Book Details:
Title: How to Bake a Perfect Life
Author: Barbara O'Neal
2011, Bantam
ISBN: 978-0-553-38677-6
Genre: Chick-Lit, Contemporary Fiction
Book Summary:
Professional baker Ramona Gallagher is a master of an art that has sustained her through the most turbulent times, including a baby at fifteen and an endless family feud. But now Ramona's bakery threatens to crumble around her. Literally. She's one water-heater disaster away from losing her grandmother's rambling Victorian and everything she's worked so hard to build.
When Ramona's soldier son-in-law is wounded in Afghanistan, her daughter, Sophia, races overseas to be at his side, leaving Ramona as the only suitable guardian for Sophia's thirteen-year-old stepdaughter, Katie. Heartbroken, Katie feels that she's being dumped again - this time on the doorstep of a woman out of practice with mothering.
Ramona calls upon a special set of tools - patience, persistence, and the reliability of a good recipe - when rebellious Katie arrives. And as she relives her own history of difficult choices, Ramona shares her love of baking with the troubled girl. Slowly, Katie begins to find self-acceptance and a place to call home. And when a man from her past returns to offer a second chance at love, Ramona discovers that even the best recipe tastes better when you add time, care, and a few secret ingredients of your own.
My Review:
Okay... I really think the summary tells you most of what you need to know.
Characters: Ramona is wonderful. She has her Book of Breads that she started when she was fifteen and some of the recipes are shared within the chapters of the book (my mom made a couple of them... they're good). Sophia and Katie and book great additions to the story. Sophia is sitting, pregnant, at the bedside of her wounded husband. And Katie is stuck at Ramona's house with her dog Merlin. Jonah is Ramona's man from her past and they have great chemistry throughout the whole book.... I loved him instantly.
Plot: There are a lot of different things going on in this book. I love that there is a look at the life of military families and what they endure while serving our country. There is the story of Ramona when she was fifteen and got herself pregnant and sent away to live with her aunts, along with Katie who is also fifteen and trying to find her place in the world. And then there is Ramona today - divorced, small business owner and on the outs with most of her family members.....
This is a nice book. A good read. It wasn't too fast-paced... took me a little longer than I expected to get through it, but it was good.
Book Details:
Title: Stilettos & Scoundrels
Author: Laina Turner Molaski
2010, Five Seas Ink Publishing
ISBN:978-0-578-03407-2
Genre: Chick-lit? Mystery?
Book Summary:
Presley Thurman, a sassy, thirty-something red-head, lover of shopping and Starbucks had just been fired so she decided to follow her dream. With her feisty nature and a spirit to not "sweat the small stuff," she was ready to tackle any challenge (even if she had no idea how she would pay the bills). However, the new job turned into murder - in her home town! Presley was excited she hadn't seen so much buzz since the spring sample sale at Saks.
Presley was able to discover the Senator's wife, Helen, had been having an affair ... with her best friend's boyfriend! Did Helen kill the Senator? Or was it the Senator's love of gambling that got him killed? And what was Cooper's secret tie to the mob boss Garrison Palazzo? But could she find the killer and write her story wile resisting the good looks and charm of old flame Cooper?
Presley was betting her favorite pair of Manolo's she will find the killer ... but will time run out!
My Review:
Okay, I'm not going to spend too much time on this review because, frankly, I didn't really enjoy this book. I felt that Presley was a spoiled brat who always got her way (or thought she should). I think she was supposed to come across more "sassy", but to me she just seemed ridiculous. The character reminded me a little of Rebecca Bloomwood from the Shopaholic books - although I enjoyed those books, so I'm not sure what the problem was with this one.
There were also A LOT of secondary characters and I had a hard time keeping them all straight. Although, I DO have to say that the author had me guessing until the last minute who the murder was - there were so many possibilities that I couldn't figure it out until she revealed it!
It didn't help that I had a ARC copy and it was VERY un-edited. Maybe I'm just not cut out for reading ARC copies because I was very distracted by all the typos and mistakes.
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Book Details:
Title: Insatiable
Author: Meg Cabot
2010, Harper Collins
ISBN: 978-0-06-173506-6
Genre: Chick-lit, Paranormal
Summary (from the inside cover):
Sick of hearing about vampires? So is Meena Harper.
But her bosses are making her write about them anyway, even though Meena doesn't believe in them.
Not that Meena isn't familiar with the supernatural. See, Meena Harper knows how you're going to die. (Not that you're going to believe her. No one ever does.)
