Newest Women's Fiction Reviews
From TheBookbag
Women's fiction
The Marriage Proposal by Celestine Hitiura Vaite
The Marriage Proposal was originally published widely as Breadfruit. It was Celestine Hitiura Vaite's first novel, but the third book in the Tahitian trilogy to be published in the UK. Having missed out on Frangipani and Tiare, I'm in the fortunate position of having started at the right place and I'm definitely looking forward to reading the rest. Full review...
Holly Would Dream by Karen Quinn
I took a bit of a gamble buying this book, having loved Quinn's first title, The Ivy Chronicles, but been disappointed by the subsequent Wife In The Fast Lane.
As a child, Holly would dream of living her own Hollywood dream, preferably set in the fifties, complete with wonderful fashions and debonair gentlemen. Now an adult, she has submerged herself in the world of old Hollywood glamour. She may not have the breeding and background many of her contemporaries have, but this poor girl done good is getting by quite nicely. She has a job she loves as fashion historian at a New York museum, is engaged to a handsome actor and finally feels life is turning out as it should. Full review...
Wife in the Fast Lane by Karen Quinn
Karen Quinn is the best-selling author of The Ivy League Chronicles, a fictional account of her own true-life story and a Richard and Judy Summer Read for 2005. It was really good and, unsurprisingly, I had high hopes for Wife In The Fast Lane, thinking it may also have reached the revered upper echelons of this pink-fluff covered genre. But then, as I have said before, the second novel is always harder to write; it's either streets ahead of the first (having made all your mistakes on your debut) or a bit of a let down (having written such a rip-snorter the first time, that, as the song says, Nothing Compares 2 U). Full review...
The Idea of Love by Louise Dean
You could be forgiven for thinking when picking up this book that it is going to be a very romantic read embellished with hearts and flowers along the way. The image of Cupid on the front cover along with references to Valentines day would lead you to this conclusion as well as the title – The Idea of Love. However, that's not what this novel is about at all and the author, Louise Dean, presents a very different idea of love indeed. Full review...
The Secret Lives of Sisters by Linda Kelsey
When there are two sisters one always seems to be somewhat in the shadow of the other and so it was with Cat and Hannah. Cat is flamboyant, fun and obviously her mother's favourite but Hannah is quiet and her parents used to ask has Cat got your tongue? Time doesn't always cure the problem either. Hannah now has a daughter of her own and it's Melissa's wedding day but it looks as though Cat's sharp tongue might ruin the day despite Hannah's attempts to make it a day to remember for all the right reasons. Full review...
Johnny be Good by Paige Toon
Johhny Be Good is the second release from Paige Toon, who had a hit last summer with Lucy In The Sky, and it's a really enjoyable read like the first. In fact, I grabbed it in a 30 second dash through an airport bookshop on the basis that I'd really enjoyed her first book. Full review...
A Hollywood Ending by Robyn Sisman
Paige Carson is one of Hollywood's darlings, winning an Oscar at a young age, with a rock star Daddy and a life of riley. But her latest movie hasn't gone too well for Paige, and she is feeling somewhat depressed about the way her life is heading. So Paige decides to have a bit of a career change, to tread the boards at a small London theatre in a Shakespeare play. But London isn't the place she thought it was, and nor are the people. Even her neighbour, Ed, isn't friendly to her. Will Paige be able to pull off the performance of her life, and find her own English sweetheart? Or will she be sent packing back to Hollywood? Full review...
The Good Plain Cook by Bethan Roberts
This year, instead of choosing a beach read full of sex and scandal, perhaps you should indulge in something a little different. Based on first impressions, a novel set in 1930s rural Sussex doesn't seem like it would entertain on your three-hour flight to Faro, but Bethan Roberts' second novel, The Good Plain Cook, will shatter your preconceptions. Full review...
The Secret Life of a Slummy Mummy by Fiona Neill
In the age of yummy mummies, it's quite refreshing to read about the other side of the story – those who don't have their well behaved children sitting neatly in spotless white outfits while they themselves show off their size zero bodies in the latest designer frocks. Those who are in fact more slummy than yummy. Lucy Sweeney is one of those mothers, the sort who count the day as successful if they remember to put a coat on top of PJs for the school run, and if the children's projectile vomiting incidents stay in the single figures. She first came to life in a column in the Saturday Times magazine, and her story continues now in this book. Full review...
