Novelicious - The Female Fiction and Chick Lit Blog

Review - The Apothecary's Daughter by Charlotte Betts

REVIEWED BY DEBS CARR        

It’s 1665 and Susannah Leyton quietly works behind the scenes in her father’s apothecary shop in Fleet Street. She would love to be a recognized apothecary like her father, but the idea of a woman doing something so outrageous makes this dream an impossibility. Susannah likes nothing better than trying out new concoctions from the vast array of ingredients her father stores in his shop. Her mother died tragically years before giving birth to Susannah’s brother and since witnessing that horror, she’s always insisted that she doesn’t wish to marry, but is happy spending the rest of her life working with her father.

One day, Dr William Ambrose, a serious, unsmiling man, comes into the shop and asks to speak to her father. Susannah explains that he’s out and when Dr Ambrose tells her he urgently requires a potion for one of his patients, she offers to make it. He is not impressed with the notion and Susannah can’t help feeling insulted by his abrupt reaction. 

 Susannah’s orderly life is changes beyond recognition when her father falls in love with a young widow and marries her. Abigail and Susannah soon fall out when Abigail starts ordering Susannah around and expecting her to look after her three young stepsiblings. The two women become increasingly antagonistic towards each other, upsetting Susannah’s father, who, much to her distress, takes the side of his spoilt, lazy, bride.

Review - Before I Go To Sleep by S. J. Watson

REVIEWED BY CESCA MARTIN

How can you not be utterly gripped by a book that begins like this: woman wakes up after one-night stand, goes to bathroom, looks in mirror, sees herself... only she’s 25 years too old?  This is the opening to S.J.Watson’s debut novel and from that moment you are hooked. 

Christine lives with Ben, her husband of more than twenty years, and wakes everyday never remembering what she knew before she fell asleep.  Sometimes she’s five and sometimes she’s in her early twenties.  Life is scary and unreal.  Christine is living today every day; over and over.  When a phone rings and Christine answers she hears the calm voice of one Dr Nash.  He tells her they have a meeting later that day, are working on her treatment.  Christine doesn’t remember ever meeting a Dr Nash but a note, in her own handwriting, confirms the appointment and she agrees to see him.  Then Dr Nash tells her not to tell her husband and the plot thickens...

Review - The Promise by Lesley Pearse

REVIEWED BY DEBS CARR

Belle Reilly is only twenty, but has survived a painful, brutal and terrifying past. She is now happily married to her childhood sweetheart, Jimmy, and they live with his uncle Garth and Mog, Belle’s surrogate mother, above the public house Garth owns and runs with Jimmy.

Belle has realized her dream to own a hat shop. She has built up a respectable business for herself as milliner to the ladies of Blackheath and the surrounding area. She is happy and hopes that the cruelty of her past is now firmly behind her. One day, Etienne, her rescuer and the man she fell in love when she was sixteen, walks into her shop. He has tried to keep away from the beautiful girl that captured his heart a few years before, but his guilt at the part he played in her past kept him away and from telling her how he feels. He has only come back to see for himself that Belle does have the life he believes she deserves.

Review - Fat Girls and Fairy Cakes by Sue Watson

REVIEWED BY KIRA SLAUGHTER 

Can you really make a living from indulging in your dreams?

TV producer Stella Weston is over worked, over weight and under fire. Having battled uphill for years to balance her career with her family life, she is repaid by being put out to pasture on a religious gardening programme- complete with a nervous vicar, his nymphomaniac wife and 22 stone Britney wannabe gardener, Gerald. 

In the past, comfort has always been found at the bottom of her mixing bowl, but when even the most delicious lemon sponge with zesty frosting cannot save the day, Stella decides enough is enough.

However, finding the courage to quit is sometimes the easy part. Can you really turn a passion into a profession? Does more time at home actually give you a happier family life? Are men truly from Mars or another universe altogether?Stella has to roll up her sleeves and find out- when the going gets tough, the tough get baking...

