to attend the much gossiped-about Love Academy. In Venice. Nice work if you can get it.

I'm currently reading Marlena de Blasi's memoir, A Thousand Days in Venice, only stopping to read a book I couldn't possibly resist (about which more later), but I've enjoyed it very much so far. It's the tale of Marlena's whirlwind romance with an Italian she met while there on business. (Nice work if you can get it!)   

Not chick lit, but wonderful all the same (!) Sally Vickers' debut novel, Miss Garnet's Angel is the story of middle-aged Julia Garnet who decides to spend six months in Venice to recover from a bereavement. She falls in love with Carlo and her life opens up in ways she never imagined.

Did you know that author Laurie Graham (who Diane rather loves) lives in Venice? She writes:

I write my books in a canal-side study in the city of Venice. The only sounds that interrupt me are the gentle throb of delivery boats and the occasional tortured singing of a passing gondolier.

Well, now I'm jealous. Read more about Laurie Graham - and her life in Venice - on her blog.

Summer Special Tuesday 3 - Paris

I thought I'd do something a bit different with the Summer Special Tuesday 3s. Each week I'm going to pick a place and feature three books set there, which we may or may not have reviewed. (And there may be more than 3...) Ooh. Controversial!

So first up is Paris, mainly because I'm going there at the end of this week. Yes, I know I said I wasn't going on holiday until September, this isn't a holiday, it's a Bridget Jones style romantic mini-break ... with cycling (we're going to see the end of the Tour de France). But back to the books...

First up is Weekend in Paris by Robyn Sisman. Weekend in Paris is not my favourite of Sisman's books (that would be Perfect Strangers), but it's definitely escapist. Molly is given the opportunity to accompany her boss to Paris, but then learns he plans to seduce her and so runs away to Paris on her own. She then meets a bunch of people and has a life-changingly exciting weekend. In Paris.

Diane has loaned me Kate Muir 's Left Bank to take with me this weekend, so it had better be good. It's the story of a glamorous French philosopher and a gorgeous American actress. In Paris. And it looks gorgeous.

Paris Hangover by Kirsten Lobe features Klein, a New Yorker trying to find the right man. In Paris.

Paulina Porizkova's debut novel, A Model Summer is also set in Paris  as is Julia Holden's new book, One Dance in Paris and Sabine Durrant's YA novel Ooh La La, Connie Pickles (which I loved).

If you've read any of the above, let us know what you think. And feel free to tell us about your favourite Paris novel.

Plus if you've got a pash for Paris, you should check out writer Gabrielle Luthy's site - more Paris links than you could possibly ever need!

TUESDAY THREE: Arty farty

As you can tell from the heading, I’m very cultured, so I thought I’d focus this week on three books set in the art world.

Alison Pace’s debut, If Andy Warhol Had a Girlfriend, features gallery manager Jane Laine, who is sent on a five-month international art fair tour with British artist, Ian Rhys-Fitzsimmons. Unimpressed with his art, Jane thinks Ian's a fraud and isn't impressed with the assignment either. In fact, Ian makes Jane nervous, but, as they travel to London, Rome, Chicago, Santa Fe, she finds that there's much more to Ian - and to his art - than she originally thought. Can you guess what's going to happen?

Jennifer Crusie’s Faking It is the story of struggling artist Tilda Goodnight and her family. She's not struggling in the usual sense of starving in a garret - rather she's struggling to keep her artistic and personal integrity in the face of family pressures. She desperately needs cash to pay the mortgage on the family art gallery so she's selling her soul copying famous paintings onto rich people's walls- but has a basement full of art that she can't sell for mysterious reasons.

When her niece accidentally sells one of the forbidden artworks, things seem to be getting worse and worse. Tilda's bored, tired and put upon, so the last thing she needs is to bump into Davy Dempsey in a darkened cupboard when they're both trying to steal the same painting. Things get even more complicated as Tilda and Davy's paths keep crossing, and she becomes suspicious of his motives- is he trying to discover her dark secrets? Is he hiding something of his own? Are they really attracted to each other- or is one of them faking it?

In Zoe Rice’s Pick Me Up, Izzy works in an art gallery, has a glamorous PR best friend, wonderful clients and a cat named Robbie (after Robbie Williams, no less). She's happy with her life until the gallery's benefactor drops dead, her fabulous boss takes a job on the other side of the country and she's landed with an artist who seems not to be able to stand her .. most of the time.

