'TIS THE SEASON
Not sure what to buy that special book reader in your life for Christmas? Then our Chicklit Lovers Guide to Christmas might be just what you need.
Last Christmas, by Julia Williams, has everything to put a reader in the festive mood right from its white Christmas cover. With the message that if you're dreading the season you're far from alone, it's about four people who desperately need a Christmas miracle. Catherine's life is out of control, her husband Noel might be losing his job, Marianne's fighting memories of what she's lost and Gabriel is facing a lonely Christmas without his wife. It comes with the added bonus that it'll probably get you humming along with George Michael.
If your loved one is more likely to be humming along to Robbie Williams' latest CD, Reality Killed the Video Star, then pick up a copy of Adele Parks' Love Lies and give them the opportunity to see what it would be like to date a pop star just like Robbie. In Love Lies, Fern gives her boyfriend an ultimatum that she wants an engagement ring for her 30th birthday or else. He instead gets her tickets to Scottie Taylor's stadium concerts - and suddenly it's Scottie who's proposing.
If they can't get enough of reality TV singing shows like The X-Factor and Idol, stoke their dreams of making it big with Anne-Marie O'Connor's Star Struck. Catherine doesn't want to be a star - she just wants to sing. When she wins a place on TV show the Star Maker, her world gets turned upside down. Not only does she have to contend with a Simon Cowell-like Machiavellian character and a right diva for a roommate, she's also got her crazy family to deal with.
You can't get more festive than a character name of Holly Christmas. But in Alex Coleman's Little Black Everything, teacher Holly discovers that her blunt honesty is perhaps the cause of her dismal love life. At school she meets new colleague James, a cheerful people-person. In short, he's everything that Holly is not - how does he do it? Soon her intrigue turns to attraction.
If your loved one swooned at the sight of Richard Gere sweeping Julia Roberts off her feet in Pretty Woman, then try the 21st century version from Sarra Manning called Unsticky. This time set in London, the heroine Grace, a junior fashion assistant, is whisked away by the wealthy and older art dealer Vaughn, who has a non-so-indecent proposal for her.
For those whose movie tastes go back a bit further than the 1990s, Bridie Clark, the author of Because She Can, returns with her version of the classic Pygmalion tale (My Fair Lady). The Overnight Socialite is about Lucy, who dreams of making it as a fashion designer but instead toils away on a Garment District assembly line. One night during a torrential downpour, at her most bedraggled and disheartened, Lucy meets the aristocratic Wyatt Hayes IV. He boasts to his best friend Trip that he can transform any woman, even Lucy, into this year's It girl.
Who wants to be a billionaire? To see how the mega-rich live, grab a copy of Anna Maxted's Rich Again (or Sasha Blake's Betrayal - it's actually the same book - but this cover has a more Christmas shopping spree look about it). It's about two stepsisters from a fabulously wealthy English family who have to fight to stop an enemy ruining everything.
Even if you can't afford a diamond ring or a designer handbag this year because of the global financial crisis, I'm sure buying a book is still within your capabilities. Learn how our chick lit characters are dealing with the downturn as their hedge fund husbands go broke. Some titles to consider include Tatiana Boncompagni's Hedge Fund Wives and Jill Kargman's The Ex-Mrs. Hedgefund.
For eBay addicts, the heroine of Nicky Schmidt's debut novel Naked in Knightsbridge puts the ultimate item up for sale - herself. Cleaner Jools is so far down on her luck she entices potential husbands to bid for her online so she can use the money to clear some serious debt. But with the result including a spiteful gay fiance, a deranged stalker and the paparazzi always catching her with a doughnut hanging out of her mouth, it seems Jools has to learn you can't buy love - not even on eBay.
Want to show your employee that there are worse bosses than you? Then Jemma Forte's Me and Miss M introduces a demanding movie star called Caroline Mason who treats her new PA, Fran, like a slave. 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.
Looking for a book for a particular person or occasion. Try these recommendations:
- For your soulmate: Heaven Can Wait by Cally Taylor
- For your best friend: Hope in a Jar by Beth Harbison
- For your pretend best friend: I'm So Happy for You by Lucinda Rosenfeld
- For your sister: The Sister Diaries by Karen Quinn
- For your sister-in-law: Sisters in Law by Nina Bell
- For your cousin: The Goodbye Cousins by Maggie Leffler
- For your niece or great-aunt: Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella
- For your stepmum: Anyone for Seconds? by Fiona Cassidy
- For the expectant mum: A Bump in the Road by Maureen Lipinski
- For the stay-at-home mum: This Little Mommy Stayed Home by Samantha Wilde
- For a mum heading back into the workforce: What Kate Did Next by Lisa Heidke
- For all the single ladies: Feminista by Erica Kennedy
- For the bride-to-be: I Do, I Do, I Do by Samantha Scott-Jeffries
- For the jilted bride: The Nearly-weds by Jane Costello
- For the newly wed: Tales from a Honeymoon Hotel by Olivia Ryan
- For the newly separated: How to Lose a Husband and Gain a Life by Bernadette Strachan
- For your flatmate: The Brightest Star in the Sky by Marian Keyes (can also double as doorstopper!)
- For the desperate and dateless: 50 Ways to Find a Lover by Lucy-Anne Holmes
- For the date weary: The Dating Detox by Gemma Burgess
- For someone getting over a broken relationship: Hello, Heartbreak by Amy Huberman
- For dog lovers: Lost Dogs and Lonely Hearts by Lucy Dillon
