A Girl Walks Into a Bookstore...

Pages: 414 Original date of publication: 2010 My edition: 2010 (Dial) Why I decided to read: Heard about it through Amazon.com How I acquired my copy: Amazon Vine, September 2010 I’ve read all of Sophie Kinsella’s books to date, and I’ve enjoyed nearly all of them. Her novels are quirky and fun and funny, and they always provide their reader with a bit of brain candy. Mini-Shopaholic is the sixth Shopaholic book featuring the adventures of Becky Brandon (nee Bloomwood). You’d think that after six books in this series, the series would have jumped the shark, so to speak, but still Sophie Kinsella manages to find fresh material for our heroine. Mini Shopaholic takes place two and a half years after the last Shopaholic book, Shopaholic and Baby, leaves off. Becky’s daughter Minnie is essentially going through the Terrible Twos, and everyone else (including Luke) think Becky spoils her. Added on top of that is the fact that, apparently, Minnie is becoming a mini-shopah...

Nanny Returns , the sequel to The Nanny Diaries , is a rather disappointing novel. Twelve years after the disastrous end to Nanny’s employment with the Xs, Nanny is back in New York after a number of years living overseas with her husband, Ryan (previously known as the Harvard Hottie). Now she’s an educational consultant, called in to help the Jarndyce Academy with their staffing issues. One day, Nanny’s former charge, Grayer, ends up on her doorstep, and Nanny finds herself one again thrust into the world of the Manhattan elite and their children. Well, I felt a little bit let down by this novel. Well, really, a lot. The Nanny Diaries had charm and wit; this book simply fell flat for me. One-dimensional, stereotypical characters abound; the prose is over overwritten, and the people-don’t-talk-like-this-in-real-life dialogue really got to me after a while. In The Nanny Diaries , I found myself emotionally invested in Nanny and HH’s budding relationship; but since he’s not really prese...

Lucy Jo Ellis is an aspiring designer who moves to New York to work in the sweatshops of the Fashion District in order to get her foot in the door. After the city nearly chews her up and spits her out, Lucy meets Wyatt Hayes IV, who has a bet going with his best friend that he can turn the average girl on the street into one of New York’s most sought-after socialites. OK, so the author borrows directly from My Fair Lady for the plot of her book. But it’s really an enjoyable story. So there definitely is some predictability here. But Lucy Jo is a character with a lot of heart, and passion for what she loves best. Nearly all of these characters are a lot more three-dimensional than those in Clark previous novel, Because She Can . There are characters in the book, especially Wyatt and his best friend, who are undeniably flawed, but that makes them all the more real. Wyatt’s ex girlfriend is a bit of a caricature, but other than that, I enjoyed reading about these people. Nonetheless, the...

Description from Amazon: 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 last request: Lara must find a missing necklace that had been in Sadie’s possession for more than seventy-five years, and Sadie cannot rest without it. Lara, on the other hand, has a number of ongoing distractions. Her best friend and business partner has run off to Goa, her start-up company is floundering, and she’s just been dumped by the “perfect” man.Sadie, however, could care less.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 “t...

Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict is the sequel to Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict. This time the tables are turned—a young 19th century woman named Jane Mansfield wakes up in the body of Courtney Stone, a 21st century woman living in LA. Jane here has more challenges to overcome than Courtney did, as she learns to adopt herself to a totally new life. Along the way, she becomes attracted to Wes, one of Courtney’s friends. She also learns a lot about herself, and she learns that the 21st century isn’t so much different from the 19th, after all. This book was a quick read; I finished it in two sittings. It’s enjoyable for the most part, and funny. There’s good character development, but only insofar as Jane/ Courtney goes; the other characters aren’t as well defined. The ending of the novel was very open-ended, too. There’s not much focus on how or why Jane and Courtney exchanged bodies (yes, Courtney hit her head in a pool and Jane fell off her horse, but that doesn’t quite ...

