Novelicious - The Female Fiction and Chick Lit Blog

Review - The Fall by Claire McGowan

REVIEWED BY DEBS CARR   

Charlotte arrives home to the minimalist, tastefully decorated Belsize apartment she shares with her handsome, banker fiancé, Dan. She might look immaculate with her shiny, blonde hair and perfectly manicured nails, but she’s stressed out from phone calls about her wedding the following week. The last thing she needs to do is go out that night, but when Dan tells her there’s problems at the bank and suggests going out to a Jamaican club in Kingston Town for some fun, she reluctantly agrees.

Dan offers Charlotte cocaine and for the first time in her life she accepts it. Their evening doesn't go well and Dan angrily confronts the owner, Anthony, when he laughs at him and tells him that Dan’s business card has been cancelled and he has to pay for his drinks. 

Keisha Collins has a very different life to the one Charlotte enjoys. She lives in a run-down, rented flat with her temperamental boyfriend, Chris Deans. Chris is her daughter, Ruby’s, father and also the reason the little girl has been taken from Keisha. She wants her daughter back, but has loved Chris since she first saw him at school when she was twelve and can't imagine her life without him in it. Thankfully, Ruby is being looked after by her mum, Mercy, so Keisha can visit her and knows she’s well loved and properly cared for.

Novel News - The Desperate Bride's Diet Club by Alison Sherlock

This is the chick-littiest cover we've seen in yonks! The concept is pure chick lit too. We cannot wait for this one.

Every bride dreams of looking beautiful on her wedding day. Doesn't she?

Violet doesn't. She is dreading it. In fact she can't think why Sebastian ever asked her to marry him. When they met, she was a size 14-16. Now she is size 20.

How will she ever find a dress which doesn't make her look ridiculous? And fat.

Dieting club New You! promises the answers. But things just go from bad to worse. It is time for Violet to come up with some solutions of her own...

The Desperate Bride's Diet Club is released on the 26th April. More here. (Amazon)

Novel News - A Message To Your Heart by Niamh Greene

We really enjoyed Niamh Greene's last book here on Novelicious and are excited to find that Niamh will be back in June with her new book, A Message To Your Heart. Not only is the cover perfectly whimsical and romantic, but the story sounds pretty magical too!

 Can't wait.

Literary agent Frankie Rowley is far too practical to believe in fairytales, or coincidences, or fate.

She's also far too busy to spend time with her family or friends, who all reckon the strongest relationship she has is with her smart phone. (And why not? At least it never judges when she cancels dinner for the millionth time.) So when she loses that beloved phone on a work trip to San Francisco, Frankie is totally distraught. How will she survive without it, especially when the worst PA in Ireland has been left in charge back home?

Meanwhile, Frankie's being stalked by a crazy Irish American, ignored by the author she's in the city to meet and played by a scheming boss with more on his mind than work. It seems like her perfectly ordered life is starting to crumble into chaos – especially when she begins to receive mysterious text messages on her replacement cell phone, messages that are most definitely not for her . . .

Frankie just doesn't know what to think. She definitely does not believe in fairytales, or coincidences, or fate. So why do all these things seem to believe in her?

MORE ABOUT A MESSAGE TO YOUR HEART

NIAMH GREENE'S WEBSITE

Novelicious Chats To...Ali Harris

INTERVIEWED BY CESCA MARTIN

Tell us about your novel 'Miracle on Regent Street'.

Well, I like to think it’s a real cuddle-up-with-a-cashmere-blanket-and-a-hot chocolate kind of a read, the kind of book that will remind you of classic old movies and bygone days when Christmas was about magic, not money. It’s a story about a sweet, unassuming stockroom girl called Evie Taylor who works in the basement of Hardy's; a faded, forgotten old department store that has seen better days. For the past two years she's lived an invisible life in London, sorting endless boxes of old-fashioned stock by day and looking after her sister’s two young children at night. Her neighbours think she's the hired help, her self-obsessed shop floor colleagues mistake her for her stockroom predecessor and even her manager doesn't know her actual name. But despite all this she loves working at the store. So when she overhears that Hardy's is at risk of being sold unless it seriously increases its profits by December 26^th – just three weeks time - she hatches a secret plan to save it. Evie and Hardy's are both looking for a Christmas miracle to turn their fortunes around, but will it take the shape of the handsome American who has swept in to town and shaken things up like a snow globe?

