Billed as part memoir and part fictional journey, Swiss Chocolate by Eva Johnson is about a girl finding her wild side. As Alex prepares for a trip to Switzerland, her boyfriend unexpectedly dumps her. After bathing herself in European couture and Swiss chocolate, Alex returns to her new life in Seattle, where she finds that becoming a bitch might have been the best move she ever made. After years of torment from her critical society mother, and endless lessons learned from her best friend, Alex finally finds the life her shy heart longed for.
If you have ever been pregnant and had doubts about returning to work, you'll be able to relate to this story, the second book in the Sister-to-Sister series. Allie Harrod is a social worker by day and a brand-new mum by night. She is more than ready for a career change. When Allie is invited to a Vari Cose Party (similar to Avon or Tupperware) she decides on the spot to become a sales rep. This means she can be a stay-at-home mum but still contribute to the family's income. Of course Allie is discouraged by her family - I mean she even dropped out of the Girl Scouts for not selling enough cookies. But Allie is determined to rise to the occasion and prove to her family that she can make it. However all the daily challenges that Allie faces, such as her rising credit card balance, losing her baby fat, fitting back into her clothes and fearing her husband is slinking off to what may be an affair with a solo mum, are becoming too much. An enjoyable book combining motherhood, marriage, sisterhood and of course make-up and all those handy inventions like the Laundry Pen. (PP)
The third book in Virginia Smith's Sister-to-Sisters series, Third Time's a Charm, focuses on Tori who's seeking answers from her father. It's due out in February 2010.
Four London-based authors - Juliet Archer, Victoria Connelly, Jean Fullerton and Janet Gover - have joined forces for the Let's Talk About Love website. Archer has two Jane Austen-inspired novels out this year, The Importance of Being Emma and Persuade Me; Connelly's latest release is Molly's Millions; Fullerton's upcoming release A Glimpse at Happiness is the sequel to her historical East End novel No Cure for Love; and Gover has two Little Black Dress titles out this year - The Farmer Needs a Wife and The Bachelor & Spinster Ball.
When Anna's boyfriend of 10 years proposes during a weekend away, Anna knows that although she loves him, she can't marry him. Somehow the spark has gone out of their relationship. So she moves out of their flat and on to the sofa at her friend Polly's place. While working on a major work assignment - planning a wedding promotion for her slightly uncool magazine Casual Chic - she meets super-sexy photographer Harry. Perhaps the grass really is greener . . . Although there will be no surprises about who Anna and Polly - or even the loveable German flatmate Horst - end up with, this is an enjoyable read about a 30-something woman making a painful decision not to stick with the man everyone expects her to marry.
Twenty-something waitress Rena never meant to steal her ex-boyfriend Brian's dog. She was just casually driving by his new house, when the yellow labrador invited himself into her car. And so begins Mary Guterson's Gone to the Dogs. But being a dog-napper is the least of Rena's problems. Her mother's dating a "potential" serial killer, her older sister's having an identity crisis, and she's the target of one hopeless fix-up after another. Guterson's first book was We Are All Fine Here, about a woman who isn't sure if her husband or the former love of her life is the father of her as-yet-unborn child.
Jennifer Sturman, who wrote the Rachel Benjamin chick lit mystery series including The Pact and The Jinx, has a new young adult title out, And Then Everything Unraveled. Californian Delia Truesdale has no idea her life's about to change forever. Her internet tycoon mother, T.K., is out of town, and that means Delia can spend all her time at the beach, surfing. That is, until everything unravels when her mother goes missing, and everyone thinks she's dead - except Delia. She's sent to New York to live with her two crazy aunts. Amid settling in at her new school, Delia delves deeper into the events surrounding her mother's disappearance and finds that some secrets are never meant to be unraveled. The sequel And Then I Found Out the Truth is out next year.
"When I get to my thirties, I'll know what I'm doing." Lacey Brennan has been questioning her impulsive decision to give up her job and life in New York to move to Hollywood with her talented comedian boyfriend, Toby. But this uncertainty recedes when Toby proposes on her 30th birthday - suddenly everything seems to fall in place. However, her happiness is short-lived when Toby can't get a job and their marriage starts to crack. Lacey also struggles with the negative atmosphere in her new TV job and her own family dramas, including her brother suddenly taking off. Lacey starts to wonder if being 30 will really make her mature enough to make the right decisions in life. This is an edgy, bittersweet story about growing up and learning that sometimes letting go is perhaps the best way. (XT)
American TV actress Lisa Cerasoli's On the Brink of Bliss and Insanity follows 28-year-old Annie's dysfunctional life as she freefalls from an all-time low to rock bottom. Originally a screenplay, its synopsis says: "She's lost her job, feels legitimately trapped inside a bad relationship with arguably the most charming prick on the planet and is even more stifled by her past ... Then she meets Billy, a soulful petty thief who seems to roll with the punches - literally. Add barbed witticisms from Annie's cousin, an angry acupuncturist, and quips from two sadomasochistic elementary school teachers, and watch as reckless desperation leads to blind fearlessness in this modern-day tale where love is lost, found, "whined and dined," but mostly redefined."
Rachel Gibson's Not Another Bad Date was one of the winners of the 2009 RITA Awards, announced at the Romance Writers of America's national conference in Washington. Gibson's novel about Adele who is reunited with her high school crush after a run of bad dating luck won in the Best Contemporary Single Title Romance category. Jennifer Greene (aka Alison Hart), author of Blame It on Cupid and Blame It on Paris, was honoured with the Nora Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award. For a full list of winners, head to the RWA website.
The sequel to Samantha Smythe's Modern Family Journal, this book fleshes out the characters in the mother-of-three's life even more and proves to be a much stronger book. After Bennie nearly drowns while on holiday, Samantha decides that she wants to try for another baby - armed with a How to Get a Girl kit. But husband John is away building theatre sets and the schoolgate gossips believe she is having an affair with Ferrari-driving ex-footballer Gary. Meanwhile her Australian nanny Wendy seems to be shirking her responsibilities and her childhood friend Naomi turns up unexpectedly with her 10-year-old daughter Lexie in tow.
The final book in the Samatha Smythe trilogy sees the family head to Devon for a holiday. With John largely absent, Jamie embracing his feminine side and Edward becoming a recalcitrant teenager, Samantha's at the end of her tether. The title and publication date have yet to be revealed.
The first book in Gemma Halliday's new Hollywood Headlines series is called Scandal Sheet. It's centred around tabloid magazine The LA Informer, which covers all the latest celebrity gossip, scandals and dirt. Just as ace reporter Felix Dunn (from Halliday's High Heel mystery series) is promoted to managing editor, the Informer's gossip columnist Tina Bender receives a threatening note, promising, "If you don't stop writing about me, you're dead." Teaming with a muscly bodyguard, a bubbly blonde and an alcoholic obituary writer, Tina sets out to uncover just which juicy piece of Hollywood gossip is worth killing over. Scandal Sheet is out in November, with at least another two books scheduled to follow.
Check out the book trailer:
Spotting her favourite Latino singer while visiting a friend on Ibiza inspired Francesca Prescott to write her debut novel Mucho Caliente! It's about a woman called Gemma who meets Latino heart-throb Emilio Caliente on her flight to the Spanish island. She's dismissed her cheating husband Richard's generous divorce settlement, opting instead for a bohemian lifestyle on Ibiza. Mooning over a pop star eight years her junior was definitely not part of her plan. With Gemma's self-confidence still dented, her friends try to convince her that Emilio is definitely interested in her.