TUESDAY THREE: Fathers and daughters

Mothers and daughters, sisters, grandmothers ... what family relationship haven’t we looked at? Yep, fathers and daughters. As a relationship, I think it’s rather under-represented in chick lit, but I’ve found three books with a bit of a father-focus.

In Hester Browne's The Little Lady Agency, Honey's job is to help hapless men by doing all the things women do best - shopping, socialising and generally charming the pants of people. She's a rent-a-girlfriend of sorts, getting gay men off the hook with their mothers and buying christmas presents for difficult secretaries. But the line between Melissa and Honey gets blurred when she meets the gorgeous Jonathan, who just happens to be the roundabout reason she started the agency in the first place.

Chaos ensues as she tries to keep her business running, justify her job to her best mates, keep her ex-colleagues off the trail, cope with her overbearing dad. Honey’s dad is really one of the most appalling and hilarious father’s in fiction. I loved to loath him!

Marina Lewycka’s debut, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, is predominantly the story of Nadia and Vera’s father, Nikolai. He’s always been eccentric, but when he announces, two years after their mother’s death, his plans to marry a young Ukranian woman neither of them has met, the sisters are concerned. Their concern increases when they finally do meet Valentina - a brash, big-bosomed woman, who is clearly only interested in their father for his money and British citizenship. Their father though, is smitten.

Valentina and her son Stanislav move in and Valentina’s treatment of Nikolai soon changes. He is no longer her “holubchik” (little pigeon) he is “no-good-bad-stink-corpse”. The sisters realise they have to get Valentina and Stanislav out of their father’s life, but how?

Maggie Alderson's Cents & Sensibility is about Stella’s struggle to manage her relationship with her jet set playboy boyfriend, Jay, but the secondary theme of the book is the relationship between Stella and her father Ham. The family set up is completely ludicrous – and yet charming and utterly believable, and against your better judgement you can’t help but love it, and feel a part of it.

TUESDAY THREE: Overboard!

When Diane mentioned the other day that we’d recently featured a couple of books with the word “Overboard” in the title, my Tuesday 3 radar went ping! (Tuesday 3 radar, £2.99, Argos. Probably.) So grab your life jacket as I splash out on three very different overboard books!

Love Overboard,  the second of the Janet Evanovich romance novel re-releases, features Ivan who is the proud owner of a two-masted schooner, and a descendant of pirates. During the holiday season he takes a charter of passengers out every week, the success of which relies on his trusted crew. Imagine his horror when, as he's preparing to take his final trip of the season, he's greeted by Stephanie - the woman he sold his beloved family home to only a matter of weeks ago.

The story chronicles the week aboard the 'Josiah T Savage' and then the aftermath, as the season draws to a close and everyone moves back onto dry land. Ivan struggles to regain his landlegs, and has to restrain himself as Stephanie refuses to return any of the approaches he makes. And then supernatural things begin to happen... what's haunting the house?

Sarah Smiley’s Going Overboard is subtitled "The misadventures of a military wife." It's a memoir of a year in the life of Sarah, whose husband Dustin is in the navy and, in this perilous political climate, often abroad in rather dangerous situations. Which means that Sarah is home alone with their two young boys, alternately worrying herself sick and cursing her husband for having joined up in the first place.

Aimee Ferris’s debut YA novel Girl Overboard focusses on the aptly-named Marina, whose ambition is to be a Marine Biologist. Leaving her ski-loving boyfriend behind in Vermont, Marina sets out on a six-week study tour of the Caribbean, where she'll be given the opportunity to swim with and learn about sharks, turtles and dolphins. Along with the inevitable teen angst and snogging, there's a message about ecology and endangered species making Girl Overboard as educational as it is entertaining.

TUESDAY THREE: Future classics

As you know, it's Cult Classics week at Trashionista this week (although it's slightly on hold since poor Diane currently has no electricity thanks to the inclement weather!) So for this week's Tuesday Three, I'm looking at future chick lit classics.

Since Jennifer Weiner is the chick lit author most likely to cross-over, her debut novel, Good In Bed, is destined to be a future classic. It's is the story of Cannie, who finds out her boyfriend Bruce has left her for another woman by reading about it in his new magazine column. Weiner's debut addresses issues of family, self-image and love in a way we hadn't seen in chick-lit before. Cannie isn't a Bridget Jones style diet-obsessive - she has phases where she's unhappy with her body, but generally she likes being a larger lady. And she is, we're assured, very good in bed...

Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper perhaps suffered a bit for being a Richard & Judy bookclub choice. While being picked by the twosome is a huge boost for earnings and profile, it pretty much guarantees you a critical mauling. Jodi Picoult's books, though, are brilliantly written, topical, moving and entertaining and surely this will be recognised at some point in the future.

Thirteen year-old Anna is a human pincushion, who's been through countless invasive surgeries and blood transfusions to help save her sister Kate, who has leukaemia. She was never given a choice in this - in fact she was born for this very purpose. But now she's had enough. She's taking her parents to court to ask that they stop harvesting her body to help her sister. As you can imagine, this tears an already disparate (and desperate) family apart...

We haven't actually reviewed the final book in the three - Rachel's Holiday - but I couldn't possibly leave it out, since, as the chick lit readers' and writers' favourite, it's surely a future classic. Marian Keyes' third book is the story of Rachel Walsh, whose love of a good time lands her in Ireland's answer to the Betty Ford Clinic. Rachel is hopeful, expecting spa treatments and celebrities, instead, she finds a lot of group therapy, which leads her, against her will, to some important self-knowledge and a man who might actually be good for her.

Which books do you think are classics of the future?

TUESDAY THREE: Grandmothers

We’ve looked at sisters and mothers and daughters, so surely it must be time for grandmothers... Why, yes, it is!

When the nameless first-person narrator of Alice Hoffman’s The Ice Queen is eight she is upset with her mother one day, so when her mum goes out for the evening, she wishes for her never to return. She doesn't: she dies in a car crash and she and her brother Ned go to live with their grandmother. From then onwards, our narrator is convinced she has a gift: when she wishes for something bad, it always happens - but she can't seem to stop herself from wishing.

In adulthood, she half-heartedly wishes to be hit by lightning, and then she is. It has strange and devastating  physical consequences including colorblindness, limping and pain. But in other ways, it begins a new and exciting chapter in her life - especially when she meets mysterious fellow lightning strike survivor Lazarus Jones - a man who is literally too hot to touch...

Kate Jacobs' The Friday Night Knitting Club is the charming story of Georgia Walker - single mother to a mixed-race daughter, Dakota, and proprietor of a knitting shop in Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Encouraged by Georgia’s mentor, Anita, and assistant, Peri, local women begin to gather in the shop on a Friday evening to chat, knit and eat treats cooked by 12-year-old Dakota ... and The Friday Night Knitting Club is born.

But then Dakota’s father James reappears on the scene wanting a relationship not only with Dakota, but with Georgia too. Georgia’s former best friend, Cat, also turns up, unsatisfied with her glamorous life. Everything seems to be changing and Georgia’s not sure she’s ready so she takes a trip to the UK to visit her grandmother and educate Dakota about her background.

More knitting in Gil McNeil’s Divas Don’t Knit, which features Jo Mackenzie, a widow with two young sons, and she's had enough of London. Needing a change to get over the shock of losing her husband (even though he was about to leave her), she takes up her grandmother's invitation to move to the country and take over the running of the family's wool shop...

TUESDAY THREE: Working in TV

We've looked at chick lit heroines who work for newspapers, magazines and in PR - how about television?

Stephanie Lehmann's You could do better was described as '... an irresistible new novel about a woman trying to choose between the man of her dreams - and her fiance ...' and if you can resist a line like that, you're a better woman than me.

Daphne works as a curator at the Museum of Television and Radio in New York, so obsession with TV is part of her job. But she also uses TV as a way to avoid engaging in real life (who doesn't?!) - her parents are dead, her former supermodel sister Billie is a mess and sex with her boyfriend Charlie is only average. But when Charlie proposes Daphne almost misses it because she's too busy watching a fictional proposal on TV. Luckily she catches on and accepts but then when Charlie starts to lose patience with her television habit and she meets a sexy and available TV producer, Daphne starts to wonder if maybe she's settling for Charlie .. if perhaps she could do better...

When TV producer Carly McKay - heroine of Lani Diane Rich's The Fortune Quilt - goes to interview a psychic quiltmaker, Brandywine Seaver, she has no idea that her life is about to change completely ... until, that is, Brandy gives her a reading on a quilt she's made for Carly. Carly doesn’t believe in psychics, but when her TV show closes down, her runaway mother returns after 17 years and her best (male) friend tells her he’s been in love with her for years, she returns to the arty town of Bilby to ask Brandy what the hell’s going on.