This book is a classic of the "chick lit" genre- a book which no others has been able to touch. Bridget Jones, in a hectic year, experiences many of the things that real women face--work problems, men problems, friend problems, problems at home. But somehow Fielding manages to make all of it funny. Bridget is one of the wittiest, funniest characters I've run into in a long time. If you can believe it, in college, I read Bridget Jones's Diary for a Women Writers class! This book is, of course, a takeoff of the Jane Austen classic, Pride and Prejudice . However, by bringing her characters to a modern setting, Fielding somehow manages not to loose the original air that P&P possessed. The are the obvious Elizabeth and Darcy/Bridget and Darcy comparisons; the mother in Bridget Jones is a combination between Mrs. Bennet and Lydia (even down to running away with unsavory characters); and Daniel Cleaver as Mr. Wickham. Helen Fielding does not write at all like Jane Auste...

Jack With A Twist is the cute, charming, and quirky follow-up to Scot on the Rocks. In it, Brooke Miller is about to marry Jack, the man of her dreams—but a wrench is thrown in Brooke’s plans when she finds herself representing her wedding dress designer in court—against her own fiancé. Jack With a Twist is also a meet-the-parents: we meet Brooke’s champagne-influenced mother and kosher butcher father, and grandmother and great-auth Devorah, as well as Jack’s Philadelphia Main Line parents, siblings, and identical brothers-in-law. Brooke always thinks that things can’t get any worse, but keep having the proverbial pie smacked in her face. How she manages to solver her problems is all part of the fun of this novel. Brooke Miller is extremely likeable—though she grows a little tiresome saying “like” all the time. Jack With A Twist isn’t quite as funny as its precursor, and the ending is a little predictable and cheesy, but it has its merits all the same. And will somebody please get Jac...

In Love the One You’re With , Ellen is a 33-year-old photographer, married just three months to Andy. One day, in a crosswalk, she encounters someone familiar—her ex boyfriend, Leo. Ellen suddenly finds herself overcome with her past, as Leo invites her to shoot photographs for a major magazine, and later as she and Andy move to Atlanta. All of a sudden, Ellen finds her life changing way to fast. Like Giffin’s first three books, Love the One You’re With is about the life choices we make. Ellen’s choice here is somewhat predictable, but the journey she makes toward that decision is poignant. In this novel, Ellen has the greatest sexual chemistry with Leo, and its easy to see why she was attracted to him in the first place. Her relationship with Andy, however, seems a little out in left field. In addition, Ellen herself got on my nerves, because she kept posturing herself as better than her husband’s family (desite the fact that they look on her as one of their own). On the other hand, ...

Holly Ross is an assistant at the National Museum of Fashion in New York City. A holder of a Master’s degree in fashion, Holly knows pretty much everything there is to know about the subject. In addition, she has an obsession with Audrey Hepburn films. Holly’s also engaged to her heart’s desire, and she’s about to receive a promotion at work. But everything changes when the promotion is given to Sammie Kittenblatt, a New York society darling who got her job through a generous donation made by her parents. Then Holly’s fiancée cheats on her, and eventually finds herself fiancée-less, job-less, and living with her father in the basement of a pet hospital. Things change for the better when Holly is given the chance of a lifetime: to lecture on a cruise ship traveling the Mediterranean, and to bring home a seven-figure donation to the museum that will get her her job back. Soon, however, things turn bad as Holly finds herself the subject of an Interpol investigation looking into the case o...

Cassandra French is your typical twenty-something lawyer working in Los Angeles. She spends time with her friends, has a crazy mother (hers is on house arrest), a budding romance with a club owner, and hasn't been to the gym in weeks. Except, she has one dirty little secret. Tired of dating the same Neanderthals over and over again, Cassandra decides to do something about it. One afternoon, in a flash of inspiration, she kidnaps a 260-pound electrician who comes on to her at a baseball game, hoping to shape him into a man who will function properly in society. Thus, her Finishing School is born. Thngs come to a climax when she kidnaps Academy Award-winning actor Jason Kelley. Once you get past the fact that this book is supposed to be satire, its actually pretty funny and enjoyable. Although Cassie's friend Lexi is completely annoying, and Cassie's behavior bizarre, to say the least, our narrator has a lot of funny lines.