Zoey Dean, author of the A-List series and How to Teach Filthy Rich Girls (which was turned into the brilliant-but-cancelled TV show Privileged), brings us yet another great novel about the rich and famous. It follows Taylor Henning as she moves from Connecticut to LA to pursue her dream of making good movies. She starts as a second assistant at Metronome Studios where she is immediately misled, undermined and completely ignored by her catty co-workers. After a chance meeting with her boss' 16-year-old daughter Quinn - who has entitlement written all over her pretty little face - Taylor develops an idea: Quinn can help her become Metronome material. Starting with simple things such as changing the way Taylor dresses to teaching her the rules to live by (Rule #1: Fake it til you make it), Taylor begins to feel right at home and grows more confident as she amazes her co-workers with her new-found self. However, things slide downhill when Taylor hears through the rumour mill that Kylie - the first assistant and Taylor's nemesis - is getting a major promotion. She tells Quinn that she wants to take Kylie down - not really knowing what kind of devious plan a teenage mastermind can come up with. When instructed to steal Kylie's gorgeous boyfriend, Luke, Taylor is resistant at first but comes around after Quinn reminds her that Kylie would have no problem doing this to her. Everything goes according to plan until Taylor starts falling for Luke and her lies - inside and outside of work - start to mount up. It takes Taylor losing everything to find out who she really is and who she wants to be. Life has a funny way of taking you the long way around to get to the things that make you ultimately happy and Taylor finds that out in the end. Is this an escapist read? Yes. But it's a book that is worthwhile and fun. And you never know, you might just find some important lessons about being true to yourself buried within the pages. (AS)
Destination: Marriage has a bridal story each from Jill Marie Landis, Jo Leigh and Jackie Braun. In Landis' Trouble in Paradise, Carrie is in Hawaii for a dream getaway wedding but her big day is being upset by rain, a missing dress, an AWOL caterer and absent guests. Biting the Apple, by Leigh, sees aspiring journalist Trish winning a fantasy wedding in Manhattan. But there's only one problem: she isn't engaged. So she tries to convince her high school sweetheart to be her groom - just for the week. And in Braun's A Venetian Affair, Dayle is having second thoughts about her fiance when she goes on a business trip to Venice with her hot business partner, Max.
Broad Street, by Christine Weiser, follows the fortunes of all-girl rock-group Broad Street as they take on the Philadelphia music scene in the early 1990s. Having just broken up with her boyfriend, bass player Kit makes a drunken pact with guitar-playing vocalist Margo to form a band with the sole purpose of outshining the musician men in their lives. This leads to gigs in seedy bars, obsessed fans, parties with biker gangs, and a seemingly endless quest to find a steady drummer. Weiser, like her heroine Kit, is a musician, playing bass and singing backing vocals in a band. 
In Laurie Graham's Life According to Lubka, Buzz Wexler is a big name in the music PR business. But now someone half her age has been given the Japanese group predicted to go stellar and Buzz is being sidelined into something called World Music. She is sent off with her intern Mal on a tour with a group of Bulgarian singers, led by Lubka. The Gorni Grannies may not be the tantrum-throwing celebs Buzz is used to but soon a friendship develops between the two women whose lives could not be further apart.
What would you do if you found out your long-term boyfriend was cheating on you? For Angela it meant ruining her best friend's wedding by screaming at the bride and making her cry, breaking the groom's hand with her shoe and then fleeing to New York City. Checking into a hotel, she quickly makes friends with Jenny who gives her a makeover and after a whirlwind tour of the city and a major shopping spree it's not long before she's dating two cute guys. Oh and the best thing of all? She gets to write about it in her new blog for fashion magazine The Look. Although the premise of this book may not be all that realistic, it is without a doubt a fantastic read with some really hilarious moments thrown in for good measure. Pure escapism and chick lit at its best! (KC)
You can read the first chapter in the sequel I Heart Hollywood, out in January 2010, on the author's website.
The Romance Writers of America's national conference is about to get underway in Washington. Guest speakers include Janet Evanovich, author of the best-selling Stephanie Plum series. The RITA & Golden Heart Awards Ceremony will be held on July 18. Nominees in the various categories include Elise Chidley (Your Roots are Showing), Rachel Gibson (Not Another Bad Date), Tamara Leigh (Faking Grace) and Jean Marie Pierson (No Good Girls).
This is the second book in the Hen Night Prophecies series about five women given a prophecy at a hens night. Priya's prophecy, 'In love, mother knows best ...' does not fit her fiercely independent world. She's fed up of her disapproving Hindu family's meddling in her love life. Wary of men since her betrayal by boss and ex-boyfriend Vic, she throws herself into work. When an assignment leads her to India to document an ashram, Priya hopes to find some much-needed serenity. But she's soon convinced something sinister is afoot. And she can't help but wonder if tour guide Noah is really interested in her or is he trying to distract her from finding out the truth?
It was six months after her husband Henry died suddenly of a heart attack that Julie Metz discovered his long trail of infidelity. Unable to face up to the details of dealing with his death, the 44-year-old widow left her friends to clean out his office. These well-meaning friends hid what they found from his computer files and correspondence, that he had been enjoying several affairs, including one with her friend. It was only after a fellow artist Tomas revealed Henry may have been leading a double life that she began digging for the truth. Metz details her painful journey in Perfection: A Memoir of Betrayal and Renewal.
According to Variety, the third big-screen instalment of the Bridget Jones series is in development through Working Title. Insiders expect Renee Zellweger to return to her role as the loveable heroine. It will likely be based on the newspaper columns that author Helen Fielding wrote continuing the story after the sequel Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, in which Bridget, now in her 40s, attempts to have a baby before it's too late. Turn away now if you don't want to know how Bridget's story ends in the column. Still torn between Daniel Cleaver and Mark Darcy, in the last entry she gives birth to a boy, fathered by Daniel.
Amrita Chowdhury drew on her experiences of being a NRI (Newly Returning Indian) in her first novel, Faking It. When finance expert Tara Malhotra is forced to quit her American job to follow her husband Raj on a job promotion, she decides to bring some excitement into her empty, high-society Mumbai life by indulging her taste for contemporary Indian art. So when the charismatic Roy Jordan tells her about a piece by legendary artist Amrita Sher-Gil, she sets her heart - and all her savings - on acquiring it. But the painting is not what it is trumped up to be and Tara is determined to expose the man who swindled her. Chowdhury who has worked as an engineer in Silicon Valley, now lives in Mumbai with her husband and children.
From Canadian author Lesley Crewe comes her latest release Hit & Mrs, about four lifelong friends from Montreal who get caught up with the mob on their first trip to New York. Linda, Bette, Gemma and Augusta are all turning 40, so decide to take a trip to the Big Apple together, financed by a credit card belonging to Linda''s philandering husband. But at the LaGuardia airport washroom, Bette accidentally switches bags with a young mother who''s actually smuggling diamonds for the mob and their troubles start. It's out in September.
Tess works for a tabloid newspaper when she uncovers a story about Sean Asgill who is a part of the famous Asgill Cosmetics company. She is approached by family matriarch Meredith with a proposition for her to keep quiet and help the Asgill family with public relations and prevent other secrets from coming out. Tess never imagined taking the position would uncover so many secrets, and starts to wonder if she made the right choice. Meanwhile, daughter Brooke is about to marry David Billington, America's most eligible bachelor who's destined to be the next big political player in Washington. The Asgills are ecstatic that she is the one David has fallen in love with. The wedding is set for the winter but the family knows that a scandal could derail David's political career and cause the wedding to be called off. Can the Asgills keep their lives in check long enough for Brooke to walk down the aisle or will all their secrets come out and ruin both families? Tasmina Perry did a great job with this book, the people were relatable and exciting and she keeps you guessing the whole way. (CG)
If you travel to the other side of Australia from the Chicklit Club headquarters and then cross the Tasman Sea you'll reach a small country called New Zealand. In honour of our new Kiwi correspondent Paula Phillips, the Chicklit Club takes a look at some of the titles from her home-grown authors.
Michelle Holman, who lives in the Waikato region, once made a New Year's Eve resolution to finish a manuscript and send it to a publisher. She is now the author of Bonkers, where a schoolteacher gets a second chance at life after a car crash, finding herself in the body of a glamorous American with a very rich husband. Her latest release Divine is about a woman who moves to the sleepy town of Divine when she discovers her husband would prefer to be a woman. She has recently finished her third book, Knotted. 