Was this your first novel?

Ohhho no! I have three completed manuscripts (and a couple of abandoned attempts) lurking in a box somewhere. Although my first attempt (a book called Strawberries and Dreams which I wrote in 1999!) is lost forever on an ex boyfriend’s probably no longer functioning PC. Better off that way, to be honest!

How many years have you been writing?

I’ve written stories since I was little – but I’ve been seriously dreaming of it as a career since I was 22 (aka a long time ago!) I had just left University after studying a degree in Performing Arts and was working as a waitress in a theme restaurant. The chick lit genre had just been born and reading Bridget Jones was a real light bulb moment for me. I began writing my own novel during the day (about a frustrated waitress, of course!) I read every book in the genre, bought the Writer’s and Artists Year Book, studied every acknowledgment page to see who my favourite authors were represented by and bought every book about writing fiction I could. When I’d written three chapters of my novel I sent it to ten agents. I got rejected by nine but when I hadn’t heard from the tenth I decided to take the initiative and ring them. I somehow (don’t ask me how) managed to get through to one of the biggest, most successful literary agents in London and he told me he had my manuscript in front of him and that he thought it had ‘something’ but that he had been about to send me a rejection letter. I begged him to read more and incredibly, he agreed. I went home and wrote four chapters in as many days and sent it to him. When his rejection letter eventually came through I was devastated. At that point I decided that I just wanted to write for a living – so I decided to apply for work experience at some of my favourite women’s magazines. I wasn’t giving up – just taking a sideways step. I wanted to learn skills that I could transfer to writing fiction but in an exciting, stimulating environment. It was the best decision I ever made. After a year of unpaid work, I got my dream job at Company magazine. I spent the next three years writing features – including my own column, working with incredible people, meeting celebrities – and the best part? I got to meet my favourite authors and grill them about how to get a book deal. I was still writing fiction, but in my spare time. I even sent a manuscript off to a couple of publishers –at one point I had lunch with an editor from Harper Collins which I was so excited about, but nothing ever came of it. I was getting closer, but not close enough!

Guest Post - A Different Kind of Hero by Carole Matthews

I’ve never written arrogant, smouldering male romantic heroes.  The men in my novels have always been ordinary, attainable men. They’re kind, flawed, trying to do their best. Sometimes they’ve been high-flying corporate men. Sometimes they’ve had no job at all. But they’ve always been the sort of men that most of us would come into contact with on a daily basis.

So it was a big departure for me in my latest - and nineteenth - novel Wrapped up in You to have a hero who is a fully-fledged Maasai warrior! When my heroine, Janie, goes in search of adventure on an African safari, she doesn’t expect to fall in love. Similarly, when I set out to write the character of Dominic, I had no idea that I would fall in love with him too.

I wanted to explore the fact that it’s so much easier these days to find love outside of our own small circles. It used to be the case that you’d meet someone at school, at work, in your own town, date and get married. But that’s not how it works now. Due to the internet, it’s now possible to forge relationships with people from all over the world.

But, as Janie finds out, falling in love with someone from another culture and on another continent can also be fraught with difficulties. Dominic doesn’t look the same as the usual romantic hero - he’s exceptionally tall, has a shaven head and wears traditional costume.  I also wanted to have some fun comparing a village in the Maasai Mara to a typically English village, so brought Dominic back to England.

This is a man who doesn’t conform to the norms of our society and, as well as making Janie fall head over heels in love, he sets the hearts of the good ladies of the The Nashley Church Flower Committee fluttering too with his easy charm.

He’s and incredibly strong, emotionally and physically, due to his Maasai culture. Theirs is a life of hardship and privation. Ladies, this man can wrestle lions with his bare hands! But he realises that he’s a man caught between two worlds and strives to blend the two without losing his identity.  The more I wrote about Dominic, the more I fell in love with him too.  He has a beautiful sense of fun and a fundamental commitment to his community.

