Operation Sunshine - Jenny Colgan

For Evie Kennedy, holidays have always been a bit of a nightmare, whether it was caravanning in the UK with her family or a girls’ holiday/disaster in Spain. Invited on a work conference in France, perhaps this will be a chance to rectify all the bad holidays she has had, and it starts off pleasantly enough, until Evie finds herself caught up in a world which she least expected to…

Well…this is very different to other chick-lit novels that I have read. Unbelievably, it centres around espionage, spies, animal activism and the murky world of medical ethics. You have to take things with a pinch of salt (or the whole shaker) but weirdly, I was gripped by the story. The book is a bit of a mess with cardboard characters (Evie is an average character – you neither hate or love her. Lydia is your stereotypical bitch and Dr Bennet turns from nice doctor to evil doctor so quickly it is hilarious. And who knows about Tom?!) and a ludicrous plot, which feels tacked on to the traditional chick-lit story and not executed properly. The story felt incomplete with too many loose ends, and the boat storyline itself was a bit confusing. That being said, the dialogue was well written and I couldn’t help but read on to see which farfetched turn the story would take next.

A farce of a story but a good bit of escapism. 2.5 stars.

A Perfect Proposal - Katie Fforde

Sophie is treated as a dogsbody by the rest of her family. She is practical, resourceful and ever so helpful, perhaps too helpful. Soon, she is sent by the rest of her family to care for Uncle Eric, who they describe as a cantankerous old man, with the ulterior motive of gaining his money. Sophie finds that Uncle Eric is far from evil, and soon finds out that he is involved with oil drilling shares that could make him quite a bit of money, which sends her to New York to track down an old relative. In New York, she also meets with best friend, Millie, and an old, wealthy British woman called Matilda, whom she gets on very well with. Her grandson, Luke, is wary of Sophie’s motives for becoming Matilda’s new friend. Can she persuade him that she is a genuine person?

This is a competent read. I thought that the oil-drilling story was a bit of a drag to read about and some of Sophie’s family are very horrible. There are some nice moments between Luke and Sophie, although I thought the latter stages of the story were a bit rushed. Luke doesn’t think to question Sophie about her “boyfriend”. Having behaved so coolly after Ali told him about the text, he seems to accept Sophie’s explanation a bit too readily. Also, Sophie seems to forgive him too easily. The proposal at the end seems a bit odd given that Luke and Sophie haven’t been together for too long. The idea of it becoming a “perfect proposal” is a bit nonsensical.

It’s an ok read but not one of Fforde’s best works. 2.5 stars.

Lucy Sullivan Is Getting Married - Marian Keyes

Lucy Sullivan and her co-workers go to vist Mrs Nolan, a fortune teller, and Lucy is stunned to hear that she is going to get married! She soon meets Gus, a wandering, charming but penniless musician whose views on life interest Lucy…and that’s not all she is interested in…Could Gus be the one? It soon transpires that nothing is as it seems…

This is a generally good story – I thought the way that Lucy’s depression and her father’s alcoholism were detailed was excellent. Lucy does have a tendency to be slightly overbearing and over-obsessive, especially when it comes to Gus, and a bit too willing to please everyone, which although it is connected to her personality, does come across as annoying, as is the fact it takes her to realise who she should really be with. On the whole though, Lucy is a likeable character, although it is questionable as to why she is friends with Karen (who needs enemies, eh?). Her best friend Daniel is a great character – he is the only one who is truly there for Lucy and their relationship and sparky interchanges was nice to read. Gus was a confusing character as the reader never got to learn much about him except that he was a crazy sponger. As you read on, it is hard to see the attraction of Gus, which Lucy is so blindly caught up in. It is a relief when she finally sees him what he is. The ending was happy and everything was resolved nicely. 3 stars.