Kate Langdon, from Auckland, has written three novels and is working on her fourth. That Slippery Slope is about 29-year-old Helen McGregor who's nowhere near ready for 30. She's single, her job at the local newspaper is driving her crazy and worst of all, luck just doesn't seem to be on her side. Famous tells the tale of advertising high-flyer Samantha, whose life is changed after a one-night stand with the All Blacks captain. And Making Lemonade focuses on Jools, who is pregnant but isn't sure who the father is. Is it her charming but treacherous ex-boss, her bisexual ex-husband or the one-night stand from the Irish pub? Langdon also runs an event management business.
Journalist Sarah-Kate Lynch is a columnist for the New Zealand Woman's Weekly and lives on the North Island. She has written several novels since 2000, including House of Daughters (aka The House of Peine) and Eating with the Angels. Her most recent release On Top of Everything is about Florence, who believes that bad things happen in threes. So when she's fired by her best friend and left by her husband in the space of a single afternoon, she knows there is yet more trouble brewing. Her son Monty returns from his gap year Down Under with an older woman, her plan to turn her crumbling home into a tearoom hits a snag and her doctor keeps leaving her urgent messages.
Jill Marshall is perhaps best known for her children's books such as the super spy Jane Blonde series. But over the past few years she has also turned her hand to adult fiction, such as The Two Miss Parsons about London single mum Cally, whose daughter Paige wants to go to New Zealand to meet her father Alan - the man who abandoned Cally when she was pregnant. Marshall's latest release As It is On Telly is about Bunty who thinks her husband is having an affair. She decides she needs to find herself a new husband, and enrols with a high-class dating agency. Through the Croesus Club she meets several prospective partners, including one she chases back to his native New Zealand. Marshall is actually British but is now based in Auckland.
Check out Paula's Top 10 All-Time Favourites.
Author of A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian Marina Lewycka has written a novel about friendship between two different women. In We Are All Made of Glue, magazine writer Georgie meets Naomi Shapiro, an eccentric elderly Jewish neighbour, rummaging through her skip in the middle of the night. And although they mistrust each other at first, a firm friendship develops. Then Mrs Shapiro is admitted to hospital and Georgie is named as her next of kin. But sorting out Mrs Shapiro's semi-derelict mansion in Highbury, home to seven stinky cats, is no easy job when the handyman called in to change the locks turns out to be not what he seems and his two assistants are doing more breaking than fixing. And what about the two slimy estate agents who start competing to trick Mrs Shapiro into selling her rickety old house, or the social worker determined to commit her to a nursing home? As Georgie steps in to help her new friend, she finds herself unravelling a mystery which takes her from Highbury to wartime Europe to the Middle East.
After a weekend in Vegas with her new husband Jake, event planner and blogger Clare realises that mixing antibiotics with birth control pills is not a sensible option. Having a baby right now was the last thing on her mind - and giving up alcohol for nine months is going to be murder. In between organising a big black-tie gala, staying neutral in her best friends' feud, dealing with a disapproving in-law and writing for her popular blog, Clare slowly adjusts to the fact that a new life is just around the corner. It took less than 10 pages for me to know that I was going to love this book - Clare is a loveable, quick-witted character who is just cut out for a sequel.
Coming soon: Watch out for our interview with Maureen Lipinski.
Once free of the cloistered worlds of boarding school and university, the Midnight Girls face new challenges. Bonded by a terrible secret, reckless Allegra, super rich Romily and timid Imogen soon find bitter rivalries arise as their professional lives cross paths. Greed, tragedy and passions threaten their allegiance and each of them stand to lose what they love most.
Mina V. Esguerra's My Imaginary Ex takes a look at what happens when you play a game of pretend. Its synopsis says: "When Zack asks Jasmine to pretend to be his ex-girlfriend, she gamely agrees, thinking it would be fun. A few years later, she still has to keep convincing people that they were never together! Then one day, she finds out he's getting married - to someone she'd just met once! All of a sudden, things aren't so clear-cut anymore. Can Jasmine sort out her feelings (sometimes, she can't even tell real from pretend when it comes to her and Zack) before it's too late?" Esguerra is from the Phillipines.
This novel by reality TV starlet Lauren Conrad chronicles the lives of Jane Roberts and her best friend Scarlett Harp as they move to LA and become the stars of a reality TV show. The book, which is based loosely on Conrad's own life, is a little slow in the beginning but picks up a little once Jane and Scarlett are discovered at a club by a TV producer. From that point on the two, though a little hesitant at first, decide to audition for the show and their lives change drastically. While Jane takes to the cameras being around easily, Scarlett is not so excited and wonders what she got herself into. Throw into the mix two other cast members, Gaby, a total ditz, and Madison, a total bitch with a nice girl facade, and things get even more complicated. When Jane starts dating Jesse, who happens to be the best friend of her friend-slash-major crush, Braden, things spiral out of control quickly and the jealousy of someone Jane thought she could trust ruins her life in an instant. With lots of run-of-the-mill Hollywood cliches (blondes, drugs, cosmetic surgery etc), LA Candy almost fails to deliver an original storyline. In addition, in pretty much every single chapter Jane and her friends are drinking (usually vodka soda for Jane) making it seem to the unknowing person who has never been to LA, that you can't have any fun in Tinseltown without being drunk. It is a quick and light read that would be great for the beach or a day when you don't need any actual depth in what you're reading. But the ending is a cliff-hanger and leaves you wanting to know what happens to Jane next. (AS)
Emily Giffin is a great author and I recommend all her books. I particularly loved Love the One You're With. Ellen and Andy's marriage is perfect - they have no flaws except that Ellen is not sure if this is right for her. She runs into her first love, Leo, and starts imagining what life would have been if she had married him. Is it true first love is always the best option or is her current relationship better for her? 
Leonie Fox's Private Members and Members Only are set at St Benedict's country club where nothing is off-limits. Between bedhopping, drugs, and the girls' friendship, Private Members is a great read that will keep you entertained and wanting more. I recommend this book to anyone who just wants an escape. In its follow-up Members Only, the girls are hoping that what happened last year is in the distant past, but they find - and cause - more trouble than they ever expected.
Heiresses, by Lulu Taylor, is about three sisters who have one year to turn their family business around or it goes to an adoptive sister that they hate. They cannot understand why their mother left the business to her if they fail. It's a great story that has it all - sex, lies, deceit and love. My favourite book from Tasmina Perry is her latest release Original Sin. Brooke Asgill is set to marry David Billington but her family's secrets keep coming out to haunt her. Tess Garrett is hired to conceal those secrets but some of them are too big too hide. Perry has a great way of making chick lit into a mystery that keeps you guessing.
Jennifer Weiner's Little Earthquakes is a story about three women who have to learn to cope with motherhood. They meet at a Lamaze class and end up being best friends when one goes into labour. You will love this book as Weiner has a great way of making stories come to life and you will be engrossed in this one. This book is my favourite of Weiner's.
Make your own Ultimate 100 Chicklit Collection suggestions by emailing us.
In Speed Shrinking, by Manhattan journalism professor Susan Shapiro, self-help author Julia Goodman thinks she has her addictive personality under control. Then her psychoanalyst, Dr Ness, leaves New York at the same time her director husband is called away to LA and her best friend Sarah gets married and moves to Ohio. This sends Julia into a cupcake-eating frenzy - just as she is about to appear on national television detailing how she beat her sugar addiction. Julia needs a new guru and begins interviewing eight shrinks in eight days. Shapiro is also the author of non-fiction book Lighting Up where she details how an addiction specialist enabled her to give up cigarettes and other vices. Speed Shrinking is out in August.
Watch out for . . . Scandalous by Scottish journalist and TV presenter Martel Maxwell. Her debut novel tells the story of two sisters on opposite sides of the fame game. One is a showbiz journalist who is determined to land the best scoop by any means necessary; the other a shy writer at a fashion magazine whose love life is about to hit the front pages. It's due on shelves in April 2010.