At first, I thought that Dominic and Janie’s relationship might not survive, that the odds would be too great for them, but I just knew that Dominic would do all that he could to keep them together.

He might not wear a suit or work in high finance but, in some ways he’s the ultimate alpha male. Already my readers are asking me where they can find their very own Dominic. I hope when you read the book that you’ll fall in love with him too. I think he’s my most perfect romantic hero so far!

Thank you, Carole.

Wrapped Up In You is out 27th October.

You can find out more about Carole at her website, find her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter: @carolematthews

Review - Highland Storms by Christina Courtenay

REVIEWED BY DEBS CARR

It's 1754 and Brice Kinross is slowly coming to terms with the loss of his sweetheart to his brother. When Brice's father asks him to leave his home in Sweden and return to Rosyth, the family estate in the Scottish Highlands, he is only too happy to do so. However, since the Jacobite Rebellion when the Highlanders were subjected to cruel treatment by the Redcoats, the locals don't take kindly to strangers and are suspicious when Brice returns to his Rosyth unnannounced. Under the direction of the foreman, Seton, a sly man with his own agenda, the Highlanders do not make Brice feel welcome and are relieved to see the back of him after his initial visit.

Marsaili Buchanan, the beautiful, young housekeeper at Rosyth has to fend off Seton's constant advances. She is determined not to let him have his own way and is guarded by her companion and bodyguard, a Deerhound called Liath, who does his best to keep Seton from getting too close to his mistress. She initially believes Seton's assurances that Brice is a traitor to their cause, but soon works out that Brice isn't the untrustworthy cad Seton insists him to be. She is aware that Seton has been creaming off the profits from the estate and Brice soon realizes this too.

Review - The Very Picture Of You by Isabel Wolff

REVIEWED BY DEBS CARR

Ella Graham paints portraits, is single and dislikes her sister, Chloe's fiancé, Nate, with a passion. She can't forget how she overheard him talking disparagingly about her sister to another woman and not wishing to upset her sister, she keeps quiet and resolves to see him as little as possible.

Her mother holds a charity auction and Chloe bids for Ella's lot for a commission to paint someone's portrait. She tells Ella that she wants Nate to sit for her, and for her to paint his portrait, so she can give it to him on their wedding day as a present. Ella, loves her sister, so has no choice but to push aside her dislike of the man and do her best.

Most of the time Ella loves her job. She meets many interesting people, from Mrs Carr (love that name!) a lady in her eighties with a heartbreaking secret she's kept to herself for years; Celine, a spoilt French woman with a seemingly perfect life, who resents having her portrait painted now she's about to turn forty, and Mike a once happy politician who has something so terrible on his mind that he seems to age every time he arrives for a sitting.

Ella has her own heartbreak to contend with. Her absent father, John, left her and her mother when she was small and now he wants to meet up with Ella. Her mother refuses to divulge any information about him and has even thrown away all his photos. The only reminder Ella has of him are pictures she drew from memory when she was smaller. Did he really simply turn his back on them, or was there more about his departure than her mother has admitted?

Ellla battles with her mother's selfishness and with her own past. She doesn't want to upset her step-father, Roy, by agreeing to meet her father, but ends up confiding in him about her dilemma. During the sittings, Nate and Ella begin to talk. She soon realizes he's not as bad as she initially assumed and despite her best efforts begins to fall in love with him. Ella has choices to make and none of them are going to be easy.

I'm always thrilled to read an Isabel Wolff book and this one was just as good as I'd hoped. Ella and Chloe's relationship is lovely and you can see why Nate is so appealling. The secondary characters are beautifully layered and Isabel Wolff's books are always difficult, if not impossible, to put down. This one was no exception. The conflicting emotions experienced by Ella are beautifully written and I couldn't imagine how the story could end happily. You'll have to read it yourself to find out what does happen, but I can assure you it's very satisfying. 

9/10

The Very Picture Of You is published by Harper and is available now.

You can find out more about Isabel Wolff and her other books on her site. You can also find Isable's Guite To Writing & Getting Published here.

Novel News - It Started With A Kiss by Miranda Dickinson

First off, how delicious is this cover? It's red and pink and sparkly and there's snow. I lak it alot.

