Love Reads!

So, I have been thinking over the last few days and I have decided for now to keep Love Reads right where it is. I am still keeping the new domain and when I have more means (and disk space) I will open it up officially. I have great news for you or someone you know that enjoys teen chick lit I am building a second sister site to this one call Teen Reads. Not exactly that different in name I know but I figure it matches the other one quite well and is easy to remember. It will house YA girl lit like the prequels of gossip girl, the A-List and other titles like them. I’m really excited about this and I hope that you decide to follow TR as well!

I have be trolling the web, some of my favorite blogs, and Amazon (which to me is like a Payless) and have some great content coming your way. If you have seen anything interesting in your online travels or have and questions or ideas comment or contact me. I check all the comments and regularly visit my contactable sources like twitter and the like so I see what is put out there though I may not always reply.

Hope you all have a great weekend and I strongly suggest if your able to sit outside and read a bit while sipping your favorite drink because, as we all notice but hate to admit summers starting to wind down so go enjoy it!

There is now a presence in Second Life for Love Reads! For those of you who do not know what SL is feel free to check this site out for information. The particular area where Love Reads is now housed is called Publishing Island and is a area that is dedicated to authors, editors and other people who work in and around the industry in SL and real life. For those of you familiar with it, the SLURL will be added as soon as I can get it embed here.

I plan to create for Love Reads a mini-magazine both Adobe and in Second Life at some point, once I am able to get the needed software. I would also at some point branch out into maybe apparel and such in the more far off future. So, this seemed like a natural progression to be able to reach a wider audience.

I’d like to apoligize for my lack of posting there are many things going on in my life right now that need to be given some time. I am still reading and have a good size list now of books ready to be reviewed. I am also trying to get the funds together to move Love Reads now that it has a solid following to its own website and domain. I have enlisted the help of a good friend who is going to help me with issues for next to nothing. Do not get me wrong I do not have any bad blood for Today.com, but it is not what I am needing right now. As of right now other then widgets I cannot accommodate interested private advertisers as well as I would like and many of the different features I am looking for in expanding cannot be found here. Now, it is not happening right this minute; but soon. I am taking positive steps in that direction and I sincerely hope you will stick with me through this time as it would mean more to me then one could even imagine. Please go to the Contact Us for myTwitter info if you have it and add yourself to my following to keep day-to-day track.

Happy Reading!

By Jane Porter

May 2008

5 Spot

ISBN-10: 0446699241

ISBN-13: 978-0446699242

In Odd Mom Out we got to know Marta Zinsser, a single mom battling the working world while trying to get along with her teenage daughter. One of the obstacles in that story was that one of the PTA mothers at her daughters’ elementary school was often giving her a hard time. We finally get to hear Taylors side (the mom in question) in Mrs. Perfect the newest release by Jane Porter.

Taylor Young makes being a stay at home mom look like an Olympic event. She has perfected every task she has come up against, whether it be running the yearly PTA auction or figuring out the perfect anti-aging regimen; she has it covered.

This book starts a year after the last one ended and small cracks in Taylor’s perfect life are starting to show. The big event, however, that really gets the storyline running is when she finds out that her husband has been lying to her. For the past seven months he has been jobless and searching. The trouble is, he has also been keeping from her that they are in massive amounts of debt. The good news is he has found a job; the catch is that it is in Omaha!

So, off he go’s to acclimate to his no job and she is left with her head spinning. Not only does she have to prepare the house she and her husband built together to be sold, but she also has to figure out a way, all on her own, to get them out of debt without having to declare bankruptcy.

Mrs. Perfect was a great read! I enjoy how Jane can make a story more realistic and less fairy tale, but still make it that it is immensely enjoyable. It is heartwarming without being preachy and definitely shows that with hard work and some great friends to bring you through, life is not so impossible after all.

Finally! I loaded my favorite program and made this awesome new banner! I had originally thought I would have someone make it, but after a few outrageous price quotes I decided to try it again. So, I loaded my Adobe In Design and tinkered around with the settings a bit and what you see above is the result. Hope you like it! Feel free to post what you think!

This week I have got as least two reviews to post for new titles. One is the sequel to Shoe Addicts Anonymous titled Secrets of a Shoe Addict. The other is the sequel to Odd Mom Out called Mrs. Perfect. Marta from the first book even makes a cameo!

I also plan to interview Beth Harbison the author of SAA and SOSA and maybe if I get lucky I’ll even be able to finish an post it by the end of the week.