Having read so many bad reviews , I was surprised by Chasing Harry Winston . It’s actually much better than I expected it to be. After being dumped by her boyfriend of five years, baby-obsessed Emmy (a restaurateur) decides that she’ll sleep with as many random men as possible. Tired of sleeping with many men in succession, ultra-glamorous, Brazilian Adriana decides to enter into a monogamous relationship and possibly get engaged. Leigh, a book editor, is tired of her life, despite a job she loves and a (seemingly) perfect boyfriend. One evening over dinner, two of the three decide to change their lives dramatically within the space of a year. In Chasing Harry Winston , Weisberger dumps the format she adopted for her first two novels. In some ways, this is good, and gives Weisberger the chance to branch out a bit. This is no outsider-looking-in tale told from a whiney first-person perspective. There’s no hellish boss, no glamorous fashion or PR industry. The characters in this novel ar...

Lauren Weisberger’s third novel, Chasing Harry Winston, has been on my TBR list for a while now; I put it on hold from the library several months ago. It’s a novel about three friends who get together and make a pact to change their lives dramatically, all within the space of a year. Well, the book was released yesterday and already it’s garnered some bad reviews. From Entertainment Weekly: “There's something to disappoint everyone in Lauren Weisberger's flashy new novel, Chasing Harry Winston. Those who prefer to dismiss the author as a backstabbing ditz without a shred of talent will be sorry to hear her third book isn't entirely unamusing, with some saucy lines and one irresistible character. But anyone looking forward to a dishy beach read à la The Devil Wears Prada will be even sorrier to hear that the fluffy fun bits are lost in a blobby mess of a narrative… [it’s a] a gimmicky setup, but it gives Weisberger a structure — one that she promptly, foolishly ignores. The ...

After being dumped by her fiancé and losing her job as publicist at Boy Bandz Records, Emma Sullivan has nowhere to turn. Out of the blue, her friend Poppy calls from Paris with the opportunity of a lifetime: to come to France and become the publicist for famed rockstar Guillaume Riche. It turns out that Guillaume has a penchant for getting into trouble—including hanging upside down from a rope thirteen stories up in the air. Adding to Emma’s trouble is reporter Gabe, who she finds herself attracted to. As an antidote to Emma’s dating woes, Poppy suggests going out and dating, not seriously, French men. Hence the title! At first, the story seems formulaic, but it really picks up when Emma gets to Paris. Harmel really knows Paris well, and it shows in this novel (so much so, that there’s a guide to Emma’s Paris in the back of the book). It’s a light, frothy tale, one that hardly seems realistic at times—but we don’t go to chick lit for reality. Some of the characters seem wooden, and Gu...

Angel Robinson is a bookstore employee when she decides to take a job working as the assistant to famed literary agent Lucy Fiamma in San Francisco. Lucy is your typical "boss from hell," and the character seemed a little too over the top at times. But Ginsberg depicts the inner workings of a literary agency to perfection, highlighting the ins and outs of this fast-paced part of publishing. Angel latches on to a new, never-before-heard-of author, Damiano Vero, and Italian wo writes about recovering from addiction. Pretty soon, she begins receiving, by e-mail, a novel called Blind Submission, by "GA Novelist." The events that take place in the book are eerily similar to the things that occur in Angel's life. The author can only be someone who knows her intimately, so who is it? Damiano? Angel's ex boyfriend Malcom, a struggling, unpublished author? Or is it Anna, Angel's disgruntled co-worker? The answer is pretty obvious to the reader about halfway throu...

Other readers have compared this book to Admissions , another tale of what parents will do to get their kids into the best private schools in Manhattan. However, I thought The Ivy Chronicles was funnier and more memorable. The story follows Ivy Ames though a grueling year, as she loses first her job and then her husband. As a result, she is forced to give up her old apartment, her children's private school, and doggie day care. While the scenario is a bit contrived in the beginning, Ivy's decision to help upscale New Yorkers get through the admissions process of New York City day schools is interesting and funny. Like anyone else, Ivy is only human, worrying about her weight and whether or not the author downstairs likes her. Ivy takes on about seven clients, including a mob boss; a Jewish/Gentile couple whose father won't allow his grandson to go to a Jewish school and tries to bribe Ivy at the tune of $ 1 million; a woman who tries to bribe the members of the Board of Tr...