If Miranda's first two books are anything to go by, this one will also be a super enjoyable sucess. I've been following the journey of this book from first draft to cover reveal over on Miranda's amazing vlog (you can see the latest one below) and the story sounds like perfect chick litty goodness...

As the singer in a wedding band, Romily Parker has seen her fair share of happy endings, even though her own love life isn't quite as simple.

On the last Saturday before Christmas, (shortly after disastrously declaring her love for best friend Charlie), Romily has a brief encounter with a handsome stranger whose heart-stopping kiss changes everything.

Determined to find him again, Romily embarks on a yearlong quest, helped (and sometimes hindered) by enthusiastic Uncle Dudley, cake-making Auntie Mags and flamboyant Wren. Will she find the man of her dreams? Or could true love be closer than she thinks?

It Started With A Kiss is released in November and we can't wait.

Here, have a gander at Miranda's latest video diary. If you're an aspiring writer the whole series is full of brilliant 'behind the scenes' novel type stuff and fantastic advice.

 

Review - Start Struck by Jane Lovering

REVIEWED BY DEBS CARR     

Skye Threppel (don't you just love that name?) used to be an actress with a best friend and fiancee until a tragic car crash killed her fiancee and best friend and left her badly scarred with no memory of the year before the life-changing incident. She's nervous and unable to cope with most things and the only thing that's kept her going for the previous 18 months is the TV programme, Fallen Skies and her crush on the leading actor, Gethryn Tudor-Morgan.

Her best friend, Felix persuades her to join him in Nevada for a five day convention for the show. It's a difficult decision for someone who's barely able to leave her home, but the thought of possibly meeting her hero and doses of Valium help Skye to attend. In between panic attacks, she meets Jack Whitaker. He's messy, usually wearing pyjamas and tends to go around barefoot. Unbeknown to Skye, Jack is the writer behind the scripts she loves so much. He helps Skye when she has a panic attack and even though he can't help feeling drawn to her, has no intention of becoming involved with anyone, let alone a woman with so many issues. After all, he has more than enough himself.

Review - Outside The Ordinary World by Dori Ostermiller

REVIEWED BY DEBS CARR  

The story is told from the point of view of both the twelve-year-old Sylvia, during the bush fires of the 1970s and the adult Sylvia in 2004. Sylvia is raised as a Seventh Day Adventist and learns that although her mother is religious and attends church regularly, she's also having an affair with Mr Robert. He writes letters to Sylvia about their secret outings and her mother expects her to keep their times with Mr Robert a secret from her distant and abusive father.

Years later, Sylvia and her husband Nathan buy a beautiful, but rundown home. They hope to spend a year or so renovating, but run out of money and Sylvia loses her enthusiasm for Nathan's project. She is determined not to repeat her mother's mistakes, but one day meets Tai, the father of one of her students and they embark on their own affair with devastating consequences.

Sylvia's emotional pain and conflict about her mother's actions and choices and then her own, and the difficulties between her and her own daughter together with the crippling guilt she feels about her father's tragic death are brilliantly written. It's easy to picture her childhood and the scenary and tensions around her, and although at times this was a painful and shocking story, it was one that will stay in my mind for a while to come.

8/10

Outside The Ordinary World is published by Mira Books and is out on 17th August.

You can find out more about Dori Ostermiller here. 

Review - Lucky Bunny by Jill Dawson

REVIEWED BY DEBS CARR 

It’s wartime in the East End of London and Queenie Dove is only six when she firsts steals something. Okay it’s only a pint of milk from someone’s doorstep, but she soon realizes that her need to provide for her brother and younger sister is something that develops into a habit and, let’s face it, how else is she going to get all the necessities she feels she needs.

Her mum has already pretty much given up on life and spends most of her time in a drunken stupor, her dad is in and out of the nick and although her gran does her best, there’s only so much the old woman can do to try and look after Queenie and her siblings.