Moonlight in Odessa, a story about Eastern European e-mail order brides, was inspired by author Janet Skeslien Charles' two years as a Soros Fellow in Odessa, Ukraine. Daria becomes a secretary at a foreign firm but her new boss, David Harmon, believes sleeping with him is part of the job description. So Daria evades his advances by recruiting her neighbour, Olga, to be his mistress. But soon Olga sets her sights on Daria's job. Fearing she may lose her job, Daria begins to moonlight as an interpreter at Soviet Unions, an internet matchmaking agency for American men to meet Ukrainian women. Her grandmother pushes Daria to marry one of the foreigners, but Daria already has feelings for a local mobster. Moonlight in Odessa is out in September. Skeslien Charles is an American currently living in Paris.
Bride Zoe is left heartbroken when her groom Jason isn't waiting at the altar for her. So she leaves Liverpool for a nannying job in the United States, where she is employed by widower Ryan to look after his two kids, Ruby and Samuel. She soon wins over the children, befriends some other English nannies, including boisterous Trudie, hippie Amber and posh Felicity, but moody and neglectful Ryan is a much harder nut to crack. Will this new life in Boston help her forget Jason? Another charming tale from Costello with the humiliation-prone heroine torn between two commitment-wary men.
Ready to battle with that fierce species of four-wheel-driving, Bugaboo-wheeling mother who will stop at nothing to get her child into the right school? Check out our Competitive Parenting titles in our Dream Theme section.
Filming on the big screen adaptation of Elizabeth Gilbert's best-selling 2006 memoir Eat, Pray, Love starring Julia Roberts is expected to start this month. The story follows a divorced woman who sets out to explore the world and seek out her true destiny. Javier Bardem has been cast as Brazilian love interest Felipe, while Richard Jenkins is Richard, the Texan she meets at an Indian ashram. Filming will take place in New York, Italy, India and Bali. Brad Pitt's production company is producing the movie, while Ryan Murphy (of TV series Nip/Tuck and Glee) will direct. It's due in cinemas in 2011.
Did you know? An article that former bartender Elizabeth Gilbert wrote for GQ Magazine called The Muse of the Coyote Ugly Saloon was the basis for the 2000 film Coyote Ugly, starring Piper Perabo and Adam Garcia.
Take to the seas in Kate Lace's latest novel The Love Boat. Its synopsis says: "Working as a chef on a luxurious holiday yacht, Poppy's come a long way from her parents' pub in Cornwall and enjoys a tranquil existence sailing around the Greek islands. Until the Garvie family show up that is. When their boisterous behaviour forces Poppy to pay a visit to a super-yacht docked nearby, she meets handsome deckhand Charlie and everything gets a lot more exciting. She wouldn't mind getting cosy in her cabin with him! But why does Jake, the brooding skipper, keep rocking the boat? When it comes to falling in love, Poppy may be in danger of going overboard." The Love Boat is out in October.
Confessions of a Beauty Addict author Nadine Jolie Haobsh tells Angela Smith about how she bounced back from being blacklisted in the magazine world, and why bloggers really can't take holidays.
TV journalist Tessa heads to Appleton Manor in the Cotswolds to film a documentary about the wedding of Oscar-winning movie star Clemmie and her actor fiance Rufus. Rufus used to play rugby with Will Forbes-Henry, who has returned to England to rescue his family's fortune by turning the manor into a hotel. Will is wary of Tessa and has a number of burdens on his broad shoulders - his parents Jack and Caro continue to have an open marriage, his fiancee is stuck in France, his artist brother Tristan still hasn't got over a past love and his aunt Henny and cousins Milly and David have moved in after his uncle's death. It is certainly no surprise who's going to end up with whom - perhaps best suited to those who like racy rural romps in the vein of Jilly Cooper.
Louisiana author Judy Christie's debut novel Gone To Green is the story of 36-year-old Lois Barker, a big-city business journalist who moves to tiny Green in Louisiana on New Year's Day to run a small-town newspaper - the unexpected inheritance from a close colleague. But instead of a charming little town full of friendly people, she must battle prejudice and financial corruption, while encountering characters who will change her life including troubled teenager Katy, good-looking farmer Chris, and a female African-American physician named Kevin. Gone to Green is the first in a trilogy, to be followed by Goodness Gracious Green and Grace of Green.
Watch out for . . . Lauren Weisberger's as-yet-untitled novel due for release in May 2010. The word is it's about women who are left behind by their new-celeb exes - and their fitting revenge.
Evie, Nic and Becca, all members of a creative writing group, decide to enter a national competition. But while they ponder their plots and agonise about their characters, their own lives are going far from smoothly. Evie's still pining for the husband who left her for a younger woman and is relying increasingly on clairvoyant Zelda. Nic's battling a drink problem and is in despair about her workaholic husband. Becca's a City highflyer who seems to have everything - until a childhood friend threatens to expose the secret she's kept buried for nearly 30 years. With less than a year to complete their manuscripts, can there be any real-life happy endings?
Amid the continuing controversy about Australian footballers from all codes being very naughty boys, Shireen Lolesi, the former wife of a rugby league player, has lifted the lid on the lives of WAGs in her first novel, Wives and Girlfriends. Its synopsis says: "Angel Blakely leads the perfect life. With a handsome husband in the form of a famous rugby league star, a newly decorated million-dollar apartment in Sydney's sought-after eastern suburbs, and a gorgeous baby son, she is the envy of many. But her glamorous life is not all it seems. Beneath the money and the status that go with football at its highest level lies a dark world of alcohol and drug abuse, sexual misbehaviour and violence. As Angel begins to understand the man and the life she's married into, her world begins to unravel around her and soon she herself is contemplating breaking the ultimate football taboo - an affair with one of her husband's teammates." Lolesi reportedly has said she wrote the book as self-therapy after the breakdown of her nine-year marriage to Canterbury Bulldogs player Jamahl Lolesi. She also runs a beauty salon in Sydney.
After getting her heart broken, Daisy flees America in the hope that putting as much distance between herself and her ex will help speed up her recovery. Jumping at the chance to see the world (while getting paid to do so) she joins the team catering to the world's highest paid, supercharged racing drivers on the Formula 1 Grand Prix circuit. Only trouble is, it's not long before she finds herself falling for one of the drivers and with him already having a girlfriend (a childhood sweetheart no less), surely it can only lead to one thing - further heartbreak. With enough twists and turns - with one in particular that will have you quite literally gasping for breath - this is a highly enjoyable read. A real "paige" turner in fact. Plus if you were a fan of Johnny Be Good, then look out for the cameo appearances from Meg, Johnny and Christian, along with the revelation of just who the father of Meg's baby was! (KC)
I would imagine that trying to choose a favorite chick lit book is a bit like trying to choose a favorite child; you don't want to do it and can't even imagine where to begin. I definitely feel this way about selecting my top five chick lit books from the past decade. There are so many wonderful books out there from some really talented authors that it's hard to choose just a few to highlight. However, if I had to make a list of my top faves - books that would instantly hook any reader to the genre - it would have to be these (not necessarily in this order, mind you) . . .
Who would've thought unemployment (and footnotes) could be so hilarious until we read Jen Lancaster's Bitter is the New Black. In The Devil Wears Prada, by Lauren Weisberger, pure evil never looked so chic (and it even made it to the big screen starring Meryl Streep as the boss of all your nightmares). Then I have to include Love Walked In, by Marisa de los Santos, because sometimes the love you think you want is not the love you need. And finally you can't go past Emily Giffin's Something Borrowed and Something Blue. You simply can't read one without the other. Remember . . . there are always two sides to every story.
You can make your own suggestions for the Ultimate 100 Chicklit Collection by emailing us.
Emily is marrying ambitious money manager Parker at a big summer wedding in New York. She is hoping her best friends Elizabeth and Karen will soon follow her down the aisle. But Elizabeth, who is still carrying the humiliation of being left at the altar, isn't so sure that boyfriend Nick is the one for her. As a painter who abandoned that world to become a money manager, she is instead drawn to one of the wedding guests, Ian, a Scottish artist. Playwrights Karen and Robert are planning on getting married but her divorced parents are proving to be a big problem. Meanwhile Emily finds that married life isn't the happily-ever-after she dreamt of.