Partly due to the town's charms (not least sexy neighbour, Will) and partly because she's afraid to go home, Carly finds herself making a life in Bilby, but when the quilt inspires her to make things right and get back what she’s lost, Carly's forced to risk everything she’s found.

Apparently the latest, hottest trend in Manhattan - more popular than the Birkin bag, better than Jimmy Choos - is The Manny, or male nanny, and this is the subject of Holly Peterson's debut novel. Jamie Whitfield is at the end of her tether with her husband Philip, an overgrown spoiled rich kid who can never have enough money and who spends all his time at work, away from Jamie and their three children.

Jamie's also trying to break a huge national story in her job as producer at a major news network and it's not going smoothly. More importantly, the problems in her marriage are brought into stark relief by her growing attraction to Peter, the Manny...

TUESDAY THREE: Working in PR

The cliched idea of chick lit often touted by the snooty press is a PR girl in the city, looking for a man... Well, you know, all cliches have an element of truth, and this week's three books all feature heroines working in PR.

Heaven Albright, heroine of Caprice Crane’s Stupid and Contagious has a brilliant PR career until she's unfairly dismissed. Procrastinating about starting her own agency, she takes a waitressing job in a trendy restaurant. Independent (and unsuccessful) record company owner Brady Gilbert leaves his psycho girlfriend and moves into the apartment next door to Heaven's. Of course they don't get on at all to begin with. Heaven doesn't think Brady's all there and Brady thinks she's crazy, but from the very beginning the reader knows they're made for each other. Stupid and Contagious is extremely funny, it made me cry and when I finished it I could happily have turned back to the first page and started it again.

Piece of Work is Laura Zigman's fourth novel after a four year absence. It's the story of Julia Einstein, who gave up a stressful but stimulating job in PR to have and raise her baby boy Leo. But now Leo is three and about to start pre-school, and Julia's husband Peter has been "downsized" from his job and seems in no hurry to get back to work. So Julia reluctantly dips her toe back into the world of work...

Jane Green’s Mr Maybe tells the story of Libby. She's a 27 year old working in PR, desperate to find a suitable man. She's not fussy, just as long as he's drop dead gorgeous, filthy rich, owns a large house in one of the most desirable areas of London, drives a flashy car, and dresses like he's just stepped off the catwalk at the latest Armani fashion show. The story centres around Libby's relationships with  two men - one of whom fits her ideal and another who really, really doesn’t - and her struggle to decide on what actually matters in making a successful relationship.

TUESDAY THREE: Yummy mummies

Ah, the modern phenomenon of the Yummy Mummy. Two words likely to make most mothers want to punch someone repeatedly. As with any phenomenon, Yummy Mummyness soon turned up in fiction, but thankfully the following books are skewering rather than embracing the idea.

Secret Life of a Slummy Mummy is narrated by Lucy Sweeney, whose housekeeping and organisation skills are on the lax, not to say slovenly side. Her husband despairs of her, as she turns up at the school gates in her pyjamas, locks herself out of the house, runs out of petrol at inconvenient times and loses her credit card, only to locate it later in the fridge - after it's been cancelled!

With three young sons to look after, Lucy knows she has to pull herself together, especially as the presence of Yummy Mummy and Alpha Mummy at the school gate always make her feel bad about herself. Then Sexy Domesticated Dad joins the PTA, and Lucy starts to enjoy the school run. But it's just some harmless flirting... isn't it?

Anyone who has ever looked in the mirror six months after becoming a mother and not recognised the shell of a woman looking back will relate to the gloriously funny, warm and poignant Rise and Fall of a Yummy Mummy by Polly Williams.

Amy Crane may have become a mother, but in all other respects she has lost her identity and she struggles to reconcile her love for her gorgeous baby girl Evie with old life as a career girl, lover and friend. She bounces between two groups of friends - the NCT mothers who don't feel fulfilled without a baby strapped to their boobs, and the yummy mummies with the designer prams and designer children.

Ultimately she falls under the spell of the super glamorous Alice who sets about co-ordinating 'Project Amy' - a makeover to ensure the new mum gets her groove back. At the same time she struggles to keep her relationship together with Joe, who she suspects cheated on her while she was heavily pregnant.