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Rachel White is the ultimate good girl. A hardworking lawyer at a large Manhattan law firm and a diligent maid of honor to her childhood best friend Darcy, Rachel has always played by all the rules. Since high school, she has watched Darcy shine, quietly accepting the sidekick role in their lopsided friendship. But that suddenly changes the night of her thirtieth birthday when Rachel finally confesses her feelings to Darcys fiancé, and is both horrified and thrilled to discover that he feels the same way. As the wedding date draws near, events spiral out of control, and Rachel knows she must make a choice between her heart and conscience. In so doing, she discovers that the lines between right and wrong can be blurry, endings arent always neat, and sometimes you have to risk everything to be true to yourself.

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Rubbish Boyfriends by Jessie Jones

Present day – Dayna is about to give birth in the maternity ward. Through the book, Dayna explains her love history and how she got to this point, about to give labour. All of her past boyfriends have been a bit, well rubbish. One of these men is the baby’s father, the only question is: who?

I found reading this a bit of a chore – none of the characters are partucluarly interesting. A book can succeed or fail on the basis of its main character and in this case, Dayna is spoilt, whiny, arrogant, selfish and unlikeable. The way in which she supposedly has this magic effect on men, managing to reform their characters, is unexplicable, managing to curb Simon’s womanising ways for example, given her personality.

For the majority of the book, Dayna moans. I didn’t find the narrative partuclary exciting and ended up skip reading sections frequently. The ending, which is the readon the reader is forced to learn about Dayna’s history, sseems abmigious. Nowhere is it explained how Simon got to be the father. Did they have a one night stand or rekindle the relationship in secret? What about Dayna’s relationship with Christian? A friend commented that Dayna, having seen Kirsty conceive using a turkey baster, may have enlisted Simon’s help to have a baby, but why Simon? It doesn’t really make sense. The last line when Simon comments on the baby looking “curly” and Dayna stating that SImon is the only boyfriend who has straight hair is confusing. Is it just a flippant remark or is she trying to imply that Simon is not the father? After muddling through the story, to be presented with this ending is frustrating.

Rubbish Boyfriends, rubbish book (original, I know). And lastly: Chris Martin and Coldplay. WHY?! 1 star.

31 Dream Street by Lisa Jewell

There’s a house that Leah has noticed opposite her house – it is a curious house and she wonders who lives there. An old man dying outside the house leads her to meet Toby, who lives in the house with his sitting tenants that he has allowed to live there whilst they figure out how to achieve their dreams. This chance meeting also allows Leah and Toby to fulfil their own dreams too…

This is a fantastic read. Toby is a generous and kind character, who manages to get himself into the strangest of situations, with hilarious consequences, and he makes a great pairing with Leah. Their relationship is funny, warm and bubbly. The book also focuses on this different stories of the tenants, such as Con and his relationship with a co-worker who has cystic fibrosis, which makes him question everything he once thought about life, Joanna and her tragic past and Ruby, who uses men to get what she wants. Each of these stories are interesting to read without ever deflecting attention from the main story. The  reference to Indian values and cultural norms was also an interesting feature of the book, as was the use of letters and other media at the start and end of the book.

Loved 31 Dream Street although it felt like it ended too soon for me, I would have loved to carried on reading it more!  4 stars

The Girl Next Door by Elizabeth Noble

The Girl Next Door follows a variety of characters who live in one apartment block. There is Eve and Ed, who have recently moved to New York after Ed gets transferred in his job. Eve is struggling with living in a new country and with her husband being constantly away, can she get to grips with this new life? Jason is far from happy with his life – ever since the birth of his baby, his wife Kim has shut him out. Plus, it doesn’t help that he is lusting after his beautiful and talented neighbour, Rachel. The story also follows Jackson and his attempt to woo his neighbour Emily, and other characters.

What is a massive failure in this book is that there are too many characters and stories in this book to keep track of. The book starts with a list of characters, half of whom aren’t even referred to in the story anyway. Yet there are a good deal of characters left with many stories to follow, not all of them interesting – I found the stories of Rachel, Jason and Charlotte dull, and I frequently found myself skipping the sections with Violet in. I was gripped by the storyline featuring Jackson trying to prove himself to Emily that he was a good person, and the story between Eve and Ed, which was an emotional one, especially with the premature baby storyline. This was really sad to read and made you feel for Eve and Ed.

