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Jodi Wing may well be the first author to weave Sun Tzu's classic The Art of War into a chick lit novel. In her debut The Art of Social War, Stacey follows her fiancé Jamie from New York to Hollywood. And after dealing with ruthless studio heads and bitchy wives, they realise they will have to adapt to survive in their new hostile environment. The book - out in November - is reportedly already under development for a big screen adaptation.
A garden nestled within Manhattan U provides a refuge for the faculty wives - so they are upset when they hear it's earmarked for a carpark. For award-winning writer Mary, who is married to the dean behind the carpark plans, she has finally had enough of his bullying ways and is planning on escaping to San Francisco once their daughter's wedding is over. Art student Hannah, married to computer science whiz Michael, uses the garden to paint - and escape her guilt over her affair with an art tutor. Sofia, a former Hollywood agent who's married to an expert in Edgar Allan Poe, spends time there with her young children; while Ashleigh is wondering how she's going to tell her Republican senator father that she's living with a woman. The women band together to save the garden and uncover what Mary's husband is up to - and why he is suddenly so interested in Poe. Even though it doesn't take a Rhodes scholar to figure it all out, you'll enjoy the genuine character studies.
When freelance writer Sydney Alexander, now happily married to the man of her dreams, is offered an advice column at the local newspaper, she's convinced it's a way to help everybody else, including her sister Samantha, find true love. But matchmaking is no easy feat, as Jane Austen's Emma once found. Blessed are the Meddlers, the sequel to Christa Ann Banister's Around the World in 80 Dates, is out now.
On the night of her latest successful program launch, TV producer Caitlin Cooper discovers that her assistant Kennedy has been . . . well . . . assisting her husband, Max. And now Kennedy is pregnant and it looks like mother-of-two Cait is on her way to her first divorce. With her new-age best friend and her over-the-top mother moving in and her creative juices flowing, it seems there's no time for her to just hide out under the doona. This tale of 'from dream life to ex-wife' veers all over the place and, apart from the amusing reaction of Cait's parents to her separation, falls well short of its potential. And don't blink or you'll miss the love interest.
Your favourite authors rate their best read from this year's releases . . .
The most entertaining romantic comedy I've read this year has to be Sophie Kinsella's Remember Me? (If we were talking about last year, I'd say Catherine Alliott's A Crowded Marriage - I still smile when I remember the false foot-and-mouth emergency!) In Remember Me, our heroine Lexi Smart (aka Snaggletooth) wakes up in a hospital bed with amnesia, and nearly has a heart attack when she looks into the mirror at a reflection she barely recognizes. Her crooked teeth are straight, her lips look fuller, her hair is no longer frizzy; heck, her entire body is different. And those are just the first of the surprises. When she finds that instead of dating commitment-phobic Loser Dave (his name speaks volumes), she's married to a gorgeous specimen of manhood who is not only out of her league in looks, but also a millionaire, she begins to think that maybe she's lost her grip on reality altogether. Of course, her perfect new life is only perfect on the outside. Her hunky husband seems to have missed out on that vital sense-of-humour gene. Her cute little sister has morphed overnight into an obnoxious teenager. And Lexi herself has gone from being a lowly worker to the bitch boss from hell who lords it over her former buddies and co-workers. The novel chronicles Lexi's attempts to reconcile herself to her new life, despite the fact that so many things seem to go against the grain. She diligently reads her husband Eric's unintentionally hilarious marriage manual, but can't quite bring herself to sleep with him. She tries to enjoy living in a luxurious penthouse, but misses her messy flat. She has a shot at taking up the reins of her managerial position at the flooring company she still works for, but can't quite remember what she's supposed to be managing. She does everything she can to repulse the advances of some stranger who claims she's been cheating on Eric with him, but can't help finding him quite attractive. All in all, we sense that Lexi's perfect new life is a really, really, really bad fit for her. Like Lexi, we want to know what on earth happened to change things so radically. The suspense works brilliantly, but I must say I found the denouement just a little bit of a let-down. I always enjoy Kinsella's books because they're such a light-heated, hilarious break from reality, and her characters are so likeable, despite being a bit over-the-top. I hope she's working flat-out on her next one.
I'm working flat-out on my own next one. As yet untitled, it's about a thirty-something career woman who marries a widower, moves from London with him to leafy Connecticut, and gives up her job to play mother to her reticent stepdaughter. In doing so, she has to learn a whole new culture: the culture of suburban mommyhood. Of course, all kinds of pitfalls await. My first book, The Wrong Sort of Wife?, takes a look at the way babies can throw a spoke into married life, especially when the wife can't lose her baby fat, is exhausted by endless broken nights, resents her overbearing mother-in-law, and would rather clean out the sock drawer than sleep with her husband. Look out for it on the shelves!
