TITLES X, Y and Z
Titles - A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T The U V W X Y Z
You Don't Have To Be Good - Sabrina Broadbent (2009)
In her late 40s, Cambridge council employee Bea Kemp is married to an aspiring writer, Frank, and has always been a good aunt to her nephew Adrian and niece Laura. What appears to be a satisfied life begins to shatter as a series of events lead to Bea's disappearance. Despite the seemingly complicated storyline, and the little emphasis on Bea's own view about things around her, the story is crafted in a beautiful way, adding with it a splash of irony that brings out the tragedy in Bea's life. (XT)
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You Don't Have to Say You Love Me - Sarra Manning (2011)
Neve Slater is on a mission... to lose weight and to be with the man she loves, William. The only problem is the 25-year-old has never had a proper relationship. Besides giving herself a makeover, she wants to find someone she can have a fake relationship with, so when William comes home from California she is prepared for him. One night, after being dragged out by her sister Celia, she meets Max - her sister's womanising editor. But she comes to an agreement with Max that they will pretend to date so Neve can get an understanding of how a relationship works. Who knows what's in it for Max? As time continues, Neve realises that she is depending more and more on Max and thinking less about William. So what's a girl to do - choose the man she is in a faux relationship with or wait for the man she hasn't seen for years? This is a great book about relationships and finding true love. With so many women on a quest to be thinner, Manning obviously hits a nerve as she focuses on Neve's antics to lose weight, highlighting how far a woman will go to get the perfect body - and man. At times though Neve was perhaps too self-involved with her eating and the lengths she took to get thin. (CG)
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You Dropped a Blonde on Me - Dakota Cassidy (2010)
Former trophy wife Max is trying to adjust to life without her car dealer husband's cash. Finley has cut her and her teenage son Connor off, citing a prenup, as he trades her in for a newer shinier model. Homeless and unemployed, Max moves into her mother Mona's retirement village. She runs into Campbell, a former high school classmate who has moved back to help his dad run his plumbing business. There's lots of sexual tension - and sex - between the pair as the wise-cracking Max learns how to suck it up and stand up to her ex. This is the first in a series about ex-trophy wives - got to admit not far in I was already looking to trade this story in for a shinier model too.
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You Had Me at Good-bye - Tracey Bateman (2008)
Book two in the Drama Queens series focuses on Dancy Ames, who lives with Laini and Tabby and works as a book editor at Lane Publishing. Her brother's best friend Jack Quinn not only took her dream job at the firm, but ends up having to fire her because of a change of company direction. Meanwhile, Dancy helps out her friend Nick at his coffee shop and works on her own novel, called Fifth Avenue Princess, whose main character is torn between two men - one sounding remarkably like Jack. Dancy also is dealing with a teenage half-brother who has just arrived on the scene and jealousy that her engaged brother is getting the family condo. Not sure if I read a different book to what the blurb and advance reviews promised - what happened to the storyline about Dancy being dared to send Jack a book, under an assumed name, about a romance between a mean editor and a coffee barista?
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You Had Me at Halo - Amanda Ashby (2007)
Holly Evans has just been watching her own funeral (and she certainly wouldn't have wanted to have been caught dead in that particular polyester dress). The 22-year-old drowned in her bathtub on the night her boyfriend Todd was going to propose. Unable to keep her mouth shut in heaven and with much mortal baggage still to deal with, Holly's spiritual realigner decides to send her back to earth in the body of another recently departed. As luck would have it, one of Holly's work colleagues, IT geek Vince Murphy, shows signs of dying and she is put into his six-foot body. But Vince had only fainted and wakes up to discover he has to share his body with someone with only two days to sort out her life. As Holly embarks on a mission to prove she didn't kill herself, she discovers that not everyone in her life was who they seemed. An engaging, comic read that keeps you turning the pages to find out if Holly will resolve her issues and find out why she died in time. And Holly just seems made for the big screen.
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You Have to Kiss a Lot of Frogs - Laurie Graff (2004)
Forty-five-year-old Karrie Kline, a still single Jewish actress, looks back over 15 years of dating. She goes out with a variety of men from New York to Los Angeles - from long-term boyfriend Jack, to a famous Hollywood actor who barked. There was Elliot, the married journalist; Donald, who wore the same clothes for a week; and Phil, who she mistook as Rob the blind date. Will she find her Prince Charming or just kiss too many frogs?
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Young Wives' Tales - Adele Parks (2007)
Lucy has stolen her friend Rose's husband, Peter, but is now finding life may have been better as a mistress. With barely a maternal bone in her body, she often escapes to her stockbroking job to get away from her four-year-old daughter Auriol. Meanwhile, Rose is making sure she's the best mum possible, making organic meals, volunteering on school committees, not showing her two sons that their father's betrayal has devastated her - even though it was more than six years ago. To avoid rocking the boat, she even allows her friends and family to sign her up to a night course and starts dating again. Their friend Connie, happily married to Luke and a working mother, has managed to stay friends with both women. But her world is rocked when the man she had an affair with, John Harding, turns up at the school gates. The story is expertly told from the varying viewpoints of Lucy, Rose and John. It is the sequel to Playing Away.
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Your Big Break - Johanna Edwards (2006)
Communication specialists Dani Meyers started working for Your Big Break Inc, which arranges relationship break-ups, after her fiancé dumped her on live radio. But she can't seem to follow her company's rules, especially the one about not getting personally involved. But could you end a relationship with a guy whose father has just died or tell your father that his mistress wants to end it?