Book Review: One Thing Led to Another by Katy Regan (CHLOE)

When Tess Jarvis and Jim Ashworth drunkenly sleep together neither of them expects that it will result in a baby.

But that's exactly what happens, and Tess is in complete shock over her unexpected pregnancy. Both Tess and Jim want to stay friends with no romantic involvement but don't like the confused looks people give them when they try to explain their situation.

Tess, with the help of her friends, has to try to come to terms with single parenthood, and has to do a little growing up of her own.

Rating: 5/5

Pregnancy is a very common theme in women's fiction these days - from IVF, to women getting pregnant on the sly and unplanned pregnancies. But One Thing Led To Another has a different slant on the issue, and perhaps one which sits well in our modern times as well - a baby with a best friend after a suprise 'union' shall we say! This book is actually based loosely on author Katy Regan's personal experience of having a baby with her own best friend, and the relationship that followed. The book really benefits from her experience with brilliant writing, real emotion and realistic characters all the way through.

The book starts at the beginning of Tess' pregnancy, although she doesn't actually know it yet! She's an instantly likeable character, stuck in a bit of a rubbish job as journalist on a magazine covering the 'real life' sob stories, sharing a house with best mate Gina and occasionally getting together with other best friend Jim Ashworth, who is unknowingly about to become the daddy to Tess' child. The discovery of her pregnancy is done with real humour, and actually made me laugh out loud which was a great start! From there on, the laughs kept coming and Regan's easy writing style really allows the reader to get into the story, and makes the book impossible to put down!

The story's very believable and this is what allowed me to get so into this book, without a doubt. I really enjoyed Jim's reaction, and I was pleased that Regan chose to write Jim as she did as he is a lovely character, and the on-going and changing relationship between Jim and Tess was really fascinating to read. The twists and turns along the way kept the momentum going and stopped the book from getting at all boring, instead keeping the reader engaged. It wasn't easy to see how it would work out for Tess and Jim, and Regan certainly didn't make it a smooth ride, leaving you guessing almost up until the final pages about how it would all end. But the most enjoyable thing about the book is the realistic insight into pregnancy, and having a baby with a friend. Regan really goes into Tess' emotions and so the book has such a believability to it, there are points where you feel you could be reading Regan's own life story. It really is inspiring, as well as being funny and poignant.

The pace of the book was just right, and it seemed to move through Tess' pregnancy at a good pace, and luckily without too many characters. So many novels are ruined, I believe, through having too many characters but Regan keeps it to just Tess, Jim, their friends Vicky and Gina, and Tess' family. Others get a mention but aren't too vital to the plot and just work well as minor characters. Also, the book is written in the first person and allows you to get to the heart of Tess, almost living her pregnancy, hormones and emotions with her because of the emotive and compelling writing style. The narrative is really enjoyable; you can tell Regan has a background in journalism (she wrote a column based on her own pregnancy for Marie Claire) because her writing just flows, and reads so well.

This is women's fiction at its best, and I would expect this book to be a real hit with lovers of the genre. It takes a somewhat overdone subject and puts a new spin on it, injecting a little humour and plenty of emotion into the mix just to make it that bit more appealing to the reader. Add in loveable characters, a wonderful heroine and you have a real recipe for success. For a debut novel, this is really brilliant and I really hope Regan goes on to write more in this genre - Regan and the Women's fiction genre are a match made in heaven! Definitely recommended - light-hearted, funny and a great unputdownable read!

Author Interview: Milly Johnson

Milly was lovely enough to send us some fab answers to our questions, including her opinions on her own books, and what she likes best about being an author.

1. How did you get started writing books? Were you writing for long before you became published?

I’ve been writing books for as long as I can remember!  I was always making my own with paper and staples and writing stories.  I realised I wanted to make it my career when at University doing drama – (it shifted from being a hobby to a passion).  Trouble was – I hadn’t gained enough life experience at 22 to write the sorts of books I do and my early attempts were doomed to failure.  But all that ‘practice writing’ I did just helped me hone my craft, albeit that happened unconsciously.  It took me 15 years from taking it seriously to getting published – but on and off, because sometimes I would abandon all attempts at trying to get published, only to resurrect my ambitions again later. 40 was the perfect age for me to get a book deal – my writing had matured and I had a lot of perspective of life – and had done a lot of living to write about.  It sounds a long time, but it was worth the perseverance, I can tell you!