At first I wasn't sure how I wanted to rate Good in Bed . Cannie is a completely different kind of heroine- a plus-sized body is not usually what we get in the protagonist of a piece of chick lit. Usually I'm quite skeptical of the women in fiction who seem perfect- often they've got an ugly imperfection lurking beneath the surface. But with Cannie, its all out there: from her insecurities about her body to her insecurities about boyfriends and her career at a newspaper in Philadelphia, Cannie's feelings are typical of the way that many women in their 20s feel. Bruce seems perfect at first: he's Jewish, educated, and he's taller than Cannie is. After three years of dating, they "go on a break," which means different things for the two. Bruce writes an article which appears in a chick magazine: "Good in Bed," about plus-sized women- and Cannie in particular. Furious at first, Cannie confronts Bruce about the article, to which he really has no ...

The premise seems trite: a young woman moves from London to LA to appear in a long-running soap opera. But the content of this book is so funny at times that I couldn't put it down. Kate McPhee takes on the role of Devon, a character who is quickly transformed into a lesbian detective when the producer sees chemistry between Devon and another main character in the soap. The reason for this change is the Queen: a longtime soap opera mainstay who, although nearly sixty, still pretends (through a lot of botox and plastic surgery) that she's 35, and goes into conniption fits regularly. Kate, just off the boat from London, is an outsider to the show, and is constantly made to feel so. Kate quickly becomes embroiled in the politics of the set of Live for Tomorrow , which in itself reselmbles its own miniature soap opera: alcoholics, blonde bimbos, incredibly sexy leading men, chemistry between two major actors involved with the show, etc. The characters are all pretty stereotyped, bu...

This was an immensely satisfying read, a breath of fresh air after the trite novels which usually characterize the chick lit category. I prefer the chick lit writers from Britain because their wit is dry and they can take any situation and take a look at it in perspective. The heroines of British chick lit also seem less shallow than the heroines of American chick lit. As a result, the characters are fresher and the subject is more appealing. This book features the dating adventures of Jess Monroe, a woman who, at 34, seems happy in her single life in London. But secretly, she envies her sister, who has a perfect marriage and two children. This book takes a good, long look at the 21st-century way of dating- pulling it apart, sometimes exhibiting its merits- but always looking at it in perspective. On her 34th birthday, Jess gets a card from a friend she detests- the friend has signed her up for a dating service, something which Jess has never even considered trying. At first, she is de...

Sophie Katz is a writer of murder mysteries. Her latest book, Sex, Drugs, and Murder, has just been published, and a prominent Hollywood director has just committed suicide. Or has he? Sophie is immediately suspicious, because the way he chose to die also appeared in one of his movies. Soon it becomes clear that life imitates art; that is, life is beginning to imitate the things that took place in Sex, Drugs, and Murder . Sophie receives a strange note that reads, "You reap what you sew." She also gets strange calls where the caller simply hangs up. Sophie's home is then broken into, then her car is ripped apart, and a woman is hatcheted to death in a park. These events are just too eerie for Sophie to ignore. She comments that the person who committed all these acts must have been a genius; I beg to differ. None of the vandalism and murder that takes place in this book is original; Sophie has written about it in the past. I reason that a genius would have come up with hi...

The Undomestic Goddess is the highly enjoyable and sexy (albeit unlikely) story of a young, up-and-coming woman. This book is just as funny as Kinsella's Shopaholic series- she hasn't lost her touch. Samantha Sweeting is a top lawyer in the City; she comes from a family of lawyers and desperately wants a promotion to the rank of Partner in her competitive law firm. Sam is a workaholic whose days consist of working until 11, then maybe grabbing takeout. She has no idea how to operate her hoover, much less have the time to do laundry. There's a major mistake over a few monetary figures, and Samantha panics, running away. Eventually she finds herself in a small village in the Cotswolds, working as a housekeeper for a couple who have no idea who she is. Throw in a gorgeous man named Nathaniel who works as a gardener for the Geigers, and you have the setup for a nice romantic comedy. Which this book is, on the outside. But on a deeper level its a story about getting-or not gett...