Kate Lace follows up The Chalet Girl and The Movie Girl with The Trophy Girl, about Lucy Carter who gets a job at an earl's stately home. The earl and his wife, Becca, a champion horse rider, were a golden couple until she was killed in an accident. Now there are many women who have their sights set on becoming the next countess. But as Lucy glimpses behind the money and glamour, she realises that his past isn't the fairytale everyone believes.
Kate Miller reluctantly leaves New York to return to London to be with her sick father, a professional musician. Her return forces her to face up to some issue of the past - her ex-fiance Sean; her best friend Zoe who is bringing up her children without her husband; the promising magazine career she left behind; and a former colleague who is desperate to get in touch again. And most importantly she is reunited with the man she believes is the love of her life. For those who love the slow reveal of why a character is running from her past - the author's best to date.
Anne Hathaway (The Devil Wears Prada) has reportedly signed on to star in the film version of Julie Buxbaum's debut novel, The Opposite of Love. She will play Emily, a lawyer whose life starts unravelling after she dumps the guy who wants to marry her.
University friends Sally and Chloe are lucky to be alive. Three years on, after surviving the Boxing Day tsunami, Sally is now partner in a Manchester law firm while her husband Dan is a stay-at-home father taking care of their young son. But he is beginning to question whether she has her priorities right. Chloe, dumped by her boyfriend just after the tsunami, has been on a mission ever since to find the perfect father for the child she craves. Could Seth be the one?
Former English teacher Debbie Reed Fischer follows up her debut novel Braless in Wonderland with a book about the mean world of cheerleading, Swimming with the Sharks. Peyton Grady has never been popular - but this year things are going to change. She's won a coveted spot on the cheerleading squad. And when unathletic new student Ellika also gains a spot thanks to her parents' big donation, squad captain Lexie orders a bullying campaign to drive Ellika out. When things go too far, Peyton realises she's got to stop Lexie - but how?
If you are missing the good old days of power dressing, glamorous soap operas, big hair and shoulder pads and the greed is good motto, then you can relive the nostalgic days of the 1980s with Darlene Quinn's Webs of Power. When an Australian developer attempts a hostile takeover of American retail giant Consolidated, the lives of three women each linked to the corporation are unexpectedly thrown off course. Paige's marriage to one of the chief execs is threatened when she decides against his wishes that she wants a baby. Human resources exec Ashleigh's life begins to fray when her father figure faces a lawsuit that could wipe out his controlling shares of the company's stock. And power-hungry Viviana, a fashion merchandising director, will stop at nothing to become the wife of the man leading the takeover. Quinn, a Californian journalist, is already working on the sequel Twisted Webs.
From English author and Cambridge lecturer Rosy Thornton comes her third novel Crossed Wires, the story of Peter, a Cambridge university professor who crashes his Land Rover into a tree when swerving to avoid a cat, and Mina, the girl at the Sheffield call centre who deals with his insurance claim. They feel an immediate connection - is it possible that despite the distance and their differences that they have actually have a lot in common? It's out in December.
Your favourite authors rate their best read from this year's releases . . .
My favorite chick lit/women's fiction read so far this year is definitely Megan Crane's Names My Sisters Call Me. When Courtney Cassel's boyfriend proposes, she decides it's time to put an end to the feuding that has gone on between her two sisters and get them together for her engagement party. But that's easier said than done. Her oldest sister Norah is a control freak who still hasn't forgiven middle sister Raine, the free-spirit, from ruining her wedding and then running off to California (six years ago and hasn't been seen since) and despite being the youngest of the family, Courtney somehow ends up right in the middle. Until pretty soon she finds herself not just facing the skeletons in her sisters' closets, but also a skeleton of her own - Matt Cheney to be exact. He's the guy who broke her heart, and when she meets him and the wayward Raine again, Courtney starts to question everything. Even her relationship with her fiancé, the adorable and rock-solid Lucas. The rivalry between the three sisters is complex, genuine and utterly compelling and I think it's because Megan Crane is never afraid to push her characters further and really let them open up. As for how Courtney meets up with her ex, I think most women have had a Matt Cheney in their life: the guy who leaves them breathless, insecure and not quite sure if you'll ever recover from him and so watching Courtney battle through her confused feelings of what was in the past and what's in her future was very moving. Especially since her life with the gorgeous Lucas was at stake (and I'm not afraid to admit that I might've developed a wee bit of a crush on him). What I loved best about this book is quite simply that Megan Crane is an incredible writer (and I swear that if she wasn't so darn nice I'd be wildly jealous of her). I love her humour and her characters and she has the ability to make her settings come alive. These days I don't have that many autobuy authors but Megan is definitely one of them.