2. You've said that Lou Winter in your latest book "A Spring Affair" is loosely based on yourself. How did you feel about putting in a character that was so much like you into your book?

Characters have a habit of starting off quite closely based on a real person and then becoming their own people.  Lou was a character that stayed quite close to me and I liked that because I could write about what happened to her with total conviction.  The clutter-clearing adventure I had, which changed my life, inspired the book and so I could counter anyone that might say that what happened to Lou was nonsense (although no one has yet!)  I didn’t mind exposing myself so much in her because both Lou and I are typical women, always moaning about our bum-size, but loving her food too much to diet and an awful lot of women out there relate to that, and that’s a big reason why my books sell.  Lou is a decent, kind woman and it was a joy to write her the happy ending she deserved.  I’m hoping she’ll leap out of the book and write one for me.

Book Review: Husbands and Lies by Susy McPhee

Fran is happily married to Max and the pair have a young daughter called Lottie. However, things in Fran's life aren't going too well.

Her best friend Alison has cancer and she asks Fran to do her an unusual favour - find her husband a new woman for after she has gone. Fran isn't too keen but decides to help out her friend. One evening on a dating website, Fran comes across a shocking profile, one who looks scarily like her husband Max.

Fran sets about finding out the truth about "Footloose" but at what cost? Is Fran about to find out things she wished she'd left alone, and is she really willing to throw away her marriage?

Rating: 5/5

This book really drew me in, and its not often that a book does that to me. Yes, I want to read them and enjoy them, but this one had something about it that made me want to pick it up and devour it quickly. The cover wasn't anything special, looking quite feminine with its pinks and purples but the storyline sounded very interesting to me. Initially I drew comparisons with another novel along the same lines by Lucy Dawson called "His Other Lover", but luckily for me this book turned out to be far better written and more enjoyable than Dawson's efforts. I started the book as soon as I got it home, and read it in just 2 days which shows how much I really did enjoy it.

One thing for me that kept me reading were the characters. The book was written in the first person from the perspective of lead character Fran, a woman who seemed very real and likeable. For me, a likeable lead female is crucial in women's fiction because they have to carry the story through and keep the reader interested, and McPhee's Fran has definitely done this for me. Fran comes across as a normal woman struggling with her husband's deceit, and I felt for her throughout the book. McPhee writes her emotion incredibly well, putting on paper how we would all feel were this to happen to us, and it made for quite powerful reading in parts. Fran's narrative was easy to read, making it clear what was happening, her inner turmoil and just a generally good and enjoyable first person narrative.

Other characters in the book include Fran's husband Max, who we strangely don't see much of and this only encourages suspicion on the reader's part, which is cleverly done by McPhee. He's somewhat mysterious, as is Alison's husband Adam and this works well in the story. Alison is clearly the tragic character of the group, suffering terminal cancer and coming to terms with that. But the close friendship between Alison and Fran, and acceptance of their circumstances was incredibly touching and very poignant. The harsh reality of cancer has been made very clear lately with the death of Wendy Richards, and Jade Goody dying from cancer, and perhaps this is why this particular storyline struck such a nerve with me. Still, McPhee has done this story with dignity and a real grace, and the relationship between Alison and Fran is wonderfully written.

At just over 300 pages long, I felt the story had a good pace to it and kept me wanting to read on throughout. It didn't slow down at all, there were twists and turns along the way which threw me in a new direction and this is what I really enjoyed about this book. I was gripped right up until the end, and when I'd finished, I really felt like I'd been on an emotional rollercoaster. McPhee covers a lot of ground in this book, from cancer to infidelity and friendship, yet the novel is just a fantastic and enjoyable read that I am sure you'll struggle to put down. It's definitely "grown-up" fiction, and I thoroughly loved this book. The author's second novel The Runaway Wife is due out in September and I'll be looking to read that too, although this will be a hard act to follow. Highly recommended.

Book Reviews - Rumour Has It by Jill Mansell

Tilly Cole is happy working in London, but realises that life isn't going to plan when her latest boyfriend moves out while she's at work. She decides she's had enough and moves to the small town of Roxborough where her best friend Erin lives.