But not even Meena's precognition can prepare her for what happens when she meets- then makes the mistake of falling in love with - Lucien Antonescu, a modern-day prince with a bit of a dark side. It's a dark side a lot of people, like an ancient society of vampire hunters, would prefer to see him dead for.
The problem is, Lucien's already dead. Maybe that's why he's the first guy Meena's ever met whom she could see herself having a future with. See, while Meena's always been able to see everyone else's future, she's never been able to look into her own.
and while Lucien seems like everything Meena has ever dreamed of in a boyfriend, he might turn out to be more like a nightmare.
Now might be a good time for Meena to start learning to predict her own future...
If she even has one.
My Review:
Okay, I usually LOVE Meg Cabot books. I haven't read them all, but I've always liked the ones I HAVE read. This was not my favorite. I want to say that I loved this book, but I didn't. But I can't really say I hated it either.
I think I liked about the first half or two-thirds of this book. I actually sat up late reading a few nights after I got off work at midnight! Then it just kind of fell apart. Ridiculous things started happening (okay... I know what you're thinking... this book is about vampires - it's not realistic!). But it wasn't that. I didn't like the ending - she went off with the wrong guy, in my opinion! She made the guy I like end up being more like a creepy guy at the end. And some really far-fetched things happened - even for vampires.
I really enjoyed the beginning when she was making references to other vampire stories like "I'm surprised he wasn't sparkling or something?" (Twilight) or "Sookie Stackhouse, and she's made up" and "that vampire show on HBO" (TruBlood/ Sookie Stackhouse novels). But then it went off on it's own direction - and although it's characters were pretty fun and quirky like Meg Cabot's other books, there was just something I didn't like about this one. I did think her version of how vampires came to be was interesting - she ties in Dracula.
Soo... if you like vampire novels - you might like this one, even if just for the vampire-craze humor. If you like Meg Cabot's other books - you might like it, just because.
Or you might not. I think this one could go either way.
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Book Details:
Title: Remember Me?
Author: Sophie Kinsella
2008, Dial Press
ISBN: 9780385338721
Book Summary (from jacket):
When twenty-eight-year-old Lexi Smart wakes up in a London hospital, she's in for a big surprise. Her teeth are perfect. her body is toned. Her handbag is Vuitton. Having survived a car accident - in a Mercedes no less - Lexi has lost a big chunk 9of her memory, three years to be exact, and she's about to find out just how much things have changed.
Somehow Lexi went from a twenty-five-year-old working girl to a corporate big shot with a sleek new loft, a personal assistant, a carb-free diet, and a set of glamorous new friends. And who is this gorgeous husband - who als9o happens to be a multimillionaire? With her mind still stuck three years in reverse, Lexi greets this brave new world determined to be the person she ... well, seems to be. That is, until an adorably disheveled architect drops the biggest bombshell of all.
Suddenly Lexi is scrambling to catch her balance. Her new life, it turns out, comes com0plete with secrets, schemes, and intrigue. How on earth did all this happen? Will she ever remember? And what will happen when she does?
My Review:
I LOVED this book. I am loving Sophie Kinsella's new characters in this novel and Twenties Girl. I have to admit I've had this book on my shelf for probably a couple years, but I was so burnt out on Becky from the Shopaholic series that I never got around to reading this one.
Now I'm sorry I waited so long. I loved the character of Lexi. She's fun, smart and quirky. When she wakes up from her car accident, she determines that she's going to make the best of this strange situation - including moving back in with a husband she doesn't know, into a house she's never seen and visiting with friends she's never met. She's convinced herself that she's just woken up to the Dream Life. Multimillionaire husband (who's nice!), awesome penthouse loft, she's gone from peon to director at her job... until it starts to unravel.
She tries very hard to make it all work - which I love about her. She tries to become this new person, but it doesn't quite make sense with the person that she knows and she can't quite figure out how this all came about. The book is about her discovering what happened, who she really is and finally, of course, making it all work out for the best.
Like I said, I loved this book. It was a quick read and fun. I found myself laughing to myself several times throughout the course of the book and was a little sad when it ended.
This is my honest opinion. The book came from my personal TBR pile and I was not compensated in any way for this review.