Will Project Amy be a success? Will  her relationship with survive? Will her eyebrows ever grow back?

Fran, heroine of Maria Beaumont’s Motherland used to have a fab career as a voiceover artist. She used to be madly in love with her husband, Richard. She used to be cool, calm and in control. And then she had kids. Frightened half to death at the idea of going back to work, cutting herself off from her two best friends and alienating her husband - plus the small matter of drinking so much that she forgets to pick her kids up from school - watch as Fran hits rock bottom and then drags herself back up again.

TUESDAY THREE: Sex swap

I've just read an interview with Jennifer Weiner in which she says she's changed the sex of one of the characters in her new novel, Certain Girls (the sequel to Good in Bed):  "One character is getting a sex change; there’s a girl we think is going to work better as a boy. I’m sure writing it is easier than doing it in real life.”

So today I'm looking at men writing as women and women writing as men!

Jay McInerney’s Story of My Life features Alison Poole, a 20-year old aspiring actress living in New York City. Her rich father is supposed to be funding her education, but keeps flaking on her, so she has to survive on her wits (which she does brilliantly, if not always morally). She's quick-witted, clever, promiscuous and a regular drug-user who has seen and done too much, too young. Ye somehow McInerney also makes her sweet, charming and a wonderful narrator for this slice-of-life story, which is also brilliantly sharply written and very, very funny.

Jodi Picoult’s Salem Falls tells the story of Jack McBride. Accused of indecently assaulting a female pupil at the school he taught at, Jack’s reputation is destroyed overnight. Despite his continued protestations of innocence, Jack spends 8 months in jail. Upon leaving he decides to pick up the pieces, and start over. When he arrives in Salem Falls, and manages to pick up a job washing dishes at the local diner, he begins to think his life may be starting to pick up. That is until he meets Gilly, Meg, Chelsea and Whitney – a group of friends bonded closer than the outside world realises. When they target him with spiteful accusations, Jack begins to wonder if he is doomed to relive the past over and over. Once more he must fight to prove his innocence, and risk losing the woman he loves.

I thought I’d finish with a classic. Arthur Golden inhabits his heroine’s voice so brilliantly that many people actually believe Memoirs of a Geisha is a true story. The story begins in Japan in 1929. When Chiyo's mother becomes progressively ill her elderly father arranges for Chiyo and her sister Satsu to be taken away to Kyoto where they will be trained as geisha girls. Upon arrival in Kyoto the girls are separated and sold to different okiya where they will be trained. Chiyo quickly realises that the life she has been sold into is one of labour and hardship. The book follows Chiyo through her training until she becomes Sayuri, a geisha. It continues then through her experiences as a geisha, and the ways in which world events affect her. Reading it you get a real sense of what it was like to live as a geisha, but also to live in Japan during the 1930s and 40s.

TUESDAY THREE: Imaginary friends

I had one named Mr Corbett. Once, I left my grandparents house and, on the way home, said I’d left him behind. My dad said, “That’s okay, he’s running behind the car.” What on earth am I blethering on about? Imaginary friends! This week we look at three books featuring characters that may not exactly be, you know, real.

Lois Winston’s Talk Gertie to Me features Nori, who, in just one day, loses her boyfriend, best friend and her job and gets home to find that her mother has turned up unannounced for an indefinite stay. Before too long her childhood imaginary friend Gertie emerges to dispense straight talking advice. Gertie isn’t a physical presence, but a voice in Nori’s head, and the whole book is great fun.

Shannon McKelden's witty debut, Venus Envy, finds Venus/Aphrodite/goddess of love in the Seattle area, having to matchmake mortals to appease her father (that'd be Zeus). She's horrified to find her latest challenge is Rachel, who is so damaged by previous disastrous relationships that she's sworn off men for life and fills her time with good works instead. Luckily for Rachel, Luke - a hunky local firefighter - has taken a shine to her and isn't willing to take no for an answer. With Luke already interested and Venus there to help, what could possibly go wrong? Ha.

We haven’t actually reviewed Cecelia Ahern’s If You Could See Me Now, but it’s the story of Elizabeth Egan who has everything under control apart from her irresponsible sister Saoirse. Elizabeth has to take care of Saoirse’s six-year-old son Luke. One day, a stranger unexpectedly comes into their lives. Ivan is carefree, spontaneous and always looking for adventure - everything that Elizabeth is not. In no time at all, he has crept under her skin and started to change her life in ways she could never have . She knows barely anything about Ivan - who he is and whether he is everything he seems. But it turns out he might just be a little bit magical...