<3

By Alisa Valdez-Rodriguez

July 2008

St. Martin’s Press

ISBN-10: 031234967X

ISBN-13: 978-0312349677

Those fabulous sucias you have come to know and love are back in Dirty Girls on Top! We begin the story five years after the fact; each of the five friends has gone in their own separate directions, but have decided to come together in New Mexico to catch up.

This year Rebecca has decided to host the now yearly get together at a posh resort. She has a new house nearby and thought some quality time in a warmer climate would be just the ticket for a stress free girls weekend. For a number of years now Rebecca has been married to the perfect man and is mulling over the possibility of selling her super-successful Latina magazine so that she can be focused on starting a family.

Usnavy’s, whose name I still cannot pronounce correctly to save my life, has now been married to Juan for five years and they share a very tomboy daughter. She still, however, can’t seem to feel fulfilled with her life. Juan who is a great Mr. Mom is getting on her nerves; it is almost as if he is too perfect and too emotionally even. She’s bored and has started looking elsewhere for affection, specifically at the moment from a former golf pro named Marcus.

Elizabeth is still dating her partner Sel and they together adopted a beautiful baby boy. Sel though is disgustingly self involved and cannot stand the baby or the lack of attention she feels she is getting from Liz. Liz still is head over heels in love with Lauren and thanks to some strong alcohol finally has a chance to publicly profess it to her. Will it be reciprocated or will she feel worse then before?

Lauren is still pretty immature, the boyfriend she is with is a huge loser in my opinion and she could do so much better. She still writes for the Boston Gazette and has started to get quite a following, but her self esteem is not much better then it was before and before she can be happy with the world around her she has to be happy with herself.

Sara now along with Elizabeth has her own cooking show which is running quite successfully and her sons are thriving now that their abusive father resides in Argentina, hiding out so that he doesn’t get arrested for killing their former maid which happened in the last book. Robert is slowly trying to worm his way back into Sara’s life though which given his track record could get very dangerous. Can she finally stand up to him and get him out of her life for good?

Cuitical is now a rock star and just finished her second album. She is still her fun loving and free spirited self able to get her message out to a much larger group of people. She still hasn’t been very lucky in love, which is only made harder by the fact that she is famous now. Every guy that shows interest in her she has to wonder, do they like her genuinely or because she is famous. She still has her best friend and manager Frank to lean on though; he from the beginning has been there for her and continues to be the sole person who understands her completely.

Sorry for the long review, but these five larger then life personalities cannot be cut short as it would be a huge mistake. Alisa has again woven a funny, thought provoking and heart tugging story. The characters are very real and their thoughts and emotions are totally relatable and if your Latin descent or not does not matter. The story is more about women banding together and realizing their inner strength, then where they come from.

5 out of 5

Hope everyone had a fantastic and safe Fourth of July! The day was also my birthday, I am now 24! Why am I telling you this? Well, I used much of the cash I was given to order books to review! All are current and by authors that either I know or seem promising. Do not worry I am still working hard getting upcoming titles as well, its slow goings at the moment because of the holiday, but as everyone trudges back to work with some semblance of a hangover still present I am sure I will hopefully be getting calls returned.

I also added a Amazon widget as you can see to my sidebar, I will continuously be updating it as I finish books. This way if you would like to read a book after reading one of my reviews all you have to do is find it on the widget and you are set! Hope you all enjoy the rest of your work week and don’t forget to keep your eyes peeled as I have a review and an interview coming out this week!

By Marian Keyes

June 2008

William Morrow

ISBN-10: 0061124028

ISBN-13: 978-0061124020

I have been reading Marian Keyes novels since I started reading Chick Lit. The first one I read by her was Watermelon and since then I have been hooked. Her observational style, along with her wit and deep understanding of emotions helps create stories that are not only readable, but worthy of reading despite the Harry Potter like length.

Paddy De Courcy is quite the ladies man, having probably had more girlfriends then most people have had cavities. Paddy also has a long string of women in his wake that have never been able to be the same after being in a relationship with him. Recently, Paddy has become engaged to a woman by the name of Alicia, from his checkered past, which causes some of the women who came before to wonder; why her?

Grace Gildee & Marnie Hunter are sisters who couldn’t be less alike, but despite their differences have always been each others best friend. Grace works at a local newspaper doing news and feature pieces and when she comes upon this new information and she knows now is the time to find the answers she has been looking for. Marnie, is a wife and a mother of two who unlike her sister lives with her family in London rather then Dublin. At first, it seems that she has quite a normal life, but despite all this she suffers from crippling fear most of the time and has developed a drinking problem over the years she just can’t shake.