Overall, I think Noble’s work suffers from trying to achieve too much in one novel. If she cut down the amount of characters and stories, then she may have had a great piece of literature to read, especially as some of the stories were excellent. It is an interesting and ambitious concept to focus on so many people, but something like this can be achieved such as in 31 Dream Street by Lisa Jewell, where attention is focused on 2 main characters but also the stories of the numerous supporting characters. Here Noble tries to pay equal attention to all of the characters but it doesn’t work. Charlotte’s story hits the ground before it starts running – is it necessary to include her? 2.5 stars.

My Legendary Girlfriend by Mike Gayle

It’s been 3 years and teacher Will still can’t let  go of his past relationship with Aggi. Worried that no other girl can match up to her, does this mean that Will can never find love again?

This reminds me of The Ex-Boyfriend’s Handbook by Matt Dunn in that the male protaganist is dwelling over the “rosy” past he once shared with a former girlfriend, which threatens to harm his present and future relationships. Like Dunn’s work, I also enjoyed reading this. Gayle doesn’t present something that is glossy and perfect -reading this we get a full and frank account of the dire state of Will’s life. It is a humorous piece on the whole with the moments of Will’s self-reflection of his life providing more poignant moments in the book. From early on, it is easy to predict who Will will end up with, but the journey to that is full of twists and turns, and I was captivated in reading Will’s story. 4 stars.

A Girl Like You by Gemma Burgess

Abigail has hit a sore point in life. Stuck in a career she no longer loves and in a stale relationship, she decides to split with Mark and find true love. The thing she didn’t count on is how difficult the dating world is. With the guidance of flatmate and womaniser, Robert, Abigail manages to navigate her way through this new scene and soon becomes a cocky, confident and cool woman who doesn’t wait on any man. The arrival of David  soon threatens to undo all her hard work though…

This is a brilliant and wickedly funny tale as the reader follows Abigail’s attempts to get back onto the dating scene. The friendships she has with Harry and Plum, and her relationship with Robert, were really enjoyable to read: hilarious but touching at times. I was gripped constantly as Abigail progressed through her new journey. The one thing I didn’t like about the book was the way that Abigail obsessed over David for a long time, even though it was plainly obvious that he was a bit of a loser. It plays a big part in the story but I didn’t enjoy reading this part as much. The one thing that sold the book is the later stages when Robert helps Abigail to bounce back after her relationship with David ends, and the journey to them realising that what they wanted had been in front of their eyes for this whole time, resulting in a heartwarming ending. 4.5 stars!

A Spring Affair by Milly Johnson

Lou Winter decides it is time to declutter her house. Little does she realise that she is decluttering her entire life, keeping what truly makes her happy. How does this affect her friends, her husband, her family, and the friendly skipman, Tom Broom?

I thought that A Spring Affair was a slow but enjoyable read. The journey that Lou takes is fascinating to read as she discovers the confident, lively and ambitious person she once was before marrying Phil. It was frustrating to read the way that Phil and Lou’s mother treated Lou,  which wasn’t always easy to read. Phil’s controlling behaviour and idea of love (pretending to have an affair to make Lou love him, or paranoid) and Lou’s submissiveness is awful but integral to the plot. The way in which Lou finds strength in her friendship with Deb and her blossoming relationship with Tom is great to read, and Lou finally gets her happy ending! 3.5 stars.

Vince and Joy by Lisa Jewell

Two teenagers experience the summer of a lifetime as they fall in love for the first time. However, an unfortunate event leads the two to separate and lose contact. Years later, Vince and Joy are living their own separate lives, and circumstances bring them together again, and apart. Can first love being the one and only love in their lives?