Amanda Ashby was born in Australia but now lives in New Zealand. Her debut book You Had Me At Halo was released in the US in 2007 and was a finalist in the Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Awards not to mention scooping a prestigious Pink Thong award from the Chicklit Club! Her next book comes out with Puffin in March 2009 and is called The Zombie Queen of Newbury High about a teenage girl who accidentally turns her entire class into zombies (like seriously, it could've happened to anyone!)
Book three in Tracey Bateman's Drama Queen series, That's (Not Exactly) Amore, focuses on Laini Sullivan who is about to finish her interior design course - but is finding it tough going. So a lot is riding on her project at Nick's coffee shop. But his gorgeous nephew Joe hates all her ideas and it appears his family is tied to the mob. As Laini continues baking up a storm to make ends meet after Dancy and Tabby move out of the apartment, she is swept off her feet by police officer Mark. But she's also definitely getting some mixed signals from Joe.
New Zealand author Michelle Holman's second novel, Divine, sees Tara Whitehead's husband leave after he decides he'd rather be a woman. With no money, she's about to lose her home, and friends are no longer returning her calls. So when her husband's uncle leaves everything to Tara's daughter to move into the local retirement village, they head for the sleepy town of Divine. But life is far from quiet with the handsome dairy farmer she keeps clashing with, a scurrilous property developer and a disgraceful incident at a PTA meeting. Divine will be available through www.whitcoulls.co.nz when it's released in November.
Cait spends her days writing copy about tongue scrapers and pile ointment, and bringing up her three children. Husband Martin has just moved out to live with the water-cooler saleswoman from work who obviously offered such irresistible after-sale service. So when her friend Millie offers her work as the agony aunt of an up-market parenting magazine Bambino, Cait wonders how anyone with her problems can possibly advise others. But she soon finds she enjoys the work, especially when a mystery single father, only known as R, starts emailing. An entertaining and refreshingly honest look into the mayhem and magic that life as a single mum entails. You'll want to keep reading to get the f-word (final word) on who R is and whether he's the one for her.
Sister writing duo Kathy Wilson and Kris Webb have written a new book under the pen-name Kathy Webb. Other People's Diaries sees author Alice struggling to live up to the promise of her successful debut. To help her write a book, she brings together five strangers with a plan to have them post diary entries on her website. They are high-flying working mother Rebecca; teacher Megan who is having an affair with a married man; divorced father Kerry; childless Claire who is trapped in a loveless marriage and widow Lillian. She hopes the tasks she emails them will help them turn their lives around. And in the process Alice finds her life is about to change too. The sisters - Kathy lives in Brisbane and Kris in Abu Dhabi - also co-authored Inheriting Jack and Sacking the Stork.
Did you know? Karen McCullah Lutz, author of The Bachelorette Party, co-wrote the new movie, The House Bunny, about a Playboy bunny becoming a house mother of a sorority.
British author Alexandra Potter (Me and Mr Darcy; Be Careful What You Wish For) is back with her seventh book, out in the new year. And the synopsis of Who's That Girl? has just been released: 'If only you knew then what you know now . . . Imagine if you could meet your 21-year-old self - would you recognise her? And what advice would you give? Wear sunscreen! Back away from those PVC trousers? Don't give that idiot your phone number? For Charlotte Merryweather, there's no need to imagine. She's about to find out for real. With surprising consequences.'
Your favourite authors rate their best read from this year's releases . . .
In Liza Palmer's Seeing Me Naked, Elisabeth Page comes from a family of famous people. Her father is the renowned novelist, Ben Page, and her brother, Rascal, a literary genius. The pressure to succeed and be someone fantastic is great but much to her family's dismay, Elisabeth is a pastry chef whose five-year business plan is on a fast track to nowhere. Never mind that she's a really good pastry chef or the fact that she works at one of the best restaurants in LA! Worse still, her family-approved boyfriend spends more time jetting around the world than he does with her and it's not long before she's left broken-hearted. Elisabeth's personal life hasn't exactly turned out as expected either and she feels trapped in a life where she fears her father's disapproval and yet craves for his attention too. But then she meets Daniel Sullivan, a basketball coach who's definitely not the kind of guy her father would approve of and yet he seems to be just the right man for her. Suddenly her stagnating life is very new, especially once she agrees to do a new cooking show. With a new man in her life and a new lease on her career, everything's looking great! But can Elisabeth shed her insecurities and embrace the happiness in her life for good? I loved this book! It's one of my favorite books I read this year. Funny, poignant with larger-than-life characters that jump off the page. Liza's clever prose also delights and she's my new must-read author.