Lola Daly is the most recent ex of Paddy’s and has gone as a result of the engagement announcement completely out of sorts. So much so in fact that she leaves her job as a stylist and Dublin behind in search of some mental and physical peace and quiet. I found this characters story to be the best as she is sweet, yet naive and well I will leave you to it with two words; cross dressers.

This book is a great read which takes turns telling the story that is the life of Paddy and his women in a sad, sometimes funny, relatable way. Though the story as is Marian’s trademark is long it at no point drags along and continuously keeps your interest the whole way through. A definite buy!

5 out of 5

I have recently been trying to be more proactive in terms of helping my blog reach as many interested readers as possible. The idea at first might seem easy, but let me tell you that it is not, especially if someone is just starting out such as myself. So, when I came across the Blogging Idol icon on Daily Blog Tips I was very excited at what I saw.

Daily Blog Tips, created Daniel Scocco has started a program that lasts the entire month of July and pits bloggers against each other in the quest for RSS and email subscription supremacy. The prizes for the winner are awesome, but as new as I am, I would be glad for just a few extra fans.

I want to be able as I said to reach as many loyal fans of chick lit as possible and I hope that in participating in this contest I can meet some of them. So, if you are so inclined please join the RSS or email feed. I have previously written a post about them here if you are unfamiliar with what exactly those terms mean. I plan to be running contests throughout the entire month to help bolster readership so sign up and maybe get some goodies in the process!

Today I was doing my usual stroll around my favorite blogs and came across a post written by one of the very insightful women at Trashionista . The post was actually linked to another post, which within it a case was stated that there has been a huge downfall in the merit of YA lit.

Now, as of this Friday I turn twenty-four so I do not consider myself that far outside YA’s demographic. I grew up during the authors supposed indication of the downfall of the genre. When I was in grade nine the first Gossip Girl (yes, it was a book) came out and I totally ate those books up. Though the occasional sexual references and swears left a little to be desired I liked what I found to be the underlying message. That message to me was, though it may seem you are unlike anyone in the troubles you face you are not alone. Sure, those girls threw around more trendy brand names then there are fish in the sea, but the troubles are always similar.

Another is a word I resent having been put into said article, and am appalled as a writer at its use is the statement that popular YA in today’s world has been ghettoized! Classics such as To Kill a Mockingbird were mentioned and though I in no way am stating those are not crucially important titles to read at some point books such as that were never meant exclusively as young adult books at the time of their publications for the most part. Take The Pigman for example by Paul Zindel. That is not as much of a classically regarded title as KAM but has in the last ten years has been on many high school and junior high reading lists for various reasons.

My point is this: Look at studies if you must or read a few of more YA and you will find on closer examination that just as the rest of the world does, these books change with the times. The messages may be presented differently and sometimes outlandishly so, but writers tend to play to what they believe their audiences would be most likely listen to. It may be put in a different way, but it is in no way GHETTO it is just different packaging.

By Jane Porter

September 27, 2007

5 Spot

ISBN-10: 0446699233

ISBN-13: 78-0446699235

Recently, I started reading Mrs. Perfect, a story about an overachieving soccer mom whose world burns to the ground. That book is actually a sequel to another book by the name of Odd Mom Out.

Marta Zinsser is not you’re your everyday mother. She prefers combat boots to sensible shoes and prefers to wear jeans and a T-Shirt as opposed to clothes you would find at Lane Bryant. She has a nine-year-old daughter Eva who is desperate to fit in with her peers and constantly nags her mother about why she doesn’t act or present herself like the other mothers do.

Marta moved from New York to her home of Washington for a promotion, but was sacked soon after the company merged with another. Now she owns her own advertising firm called Z designs and is about to embark on her biggest opportunity yet, designing a ad campaign for Freedom Bikes a classic motorcycle company. She also moved back to be with her family, her mother was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and she wants to be closer to be able to help and give Eva some quality time to make memories of her grandmother/

Things are starting to get very messy, however, as key parts of her life seem to be slowly slipping out of her grasp. Her mothers symptoms are getting worse, she is often wandering the neighborhood now at all hours. Eva is starting to approach that age where she begins to challenge authority and their once super-tight relationship is now becoming strained. Plus, she is trying to help Eva by making more of an effort to be a classical mom, but balancing these new duties with her parental and work ones leaves her often catching her breath.

I thoroughly enjoyed Odd Mom Out. Jane has a great way of storytelling where she interweaves the past with the present rather fluidly and the ending is harder to guess then is usually the case with chick lit. Reading this book is not necessarily a must to enjoy the sequel, but it is one I recommend to give you a fuller picture as a character she interacts with is profiled.

5 out of 5