When I was approached by Sue Watson to read her new book I was very excited. As much as I adore other Chick Lit authors, I always love finding new authors to read; there is always someone new waiting to be discovered and thrown into the spotlight.

When this book dropped onto my doormat I couldn’t wait to get stuck into it. After reading the synopsis on the back of the book, I thought it looked like a fun, light-hearted read (which you know are my favourite kind!).

The book opens onto main character Stella in the middle of a work crisis. Her boss is an utter she-devil and Stella is desperately trying to juggle a high powered job with looking after her young daughter, Grace. Being a TV producer for a big media company, she is always having to dart off to random locations around the UK, and she is finding that her home life is suffering because of it.

Review - Wrapped Up In You by Carole Matthews

REVIEWED BY DEBS CARR

Janie Johnson is single. She enjoys her job as a hairdresser and listening to her clients talking about their relationships, holidays and plans. She has her own cottage in a pretty village, which she shares with Archibald the Aggressive, a vicious ex-feral cat who doesn't take kindly to strangers, or anyone at all really. Her newly, single neighbour, Mike spends occasional evenings with her and together they watch DVDs and chat.

However, Janie doesn't enjoy being single. She's fed up with her clients trying to set her up with men they consider 'suitable'. She eventually gives in to her best friend Nina and goes on a blind date, but when that goes disasterously wrong and he refuses to believe she isn't just playing hard-to-get, Janie decides it's time to make a few changes to her life. She takes the advice of one of her regular clients, Mrs Silverton, and books a trip to the Maasai Mara.

Review - Never Can Say Goodbye by Christina Jones

REVIEWED BY DEBS CARR                

Francesca Meredith, Frankie, can't believe it when her boss, Rita announces that not only is she leaving Kingston Dapple to go and live the life she's always fantasized about in the sun, but she's also giving Frankie her shop which is to be renamed, 'Francesca's Fabulous Frocks'. Once Frankie recovers from the shock, she decides it's time to follow her own passion and donate all the tired clothes from the hire shop and open her own retro dress shop to sell the vintage dresses that she has always adored.

Kingston Dapple might be a quiet Berkshire village, but there's a handsome newcomer in town. Dexter Valentine, who Frankie discovers is running away from some dark and mysterious past, has taken over his uncle's business selling flowers. Lilly, Frankie's dizzy flatmate, can't believe her eyes when she spots Dexter and is determined to get to know him as well as she possibly can. Frankie, however, has listened to Dexter's uncle when he hinted at his nephew's secret past before leaving the village with Rita. She soon finds out that Dexter is helping out local housewives with flower deliveries and decides that as gorgeous as he is, he's better kept as a good friend rather than someone to fall in love with. After all, the reason she came to Kingston Dapple in the first place was to escape her own heartbreak and humiliation. 

Review - The Woman He Loved Before by Dorothy Koomson

REVIEWED BY DEBS CARR  

Libby is in love with her handsome husband Jack. It wasn't love at first sight though when they first met at the car showroom, but they're together now, and happy. Or they are until they're involved in a car crash and Jack, who was driving and far less severely hurt than Libby, did something he can't forgive himself for. He has something to hide and knows that by telling Libby the truth, he's probably going ruin what they have together.

Libby is aware that Jack is still in love with his dead wife, Eve, and having seen a picture of their wedding day at his parent's home, she can understand why. He doesn't like speaking about Eve and Libby tries not to broach the subject, but when she's at home convalescing after the accident, she discovers Eve's diaries and as she secretly reads them, she learns the truth behind the woman who haunts their marriage.

All is not as it seems, Libby discovers, and as she reads on, she finds that she has far more to be worried about than the insinuations of the embittered policewoman who interviews her after her crash, and who had also been the investigating officer at Eve's untimely death several years before. Libby has to decide her best course of action, but it isn't easy when she's not sure exactly who she can trust.

This incredible story kept me spellbound from start to finish, and I know it's often written that something is 'unputdownable', but in the case of this book it really is. The twists and turns in the storyline had me gasping in surprise a couple of times and the ending made me cry.