Jane Porter's most recent novel, Mrs. Perfect, was published by Grand Central Publishing's 5 Spot in May 2008. Her July 2006 novel, Flirting with Forty, published by 5 Spot, was a tremendous success, with more than 77,000 copies in print after seven printings. It was optioned by Sony Pictures and is scheduled to air around Christmas, starring Heather Locklear and Robert Buckley, on Lifetime TV in 2008. Jane's previous novel, Odd Mom Out, published in September 2007 and Mrs. Perfect, have also been optioned. Jane lives in Seattle with her two sons and is currently working on another novel for Grand Central Publishing.
Ellen is still in her first year of marriage to lawyer Andy when she bumps into her ex-boyfriend Leo on a busy New York street. It's the first time she's seen him since he left her heartbroken without explanation. And despite her best intentions that it's safer to keep Leo out of her life, he sets her up with a photographer's assignment of a lifetime - shooting a magazine cover of superstar Drake Watters in LA. As Ellen becomes increasingly preoccupied with the one that got away, she wonders whether she is meant to settle for a privileged yet suburban life in Atlanta with Andy, her best friend's brother.
Dee Davis introduced us to matchmaker Vanessa and her friend and business rival Althea in A Match Made on Madison as they entered into a competition to see who would score playboy Mark Grayson as their client and send him walking down the aisle. In the sequel Set Up in Soho, out in December, Althea's niece, Andie, finds her long-time boyfriend is getting married - to someone else. Thrown from a taxi, she lands in the lap of one of New York's finest doctors, Ethan. But Andie's a downtown girl who doesn't have time for Park Avenue princes. Until her famous matchmaking aunt goes into action.
Former television producer and writer Maria Semple makes her novel debut with This One Is Mine. Violet Parry may be living a life of luxury in the Hollywood Hills with David, her rock'n'roll manager husband, and young daughter - but she's unhappy. When she meets bass player Teddy, she risks everything for the chance to find herself again. Meanwhile, David's highly strung sister, Sally, sets out to snare a successful husband, training her sights on ESPN sportscaster Jeremy.
When waitress/artist Lettie finally leaves her abusive boyfriend, she is encouraged to cast her net beyond Lyme Regis and place a personal ad in the newspaper. Her most promising response comes from Welsh forester Dougie and soon she's off to his village. This sweet romantic story is flavoured with an unexpectedly strong cast of characters including the obese Eve who dotes on drunkard Peter; a charming couple known as the Worm Gatherers and perpetual student Rizzo who has his eye on the luscious Lisa. It was a case of expecting light, fluffy chocolate mousse and getting so much more.
Sex and the City author Candace Bushnell is writing two teen novels, The Carrie Diaries, that, according to publisher HarperCollins, takes readers back to Carrie Bradshaw's formative years in high school, 'giving an inside look at Carrie's friendships, romances and how she realized her dream of becoming a writer'. The first book is due out in 2010.
Your favourite authors rate their best read from this year's releases . . .
In The French Gardener, by Santa Montefiore, Miranda and David and their children relocate from London to the country, to the very beautiful Hartington House, with its inspirational garden. It's all right for David, as he still works in the city and only comes home on weekends to play at being a lover and a father, while his heart just clearly isn't in it and his mind is always elsewhere. But Miranda, a freelance journalist, who dreams of writing a novel while she lunches at Harvey Nic's in her Jimmy Choos, isn't sure what she's got herself into, now that she's faced with the grim possibility of coffee mornings at the town hall and the pressure to appear less snobby for the strange woman who owns the cake shop. What's clear is that the Lightlys, the previous owners of Hartington House, didn't suffer the kind of doubts and angst that she does; the house has a warm loved-in and lived-in vibe, and the sumptuous garden has clearly been tended to with a rare brand of devotion. But rural life is all getting rather teeth-grinding for Miranda, who just doesn't fit, that is, until two seemingly unconnected events happen: the timely arrival of a handsome French gardener who looks like he just might want a job, and Miranda coming across a faded green scrapbook containing the writings of Ava Lightly, the previous owner of Hartington. As she starts to read about a love and a life that blossomed in her very own cottage garden, Miranda's writerly imagination is so captivated that she delves deeper into Ava's story, and into her own garden, with the help of her new enigmatic employee, looking for some answers about her own life and that of a woman she has never met. When I first read the back of this book I thought it was going to be a modern-day Lady Chatterley's Lover, or, rather, something that was going to feel like a story I had read before. Perhaps a little romp and redemption among the rosebushes for a bored married lady? That would surely keep me entertained on my flight from Spain to Canada, plus it had a stunning cover and I'm a sucker for a lovely cover. But I was wrong. The French Gardener is a far more fresh and deeply compelling story than I'd prepared myself for, and has more layers than a delicious vanilla mille-feuille. In fact, it's two stories that somehow tangle effortlessly and beautifully into one: that of Miranda who is missing something vital inside herself, and Ava Lightly, an unlikely candidate for a life-long love affair. Unlike many books that switch between past and present, and sometimes jar or frustrate, I just got carried along with this one, as though I was bobbing along on a dinghy out at sea, with my face held up to the sun, enjoying the two converging plot-lines equally, never favoring one enough to skip over the other, which I usually end up doing. For me, that's the work of a very skilled story-teller, and Santa Montefiore is definitely that, and you can tell her heart is really in this book and she probably had a good time writing it. Because the writing is as charming as the story: it's never over-written, nor is the story ever over-told. And the characters could easily have been those lovely upper-middle class stereotypes who lead the kind of glamorous messed-up lives we love to read about but can never fully believe or relate to, but they're so not that! They're extremely human and multi-dimensional, and just glamorous enough to fit in a very escapist novel. As for the ending... well, I am great at predicting them, and I was pretty sure I knew where this one was going! But I was wrong about that too.