 This is a sweet love story, made more poignant by how the two main characters never meet or realise that they should be together until the end. The first section depicting the caravan holiday was quite detailed and explicit – a bit too much for my liking, but the way that Vince and Joy felt love for each other was good. How the story is revealed bit by bit was an effective story telling device and kept me gripped. It was quite frustrating to see Vince and Joy drift apart and lead sad lives when it was clear that they loved each other, but when they meet again, it is worth it. The ending is quite unusual in that we never see the two main characters get together but the way in which Vince reflects on the holiday before he enters the house was touching. 3.5 stars.

Love Rules by Freya North

Alice and Thea are best friends but their ideas of love are very different. Thea believes in a fairytale-type of love, and fully believes in romance, waiting for the right man to come along. Alice, on the other hand, is cynical - passion is a chemical emotion, not an emotion, and she dates man after man, with each relationship crashing and burning. Eventually, she decides to take charge of her love life and proposes to Mark, her long time friend, hoping for a secure and stable relationship. Over the course of the next few years, Alice and Thea find their ideas of love seriously challenged.

North's style of writing is confusing - she doesn't organise her narrative into chapters, instead opting for headings, the tendency to change tenses and speaker is all too frequent and is messy. There is a section when North writes from her own perspective, asking questions about the main characters, which resembles a bad TV cliffhanger, or a conversation in a discussion group. The front covers of Adam don't really serve much purpose, although I enjoyed them more than the actual story itself and its characters.

Alice is maddeningly selfish and spiteful, her best friend Thea fares a little better, but presents herself as insipid and dull. The male characters don't really do or add much, although Saul and his feelings for Thea after their split did tug at the heartstrings a little, but on the whole, I couldn't really give a damn about these characters.

I couldn't really take to the plot either, in particular, I found it awful to read about Alice and her attempts to conduct and justify her affair, and it is incomprehensible as to why we are supposed to forgive Saul for visiting prostitutes when he proclaims to love Thea. Thea's reaction to hearing the truth is to try to sexually harass her male clients. Makes sense.

Not a great read on the whole - I didn't enjoy the story or the characters. 1 star.

Fairytale of New York by Miranda Dickinson

Rosie Duncan has been living in New York for 6 years after experiencing a painful heartbreak in the past that has caused her to lose belief in love. Things seem to look up when she meets Nate. Can she learn to love again?

I thought that this was the weakest of Dickinson’s books. The general premise is ok, but not perfect. It becomes blindingly obvious who Ed has fallen for earlier on, but Rosie is annoyingly slow to work out who it is. Nate is a confusing character - at the end, I couldn’t work out what kind of relationship he wanted with Rosie - love or friendship? Does he really love Caitlin? The idea that Nate realised that Rosie had feelings for someone else sits uneasy, as throughout the book, it isn’t made clear that Rosie does love Ed. The reader only gets glimpses of her real feelings at the end, and the actual ending itself rushes the story in my opinion. It would have been nice to read Rosie falling for Ed for definite rather than having fleeting thoughts of him. Another weakness is the James and his scandal storyline - this doesn’t add anything and made for a dull section of the novel.

I did like the core friendships and the sparky dialogue between the main characters (although the way confesses his feelings at the end was a bit cringe worthy) and the references to Mr Kowalski, their dearly departed friend and former boss were good.. Overall, an ok read, but not fantastic. 3 stars.

Perfect Timing - Jill Mansell

A chance encounter with a handsome stranger on the night before her wedding is enough to make Poppy Dunbar re-think her upcoming wedding to long term boyfriend Rob. She flees to London in the hope of making a fresh start, find her real father and perhaps refind the handsome stranger again.

An hilarious, romantic and emotional read as you follow Poppy on her journey to discover happiness, as well as the new friends that she makes. The story does drop off slightly towards the end, but the sweet ending is worth waiting for. Overall, I enjoyed Perfect Timing. 3.5 stars.