It's a brilliant book and I'm thrilled that we have four copies to offer as a giveaway here at Novelicious. A definite 10\10 for me. Don't forget to leave a 'pick me' comment below to be in with a chance of winning one of the copies.

Review - The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows

REVIEWED BY CESCA MARTIN  

This book comes with a warning: DO NOT be put off by the mad title.  I have recommended this book to friends/family/hairdressers/perfect strangers and there is a universal reaction when I say the title.  They wrinkle their nose, nod and smile and secretly inside are thinking “I’m not going to read that”.  This is frankly one of the best books I have ever read.  And I’m not that into over-stating things.  It was a book that was so warm and funny that when I finished it I felt sad because I wanted the characters to be real, I wanted to meet them and hang out with them on Guernsey. 

The book is set just after the Second World War and is arranged as a series of letters.  The central character, a female author called Juliet Ashton, is looking for her next book subject.  A letter arrives from a man she has never met, Guernsey islander Dawsey Adams, and so begins an incredible correspondence between the two strangers.  He tells her about the experiences on the island that was under German occupation during the war, and the story behind the creation of a book club – the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.  Her interest piqued Juliet starts to write to other members of the society and we are introduced to a colourful host of characters – from pig farmers to children whose mothers were sent away to concentration camps in Europe.  Well aware that she has found the next subject of her book Juliet sets sail to Guernsey... 

Review - Ellie Andrews Has Second Thoughts by Ruth Saberton

REVIEWED BY KIRA SLAUGHTER

Ellie Andrews is getting married but there’s a problem: Ellie’s never felt more distant from the man she’s supposed to love.

To reassure herself, Ellie reflects on her old flames...

There’s Rupert- perfect but dull; Jay- the teenage crush; Marcus- sexy but very bad; and Xander- a real friend.

As the sun rises and the ceremony looms ever closer, only one question remains: who will be waiting for her at the altar?

When this book dropped onto my doormat I think I actually executed a little jig of joy, I had been waiting to read this for absolutely ages, ever since I read Ruth's first book. And do you know what? It was worth that little dance and looking like a fool in front of the mother and father!

Ruth Saberton has a knack of creating characters that make you laugh at loud one second and in the next feeling ridiculously sorry for them. This is the case with Ellie. The book opens on the morning of her wedding, and she is suffering with the usual nerves. The book is very cleverly laid out, as it flits between the current day events and flashbacks to a few months before the wedding. I don’t usually like this format but with this book I had no problems at all with it!

Review - The Novel in the Viola by Natasha Solomons

REVIEWED BY CESCA MARTIN

 
I adored Natasha Solomon’s quirky debut novel ‘Mr Rosenblum’s List’ and was delighted to receive ‘The Novel in the Viola’ which has now been chosen as a Richard and Judy Summer Read for 2011.  It is quite simply a brilliant book.

The novel centres around the story of Elise Landau, a Viennese Jewess, who applies to become a domestic help in England in 1938 to escape the troubles in Europe.  Her unintentionally humorous advert (“I will cook your goose”) is spotted by Mr Rivers – master of Tyneford House in Dorset, widower and father of one son and heir, Kit.  He invites her to join his household staff.  It is with dread that Elise leaves Vienna and her warm and talented family behind to set sail for England.  They promise she will join them in America when their visas arrive.  Julian, her father the famous writer, entrusts her with one gift before she leaves.  It is a copy of his latest novel, encased in a viola, that she must take for safe-keeping.  Clutching a small bag of belongings and the viola Elise arrives at Tyneford and has to make the transition from being waited on by others to waiting on others.  As the troubles in Europe worsen and war breaks out Elise seems stranded in Dorset, desperately seeking news of her family and trying to fit in in this foreign world. 