And don't forget that the movie (a musical!) is currently in “active production” with Hugh Jackman as the star.

TUESDAY THREE: Lists

I do love a good list and this week's three books use lists in different, but equally entertaining, ways.

E Lockhart’s The Boyfriend List is the story of Ruby Oliver, a 15-year-old girl who's been referred to a psychiatrist after suffering a series of panic attacks. Ruby's psychiatrist notices that she's talking about boys quite a lot, so asks her to make a "boyfriend list", listing every boy she's ever had any kind of romantic liaison with, however insignificant. Most of the chapters of this wonderful book are named after one of the boys on the list, and Ruby narrates the story of what happens with each boy within each chapter, allowing the narrative to switch around, and also feeding in information about her family, her rift with her best friend and the causes of her anxiety.

Karen Bosnak’s Twenty Times a Lady is a novel about that most sensitive of sexual subjects: your "number".  You know, THAT number. Delilah Darling has just been made redundant. Even worse (in her eyes): she wakes up after a particularly  regrettable one-night stand and realizes she's now slept with 20 men. She's shocked, especially as she's just read that the average girl's number is half that... so she vows that she won't sleep with another man. Ever.

This leaves her with a bit of a problem really, as she's hoping to get married and have children eventually. So she takes her redundancy payment, her hire car and her Blackberry and sets off on a journey across America to track down her lost loves. After all, she reasons, surely one of her ex-lovers must be the right guy for her... her romantic instincts can't be that bad. Can they?

Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life is Amy Krouse Rosenthal's autobiography - kind of. It's an alphabetised account of her experiences and thoughts on life, large and small, interspersed with a chronology of her life experiences, from how she came up with the idea of the book to why she could never concentrate during Laverne and Shirley. Although it's a very funny book it's not a superficial or silly one - Amy shares some very personal facts and difficult experiences, including unexpected deaths of loved ones. It's a completely absorbing read.

TUESDAY THREE: Money worries

This week’s Tuesday Three takes a look at something common to most, if not all, of us - money worries.

Raising the Roof, Jane Wenham-Jones' first novel, is about Cari Carrington, the daughter of slightly crazy parents and ex-wife of Martin, the man who cut up her Barclaycard. Cari has three problems: she’s single, she’s jobless and she’s fat. At least that’s what Martin told her during their last blazing row. But don’t worry; Cari has a solution to at least two of those problems. Nigel her horny friend soon becomes her Nigel her horny business partner when they buy a run down property to do up for a profit. Unfortunately Nigel fails to tell Cari exactly how much work needs to be done and she soon sees her investment running away from her so she has to take a more hands on approach than she’d intended...

I couldn’t write about money worries without featuring The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic now, could I. The ultimate in girlie escapism, the first of the super-successful Shopaholic series from Sophie Kinsella is a laugh-out loud cautionary tale of what happens when you lose track of your spending. From the hilarious letters to her bank manager that start each chapter to the tales of her burgeoning romance with the lovely Luke Brandon and her warts-and-all friendship with Sloaney Suze, the pages fly by. Luckily, there's four more where this came from.

Not strictly chick lit - being that it’s both about and written by a man - is Marc Acito’s How I Paid For College. A fabulous, over-the-top, brilliantly written, laugh-a-minute novel about Edward, a high-school senior in 1980s New Jersey, who is desperate to study acting at the prestigious Julliard in New York City but his overbearing father has refused to pay and his flaky mother is incommunicado on her latest hippy retreat. So Edward comes up with an outrageous scheme to enable him to fund his college education himself. Not that paying for college is Edward’s only problem: he has a permanently stoned sister, wicked stepmother and his own confused sexuality to contend with. A brilliant read.

TUESDAY THREE: Adultery

It’s not big or clever, but in fiction it’s always good fun. What am I talking about? Adultery. This week’s three books focus on cheaters and cheating, but possibly in ways you wouldn’t expect...

Emily Giffin’s Something Borrowed is the wonderful story of Rachel, who is about to turn thirty and having a bit of an early mid-life crisis. Her best friend since school Darcy seems to have everything: a wonderful man, a glamorous job in PR and a wedding to plan. Rachel on the other hand, feels lost and overlooked. Especially whenever she's with Darcy. Life perks up a little when she finally realises she has great chemistry with a man she's known for years ... shame he also happens to be Darcy's fiance, Dex...