Find out more about the book when you check out our interview with Jill Amy Rosenblatt.
In Sheila Curran's Everyone She Loved, Penelope gets her husband Joey, sister and three college roommates to sign a pact that if she should die before her daughters Tessa and June are 18, he cannot remarry without the women's permission. When the unthinkable happens, Penelope's best friend Lucy, a second mother to her daughters, wants to welcome the girls into a home that had once belonged to their family, a bed-and-breakfast on the beach. This bequest was only one of the many ways in which Penelope had supported Lucy's career as a painter. Can everyone Penelope loved start rebuilding new lives? With themes ranging from friendship and sacrifices, financial troubles, anorexia and secret attractions, Curran has a guide for book club members on her website.
Allie Spencer's Tug of Love was the winner of this year's Romance Novelists Association's Joan Hessayon New Writers' Award. Outgoing RNA chairman Catherine Jones (aka Kate Lace) summed up the book as: "Laugh-out-loud funny, clever, sassy and believable. A wonderfully flawed heroine and a great supporting cast." Its synopsis says: "Divorce barrister Lucy Stone is a bit of a cynic when it comes to love. And working with egotistical weasel Hugo Spade doesn't help matters. Then Mark comes along, ticking all the boxes, and Lucy can't believe her luck. But when Lucy has to choose between the man of her dreams and the career opportunity of a lifetime, it seems there really is no justice in the world. And the re-appearance of sexy ex Jonathan is the last thing she needs. Is Lucy about to be found guilty of making the biggest mistake of her life?" Spencer has practised in family and matrimonial law but is now at work on her second novel, a "credit crunch rom com". Tug of Love is out in October.
Downtrodden PR assistant Debs meets Bob at the sandwich shop. Even through he's married, they soon take to meeting for lunch in the park. Geri has been married to Bob for 17 years and between dealing with her nursing job, a teenage daughter who's taken up with the neighbourhood hellraiser and a grieving sister, she never suspects a thing until it is too late. The banter between the family members and the fact the characters are so different from the usual infidelity suspects makes this stand out from the crowd.
No Reservations, by Irish author Fiona O'Brien, is centred around Dominic's, the hottest restaurant in town where on any given day rock stars, fashionistas, politicians and celebrities can be found. And owner Dom has a lot more on his plate beyond chasing his first Michelin star. For starters, his Italian mother Cici, a glamorous Sophia Loren lookalike, is getting herself into hot water and his blonde PR executive girlfriend Tanya seems hell bent on promoting her own interests. Meanwhile beautiful waitress Carla has fled New York but is keeping her past to herself. And his patrons include sexy doctor P.J. O'Sullivan, who is still struggling to cope with the death of his wife, while glamorous divorcee Charlotte Keating finds her spoilt daughter Candy is recipe for trouble. O'Brien is also the author of None of My Affair, Sold and Charity.
Lynn Crymble, a former drama teacher from Canada, takes a look at life makeovers in her first novel It Can Happen to You. An accidental good deed lands 40-year-old Penny in the news, where she catches the eye of the newspaper's life renovation expert. Soon, a makeover crew is taking over Penny's life, trying to transform her into someone else's idea of perfection. But with the help of some new friends, including two young and handsome gardeners and a giant dog named Haggis, Penny slowly gains the confidence to take control of the situation. The new and improved Penny, though not exactly what people had in mind, surprises everyone, including herself.
The Corner Booth Chronicles is Mimi Thebo's sequel to her 2007 novel Welcome to Eudora. Eudora is a small Midwestern town surrounded by oil, wheat and cattle, where secrets don't exist thanks to nosy neighbours. But then a former resident publishes a novel with characters seemingly based on a number of townspeople. Toss in Janey and Mark's broken engagement, Patti and Phil's marital tensions, a baby boom thanks to herbalist Lottie, strange crops and the impact of the Iraq war, and it seems Eudora will never be the same again.
From Lucy Broadbent (What's Love Got to Do With It?), a British journalist working in LA, comes her latest novel A Hollywood Affair. Pearl Sash is living the dream with an adoring husband, perfect child and a glamorous Hollywood Hills mansion. It's just a shame how such a perfect life can get so boring. Cue the return of former husband Brett, who left her as soon as his own Hollywood star was rising. Now he's back, wanting to start over. It's out in August.
Karen Cummings, the latest contributor to join the Chicklit Club team, is developing an online book club forum for the site. If you have any suggestions on how it should run, email her.
Australian sisters Bella and Sera are both obsessed with keeping up appearances. Flight attendant Bella's pilot husband has just left her for another woman while Sera, who traded in her flight attendant uniform for family life, is compensating for a scar from a childhood accident by trying to be perfect. A cast of other characters are introduced through their Stitch 'n' Bitch knitting group. There's single mum Chantrea who doesn't want to acknowledge her heritage as a Cambodian refugee and upbeat Mallory who's about to get a nasty shock. Widower Sam is looking for some company while trying to get back on the dating scene; Jacqueline is an uptight homemaker who has a penchant for shoplifting and Joan is Sera's critical live-in mother-in-law. It's an enjoyable and surprisingly unsuperficial look into the lives of people concerned with shallow matters because of deeply ingrained issues.
A. Maybe try some of the titles of her good friend Megan Crane such as Frenemies and English as a Second Language. You also may want to try Kristin Harmel, Beth Kendrick, Brenda Janowitz, Whitney Gaskell, Caprice Crane and Libby Street. And you'll of course be pleased that Liza Palmer 's latest release A Field Guide to Burying Your Parents is out from October.
The Shortest Distance Between Two Women, the latest novel from Kris Radish (The Sunday List of Dreams, Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral), is out this month. It is approaching the annual reunion of the Gilford girls, when the much put-upon Emma is thrown into turmoil by a voice on her answering machine: "After all these years is there any way you would see me again?" Emma's put a lot of distance between herself and Samuel, filling her life with work and family. So why does his voice still have the power to make her heart skip? Emma has always been the dependable daughter, the mediator of the chaos always surrounding her high-strung sisters and her widowed mother. Suddenly Emma's concrete wall of self-denial is showing cracks and on the other side is a life she can't put off living a moment longer.
Years after she first appeared in Barr's debut novel Backpack, mother of two Tansy is desperately restless. When she married Max, she thought they would still travel the world. But now he's happily settled down, and Tansy is drinking to excess and flirting with her son's teacher. So it is timely when Tansy's old backpacker friend, Elly, gets in touch, asking for her to help out for a month with orphans at her Indian ashram. Tansy soon finds herself rising at 5am and doing yoga, while wondering why she feels like such an inadequate mother in London but is able to bond with the young survivors of the tsunami. Meanwhile childless Alexia starts a blog where she expresses her desire to adopt a child. Although it's a story with a dark edge, somehow it ends up falling flatter than a poppadum.
Here's the trailer for Sophie Kinsella's Twenties Girl which has just been released through the author's Facebook page.
The Book Lovers' Appreciation Society is a collection of short stories from popular authors such as Sophie Kinsella, Cecelia Ahern and Jane Fallon, in honour of Breast Cancer Care. Tales include one about a woman planning not only what she wants to wear to a school reunion but who she wants to be and another about a newly divorced mother who takes her teenage daughter to Crete for a holiday, longing to be young again, until she remembers how awful it is to be 17. It's out in September.
In the gilded enclave of Wilshire, Rosalyn Barlow is waging a battle to silence the scandalous gossip that threatens her teenage daughter Caitlin's reputation while her self-made billionaire husband grows more distant in his early retirement. Newcomer Sarah Livingston has nothing but disdain for everyone and everything around her while she dreads having another child in a world she's come to resent. As she is pulled into the Barlow family's storm, the walls begin to close in around her marriage and the life she once thought she wanted. And for Jacqueline Halstead, who's just discovered her husband is under investigation for fraud, saving her family from ruin means doing the unthinkable - and shaking the Barlow family, Wilshire's insular community, and herself to the core.
