Couldn’t somebody have come up with a better title for this book? Spanish Disco has nothing to do with Spain, and very little to do with disco. But don’t let the title put you off this engaging story about a woman who has to learn that the lines between personal and professional lives are sometimes…
I was so lost in parts of this book. It’s British. Very, very British. The author drops names of people, products, television shows and popular music all through the narrative and, while I am pretty good at deciphering British English, I’m not so au courant when it comes to contemporary British popculture. However, I persevered…
Reading Burning the Map is much like watching a slideshow of someone else’s vacation. You get a chance to see the same things they did in vivid color, but you also have to listen to their boring stories of events that were probably interesting to experience, yet are pretty dull to hear about. Casey Evers…
I read most of Fourplay on a plane ride to Kansas City. I have to admit I was surprised when I heard the announcement that we were landing. Fourplay was entertaining enough to have made a two-hour flight zip by. It would be nice if all women ended up with a social life that goes…
There was quite a bit of buzz about Katie Fforde’s books a while back, so I was excited to try one of them. Maybe I picked the wrong one or maybe I just don’t get it. Either way, Artistic License features a terribly flighty heroine who never endeared herself to me and the book, while…
I’ll be honest and admit that I didn’t read Compromising Positions, Susan Isaacs’ best-selling story of Judith Singer, the suburban mom who unexpectedly discovered she had a real knack for solving a murder. My affection for the character largely developed from the fact that I have seen the movie (starring Susan Sarandon and the late,…
Those who’ve read Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s Diary and its sequel must have wondered if the author could tell a similarly sharp and humorous story without the incomparable Bridget scribbling her disjointed journal entries. Cause Celeb, an earlier novel, is certainly different in style. It doesn’t follow a diary format, it’s not a running commentary…
If you’re keeping track of these things, Drop Dead Gorgeous is British chick lit written more along the lines of Katie Fforde than it is Marian Keyes. Fforde specializes in small ensemble stories featuring nice, somewhat fey people dealing with relationship difficulties (think Four Weddings and a Funeral ) and Keyes writes edgier fiction starring…
I was pleased to review The Boy Next Door because I read and enjoyed the authors’ previous American release Come Together. I’m happy to say that their new one is even better. This story is absorbing and touching, the dual first-person narrative device still works well, and this story isn’t quite so gritty in its…
Warning: This Book Is Not A Romance. This is not a book whose central story concerns a woman and a man meeting, falling in love, and living happily ever after. Even though Red Dress Inc. is the newest imprint from the Big Kid on the romance block, Harlequin/Silhouette, they’re branching out into the non-romance “chick…