Jane Fallon’s first novel Getting Rid of Matthew has a great premise: Helen has been Matthew’s mistress for four years, but when he finally leaves his wife and two daughters and moves in with her, Helen finds it’s not what she wanted after all. But Matthew has given up a lot to be with Helen and he’s not about to give her up. Unless she gives him some very good reasons to, that is. So Helen sets about a campaign to drive Matthew away: amongst other things, she stops shaving her legs, slums about the house in her scruff, stops having sex with him and befriends his ex-wife (under a pseudonym).

In Husbands Adele Parks takes it to the next level with bigamist Bella. Bella’s friend Laura, still hurt from a nasty break up, falls head over heels with a busker she meets on the tube. Unfortunately he happens to be married to Bella who is also married to Philip... are you keeping up? The book charts some fairly major coincidences as the lives of Bella, her two husbands, and Laura become rather too entwined for comfort.

TUESDAY THREE: The influence of Austen

You might have noticed it’s Austen Week here at Trashionista and so for this week’s Tuesday 3, we’re looking at three very different books all imbued with the essence of Austen.

The first is a hugely popular novel, The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler. The story is simple: six people form a book club and read the works of Jane Austen. Split into six sections - each concentrating both on a different character hosting the book club, and a different Austen classic - we learn about the characters' lives and their relationships with Austen’s books.

Subtitled 'Fresh Perspectives on the Original Chick-Lit Masterpiece' and edited by the wonderful Jennifer Crusie, Flirting with Pride & Prejudice features a mix of both essays and short fiction. Contributors include Shanna Swendson and Lani Diane Rich on such subjects as the similarities between P&P and Fiddler on the Roof, Bride & Prejudice (the movie) and the eternal appeal of Colin Firth's Mr Darcy.

Finally, an Austen-esque self-help book of all things! Lauren Henderson is a Cambridge University graduate who wrote her second-year dissertation on courtship rituals in Jane Austen, so she's well placed to bring us Jane Austen's Guide to Dating (or Jane Austen's Guide to Romance if you have the paperback!). A mixture of case studies from Austen's novels and real people from the twenty-first century illustrate the educational and entertaining points that Henderson has to make about dating.

TUESDAY THREE: Dear Diary

Thanks to Bridget Jones, diaries will probably always be synonymous with chick lit, but Bridget wasn't the only heroine to share her secret scribblings with the world. This week's Tuesday Three looks at novels written in diary form.

Sue Hepworth and Jane Linfoot’s Plotting for Beginners is a wonderfully funny novel about starting again after your children have left home, your husband is AWOL and you want to fulfill your dreams. Sally Howe and her husband are spending a year apart, as he wants to live in a cabin in the American wilderness and she wants to write a novel and launch a career in journalism. But when Sally learns that her husband considers the Rockies just the start of his overseas adventures, she begins to worry about the possible disintegration of her marriage - and its effect on her writing plans...

The debut novel from author Robyn Harding, The Journal of Mortifying Moments is about ad-agency worker Kerry Spence. Stuck in a boring job, put down by her mother on countless occasions, and having trouble finding the perfect man, Kerry hires a therapist who sets her a task - “A diary of past encounters with men that may be contributing to your current negative and dysfunctional relationship.” In other words, The Journal of Mortifying Moments. This book isn't exactly a heart-warming tale of love and marriage - but who needs that when you have a diary full of morbidly embarrassing situations?

Published back in 2000, Raphaella Barker's Hens Dancing is the story of a year in the life of Venetia Summers, whose husband leaves her and their three kids to shack up with his masseuse. From nits to bathroom conversions to unexpected guests and, most importantly, learning to cope with being a single mother with an irascible ex, Hens Dancing is about life-changing disasters, small triumphs and everything in between..

TUESDAY THREE: British boyfriends

American authors do love a British love interest. We're often told that Americans love our cute "British" accents (there's no such thing as a British accent!), but it's probably also something to do with Darcy/Colin Firth. Whatever the reasoning behind it, this week we're looking at British boyfriends.