Verdict: If you want several hours of just sitting down and shutting out the world, and getting lost in a heartwarming tale, that in some ways you wish might have happened to you, this is definitely one that's going to go down a treat.
Carol Mason is the Canadian-based author of The Secrets of Married Women and Send Me a Lover. Catch up with her at her new website.
Lauren Weisberger is set to see another of her books on the big screen, with media reports indicating Universal and Mandalay Pictures have picked up the film rights to her 2008 release Chasing Harry Winston. The book is about three friends who set out to change their lives over a year. Andy Tennant (Hitch, Fool's Gold) is attached to direct.
Jill Marshall, a British author now based in Auckland, has written her debut adult novel, The Two Miss Parsons. Single mum Cally lives in London with her nine-year-old daughter Paige, who asks to go to New Zealand to meet her father Alan - the man who abandoned Cally when she was pregnant. Cally meets Simon on the plane and wants to continue their flirtation in NZ, but Paige is instead plotting to get her parents back together. Marshall is also the author of the Jane Blonde children series.
Q. What's the name of the book about a girl who doesn't realise she's talking to her boss on a plane?A. That would be Sophie Kinsella's Can You Keep a Secret? When Emma Corrigan's plane hits bad turbulence, she is convinced she is going to die. She spills her secrets to the handsome American man sitting next to her. Later the junior marketing exec finds he is Jack Harper, the American CEO of her company. Q. Can you give me some examples of books where the character wakes up younger, and gets a chance to do it all over again?A. Try Jenny Colgan's Do You Remember the First Time? (aka The Boy I Loved Before), where Flora becomes 16 again after making a wish at a friend's wedding. Or Catriona McCloud's Growing Up Again, where Janie returns to 1981 and maybe can save Princess Diana. In Time of My Life, by Allison Winn Scotch, Jillian goes back seven years, to a time where she made decisions that charted her future course. Got a question about chick lit books? and we'll try our best to answer it (questions may be edited for space and clarity reasons). |
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Gus Simpson's Cooking Channel TV show is losing its spark, so she is paired with an ambitious, younger co-host - former Miss Spain, Carmen Vega - for a live cooking show. Their tension leads to on-air chaos as Gus' adult daughters, reclusive neighbour and others join the Eat, Drink and Be team. This has all the right ingredients for a nourishing read as Gus deals with getting older, sharing the limelight, letting go of her daughters and recovering from loss.
Your favourite authors rate their best read from this year's releases . . .
In Emily Giffin's fourth novel, Love the One You're With, Ellen has a wonderful life with her husband Andy. She has a successful career as a photographer and she truly believes her life to be perfect. But after a chance encounter with her ex, Leo, Ellen's life goes into a tailspin. For Ellen, Leo was 'the one who got away', and his reappearance in her life makes Ellen question everything about the life she's chosen. What makes Love the One You're With stand out for me is the writing. Emily's writing never disappoints - she has a way of infusing so much feeling into every scene. She's not afraid to make her characters unlikeable and is able to make her readers fall in love with them, despite their flaws or bad decisions. Most of all, this book will make you think about your life and the decisions that you've made. I read Love the One You're With in two days (okay, so I've read all of Emily's novels in two days!). Whether you like Ellen or not, whether you respect her choices or begin yelling at the book because of what she's done, you'll find this book to be utterly un-put-downable.
Brenda is the author of the novels Jack With a Twist (Engaging your adversary and other things they don't teach you in law school) and Scot on the Rocks (How I survived my ex-boyfriend's wedding with my dignity ever so slightly intact), as well as the short story Based on a True Story. You can learn more about Brenda at www.brendajanowitz.com and check out her blog.