The book is a wonderful mix of light and dark.  Natasha Solomon’s ability to draw such bright, eccentric people allows the reader to fall in love with a host of characters.  The staff at Tyneford are fantastically well-drawn, notably Mr Wrexham - the butler in his white gloves keeping up impeccable standards and desperately trying to restore order in a chaotic world.  There are some marvellously catty scenes as we are introduced to the frosty aristocratic Diana Hamilton, not keen on being upstaged by a housemaid.  We get a real insight into a dying world, an old order.  Then there are the little glimpses of local history that drag you straight back into the 1930’s and wish you could experience it all for yourself.   The letters that fly back and forward from the two sisters as they wait to hear news of their parents are deeply moving and very real.  And always there is the novel in the viola.

This book is made all the more poignant when you learn that the fictional village of Tyneford is based on Tyneham - a village that was requisitioned during the Second World War.  The gentle humour spills from the page and the wonderful descriptions of Dorset countryside are spell-binding.  I was weeping in one corner of the library as I closed its pages and had that dreadful realisation that the characters in the pages were fictional and I could never actually meet them.  Tyneford casts a spell and there is no doubt I was caught in it.

10/10

You can find out more about Natasha and her books on her site here

Follow Natasha on Twitter @natashasolomons

Review - The Beauty Chorus by Kate Lord Brown

REVIEWED BY DEBS CARR

 

 

 

The Beauty Chorus is set in WW2 and covers one year in the lives of three women, as they move on from all that they know and join the ATA, flying planes to airfields across the UK to help keep the RAF supplied and able to fight. Fighter pilots nicknamed these women, The Beauty Chorus and it seems that although most pilots were grateful for the exhausting and dangerous job these women did, some were not so impressed to have females doing what they considered man's work.

 

The women flew different types of planes every day without any radios or instruments to help guide them, or ammunition to protect them and were often targeted by the German air force who knew they were easy pickings.

We meet Evie Chase, daughter of a wealthy, self-made man whose vicious wife loathes her and will stop at nothing to cause as much trouble as possible between father and daughter. She's glamorous and brave, although a little reckless and when she meets her instructor, Beau, an injured fighter pilot, who is having trouble with his scheming fiancee, she doesn't know quite what to make of him. Evie falls in love, but is it with the right man. She soon learns that trouble is never far away from her.

Stella Grainger has secrets. She's recently returned to England from Singapore and is grieving, not only for what she once had, but also for the baby son she's left in Ireland with her in-laws. She isn't interested in a relationship, but finds that there are some people you can trust even though she finds it difficult to open up to people.

Megan leaves her sweetheart behind at her family's farm in Wales. Since her brother's death she's been battling with her parents and trying to find a way to stop them from passing their beloved farm with its animals and airfield on to her two grasping cousins. She's kind and good-hearted and although she's not the best pilot out of the three women, she's determined to do her bit.

The three women move into a small cottage together and as they become closer, their lives takes turns that none of them could have expected. Evie has much to prove and as different relationships cause her more and more problems, she begins to change.

This book is beautifully crafted in every way. The characters keep your attention at all times and the twists and turns in the story had me laughing one minute and crying the next. It's a haunting book and the author obviously knows this era very well. I can't recommend The Beauty Chorus highly enough and loved every second of it.

You can find out more about Kate Lord Brown here

You can follow her on Twitter @katelordbrown

Review - Hollywood Sinners by Victoria Fox

 
POWER Marriage to Hollywood heartthrob Cole Steel secured Lana Falcon a glittering place on the red carpet. But running from a wicked past she has trapped herself in a gilded cage the price of freedom...her soul? REVENGE Kate DiLaurentis' career is fading as quickly as her looks... What could be worse than discovering her husband s latest mistress is Hollywood's hottest starlet? Her only option the most shocking revenge. LUST Chloe French s innocent beauty has captured a million hearts, but no one s warned her of the dangerous, dark temptation of rock star Nate - will lust destroy her? GREED Las Vegas King, Robert St Louis s fairytale wedding to Sin City s richest heiress is tabloid gold... But scandal circles like a vulture - dirty secrets are about to be exposed! BETRAYAL From the deepest desires come the deadliest deeds...and these four couples are about to pay for their sins... Sexy. Sensational... Sinfully good.