Silk by Penny Jordan
Amber Vronsky longs to go to Art School and she's sure that it will be her grandmother's special present to her on her seventeenth birthday, but Blanche has something rather different in mind. Despite being 'in trade', she has arranged for Amber to be presented at Court and her ambition is that she'll marry a man with a title. It's part social climbing and part revenge on Barant de Vries whom she loved as a young woman but who refused to marry her because of her mill-owner background. It's not what Amber wants but her grandmother has a will of iron and Amber leaves Macclesfield and goes to London. She's to be chaperoned – and live with – a titled, but poor, family whose daughter tormented her at school. Full review...
All You Need is Love by Carole Matthews
Sally Freeman has always wanted a better life; not just for herself but mostly for her 10 year old son, Charlie. It's just that sitting in her damp, decaying flat in a 70s concrete jungle of a Liverpool sink-estate, with no job, no skills, no prospects and no father for Charlie, Sally cannot see any way this could ever be possible. Even her ex-boyfriend, the good-looking, likeable, funny, friendly, artistic Johnny who loves Charlie as if he were his own son, cannot get a look in. Poor Johnny, who would be perfect if he would only discover some ambition to be somebody. Sally despairs that things could ever change. Until, that is, she signs herself up for a computer course, laid on for those with the greatest need and interest, by the local authority. Full review...
It's A Kind of Magic by Carole Matthews
Emma and Leo are complete opposites. Leo is unreliable, a bit childish and doesn't take life, love or his job all too seriously, yet his girlfriend Emma is strict, reliable, tidy and enjoys her life being in order. This is why, when Leo turns up at Emma's 30th birthday drunk and incredibly late, she decides the pair are splitting up. But on his way home, a newly single Leo bumps into a lady on Tower Bridge named Isobel. Strange things then start happening to Leo and Emma, but neither can work out what is going on. Emma realises she wants Leo back but is it too late? And just who is the mysterious Isobel? Full review...
Other People's Husbands by Judy Astley
Conrad Blythe-Hamilton is approaching his seventieth birthday and he's not altogether certain that he wants to get there. It seems such a milestone and he dreads being a burden on his family. He's a rich and successful artist and was quite a playboy until he met and married Sarah when she was barely out of her teens. The twenty-five year age gap meant nothing to either of them, but as his birthday approaches Conrad worries that it's beginning to take its toll. Full review...
The Best Day of Someone Else's Life by Kerry Reichs
Vi Connelly loves weddings, and it's a good job that she does really. She attended her first wedding when she was just 6 years old, and caught the wedding bug from there! Vi knows that a wedding is meant to be the Best Day of Your Life, and can't wait for her own wedding. But now in her twenties, Vi finds herself becoming a bridesmaid over and over again for all of her friends, leaving Vi wondering if she'll ever get to be the bride. Vi still loves loser ex-boyfriend Caleb, and can't seem to move on from him, so will she ever have the Best Day of HER Life? Full review...
Pandora's Box by Giselle Green
Wow.
I finished reading Pandora's Box about half an hour ago. I only started it a couple of days ago, and thought it would last me at least a week, but it's one of those books that gripped me almost from the beginning. I've been neglecting just about everything else in life to get to the end of this novel, and emerged feeling slightly shell-shocked, surprised to notice the real world around me again. Full review...
Platinum by Jo Rees
Platinum is a story about three women, all very different from one another, who in ordinary circumstances would have no occasion to meet. Frankie is a young girl working as a stewardess on board a fantastic yacht sailing around the Med. Peaches is LA's most famous 'madam' who spends her time supplying high class prostitutes to the rich and famous and organising the most depraved parties imaginable. Lady Emma Harvey is a British aristocrat and society hostess who supports her husband in his business ventures and lives in a wonderful stately home. They are the most unlikely trio ever to meet, let alone end up working together but that is what happens. As the story unfolds, disaster and tragedy befalls each of the women in turn. They either have the choice to allow these events to finish them or to fight back against whoever is behind them. That man is Yuri Khordinsky, a ruthless Russian businessman, who will stop at nothing to achieve what he desires in both his professional and personal life. Full review...
This Charming Man by Marian Keyes
I haven't really read a Marian Keyes book before, I've tried one but couldn't get into it so I was a bit unsure about what to expect from her latest offering, This Charming Man. After reading the synopsis inside the jacket cover, I thought it sounded like it could be a great read, but I couldn't believe the size of the book - it was huge! Full review...