Ten years ago, bookkeeper Andrea Stanfield fudged her resume to say she held a bachelor of business degree. As the lie spirals, she starts climbing her way up the managerial ladder until she's overseeing 20 offices. Eventually the guilt of living under false pretences takes its toll. Stanfield, as well as writing this Phony!: How I Faked My Way Through Life memoir, is now happily employed as a dog trainer.
Quick, can you name 10 chick lit cliches? In fact we found so many examples, we've divided it into two Top 10 lists: characters and others.
Two decades have past since Kat Cavanaugh hitchhiked out of her West Virginia hometown, vowing never to return. Now she's back - gorgeous, rich and looking for an apology from everyone who'd made life hard for her then. And first on the list is Riley, the boy who broke her heart before she could tell him she was pregnant.
Patrice Wilton follows up Replacing Barney with a paranormal romance called Desperately Seeking Susie. Susie was disfigured at birth and despite having had plastic surgery she still believes she doesn't measure up. Her life is a series of mishaps until one night during a tropical storm, she is touched by magic. Now she has to choose between following her artistic dreams to Florence or being with her high school crush Brett.
As Secret Diary of a Call Girl, with Billie Piper, kicks off its season on Australian TV, the next book in the series about call girl Belle du Jour is due to hit shelves soon. Playing the Game sees Belle starting to wonder about life after being on the game. If she gets another job, how will she cope with the nine-to-five and reduced budget?
Your favourite authors rate their best read this year . . .
My pick is I'm In No Mood For Love by Rachel Gibson. When Claire Wingate finds out that the love of her life and fiancê, Lonny, is gay she copes by getting outrageously drunk at a friend's wedding and going to bed with Sebastian - someone she has known since her childhood, and who is now a hugely successful journalist. As a start point for a novel, this was great although I did wonder how Rachel Gibson would keep the pace going through the 80,000 words of her latest book for Little Black Dress. Of course I needn't have worried. Rachel's easy, chatty style and great sense of humour meant that it was a dead cert that I was in safe hands and that I was going to be completely entertained from page 1 to page 278. It isn't just that Rachel makes her heroines so delightfully engaging that you just have to turn the pages to make absolutely certain they get the happy-ever-after ending they deserve, she is also fab at creating such sexy heroes they make me contemplate infidelity despite my 30 years of marriage and monsters like Claire's rich, socialite mother. The emotions are real, the settings richly described and the story utterly plausible. What more do I want from a book? On a completely personal level I did so empathise with Claire; a writer of romance novels whose craft isn't really appreciated by either her snobby mother or her mother's equally snobby friends. Obviously it would be just so much more socially acceptable to have a daughter who writes prize-winning literature. And then there is the tricky matter of the rampant sex scenes Claire writes. Just how does a romance novelist research the red-hot bonking? And how often? And who with? Claire's response to the question - which I suspect may reflect Ms Gibson's attitude - struck a chord of total truth with me too! OK, Rachel's books aren't high art but if I want to be entertained then I can be sure that she will deliver every time and that does it for me.
I am Kate Lace and I too write books for Little Black Dress. My latest - The Trophy Girl - will be out in November.
When Honor Palmer takes over the running of her family's grand old Palmers Hotel in East Hampton, she is determined to restore it to its former glory. But first she has to go head to head with ambitious ladies man Lucas Ruiz, who's opening up tycoon Anton Tisch's latest luxury hotel on her doorstep. Check in for a five-star romp as this bonkbuster has it all - villains and divas, sex and dirty tricks, scandals and revenge.
Melanie La'Brooy talks about her latest release The Babymoon, pregnancy, character names and writing Australian chick lit.
New York author Alisa Kwitney, author of Flirting in Cars and Sex as a Second Language, has a graphic novel, Token, coming out in October. Now normally this would not interest me in the slightest but then I saw this line: 'Fans of Dirty Dancing will enjoy this romantic, funny, poignant tale of a young girl's first love.' That movie gets women in every time! Token is set in Miami Beach of the 1980s, and tells the story of Shira, who finds herself rebelling against her family and falling for Rafael, 'a boy who knows how to make acting bad feel way too good'. Kwitney also has a paranormal romance novel out early next year, The Better to Hold You, written under the pen name Alisa Sheckley.
From Josi S. Kilpack comes a novel about identity theft. In Her Good Name, someone else is using Chrissy's credit cards, her bank account and her name. Now she must prove she's not responsible for the growing pile of unpaid bills. But with no job, a warrant for her arrest, and a closet full of high-heeled shoes, a girl can only get so far. When Chrissy meets Micah, the other half of a blind date gone bad, the pair discover they are facing the same battle and join forces to find the perpetrators.
Your favourite authors rate their best read from this year's releases . . .