She gets a job working for a gay Interior designer and his daughter, basically as their dogsbody but soon begins to love village life. But when Max's best friend Jack comes onto the scene, Tilly is knocked for six as she wasn't expecting to be attracted to anyone so soon.

Tilly is soon caught up in the lives and loves of all of Roxborough, but is she going to find love even when she doesn't want it?

Rating: 5/5

The premise of the story didn't sound too exciting when I initially read it on the back of the book, but I knew it wouldn't be a straight-forward story like you might expect from other authors. Jill Mansell has a way of creating stories and characters that the reader actually begins to care about and that is what drew me back to her book, and will make me read her older novels too. The story is actually relatively similar to 'An Offer You Can't Refuse' but again the twists and turns along the way makes it totally readable and a brilliant book. Also, I did feel that it was a tad predictable, especially regarding the ending but that didn't detract at all from my enjoyment of the book as a whole.

Mansell has chosen a female lead for this book, and as I always say, the lead character has to be likeable and hold the whole story together for me to want to continue the book. Luckily for me, I liked the character of Tilly straight away, mainly due to the way Mansell has written her. She is very unlucky in love and I felt sorry for her but as the story unravelled my opinion of her changed (not in a bad way!) but still I enjoyed the journey that she took along the way. However, for me it wasn't Tilly's story that gripped me the most, but that of her best friend Erin. To be honest, this is what I really loved about this book - it wasn't just the main story that I loved but even the minor storylines are fantastic too.

Erin is happy in her relationship but there is someone in Roxborough who isn't too happy. However, there is a shocking twist in here that took me completely by surprise but Mansell has tackled this perfectly and made such a wonderful story out of it, it really struck a chord with me. The characters involved all worked well in the context of this storyline and I loved it. There was a bit of a mystery about Jack that went on through the book, the relationship between Tilly and her employer Max and his daughter Lou was well explored, and Max's ex-wife Kaye pops up for her own good storyline too. All in all, you can see there is a lot going on in the book, but its not hard at all to follow along and that's because of Mansell's writing talent.

Mansell has chosen to write the book in the third person, and I do love this way of writing. To me, third person is like proper story-telling because you having it told to you, rather than the first person where you almost have to imagine the lead character talking to you. The third person factor also works well when you have a few storylines going on at once because it allows it to be easy to follow, and just feels like a classic story. Mansell really delves into the relationships of her characters from the word go, and doesn't shy away from the more tough times in friendships too. The relationships with the characters change throughout, and it just makes the book that bit more realistic and consequently enjoyable for me.

You can probably tell from the tone of my review that I really did love this book, and I wouldn't hesitate in recommending it not only for Jill Mansell fans, but also for people who just love a good story. It is a great book to settle down with in the evening because it is easy to read and very enjoyable, the characters are all likeable and the stories all interweave nicely and come together for a predictable but still satisfying end. It's a nice enough length for the stories to develop thoroughly, but not so long that you're bored by the end and Mansell seems to judge this perfectly. It's a brilliant review, and I really enjoyed reading this book, and felt a tad sad when it ended! I'll have to look out for her older stuff now to keep myself happy until her next book! Highly recommended!

Book Review: The Importance of Being Married by Gemma Townley

Jessica Wilde isn't too interested in relationships, so when her elderly and ill friend Grace keeps pestering her about finding a man, Jessica decides to make one up, to the point where she marries him!

The only problem is she pretended to Grace that she married her boss Anthony Milton, and in Grace's will, she has left everything to Mrs Jessica Milton.

Jess realises if she wants her inheritance, she has to marry Anthony for real - but she only has 5 weeks to do so. Can she make Anthony fall in love in just a few weeks? And is it really what she wants?

Rating: 5/5

According to the author's foreword, she has somewhat based this story upon the play "The Importance of Being Earnest" by Oscar Wilde after reading it but I can't really comment on that much because I haven't read that story myself. To me, it just sounded like a fun if unrealistic and somewhat silly storyline, but I don't read books for them to be like real life because for me, reading is escapism and I do enjoy a silly read sometimes. I do get nervous reading new authors, especially if I've parted with my hard earned cash for them, but after reading just a few pages of this, I knew I would love it, and I actually found it hard to put down!