Last month we previewed Amy Sohn's upcoming release Prospect Park West, about the competitive Park Slope mother set, revealing that she is writing the pilot for a HBO TV series based on the book and already planning its sequel for 2011. Here's the just-released synopsis for the book, out in September: "Brooklyn's famed Park Slope neighborhood has it all: sprawling, majestic Prospect Park; acclaimed public schools; historic brownstones; and progressive values. Among bohemian bourgeois breeders, claiming a stake in Park Slope has become a competitive sport. In the park, at the coffee shops, and the playgrounds of the neighbourhood, four women's lives come together during one long, hot Brooklyn summer. Melora Leigh, a two-time Oscar-winning actress, frustrated with her career and the pressures of raising her adoptive toddler, feels the seductive pull of kleptomania; Rebecca Rose, missing the robust sex life of her pre-motherhood days, begins a dangerous flirtation with a handsome neighborhood celebrity; Lizzie O'Donnell, a former lesbian (or "hasbian"), wonders why she is still drawn to women in spite of her sexy husband and adorable child; and Karen Bryan Shapiro finds herself split between two powerful obsessions: her four-year-old son's wellbeing, and snagging the ultimate three-bedroom apartment in a well-maintained, P.S. 321-zoned co-op building. As the women's paths intertwine (and sometimes collide), each must struggle to keep her man, her sanity ... and her play dates."
The trailer for Jessica Brody's upcoming novel Love Under Cover has just been released. The sequel to The Fidelity Files (which is now in development for a TV series), it sees Jennifer Hunter start up the Hawthorne Agency with five fidelity inspectors and give up the field practice herself - all in the name of love. Also known as The Good Girl's Guide to Bad Men for the UK market, the book is out in November. Aussies viewers of the trailer may want to keep their eyes out for a Daddo (Cameron plays the boyfriend Jamie).
Did you know? Sharon Osbourne's much-anticipated debut novel is called Fabulous! Due out in March 2010, it's reportedly set in the world of reality TV. Osbourne came to public attention when her family, including rocker husband Ozzy, were filmed for reality TV show The Osbournes. She's also been a judge on talent shows The X-Factor and America's Got Talent.
Supermodel Carol Alt follows up This Year's Model with her latest release Model, Incorporated, out in August. In the first novel, New Jersey waitress Melody Ann Croft is discovered by a fashion photographer. Renamed Mac Croft by her agent, she is thrust into the competitive world of professional modelling. Now in the latest release, Mac needs to learn how to expand her brand. The model for the Model, Incorporated jacket cover, Rianna, was chosen by public vote through an online contest. The series about model Mac is intended to be a trilogy.
Touted as the British version of The Devil Wears Prada, Me and Miss M, by British TV presenter Jemma Forte, is about life as a celebrity assistant. Fran is a struggling actress who takes a job as PA to Hollywood actress Caroline Mason while she is appearing in a West End production. But Fran's new job is far from glamorous as her days are spent fetching never-ending skinny lattes and being an all-round slave to the demanding diva. And when the job starts to cost Fran her friends and the man of her dreams she has to ask herself whether it's really worth it. The time has come for Miss M to find out a few home truths ... It's out in November.
Watch out for . . . Rock Chicks by Ronni Cooper which tells the story of rock group The Black Spikes and the women closely involved with the band. Cooper is the pseudonym for a newspaper columnist who once lived with a successful musician.
Cally Taylor's debut novel Heaven Can Wait is about a woman called Lucy Brown who breaks her neck the night before her wedding. Unable to accept a lifetime's separation from her soulmate Dan, Lucy decides to become a ghost rather than go to heaven and be parted from him. But it turns out things aren't quite as easy as that. Limbo is a grotty student-style house in North London and her flatmates are EMO-kid Claire and and train-spotter Brian. And to become a ghost Lucy has 21 days to find a girlfriend for IT geek Archie. When she discovers that her so-called friend Anna is determined to make a move on the heartbroken Dan, the pressure is really on. Heaven Can Wait, a finalist in the Romance Writers of America Stiletto Contest 2008, is out in October.
Izzy Simpson drives a Holden ute, is most comfortable wearing jeans and a singlet, her best friend is a kelpie dog called Tom and her hands are rough with calluses. The story picks up as Izzy is returning to Gumlea, her family's sheep and wheat farm in Pingaring, in south-west Western Australia, after working for the past two years as a farmhand over east. She has always dreamt of running her family farm but she has to convince her father Bill, who doesn't believe that type of work is for women. He is especially protective after losing his oldest daughter Claire in a farm accident. When Bill is burnt in a header fire, he leaves the boy-next-door Will in charge - the guy Izzy still hasn't forgiven for upsetting Claire before her death. Amid the romance, Izzy's fight to be taken seriously offers an insight into the heart of Australian farming - from the long hot hours at harvest time and rescuing stranded rams in torrential rain, to sharing beers at the pub below a gum tree and the community spirit which rallies when one of their own is down.
Interviews: Catch up with Fiona Palmer and find out why she'll always be a country girl.
Whoever said you can't choose your family never met Layla. When she married her high school sweetheart, Brett Foster, she finally got the big, loving family she'd always wanted. So when Brett asks for a divorce, she decides to sue him for the most valuable thing he's got - his family. But he's not giving them up without a fight. Their furious attempts to curry favour with the Fosters only succeed in driving wedges into the formerly close-knit family.
The idea for One Apple Tasted came to Josa Young while she was working as a magazine feature writer. Out in August, its synopsis says: "Meet Dora Jerusalem, features assistant to assistant features editor at Modern Woman, a glossy magazine whose employees are all thin, rich and beautiful. New to London and desperate to succeed, Dora is thrust into a whirlwind of parties and launches where she meets the striking Guy Boleyn. It should all be so simple - but a mix of jealous colleagues, disastrous weddings and a destructive family secret threaten to ruin the happy ending that Dora's always hoped for." Promoted as "one part family saga, one part classic love story and one part coming-of-age tale", the London-based Young explains the story starts in the 1980s, and then moves back in time to examine Dora's family - from her grandmother during World War II and her mother in the 1950s. Then it moves forward again to the 1990s and the present. You can read the first chapter on her website.
When Melody was nine, she was rescued from a burning house. But along with her possessions, the fire also wiped out her memories. Now decades later, the single mum is out on her first date in years. After fainting while taking part in a hypnotist show, she finds that many locked-away memories of her childhood are coming back to her in flashes. Melody slowly pieces together her past, realising her childhood was nothing like she thought it was. A real page-turner from a great storyteller - you'll want to finish it in one go.
In Never the Bride, by Cheryl McKay and Rene Gutteridge, Jessie Stone has been fascinated by weddings since she was a girl. She's been a bridesmaid 11 times, waved numerous couples off on their honeymoons, and shopped in more department stores for gifts than she cares to remember. But her own future husband seems elusive - the man she thought she would marry cheated on her and she secretly has a crush on her best friend Blake. Then God shows up one day, in the flesh, saying he wants to write her love story. The novel has been adapted from a screenplay written by McKay.
It's credit crunch time again in Ambition, by A. O'Connor. When the most glamorous store in Knightsbridge, Franklyns, becomes a casualty of the downturn, Stephanie Holden is appointed to transform its fortunes. She is pitted against ruthless executive Fiona Newman and womanising general manager Paul Stewart. For new arrival Rachel Healy, it's a long way to the top. Especially when there are distractions like Paul . . . and Hugo, Stephanie's wayward son. When Fiona falls in love with a stranger on a train and becomes the victim of a crime, a chain of events unfold that lead right to Stephanie's door.
Canadian-based spiritual educator Gordon Phinn has written An American in Heaven about a 19-year-old girl's experiences in the afterlife after she dies in a car crash. Its synopsis says: "Melanie may be a dead teenager but she's also an outrageously funny bad-mouthing bitch who doesn't care what you once thought about the afterlife, cause she's gonna give you the straight goods. No church crap. No science crap. No goody-too-shoes-gets-you-in crap. Be who you want. Think what you like. Do who you fancy. It's all free. All you have to do is die to get there ... It's chic-lit goes to the afterlife, and the afterlife will never be the same." You can catch Phinn reading the early chapters in his Scottish brogue on YouTube.