Some Assembly Required, a debut by Lynn Kiele Bonasia, is my favourite women's fiction novel of 2008. As a reader, I had to put this book down about four or five times due to the wow-factor, when a sentence or passage I just read knocked my socks off and/or touched me deeply. As a writer, I was blown away by the author's guts and ingenuity, how she decided to tell this story, introduce the main characters, flaws and all. In a nutshell, Some Assembly Required is the oftentimes funny, oftentimes sad story of a woman who moves to Cape Cod to start anew when her boyfriend/fiance cheats. Sounds like the start of a gazillion chick lit novels, but trust me, it's one of the most original novels I've read! She trades her job as a technical writer of instructional manuals to become a reporter, and gets involved in the lives of her neighbors, including an autistic savant young man and his estranged uncle (what a character!) and all the juicy secrets of the island and its inhabitants. What I especially love about this book is that it's everything in one wonderful book: it's literary fiction, it's women's fiction, it's chick lit. It's just itself. There are also two upcoming books I'm dying to read: Valerie Frankel's body image memoir: Thin Is The New Happy, and also Claire LaZebnik's new novel The Smart One and The Pretty One. Hmmm, must get to bookstore.
Melissa Senate is the author of seven novels, including the recent release Questions to Ask Before Marrying. Find out more at her website.
Cindy, Laura, Keeley and Marianne - the four women from the exclusive St Benedict's country club (first introduced in Leonie Fox's Private Members novel) - are back. In the sequel Members Only, fading soap actress Amber Solomon catches her billionaire husband having an affair with the housekeeper; an oversexed American teenager is prowling the grounds and the WAGs and their footballers are more than game for some swinging.
When Julie's mother Betty gives her a gift of dessert technique classes, the last person she expects to see there is her teenage crush Michael. Single mother Julie is now a TV correspondent seeking to make it on to the national election campaign team, and the last time she saw Michael, a political consultant, was six years ago when she did an expose of his candidate. The rekindled romance ignited by Betty - the woman who kept Michael and Julie apart all those years ago - is merely the icing on the cake. The real flavour of this book is its delving into issues such as job ethics, the mother-daughter bond and aging parents. And all the delectable descriptions of the desserts will have you licking your lips. Regarded by many as the author's best to date.
Love the art of creating memories by scrapbooking and reading about the joys of female friendship? Then these novels may be the perfect fit for you.
A Page Out of Life, by Kathleen Reid, sees frazzled mother of four Ashley join a local scrapbooking club. There she meets Tara, whose search for love has brought her heartache - and some funny dating stories, and Libby, a semi-retired teacher whose son is involved in a corporate scandal. All three learn that only together can they face earth-shattering revelations while artfully commemorating their pasts.
Coming Unglued is the second book in the Sisters, Ink series by Rebecca Seitz. Meg, Kendra, Tandy and Joy were each separately adopted into the loving home of Marilyn and Jack Sinclair. Ten years after their mother's death, the sisters still return to her converted attic scrapbooking studio to encourage each other through life's highs and lows and run a new scrapbooking business called Sisters, Ink. This book focuses on musician Kendra who struggles with her relationship with a guy from the jazz club.
In Scrap Everything, by Leslie Gould, Elise, her husband Ted and two teenage sons move to a small Oregon town. He encourages her to go to a crop night at Rebekah's scrapbooking store so she can meet other locals. The women there rally around Elise when Ted is called back into the army. And when Rebekah's daughter faces a medical crisis, it's her turn for support.
Susan Wiggs' latest release Just Breathe is about Chicago cartoonist Sarah Moon who's been trying hard to conceive after her husband Jack's cancer. And her comic strip character Shirl is facing similar issues. But when Sarah finds Jack cheating on her, she flees to her small Californian hometown. There she encounters high school heart-throb and her nemesis Will, now a single father. And she discovers she's pregnant - with her ex's twins.
The movie based on Sophie Kinsella's novel is due in cinemas in February. Of course anyone who watched the premiere of 90210 in the US this week has already seen it. And in a recent interview, the author revealed she isn't done with Becky yet - yet another Shopaholic book is on the cards.
Sarah Monk's A Romantic Getaway sees two sisters head south to run a small hotel. When Marilyn's husband runs off, leaving her with their five-year-old, Alex, she needs all the help she can get - especially from sister Liesel. They discover that Alex has inherited a hotel in Cornwall from his father's dotty great-aunt. However, the will has one condition. They can't sell the hotel until they have run it for a season.
Set for a re-release is Bryony Hill's debut novel from 2003, Penalty Chick. Realtor Millie Palmer picks up a gorgeous guy in a wine bar in Wimbledon. There's only one problem - Paul is the manager of a struggling soccer club and Millie hates the sport. The author is married to British soccer commentator Jimmy Hill.
Your favourite authors rate their best read from this year's releases . . .