Gypsy by Lesley Pearse
I had never read a Lesley Pearse novel, but when I received this book, I had a little look on Amazon at her previous releases, and they all had superb reviews, so I immediately looked forward to reading her latest release, Gypsy. The book starts in 1893, something which I admit puts me off slightly as I do not normally enjoy historical novels, but this one gripped me right away. Full review...
Tell Me Something by Adele Parks
I think maybe Elizabeth has been reading one of the same management books as I have recently. She is certainly on board with those ideas of goal setting, focussing on what you want and making it happen. When she was fourteen years old she went to Italy for the first time and was so taken with the place that she decided then and there that her life's goals would be: find an Italian man, marry said man, move to Italy and have lots of dark-haired bambini. A girl with a plan, that's what I like to see. And, a few chapters into the book, she's also managed to follow through on many of the goals. She and Roberto have been married for years, but are just now moving to Italy together. The bambini have proved elusive until now, but since test after test at the doctor's have revealed no reason why they can't conceive, Elizabeth is determined that if there's one place they can overcome their unexplained infertility it will be in glorious Italy, where they can have a fresh start, escape the stresses and strains of London life and sink into parenthood as if it's the most natural thing in the world. Full review...
The English American by Alison Larkin
Alison Larkin's first novel is the story of Pippa Dunn; a very British 29-year-old who has known for years that she was adopted but then discovers that her birth parents are American. Pippa embarks on a much-needed journey of self-discovery, moving to America and getting to know the family that gave her up when she was a child. The story is based upon Larkin's real-life experience of being an adoptee and the novel is a spin-off from her one-woman comedy show of the same name. Full review...
Where the River Ends by Charles Martin
Chris Michaels and his wife, Abbie, have exhausted every option. After four years of treatment her cancer is terminal and the doctors are recommending that she move to a hospice. That's not what Abbie wants though. She's made a list of ten things that she wants to do before she dies. Some are quite normal – laughing until it hurts, drinking wine on a beach – but some are going to take a bit more planning, such as looping the loop in a plane or swimming with dolphins. The one she's really determined on is to take a trip with her husband and they leave the hospital and head for the St Mary's river. They're going to ride it all the way from where it starts at Moniac right down to the sea. Full review...
A Matter of Degree by Zoe Simpson
Nessie Elliott is at that awful stage in life with which many middle-aged women will be familiar. After decades of caring for others they're redundant. Their children have left home – or only return in an emergency – and their parents still retain at least a streak of independence. Technology is getting away from them, the body isn't what it once was and it's not clear how they're going to fill the rest of their lives. Does Nessie sit back and let depression overtake her? No, she's a feisty woman and despite being rather unscientific she decides that what she wants is an MSc in Exercise and Health. Full review...
Lost and Found by Jacqueline Sheehan
Roxanne and Bob Pellegrino met through swimming. She pulled him off the bottom of the pool and he always joked that he'd married a woman who could save him. It was a phrase which was to haunt Roxanne after he collapsed on the bathroom floor. Despite applying CPR she couldn't save him. He was just forty two years old. Distraught with grief in the months afterwards she left her home, her job as a psychologist, her family and moved to Peaks Island off the coast of Maine where she took a job as an animal warden. On the basis that you don't have to say that you're a widow until you're ready, she invented a past which didn't include Bob and her failure to save him. Full review...
Revenge of the Wedding Planner by Sharon Owens
Revenge of the Wedding Planner is the first book I have read by Sharon Owens, a relatively new Irish writer, and it turned out to be a light and enjoyable read, although I have to admit I had some difficulty getting into it at first. The story is told by Mags, who works at Dream Weddings with her boss Julie. Mags is a very amiable character who has a happy but somewhat complicated family life. She is extremely content with her husband Bill with whom they have four almost grown up children who cause her a certain amount of angst, particularly her eldest son Alexander who announces that his anorexic girlfriend Emma is pregnant. The person who causes her the most problems though is her boss Julie who decides to run off and have a fling with a toy boy but expects Mags to be the one to break the news to her fiance Gary! Full review...
Wedding Season by Katie Fforde
Being a wedding planner isn't easy, particularly when the chief bridesmaid decides that she's rather go off to Paris with her new boyfriend than attend her best friend's wedding. It's an even more difficult job when you don't believe in love and you're determined to keep every man at arm's length because you're not going to risk having your heart broken again. Sarah Stratford is efficient, imaginative and professional - and she is definitely not going to get involved with Hugo. Their relationship is simply that of wedding planner and photographer, even if he is very attractive. Full review...