Cass, who runs an antique shop, is about to head off to Cyprus with her choir when her friend Fiona asks her to spy on her boyfriend Andy. Very reluctant to get involved, Cass wonders if Fiona is right to be suspicious when she spots him at the markets with a younger girl. Meanwhile Cass is fending off the unwanted attentions of an architect with a man bag, and dealing with the early arrival of her houseguests, her overbearing mother and her toyboy boyfriend. Not that things are going to be any more peaceful in Cyprus . . .
Sarah Challis examines the bonds of motherhood in Love and Other Secrets. Florence has never forgiven Jane for the circumstances of her birth. She was an accident, the product of Jane's only one-night-stand, and Flo does not want to know how hard her teenage mother fought to keep her. When Flo's own, carefully planned, baby arrives, and her glossy, controlled world is turned upside down, for the first time in her life she turns to her mother for help. While thrilled by the chance to finally prove herself to her daughter, the arrival of her grandson also brings painful memories flooding back for Jane.
Lisa Pelaprat says she drew on her experiences of "being English in America and being left high and dry in a foreign country" for her novel A Late Starter. Impulsive Ann, a 33-year-old English girl on the rebound, accepts a marriage proposal from a handsome American visiting Paris. But even on her honeymoon - before she heads to live with him in Washington - she begins to have doubts about the virtual stranger sleeping next to her. Maybe getting swept off your feet isn't all it's cracked up to be.
Christina Jones has another mystical romance out in August. In Moonshine, newly single and unemployed Cleo Moon moves to the hamlet of Lovers Knot. With its host of mad but delightful neighbours, she soon feels at home, especially when she meets the gorgeous Dylan. Through her new job as PA to a local millionaire, she takes on organising the annual harvest festival. Dusting off an old book on winemaking, she concocts a new harvest tipple - only this drink has unexpected magical side effects.
Summertime, the latest novel by Christian chick lit author Lynn McMonigal, centres on entertainment journalist Laura Bell. She's a single mother, and hasn't seen the father of her daughter, Joey Matthews, since he was a member of popular boy band, ZeroGravity. When Laura is asked to cover the band's reunion, she is forced to confront her past. Can she include Joey in her daughter's life, without compromising her new-found Christian faith?
Tess Tennant is moving away from London to the sleepy town where she grew up, to teach at the illustrious Langford College. She moves into a cottage with Francesca, a burnt-out lawyer, while round the corner lives her childhood best friend Adam. But rural life isn't quite how Tess remembers it. After a big night out in London with Adam ends in tears, Tess takes her class away on a trip to Rome. Soon Tess is being swept off her feet by a charming stranger who shows her round the city over a magical week and she forgets the complicated problems waiting for her at home. But when she returns to Langford, Tess finds a note from Adam saying he's leaving for a while. What happened between them when they were young?
Liz Lyons' Barefoot over Stones asks what would it take to destroy your closest friendship? Alison and Ciara become firm friends at a Dublin college. Ciara is all that Alison aspires to be - sassy, confident and fearless. Then a gorgeous medical student Dan enters their lives, and a betrayal threatens their closeness. It is only when tragedy strikes many years later that Alison and Ciara are able to discover the redemptive power of true friendship.
Table Manners is the sequel to Mia King's 2007 debut Good Things. Its synopsis says: "Deidre McIntosh finally has all the ingredients for a perfect life. She has her own line of cakes and cookies, and the perfect boyfriend, Kevin Johnson, one of Seattle's top bachelors. Creative, energetic and loving, Deidre is the person friends go to when they need a helping hand. But when Kevin's ex-fiancee, the sultry and successful magazine publisher Sabine Durant, suddenly appears in Seattle, it's Deidre who needs help. Already intimidated by Kevin's glamorous, moneyed world - and his sister, who wants Deidre out of Kevin's life - she knows she's no match for Sabine. Deidre turns to her friends for advice but finds they're having crises of their own. When her business begins to slip from her fingers, Deidre knows she must to do something to keep her career and her love life from imploding. Can everyone's favourite go-to person save herself?" Table Manners is out in August.
In Nadine Dajani's Cutting Loose, Ranya, Zahra and Rio are in Miami, working on a Latina magazine run by millionaire Georges Mallouk. Each carry baggage from their previous lives - Muslim Ranya fled Montreal after realising her husband is gay, Zahra left Boston after a career-ending mistake and still holds a torch for her old friend Georges, while Rio has risen from the slums of Honduras to the helm of the magazine and is having an affair with her boss' playboy brother. Dajani's first novel, Fashionably Late, was released in 2007.
Single mother Tess needs to leave London - and in a hurry. She heads up north to the seaside town Saltburn, moving into bridge engineer Joe's rambling old house as his housesitter. But who is she running from, why is she so broke and why does she detest the beach? Joe is an emotionally distant character who spends a lot of time overseas - with a girlfriend in every port - but he soon finds he misses being away from the home that Tess has been building with her toddler Em. But he's also keeping something from Tess - will they soon trust each other enough to share their secrets? Now you know that these two are going to get it together but it takes nearly 500 pages of often mind-numbing tedium to get there. Perhaps the only question readers really need answered is why was this book so boring and slow?
The Chicklit Club's newest team member, Xiu Ting Low, reveals her All-Time Favourites.
From death and dealing with the loss of a loved one, to illness and injuries, the one theme these books have in common is you shouldn't read them without some tissues handy. Check out some of the best tearjerker titles in our revamped Dream Theme section.
When Izzy Rose, an Emmy Award-winning TV producer in San Francisco, fell in love with an irresistible Southern man named Hank, her world was turned upside down. When she said "I do", she also became stepmum to his two sons and packed her bags for a new life in Texas. The Package Deal: My (not-so) Glamorous Transition from Single Gal to Instant Mom reveals her struggles to hold on to her professional identity while reinventing the stepmother role in her own sassy way. Izzy, who herself was brought up in a stepfamily, even started her own support group, creating the Stepmother's Milk blog. She says: "Many of us have taken our sweet time finding the right man to marry and once we find him, he often comes with kids and ex-wife. The Package Deal."
British journalist Samantha Scott-Jeffries' first novel, I Do, I Do, I Do, sees Isabelle take off to Majorca after a humiliating mistake costs her her job. She plans to spend six months on the Spanish island, working as a wedding planner. If she can't make it work with a man, at least she can help make other women happy with theirs. But when love is in the air, things don't always go the way you plan. I Do, I Do, I Do is out in August and a sequel is in the works. Scott-Jeffries has previously published a non-fiction title on interior design.
Former music journalist Abby McDonald follows up her debut novel for teens, Sophomore Switch, with her first adult title, The Popularity Rules, about a music journalist. Its synopsis says: "Kat Elliot is no social butterfly: she's spent her life rebelling against phony schmoozing - and it's led her nowhere. Just as she's ready to give up her dreams and admit defeat, in steps Lauren Anderville. One-time allies against their school bullies, Lauren and Kat had been inseparable. Then one year later Lauren returned from summer camp - blonde, bubbly and suddenly popular, and Kat was left to face the world alone. Lauren finally wants to make amends by teaching Kat the secret to her success: The Popularity Rules. A decades-old rulebook, its secrets transformed Lauren that fateful summer. And so, tempted by Lauren's promises of glitzy parties and the job she's always dreamed of, Kat reluctantly submits to a total makeover - only to find that life with the in-crowd might have something going for it after all. But while Lauren has sacrificed everything to get ahead, is Kat really ready to accept that popularity is the only prize that counts?" The Popularity Rules is out in September. McDonald is working on her second adult book, The Good Girl's Guide to Deception, due out in 2010.