The book begins by introducing us to Jessica Wilde and her grandmother who is a nursing home. This is how Jess meets Grace, and it takes a good few pages to set the story for this book. However, I liked this because I felt like I was getting a really good background for the story and it allowed me to feel like I was straight in there from the off, which is always good for keeping a reader interested. I was unsure at first whether the introduction had gone on a bit long, but with hindsight it was very enjoyable and set the scene nicely. The rest of the book is Jessica trying to get her boss Anthony to fall for her, and what happens from then on, so it does cover a good amount of story albeit in a short time period in which the book is set.

Being written in the first person, the book had to have a likeable leading lady and Townley has definitely created that in Jessica Wilde. I sort of felt like Jessica had got what she deserved when her inheritance was left to her married name, after all no good comes of lying, but as the story unfolds I felt differently and really liked Jessica. She's a happily single woman in a good job in advertising, and its nice to see a strong woman in a lead role who isn't desperate for a man as these characters often are in "chick-lit". But Townley has made Jessica likeable which is important in a book aimed at women, and the way she developed throughout the story was well done and didn't seem too ridiculous.

The supporting characters were also good, although you can sort of see through most of them straight away and how things will turn out with them in the end. Anthony was a smary so and so, and although I didn't like him, he was very good for the story and made for some interesting reading. His colleague Max is clearly besotted with Jess but to my annoyance she just couldn't see it. He was a lovely man though and he balanced out Anthony very well. Helen is Jessica's best friend, and probably the nicest character out of all of them, and certainly the most normal as well! They all work well in the story, and its nice to see a range of characters in the book.

I was really impressed with this book, and indeed the authors writing style too. It had me engrossed from the first few pages and although the story seemed a tad ridiculous, it was a really fun read and something I quickly got into. The characters were likeable and fun, and made a silly storyline enjoyable which was important when you're looking at a story that is slightly unbelievable. Townley has used the first person narrative very well, and although this isn't my preferred method of story-telling, it works well in this book and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I would recommend it to people who like a light-hearted read to pass the time, because this did the job for me nicely. It was fun, and at 352 pages it's not too long either, it was just right. A highly enjoyable read, and I look forward to reading its sequel to be released in Jan 2010, "A Wilde Affair".

Book Review: What My Best Friend Did by Lucy Dawson

"When Alice meets Gretchen for the first time, it feels a bit like falling in love. Life's got a bit boringly grown-up of late: weekends at weddings and baby-showers, celebrating friends' transitions to a life she isn't quite up for yet, and, at home, a sweet-and-stable boyfriend she suspects she's outgrown. Gretchen Bartholomew, with her air of impulsiveness and intuitive style, is that rarest of things: a proper, new friend who knows how to have fun. Even the added complication of Gretchen's gorgeous brother, Bailey, might actually be just what Alice needs. Before she knows what's hit her, Alice's brilliant new best friend is turning her world upside down. But Gretchen has a dark secret, which - like a time bomb ticking in her hand - won't stay hidden for ever. The explosion may teach them both more than they ever wanted to know about how female friendships can go wrong."

Rating: 5/5

I really was not at all impressed with Dawson's first novel "His Other Lover" - she had written weak characters, an unsatisfying story and a dreadful ending so I was hoping that things could only get better with her second offering. The plot was again a look at the darker side of relationships, this time a platonic friendship between 2 women who meet on a whim and form a friendship without really knowing each other. It had similarities with Dawson's first book in that there is a bit of a mystery running throughout, but luckily for me and Dawson's other readers, the writing, characters and story are far better and makes a really good read!

The book starts off with a pretty explosive start and left me totally hooked, eager to find out what had caused the circumstances that the book began in. I think this was a good device by Dawson, leaving us desperate to read more and I was also intrigued to read the background to the characters as well, especially Alice who was quite interesting. I really liked the lead character of Alice who started off as quite a normal woman happy with her boyfriend and business, but is changed a lot by her new friend. As the reader, we can see how Alice changes and the effect it has on all her relationships but she herself can't see it which makes the dynamic of the book interesting. I disliked Gretchen from the off, I can't put my finger on why but she just seemed very unlikeable and this worked well with likeable Alice, making the readers emotion stir up enough to keep reading.

