Famous (2008)

This follows the life of SPG (Single and Professional Girl) Samantha who has everything going for her. She's about to make partner in a leading advertising agency in Auckland, she's free as a bird when it comes to relationships , she has lots of money and loves shopping at Karen Walker and Trelise Cooper, and has two awesome best friends Lizzie and Mands. Until one day she gets a phone call from her ex-boyfriend Jerry whom she hasn't spoken to in three years, telling her he has had a sex change. She ends up going out partying and having a one-night stand with the captain of New Zealand's rugby team. After the married sportsman is snapped coming out of Sam's house, she starts to live in paparazzi hell and is labelled in the media as "The Other Woman". Desperate to get away from it all, Sam is shipped off by her friends to the small rural town of Floodgate, where after meeting some wonderful locals her life turns around unexpectedly. Can Sam give up her city girl dreams and her label of SPG for the small-town farm life or will she come crawling back to the big city? (PP)

Making Lemonade (2007)

Three 30-plus women all have perfect lives - or are on the way to having them - when fate throws each of them lemons to deal with. Jools has just been publicly dumped and humiliated on a work do in Fiji by her latest (in a string of) married lovers. She has a one-night bar-fling - and ends up with more than she ever bargained for. Sally is the perfect wife and mother of three. But when her husband becomes a famous televangelist, when did she suddenly become unimportant to everyone and where's all the family savings gone? Kat has the perfect job, perfect husband, dream home and plans for starting a family. But then she suspects her husband is having an affair and nothing is what it seems. These three women have to re-evaluate, re-start and re-claim their lives and dreams. The characters, settings and story are so well written, you can't help but feel part of Jools, Sally and Kat's lives. In my view Kate Langdon's books should carry a warning for "Extreme laughter guaranteed - do not read in public if you get embarrassed by laughing aloud!" (AT)

That Slippery Slop (2004)

Twenty-nine-year-old (begrudgingly almost 30) Helen McGregor is unlucky in love and her career, and she's the world's worst dog-sitter (but it wasn't her fault, really). Helen and her friend, Sara, slide from one hilarious situation to another in their search of love, weight loss and the dream job. Helen goes from mishap to mishap without even trying. She smokes, she drinks and she swears - and she's a completely realistic and loveable character in the spirit of Bridget Jones. With fabulous characters, settings and writing, this makes the reader feel like they're joining Helen in each of her incredibly funny adventures. Just have some tissues ready for tears of laughter. (AT)

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