My choice is No One You Know, by Michelle Richmond. I'd heard some readers say that while this book was good, it wasn't as good as the author's previous book, The Year of Fog. So, having loved TYOF, I opened this new novel with trepidation. I'm pleased to report that it's not just good, it's great, a knockout about a woman who tries to solve the murder of her mathematician sister 20 years after the fact. In trying to analyze why some readers said it was not as good as TYOF, the only thing I could come up with - since the writing here is just as 'gripping' and 'captivating' and 'richly imagined'; all phrases used by reviewers to describe the earlier book - is that in this one the stakes simply are not as high. For while the stakes of solving a sibling's murder would be considered very high in most worlds, how do you top TYOF's stakes in which a woman searches to find a small child, the daughter of her boyfriend, who's gone missing while under her care? Still, I loved this book. Another smart offering from a smart author.
Lauren Baratz-Logsted is the author of several novels for adults, teens and kids, including the September 2008 chick lit release Baby Needs a New Pair of Shoes, about an obsessive-compulsive window washer who turns to casino blackjack in order to finance her newfound passion for Jimmy Choos.
Anything that combines chocolate and spas has to be a good thing, right? Diann Hunt's Bittersweet Surrender centres on character Carly Westlake, whose spa is famous for its chocolate facials. But when long-buried secrets threaten her business and her friendship with business-partner Tom, she has to fight to keep the dream afloat.
Want to know the secrets of being a WAG? Head to this month's Club Challenges.
Amber is married to psychiatrist Matt and works as a headhunter for a London firm. And with her friends being her family, she's never really wanted children. But as more of her circle enter into parenthood, including her best friend Dylan who wants to adopt a baby with his boyfriend, she begins to wonder if she's made the right choice. And she's wondering if her missing maternal instinct is a result of her own stand-offish mother.
Canadian-born model Chelsea Haywood details her experiences as a Toyko hostess in 90-Day Geisha. Mixing with millionaires, surgeons, criminals and executives, she finds out what it means to entertain the wealthy - but lonely - Japanese men who lavish the women with expensive dinners, shopping sprees and first-class trips. But her initial enthusiasm turns into turmoil as her new job starts affecting the rest of her life.
Isabelle (from the novel Love Struck) is not the kind of girl who's always known she's wanted a baby. But now settled with Jack in Melbourne, the pair throw caution to the wind when Isabelle dons a Carlton footy jumper and little else. Panicked about being pregnant - I mean she doesn't even know the names of The Wiggles - she finds reading up about the next nine months is only making her morning sickness worse. With Jack busy as usual at the hospital, she turns to her fellow art gallerina Doug to accompany her to birth classes. Throw in an artist showing interest in her placenta, an ex-boyfriend back on the scene with his own pregnant girlfriend and her friend Cate showing her true anti-baby colours - and is it any wonder Isabelle's feeling out of her depth. But why is she pushing Jack away as the time for her to push out the baby nears? The funniest pregnancy novel out there - with lots of glorious Australian references. Just loved the idea of uber-trendy Doug turning up at birth classes after taking fashion inspiration not from cool dad David Beckham, but rather from dorky TV blokes like Martin from Hey Dad! and Kel from Kath & Kim.
Your favourite authors rate their best read from this year's releases . . .
My pick for 2008 would easily have to be Sophie Kinsella's Remember Me. I've always been in awe of her writing and her fantastic characters, ever since picking up her first Becky Bloomwood novel - I was astounded at the way she could actually make me empathise with a ditzy financial journalist who had a nasty little spending habit! I've bought all of Kinsella's books since then and have to say I've loved some of them more than others, but enjoyed them all. About a month before Remember Me was released in Australia, I read the book's blurb with excitement . . which quickly turned to horror. This wasn't a book I was sure I was going to buy. I mean, come on . . . a heroine with amnesia? How old and tired is that? When it was finally released, I walked by it in the shops for several weeks, giving the book sneery looks as I passed by the bookstore windows. Amnesia . . . I would roll my eyes every time. Sometimes I would even tut. Until, one day, I needed something to read and, still rolling my eyes, walked into a bookstore and bought the book. Well, I read it in two sittings (it would have been one, but I need some sleep these days - small children are merciless). And my eyes rolled again when I was finished - back into my head with pleasure, that is. She'd done the impossible. Any writer who can take something as old and tired as amnesia and make it fresh and full of life is worth putting my trust in. And I'll be trusting her 100 per cent from now on. Even if her next book is about a secret baby.
Alli Kincaid's latest release is The Inner Gentleman. Her next novel, Wrong Way, Go Back will be released in January 2009. You can read more about her and her books and view her sad 'look at my cute kids!' pics at http://www.allikincaid.com.