There were really only 2 male characters in the book, Alice's boyfriend Tom who wasn't actually present in a lot of the book, and Gretchen's brother Bailey, a bit more a presence than Tom and another likeable person. Dawson has definitely improved with her character writing because all the characters were believable as people and helped the story develop in a good way which worked well in the scope of the story. The issues covered by the author regarding the characters are well tackled, and the relationships chop and change well with these problems, adapting as necessary and this was really well done by Dawson. Gretchen and Bailey's relationship is particular was quite touching and written with a real sensitivity of the situation and for this, Dawson deserves real praise.

The thing I enjoyed most about the book was the way the author has approached the telling of this story. It starts off with a shocking start, and this is slowly revealed as the book progresses through alternate chapter flashbacks and eventually leading up to the present. When Dawson took me back to the past, I was sometimes wishing she would hurry up a little and get to the crux of the issue so I could find out why it was all happening as it seemed to drag in parts but it soon picked up pace again when we sent back to the present time and Alice's dilemmas were being uncovered. Dawson really did keep me guessing, and there were quite a few twists and turns along the way that surprised me and I liked that Dawson was able to do that. I thought it was going to be predictable, but it certainly wasn't, and I really was guessing right up until the last few pages.

If you like "chick-lit" with a bit of a difference, then 'What My Best Friend Did' just might be the book for you. It is a vast improvement on the author's debut novel and I thoroughly enjoyed the read. For a novel, it is quite short at just under 300 pages but it is a packed book full of twists, turns and a really good story. I didn't want to put it down of an evening because I was desperate to find out what was going to happen next, and I think all credit is due to the author for this. I am pleased Lucy Dawson made such an improvement in this book, and it really is such a good read I would most definitely recommend it to anyone who is a fan of the genre, you'll be gripped!

Book Review: Baby Proof by Emily Giffin

Claudia has never wanted children, and she was worried about finding a man who would share her feelings on the subject. But when she meets Ben and finds out he thinks the same as her, the pair marry and are happily settled. But soon their friends start having children, and Ben starts to change his mind about babies. However, Claudia isn't willing to change hers and she faces one of the toughest decisions of her life. Will she be willing to lose Ben over it?

Considering most stories in the "chick-lit" genre you seem to read either seem to be about unexpected pregnancies, the woman wanting babies and their husband not, or families as a whole, this book seemed really different to me and I was interested to see how Giffin was going to tackle the issue of the female character not actually wanting to have children, which after all is something that does happen in real life. Also, considering that Giffin has 3 children herself, I wondered how much she was going to be able to get into the head of a character who didn't want the family the author has.

Although both characters had the same ideas when it came to children, it was pretty obvious that one of the characters was going to change their mind about this in order to give the novel direction and Giffin has done this change in a subtle manner. It didn't happen immediately, you could see hints that Ben was thinking about babies, and I did feel a lot of sympathy for him when he couldn't get his wife to even think about babies with him. Ben is well written, and is clearly meant to be the more sympathetic of the 2. I couldn't really warm to Claudia, I found her to be quite stand-offish but although I didn't agree with it, I could understand her personal thoughts about not having children.

I found this book cleverly plays on your emotions because for most people, the natural thing to do one you've found your love is to settle down and have a family with them. But Claudia doesn't want the family. The odd thing for me was she didn't seem to have much of a reason for not wanting children, she just didn't feel maternal enough. I feel if there had been a stronger reason for it I could have felt a little more involved in the book but as it happened I couldn't stop myself feeling that she was being a bit selfish, and I know that's quite wrong of me! Giffin used the sad lives of Claudia's sisters to emphasise the situation as well, as one sister was having IVF to have a baby, and the other has 3 children and her marriage is in tatters. This is what made me dislike Claudia a bit more, but again you can't hate her just because of her own feelings.

Giffin's first person narrative from Claudia's perspective allows you to delve right into the mind of Claudia from meeting Ben to the pair struggling with their differences towards children later on and the following story. As with her previous novels, its really well written and an enjoyable read, especilly beause it tackles an issue which I haven't seen widely in this genre. The characters were nice, although I would have liked Ben to feature a bit more but its understandable why he didn't. This is a very readable book which tackles a good subject in an excellent way, and I would recommend it.