One day Queenie arrives home to discover a tragedy that will haunt her for the rest of her life. She feels guilty for not being able to stop it from happening and as she grows up, suffering more loss and heartache, when her gran is trampled to death in the Bethnal Green tube disaster during the Blitz, Queenie has to find a way to survive without her. She is taught how to get what she wants from the women her father associates with and eventually falls in love with Tony, a bad boy with dark and sultry looks that she can’t resist. Even her father warns her off him, but she doesn’t want to listen, until one day she realizes that she has to make a decision that will devastate her little daughter, whilst at the same time save her from leading the life Queenie has endured.

Novelicious Vids - Top 5 Chick Lit Picks for July 2011

The above are our top 5 picks for July! You can find out more about all of them at our newly updated bookshop!

Novel News - California Dreamers by Belinda Jones

Have you read Belinda Jones' books? They're great. Always set somewhere interesting and 
exotic, and usually very funny. I'm loving the cover on this one too; a lovely, cool, relaxed vibe going on.

California Dreamers is Belinda's ninth novel and will be released on 21st July. The blurb is below.

Ever wished you could make-over your life?

Make-up artist Stella is an expert at helping other people change their images, but when it comes to transforming herself, she doesn't even know where to start.

So when her new friend, glamorous Hollywood actress Marina Ray, summons her a movie set in California, Stella can't resist the chance to start afresh - it is the land of sunshine and opportunity after all!

But are they really friends or does Marina have an ulterior motive? What is the secret that both women are hiding about the nautical (but nice) men in their lives? And what will it take to really make both of their California dreams come true?

In a Pacific Coast journey that takes in Los Angeles, the world's most romantic ranch and California's very own castle in the sky - this story of friendship, long-distance love, kissing (and making up) is the perfect escapist read.

Novel News - I've Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella

**Update**  We now have a cover to match this book and an official synopsis. Scroll down for more!

Squeeeee! A new Sophie Kinsella is on the (very distant) horizon. We have a title. That's it. We know that it will be released on the 16th February 2012, that it is called I've Got Your Number and that it will probably be awesome.

 

I was having a little think of what the book could be about based on the title and came up with the following:

• A call centre worker who falls in love (over the phone) with a regular customer. After a whirlwind phone seduction they get engaged before they meet and then have to figure out how to be compatible in person? Will they find love along the way?

• A cute but unsociable maths genius needs some money to save her home from re-possession and travels to a "Maths Olympics" contest in America in order to win the cash prize. She is forced to socialise with fellow contestants and maybe finds love along the way?

• Hot poor guy loses a lottery ticket. Beautiful skint girl finds a lost lottery ticket. The ticket is a massive winner. But who gets the money? Maybe someone finds love along the way?

• An evil but beautiful twenty something steals the brass numbers off her neighbour's front doors and then holds them to ransom by leaving notes that say "I've Got Your Number". Maybe she finds love along the way.

What do you reckon it'll be about? And which of the above (if any!) would you most like to read?

Also, if anyone has any further information on this book then please get in touch. We know you are just coyly trying to build up anticipation but we really want to know. Can We Keep a Secret? Yes. Yes we can.

*UPDATE*

Here's the cover. What do you think?

And the blurb reads...

I’ve lost it. :( The only thing in the world I wasn’t supposed to lose. My engagement ring. It’s been in Magnus’s family for three generations. And now the very same day his parents are coming, I’ve lost it. The very same day! Do not hyperventilate, Poppy. Stay positive :) !!
 
Poppy Wyatt has never felt luckier. She is about to marry her ideal man, Magnus Tavish, but in one afternoon her “happily ever after” begins to fall apart. Not only has she lost her engagement ring in a hotel fire drill but in the panic that follows, her phone is stolen. As she paces shakily around the lobby, she spots an abandoned phone in a trash can. Finders keepers! Now she can leave a number for the hotel to contact her when they find her ring. Perfect!
 
Well, perfect except that the phone’s owner, businessman Sam Roxton, doesn’t agree. He wants his phone back and doesn’t appreciate Poppy reading his messages and wading into his personal life.
 
What ensues is a hilarious and unpredictable turn of events as Poppy and Sam increasingly upend each other’s lives through emails and text messages. As Poppy juggles wedding preparations, mysterious phone calls, and hiding her left hand from Magnus and his parents . . . she soon realizes that she is in for the biggest surprise of her life.

 More about  I've Got Your Number

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