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Mad about the Boy - Maggie Alderson (2002)
When Antonia Heaveringham's aristocratic husband Hugh tells her he's gay and moving in with his hairdresser boyfriend, she finds she is increasingly snubbed by the social set in her adopted city of Sydney. But Ant refuses to fade away . . . instead she goes into the antiques business and joins a gym to lose her post-separation podge where she meets the mysterious James.
5/10
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Make Him Look Good - Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez (2006)
Ricky Biscayne is a Latin singing sensation who is trying to cross over into the mainstream market. Milan is his biggest fan and is soon to become more intimately involved with him as his new publicist. Milan's sister Geneva is setting up Miami's hottest new club Club G and wants Ricky involved. Jill Sanchez, a manipulative Latina star who's having an affair with Ricky, also wants in to the club. Jasminka, Ricky's supermodel wife, finally starts eating something now she's found out she's pregnant. Meanwhile firefighter Irene wants to keep her high school romance with Ricky out of the spotlight unlike her daughter Sophia, who is beginning to suspect she looks a lot like the superstar. Then there's producer/songwriter Matthew, who's been with Ricky from the beginning but is now having to take on too big a role. A pacy novel told from the various points of view.
7/10
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Manhunting - Jennifer Crusie (2003)
Financial consultant Kate Svenson has been engaged three times but at 35, is still looking for her ideal man. So friend Jessica convinces her to follow her plan to snare a successful businessman at a resort in remote Toby's Corner. There, Kate accepts several dates from different men but things just keep going awry. And there's one man Kate knows she should keep away from but just can't - Jake, the resort's outdoor manager who seems to spend his days lying in a row boat.
5/10
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Man of the Month Club - Jackie Clune (2006)
Amy Stokes, 39, loves running her baby shop, Precious Little Darlings, but the thought of having a baby herself leaves her cold. On the night before she is due to start a sabbatical, she discovers an abandoned baby on the store's steps. Soon she wonders if she has been wrong to avoid motherhood, so embarks on a campaign to try out 12 men over the next year to see if she can conceive.
5/10
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Marrying Up - Jackie Rose (2005)
Newspaper obituaries writer Holly Hastings - a compulsive therapy user - writes her own obituary and is less than impressed to find she's going to die alone at 85. Inspired by the Marilyn Monroe movie How to Marry a Millionaire, she decides to do just that and write a book on the topic. Honing her search to some of America's most wealthy regions, she and best friend George arrive in San Francisco (home of most millionaires under 50) and start dating two rich men. But they find that money doesn't necessarily buy love.
6/10
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Match Me If You Can - Susan Elizabeth Phillips (2005)
Annabelle Granger, who has inherited her grandmother's matchmaking business, runs late to her first appointment with Heath Champion, a wealthy, good-looking sports agent known as The Python. He already has the Power Matches agency working for him, but Annabelle's best friend, Molly, is married to his top client and convinces him to give Annabelle's business a go. Trouble is he demands that Annabelle sit in on all his matchmaking dates, and then they start falling for each other.
7/10
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Me Myself I - Pip Karmel (2000)
Journalist Pamela Drury feels like she's missed out on love and marriage. Why didn't she say yes to Robert Dickson when he proposed 13 years ago? Racked with regret, Pamela collides with someone who is about to change her life - herself. In fact, it's the Pamela who did marry Robert all those years ago and has gone on to have three kids. Then Pamela #2 disappears, leaving her stranded in her family's life. This book is also a film starring Rachel Griffiths.
6/10
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Me and Mr Darcy - Alexandra Potter (2007)
New York book shop assistant Emily Albright finds that no modern man can live up to Pride and Prejudice's Mr Darcy. So when her friend Stella invites her on an 18-30s trip to Mexico, she instead books a guided tour of Jane Austen country in England. But she's hardly going to find her dream partner on a coach full of pensioners. The only eligible man is a prickly journalist called Spike Hargreaves who's purely along for the ride because he's writing an article about why women love Mr Darcy. And he wins no favour with Emily when he describes her as “pretty dull, average looking.” Then during a visit to one of Austen's homes, Emily finds herself face-to-face with a handsome stranger wearing beeches and a frock coat who calls himself Mr Darcy. What happens when her fantasy man comes to life? OK, so many critics hated it, the plot's totally predictable and you may get annoyed that the character is so slow picking up on the Pride and Prejudice parallels in her own story but I read it with a smile on my face.