Well, I was lucky enough to get my mitts on a copy of this novel back in December and I've re-read it already.

 I love bonkbusters. I love them, but they're not my favourite. Often they're set in the English countryside and full of posh folk I don't really get. Plus, loads of them are far too into horses and sometimes there's just not enough bonk being busted for my liking.

Hollywood Sinners, though, has taken the genre to a fresh and exciting level.

While the plot revolves around bonkbusting staples like revenge and power, it's done so with a thoroughly modern twist.

Review - Girl in a Spin by Clodagh Murphy

REVIEWED BY KIRA SLAUGHTER

She’s a party girl. He’s a Party Leader. Things are about to get complicated...

Jenny Hannigan might be a good-time party girl but all she secretly craves is a life of domestic bliss and solid respectability.

So when she crashes into the arms of Richard Allam- the young, handsome, recently separated politician hotly tipped to lead his party to victory in the upcoming election- she thinks she’s found exactly what she is looking for.

But Jenny isn’t exactly politician’s wife material so Richard recruits the intensely private but charismatic publicist Dev Tennant to ‘spin’ Jenny to the Party...and the public.

As the election gathers momentum, it turns out that Jenny has more than one skeleton in her closet and Dev is working overtime to try and keep them there.

After reading Clodagh Murphy’s debut novel, The Disengagement Ring, I really couldn’t wait to get my hands on Girl In A Spin.

The main character, Jenny, is a girl who is always up for a good time, and when she meets Richard she thinks she’s found the man she wants to marry. After recently splitting up with his wife, Richard is not yet ready to reveal his and Jenny’s relationship to the world and the media.

At first Jenny’s character really annoyed me and I just wanted to shake her as she seemed willing to do everything Richard wanted her to and to go along with the charade of hiding their relationship. I didn’t trust Richard from the beginning and at certain times throughout the book my suspicions were proved right. He was too smooth and charming and that immediately gets my back up!

Review - Lizzy Harrison Loses Control by Pippa Wright

Lizzy Harrison isn’t a romantic heroine. Not even close. She doesn’t have a cat, owns no more shoes than the average person, and is in no way hopelessly scatty and disorganised. In fact her life is in perfect order, and that’s just how she likes it. Okay, so she hasn’t met the right man yet, but she really doesn’t have the time what with her busy job in PR and her packed schedule of improving activities. Her diary is planned months in advance and she’s determined that nothing spontaneous will force its way into her life.

...hasn’t she?

 But when her best friend Lulu questions her need for control, Lizzy starts to wonder if she needs to let go a little. So when she’s thrown into the arms of her boss’s number one client, notorious comedian (and love-rat) Randy Jones, she reluctantly relaxes her hold on routine. Lizzy Harrison is about to find out that losing control could win her more than she had ever imagined.

I've had my eye on this book for a while, not least because the cover screams UNABASHED CHICK LIT! which is my fave kind. So, when I received the book and saw that it was being touted as chick lit for those who don't like chick lit, I was intrigued.

For the record, this book probably will appeal to those who don't like traditional chick lit because it's a damn good read regardless of genre. But, I'll be honest, this IS one of the chick-littiest (is that even a word?) books I've read in yonks, and in the very best way.

It has all the elements - A funny, smart protagonist, a touch of glamour, wayward bosses, twists and turns, funky friends, kooky families and more than one sexy bloke. What, for me, sets this book apart from the rest is that it has one of the most authentic voices of all chick lit heroines I've read. One of the main reasons that Sophie Kinsella is multi gazillion selling is that she has a rare ability to create incredibly funny, warm heroines we can relate to and imagine ourselves having a night out with. Pippa Wright also has this skill. Lizzy Harrison is the kind of girl you'd probably get the giggles with.

I loved loved loved Lizzy Harrison Loses Control. Pippa Wright is a sparkling, CHEEKY new voice in chick lit and I'm totes eager to read more from her.

10/10

Find out more about this book!