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Book Details
Title: Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict
Author: Laurie Viera Rigler
2009, Unknown
ISBN: 978-1400162499
Book Summary:
Rude Awakenings tells the parallel story of Jane Mansfield, a gentleman's daughter from Regency England who inexplicably awakens in Courtney's overly wired and morally confused L.A. life. For Jane, the modern world is not wholly disagreeable. Her apartment may be smaller than a dressing closet, but it is fitted up with lights that burn without candles, machines that wash bodies and clothes, and a glossy rectangle in which tiny people perform scenes from her favorite book, Pride and Prejudice.
Granted, if she wants to travel she may have to drive a formidable metal carriage, but she may do so without a chaperone. And oh, what places she goes! Public assemblies that pulsate with pounding music. Unbound hair and unrestricted clothing. The freedom to say what she wants when she wants--even to men without a proper introduction.
Jane relishes the privacy, independence, even the power to earn her own money. But how is she to fathom her employer's incomprehensible dictates about 'syncing a BlackBerry' and 'rolling a call'? How can she navigate a world in which entire publications are devoted to brides but flirting and kissing and even the sexual act itself raise no matrimonial expectations? Even more bewildering are the memories that are not her own. And the friend named Wes, who is as attractive and confusing to Jane as the man who broke her heart back home. It's enough to make her wonder if she would be better off in her own time, where at least the rules are clear--that is, if returning is even an option.
My Review:
Jane Mansfield has ended up in a body she does not know and in a time she does not recognize. In this follow-up to Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, where 21st-Century Courtney Stone ends up in a regency-era body and life (Jane Mansfield's), this novel follows regency-era Jane Mansfield as she finds herself in a 21st-Century body and life! What the two women have in common are their love of Jane Austen novels. Jane must now make sense of this modern world she finds herself in with cars, movies, bathrooms and women's rights.
Wonderful follow-up to Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict. I actually enjoyed this book more than the previous one because I felt that the main character, Jane, was smarter in this future world than her counterpart, Courtney, was in the last novel. Although Jane has been transported through time into another body and place (200 years in the future!), she takes everything in stride and quickly picks up on many lifestyle and cultural changes. It is amusing how she talks throughout the book - in her old-English style phrases and words - and I think it adds to her charm.
Whereas the previous novel left its readers hanging at the end, this novel wraps up both stories nicely and answers some of those unanswered questions from the previous novel and this one.
I listened to the audio book version of this novel. I really enjoyed listening to it, Kate Reading, the performer, did a good job of voicing the duel person of Jane and Courtney. I thought her voice was a little annoying when she was reading the men's lines, as she tried to lower her voice into a more "male" tone, but I suppose that can't be helped. She did a wonderful job of switching between a British accent when talking like Jane and American when she was talking as Courtney.
Good book for Jane Austen lovers. A fun read - I found myself laughing to myself several
times!
This is my honest opinion. The book came from my personal TBR pile and I was not compensated in any way for this review.
Book Details:
Title: Twenties Girl
Author: Sophie Kinsella
2009, Dial Press
ISBN: 9780385352032
Summary (from the back cover):
Lara Lington has always had an overactive imagination, but suddenly that imagination seems to be in overdrive. Normal professional twenty-something young women don't get visited by ghosts. Or do they?
When the spirit of Lara's great-aunt Sadie - a feisty, demanding girl with firm ideas about fashion, love, and the right way to dance - mysteriously appears, she has one request: Lara must find a missing necklace that had been in Sadie's possession for more than seventy-five years, because Sadie cannot rest without it.
Lara and Sadie make a hilarious sparring duo, and at first it seems as though they have nothing in common. But as the mission to find Sadie's necklace leads to intrigue and a new romance for Lara these very different "twenties" girls learn some surprising truths from and about each other. Written with all the irrepressible charm and humor that have made Sophie Kinsella's books beloved by millions, Twenties Girl is also a deeply moving testament to the transcendent bonds of friendship and family.
My Review:
Okay, my original thought when I started this book was that the main character, Lara Lington, was kind of stupid. She was just a little too flaky for me and I wasn't sure I was going to be able to handle an entire book about her. Like saying her great-aunt was murdered at the funeral - didn't she think about the fact that there would be an investigation? BUT, then as I read on, I really started to get into the story and the dynamics between her and her great-aunt Sadie who is haunting her. And she got smarter too - like using her cell phone as a cover up to talking to a ghost. =)
I would say that the story was somewhat predicable, but there are a lot of fun things that happen thoughout the course of the story. It was a happy, enjoyable read. I would say it had a similar tone to the Shopaholic Series by the same author.
This is my honest opinion. The book came from my personal TBR pile and I was not compensated in any way for this review.