Lani Diane Rich has admitted that the hero of Ex and the Single Girl was totally based on Colin Firth (and you can read all about Lani's crush in Flirting with Pride & Prejudice). The book is about Portia Fallon who, after being dumped by her boyfriend via a note, is too weak to refuse when her mother phones and begs her to come home to Georgia and help with the family bookstore. But when Portia gets there she finds that she's not really needed - her mother and aunts have a plan to fix her up with Ian, a British novelist in town working on his latest book. Ex and the Single Girl is a fun and fast read about following your heart and finding your place in the world.

Alison Pace's If Andy Warhol Had A Girlfriend features another British Ian. Gallery manager Jane Laine is sent on a five-month international art fair tour with British artist, Ian Rhys-Fitzsimmons. Unimpressed with his art, Jane thinks Ian's a fraud and isn't too keen on the assignment either. In fact, Ian makes Jane nervous, but, as they travel to London, Rome, Chicago, Santa Fe, she finds that there's much more to Ian - and to his art - than she originally thought. Can you guess what happens?

Meg Cabot's Queen of Babble features Lizzie Nichols who, following graduation, heads to England to stay with her appalling boyfriend (who she's actually only previously spent one night with). It doesn't turn out well and she gets the train to Paris to visit a friend who's working at a French chateau. During the journey she spills all her secrets to the handsome hunk in the next seat and, yes, he's the son of the owner of the chateau. This is a sweet book - and you know we love Meg Cabot - but this type of story was done a lot more successfully by Sophie Kinsella in Can You Keep A Secret? I had to include it though to show that not all British men are sexy and sophisticated, as our British readers no doubt know!

TUESDAY THREE: Adoption

Thanks to Angelina Jolie’s “rainbow family”, adoption is in the news again, and it has, of course, turned up in chick lit too (what hasn’t?).

Maeve Haran’s Baby Come Back actually features a celebrity parent, albeit one who has given up rather than adopted a child. Joe Meredith’s wife Molly has always known how much being adopted bothers her husband so she sets out to find Joe’s birth mother. She turns out to be Stella Milton, the actress plastered across the walls of every teenage boy in the country for the last 20 years.

Stella would like to reconnect with her son... if only she could have him without the baggage of his wife and child. Following the power struggle that ensues between Molly and Stella, Baby Come Back light-hearted, but does not shy away from the issues it is dealing with.

One of the most popular of Richard and Judy’s book club choices, Dorothy Koomson’s My Best Friend’s Girl tells the story of Kamryn who unexpectedly receives a letter from her former best friend Adele asking her to visit her in hospital. Adele is dying and wants Kamryn to adopt Tegan, Adele’s daughter from the one night stand with Kamryn’s fiance that (unsurprisingly) ended their friendship. She does, of course, and the result is a bit of a tearjerker.

Between, Georgia by Joshilyn Jackson is the story of Nonny Frett, adopted into the Frett family when her 15-year-old mother abandoned her shortly after delivering her on the Frett's living room floor. Unfortunately, her adoption by her birth family's most hated rivals inevitably worsened the resentments that festered between the two clans, and it was only a matter of time before the tiny town of Between was taken to the brink of disaster by the burgeoning intra-family feud. Dealing with themes of abandonment, betrayal, family loyalties and nature vs. nurture, this novel is addictive, thought-provoking reading that's practically perfect in every way.

TUESDAY THREE: Mothers and daughters

I was inspired by Mothers’ Day last Sunday (in the UK and Commonwealth) to have a look at some fictional mothers and daughters for this week’s Tuesday Three. Let's face it, apart from sisters, there are few relationships likely to provide better fodder for humorous fiction!

Jane Sigaloff’s Like Mother, Like Daughter features Alice, whose mother , Suzie, is approaching sixty but is acting like her coming birthday is her sixteenth instead. When she comes up with a hare-brained scheme to find love for herself and her daughter, Alice begins to despair - why can't she have a mother like other girls?

When her mother and sister have a car accident, Belinda “Benny” Bernstein flies home and is horrified by what she finds, in Pamela Ribon's Why Moms Are Weird. Not only is her mother dating three men at once, her house is filthy and filled with trash. Her sister is in an(other) abusive relationship and has started a collection of stray dogs. And what's even more galling is that neither of them have commented on Benny's weightloss.

Benny takes it upon herself to fix everything, but what she doesn't realise is that just because something's broke, doesn't mean she has to be the one to fix it. Anyone who has suffered guilt pangs at moving far from home - or who has a m