In Betrayal, by Sasha Blake (apparently a pseudonym for a well-known author), disgraced tycoon Jack Kent and his wife Innocence fight for supremacy over their vast empire. Meanwhile, their daughter, Emily, is determined to make her own luck; Claudia is desperate to escape the misery of her past and thinks she can through the man of her dreams; and adopted Nathan is out for revenge. It's due on shelves in July.
Hedge funds have become the topic du jour in chick lit books this year. Bad Money is the debut release from British businesswoman Louise Patten, who has served on many company boards. Her character, Mary Kersey, juggles her job as a high-flying management consultant with looking after her eight-year-old daughter Grace and keeping her husband's ancestral home in Suffolk in a decent state of repair. When Mary is recruited by the Treasury to investigate dodgy dealings at hedge funds, this brings her into the world of Alan Dove, CEO of a biotechnology company who wants to buy a cosmetics competitor, F-ACE. Ivan Strawe, head of mergers and acquisitions at Wolkenbank, is only too willing to find a way to lower the F-ACE share price with the help of a hedge fund. Patten, who is married to a former British Cabinet minister, is working on her second novel Golden Hoard. She reportedly began writing as a way to pass time on business travel trips. Bad Money is out in September.
Isla Fisher, who played Rebecca Bloomwood in the Confessions of a Shopaholic movie, has acted as cover girl for the latest cover of Sophie Kinsella's Shopaholic Abroad. The re-release of the 2001 book, the second in the Shopaholic series, sees Rebecca head to New York with Luke (hence it's alternative title Shopaholic Takes Manhattan). Here's the latest synopsis: "For Rebecca Bloomwood, life is peachy. She has a job on morning TV, telling people how to manage their money - a subject on which she is an expert. Her bank manager is actually being nice to her, despite being just a tad overdrawn. And the icing on the brioche is that her boyfriend is moving to New York ... and has asked her to go with him. New York! The Museum of Modern Art! The Guggenheim! The Metropolitan Opera House! And Becky does mean to go to all these. Honestly. It's just that it seems silly not to check out a few other places first. Like Bloomingdales. And Saks. And that amusing little place she's been told about where you can sometimes get a Prada dress for $10. Or was it $100? Anyway, it's full of fantastic bargains. Shopaholic Abroad - because there just aren't enough shops in Britain."
Release Dates: Many of your favourite chick lit authors, including Emily Giffin, Carole Matthews, Chris Manby and Dorothy Koomson, have starting revealing their titles for 2010. Check out our continually updated list.
In Don't Tell Eve, by Airlie Lawson, Papyrus Press was a respectable publishing house - until Eve arrived. Told to turn the company's finances around, with the aid of her sadistic sidekick Hilary, she is soon revealed to be a devil, who doesn't know how to wear Prada. But she hasn't counted on interference from Jess, a woman with her own creative agenda. And there's also the small matters of a missing bad-boy celebrity chef, a radical management book, a notorious artist and a set of mysterious dolls. Don't Tell Eve is the debut novel from Lawson, who lives in Sydney and works in publishing. It's out in August.
In Sunnyside Blues, by Mary Carter, 25-year-old Andes Lane has spent the past nine years moving restlessly from place to place. She has barely had a chance to settle into her latest home, a houseboat on a Seattle lake, before her new life is upended by landlord Jay and his 10-year-old son, Chase. When Jay needs someone to take care of Chase temporarily, Andes agrees to accompany the boy to Sunnyside Queens, on a quest she's sure will prove fruitless. But in this unexpectedly welcoming city, Andes will confront the secrets she tried to leave behind and the lies that have kept her running.
Former New York columnist and TV writer Amy Sohn (Run Catch Kiss) says she's already working on a sequel to her new novel, Prospect Park West. The first book, out in September, is about four women - Lizzie, Rebecca, Karen and Melora - who are part of the mummy brigade in an upscale Brooklyn neighbourhood, Park Slope. Sohn reveals on her website that the book has been optioned for a television series - is this perhaps linked to the rumoured series on the same topic from Melrose Place and Sex and the City creator Darren Star?
S. J. Foster's self-published Champagne & Butterflies is about two privileged African-American sisters, Kyla and Kimari Fontaine. Raised by a CEO father and a former model/singer mother, the girls are known as the "Black Hilton sisters". Just one year apart in age, they are both on campus at Penn State. Sharp-tongued Kimari finds herself trying to hold on to a relationship with a soon-to-be pro football player while working to get her own star to rise. The more reserved Kyla is seeing resident doctor Vince but has some lingering feelings for an enticing old flame.
Jessia Brody's sequel to The Infidelity Files, Love Under Cover is being released in Britain under the title The Good Girl's Guide to Bad Men. It continues the story of undercover fidelity inspector Jennifer Hunter, who forms an agency and hires other women to test men's faithfulness so she can pursue a relationship with Jamie. It's out from October.
Sports journalist and author Alison Kervin talks about fame, WAGS and her latest heroine who becomes a Celebrity Bride.
This follows the life of Lara Lington who is suddenly "haunted" by her great aunt Sadie. Sceptical at first, Lara eventually feels that Sadie is her guardian angel and helps Sadie find the one thing that she needs to rest in peace - her beautiful dragonfly necklace. In the process, Lara believes her great aunt was murdered, asks a handsome stranger on a date, and talks to Sadie (who no one else can see) so much that people start to think she has lost her mind - which is easy to believe as she hasn't been acting right since her break-up with her true love, Josh. Eventually, Lara discovers that someone in her family has been harbouring a secret that will ruin them and Lara, with the help of Sadie, decides to expose them and finally set things right. It is fun, feisty and an absolutely brilliant read. (AS)
For those looking for chick lit stories about urban Asian women, publisher Marshall Cavendish is publishing an Asian Chic series in the region. Here's the first of the titles . . .
Amazing Grace, by Tara FT Sering, of the Philippines, is about teacher Grace Lim, who thinks she's finally found the one when Mr-Blind-Date-No.7, Mike, proposes. But Mike has to relocate from Manila to Singapore because of work. With Mike's leggy blonde colleague Kaela appearing in every photo that he uploads online, Grace decides to make a surprise visit to Singapore - but is she ready for what she will find? Sering is a newspaper columnist and magazine managing editor.
In Undercover Tai Tai, by Maya O. Calica, book researcher Amanda Tay is a loner. But when a celebrated tai tai (a wealthy socialite wife) disappears off a luxury cruiser one evening, Amanda's quiet life is sent into a tailspin. A chance meeting with brooding intelligence officer Brian sees her become an undercover operative, hired to investigate the case. With a team of experts to help her - including a crime-fighting chihuahua - Amanda goes about solving the mystery disguised as a tai tai in designer outfits, false eyelashes and high heels. Calica is a magazine editor whose novel, The Break-up Diaries, was a bestseller in the Philippines.
Noelle Chua's debut, Mrs MisMarriage, is about Harvard literature scholar Audrey Lee, whose glamorous life is turned upside down when her new boyfriend proposes marriage. Suddenly she is wed-locked into a life she never wanted, that of an expat wife and homemaker in her hometown Singapore - just as there's lots of other interesting men on the horizon.
In Keshara Young's The Love of Her Life, a chance meeting with the wife of her first love, pilot Chee Pin, makes newly wed Sam wonder if she chose to marry the right man. She reconnects with Chee Pin, wondering whether she should now choose him over husband David Chang and his billions. The Love of Her Life is the first in a series of three, to be followed by The Dreamcatcher and The Keeper of Secrets.
In Ten Easy Steps, by Lum Kit Wye, which won the Asian Chic Writing Competition, will be published later this year.
In case you missed this title when it was first released two years ago, attorney Sara Angelina's modern take on the Mr Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet romance is back on shelves with a fresh cover later this year. In The Trials of the Honorable F. Darcy, Judge Fitzwilliam Darcy is ready to hang up his black robe and return to the life of a country gentleman - until he meets attorney Elizabeth Bennet. Tempers and sparks fly in the haughty judge's courtroom as the two match wits and try to fight their overwhelming attraction. Then Darcy and Elizabeth are thrown together at an international conference.