6/10
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Memoirs are Made of This - Swan Adamson (2007)
Venus Gilroy is the girl with three ex-husbands, two fathers and a mother who hates to fly. When her faux pa Whitman, a travel writer, introduces her to Susanna Hyde, author of a sex advice column and new editor of Aura magazine, Venus decides it's time she gets a career and move to New York, so she takes a job as Susanna's lowly paid PA. Somehow she has to keep on the right side of her power-hungry boss as she begins ghostwriting the sex column and meeting up with Susanna's latest toyboy. This is one of three books about Venus (which I didn't realise before I started reading but it becomes very obvious at the beginning that another story had been told about her marriage to eco-crusader Tremaynne). This book just feels like the author is dragging out yet another story on the character. More tired than wired.
5/10
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Me vs Me - Sarah Mlynowski (2006)
When Cam proposes to Gabby Wolf on the eve of her leaving for a dream job in New York, she wishes on a star that she didn't have to choose between a fiancé and her job. Suddenly Gabby is leading a double life - each morning, she either wakes up in Phoenix planning a wedding (or watching her overbearing mother-in-law Alice do it) or in New York being a TV producer. Soon she decides that New York life maybe isn't for her - her best friend has started dating Cam, her flatmate is psycho. But in Phoenix she doesn't have a job, she's comfort eating and biting her nails, and of course she has to deal with Alice. But how does she end the battle of Me vs Me?
8/10
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Midori by Moonlight - Wendy Nelson Tokunaga (2007)
Thirty-year-old Midori Saito feels she has never fitted into Japanese life so when the opportunity comes to head to San Francisco to marry Kevin, she jumps at the chance. But at their engagement party, he dumps her for his blonde ex, Kimberley. With her smattering of English supplemented by watching daytime soaps, a dwindling savings account and a visa about to expire, Midori turns to Kevin's Japanese-born friend, Shinji, for help. He lets her move in with him, while the aspiring pastry chef works out how she's going to stay in America. You'll laugh at Midori's mixed idioms as she finds herself “up the creek without a saddle” and root for her as Midori and her soap-inspired alter-ego searches for her American Dream - and the perfect dessert.
6/10
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Motherland - Maria Beaumont (2007)
Also known as 37
Desperate housewife Fran Clark is approaching crisis point. Once a talented voiceover artist, she hasn't had the confidence to go back to work after having her now school-age children, Thomas and Molly. On the night of her 37th birthday party, things come crashing down around her, and she soon hits rock bottom after she hits the wine bottle too often (Watch what happens with the chapter numbers.) It's hard looking after the kids, keeping up with the other bitchy school mums and dealing with the fact that her husband Richard doesn't want her any more. But with the help of her two best friends, Fran drags herself back up from the mother of all breakdowns.
8/10
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Mother's Day - Kirsty Scott (2006)
Gwen, Alison and Katherine meet at a morning tea for class mothers at Farquhar's. Gwen's husband, Rob, is made redundant as another baby is on its way so he heads off to work in England while she stays at home with their other three children. Alison, a journalist with one daughter, is writing a series about attacks on prostitutes but her husband, Darren, is making her feel guilty about all the overtime and her reluctance to extend their family. Katherine, a trophy wife whose two children are reared by a nanny, finds her husband has moved on to one of his mistresses.
8/10
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Mr Maybe - Jane Green (1999)
Libby Mason is looking for The One. She's not sure she's found it in her boyfriend Nick, an attractive but struggling wannabe author who lives in a grotty bedsit. Then Libby finds herself being pursued by investment banker Ed, who is not so attractive but lives in a mansion. She gets engaged, convinces she can fall in love with him. What happens when your head says one thing, but your heart says something else?
7/10
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Must Love Dogs - Claire Cook (2002)
Sarah Hurlihy, a 40-something divorced preschool teacher, is about to delve back into the dating world, putting a personal ad in the newspaper for a man who “must love dogs”. Although her first date with a man with a yellow rose turns out to be a disaster, to put it mildly, she soon finds herself with more than one man on her radar, including John Anderson, who borrowed a dog for their first date, and Bob O'Connor, the father of one of her students. If only her interfering family would stop turning up at the most inopportune times. This book was adapted into the 2005 movie, starring Diane Lane and John Cusack.
7/10
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My Best Friend's Girl - Dorothy Koomson (2006)
Kamryn Matika hasn't been in contact with her best friend since she discovered that Adele had slept with her fiancé, Nate - and that her daughter Tegan is the result. Then she gets a letter from Adele, telling her that she's dying of leukaemia and she wants Kamryn to adopt the five-year-old. With Tegan being mistreated at the hands of Adele's father and stepmother, Kamryn finds she doesn't have much choice - even though she has a busy job and has never wanted to have children. With the help of her new boss, Luke, Kamryn finds she has to adapt quickly to being a mother. Then Nate comes back into her life. Many readers have rated this as their favourite chick lit book.
7/10