Solo by Jill Mansell

 

Struggling artist, Tess Duvall, gets more that she bargained for when she agrees to attend a party with her friend Holly at the hotel where she works. Tessa meets notorious womaniser, Ross Monahan, and both are instantly drawn to one another, and after a night of passion, Tessa falls pregnant. Can Ross convince Tessa that he truly loves her and their baby, especially as his reputation threatens to prevent their relationship from developing. Holly has her own romantic troubles. She has been in love with Ross’s brother, Max, but eh doesn’t see her anything more than a member of staff. She starts yo wonder is he should give up on him, especially as Adam starts to enter the picture.

I thought this was a great read - I really like the way that Mansell portrayed the relationship between Tessa and Rob - sparky, fun, but at times serious and emotional. All of the characters are given enormous depth and detail, apart from Antonia, who is your stereotypical bitch, who plays her part well. The storyline itself is great: the central story of Tessa and Ross falling in love was really enjoyable, as were the other storylines concerning Holly and Mattie. Mansell keeps the reader entertained with a strong way of storytelling, throwing in a few twists and turns along the way that kept me gripped. 4 stars.

It's A Kind Of Magic by Carole Matthews

Leo is a selfish and inconsiderate boyfriend, and after making a drunken show of himself at Emma’s birthday dinner, she decides that enough is enough and breaks up with him. On the same night, Leo meets a beautiful stranger called Isabel, and his life changes forever…

To be honest, the general premise of the plotline didn’t work for me. I’m not usually a fan of stories with magic, but I decided to give it a go, but I just couldn’t get into it. I didn’t like the way that the other characters felt sorry for Leo – he is an awful character – and it seems like everyone is against Emma (a nice person, although she can verge on irritating at times), which I thought was unjustified. The idea of Isabel being with Leo is bizarre and the story really stretches the reader’s belief. Reading this, I found the story dull and uninteresting – nothing and no-one was really likeable, and I ended up giving up halfway. 1 star.

The Love of Her Life by Harriet Evans

Kate is an office assistant living in New York but soon she has to travel back to London, where her ill father lives, and where she ran away from 8 years ago and hasn’t looked back. Can Kate make things right again?

Having read A Hopeless Romantic, I was slightly apprehensive in reading another Evans book, and when I started reading this, I thought I had good reason to. Yet after a slow start, the book started to gather pace and I began to get drawn into Kate and her back-story, which was intriguing, shocking and emotional. The characters are fully developed and seem “real”, and the plot was excellent, and after Kate’s return to London, the bid to rebuild broken relationships was crafted well by Evans. A great read. 4 stars.

It Happened in Paris by Molly Hopkins

Evie Dexter is looking for a new path in life, and manages to land herself a new job as a tour guide in Paris. However, things aren’t as easy as she thought they would be, as her lack of travel experience threatens to hinder her, but can she manages to make it as a successful tour guide? With the assistance of coach driver, Rob, this new path takes her to a whole new experience…

I enjoyed the story as a whole. It Happened in Paris was a good read. 75% of it is devoted to sex, or talking about sex (so not recommended for those who don’t like reading about it) but the friendships that Evie has and her romance with Rob is worth reading. Evie is a selfish and irresponsible person, but I can’t help but admire the way in which she turns a bad situation around in her favour, sometimes with hilarious consequences. Rob is someone that the reader doesn’t get to know much about as a person, and perhaps he could have been developed further. Evie’s best friend, Lulu, is funny, although at times, slightly over-the-top and behaving very unfriendlike…Hopkins’ descriptions of the sights of Paris are wondrous.

Plotwise, well there isn’t much of a plot at first. The first half is mainly made up of sex, sex, sex. Halfway though, an event happens that makes Evie question her new-found happiness, and the story develops further as she attempts to find herself. I found the ending complete unexpected (apart from the sex bit) as I though Nikki, Evie’s friend, would play a bigger role. There is a sequel, It Happened in Venice, so it will be interesting to see how Evie’s story continues. Overall, a good read, although I wish there was less emphasis on sex. 3.5 stars.