Tag: Harper

Review: Who’s That Girl? by Mhairi McFarlane

Posted September 14, 2016 by Rowena in Reviews | 2 Comments

Review: Who’s That Girl? by Mhairi McFarlaneReviewer: Rowena
Who’s That Girl? by Mhairi McFarlane
Publisher: Harper
Publication Date: September 6th 2016
Pages: 544
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three-stars

A laugh-out-loud romance from the author of the bestselling YOU HAD ME AT HELLO

When Edie is caught in a compromising position at her colleagues’ wedding, all the blame falls on her – turns out that personal popularity in the office is not that different from your schooldays. Shamed online and ostracised by everyone she knows, Edie’s forced to take an extended sabbatical – ghostwriting an autobiography for hot new acting talent, Elliot Owen. Easy, right?

Wrong. Banished back to her home town of Nottingham, Edie is not only dealing with a man who probably hasn’t heard the word ‘no’ in a decade, but also suffering an excruciating regression to her teenage years as she moves back in with her widowed father and judgy, layabout sister.
When the world is asking who you are, it’s hard not to question yourself. Who’s that girl? Edie is ready to find out.

I have read and enjoyed a number of McFarlane’s previous books so I was really looking forward to jumping into this one. Especially after reading the blurb. I mean, Edie’s at her co-worker’s wedding, a co-worker that she has a huge crush on and he kisses her then before Edie can process anything, his bride has caught them and Edie becomes instant slut. Talk about drama for your Mama. I was prepared.

I want to say that I enjoyed this book as much as I enjoyed Here’s Looking at You or You Had Me at Hello but while I did like the book, I didn’t love it.

It took a while for me to warm up to Edie because when the shit hit the fan at the wedding, she waffled back and forth between blaming herself for the entire shit storm and playing the victim/blaming Jack for everything. She was so wrapped up in what everyone was saying about her and losing Facebook friends that I wanted to shake some sense into her. She starts off as this big coward but over the course of the story, you see her wise up but holy hell did she take her time getting there.

After the shit storm that was the wedding, it was really hard to go back to the office since she branded the office slut for coming between Jack and Charlotte at their own wedding. I really hated that it was Edie that took the fall for that whole clown fest. I hated that Jack came off scotch free pretty much. So Edie is shipped to her hometown of Nottingham, to write the autobiography of a huge celebrity star named Elliot Owen.

Things aren’t smooth sailing when she gets home since she doesn’t get along with her sister and she carries around a lot of guilt for not visiting as often as she could have with her father. It’s a stroke of luck that her best friends from when she was a kid are both in the same city as her (for once) so having them around calms the rest of the chaos of her life.

Things just kept going wrong for Edie. It was like a domino effect. One thing led to another and then another until Edie was drowning in a sea of mistakes and misunderstandings and if you ask me, a lot of it wasn’t necessary. There was so much going on that it was really hard to keep up and I felt bogged down with too many things. There was Edie’s wedding drama, her family drama, her friends and their different set of dramas then there was Elliot’s drama that became Edie’s drama and then there was the stuff with her Mum and when all was said and done, I felt like some stuff could have been cut out and the story wouldn’t have suffered at all. I mean, there were 77 fucking chapters in this book! I felt like I was reading Outlander all over again.

So yes, I did enjoy the book but I could have done with a whole lot of the drama that was included. Edie did eventually come around and I liked seeing the growth in her character and I liked seeing her relationship blossom but could have done without the bit that came after they finally get together. I liked the relationship that she had with her friends, I loved the blow up with her co-workers and Ian Connor (insert eye roll emoji) but in the end, I felt too much of the story served as fluff.

Grade: 3 out of 5

three-stars

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Harper Lee to Publish “To Kill a Mockingbird” Sequel

Posted February 3, 2015 by Holly in News, Promotions | 1 Comment

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

More than 50 years after “To Kill a Mockingbird” was released, Harper Lee is publishing her second novel. Go Set a Watchman, which is slated for a July 2015 release, features Scout returning home as an adult.  According to the publisher:

“Scout (Jean Louise Finch) has returned to Maycomb from New York to visit her father, Atticus,” the publisher said in an announcement to the AP. “She is forced to grapple with issues both personal and political as she tries to understand her father’s attitude toward society, and her own feelings about the place where she was born and spent her childhood.”

Per a statement released to AP, Lee says this is a book she wrote before “To Kill a Mockingbird“.

“In the mid-1950s, I completed a novel called `Go Set a Watchman,'” the 88-year-old Lee said in a statement issued by Harper. “It features the character known as Scout as an adult woman, and I thought it a pretty decent effort. My editor, who was taken by the flashbacks to Scout’s childhood, persuaded me to write a novel (what became `To Kill a Mockingbird’) from the point of view of the young Scout.

“I was a first-time writer, so I did as I was told. I hadn’t realized it (the original book) had survived, so was surprised and delighted when my dear friend and lawyer Tonja Carter discovered it. After much thought and hesitation, I shared it with a handful of people I trust and was pleased to hear that they considered it worthy of publication. I am humbled and amazed that this will now be published after all these years.”

It’ll be interesting to see how this novel is received. What are your thoughts? 

 

Preorder Go Set a Watchman now. Amazon | Barnes and Noble

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Review: It’s Not Me, It’s You by Mhairi McFarLane

Posted November 26, 2014 by Rowena in Reviews | 0 Comments

its not me its you
Rowena’s review of It’s Not Me, It’s You by Mhairi McFarLane.

Delia Moss isn’t quite sure where she went wrong.

When she proposed and discovered her boyfriend was sleeping with someone else – she thought it was her fault.

When she realised life would never be the same again – she thought it was her fault.

And when he wanted her back life nothing had changed – Delia started to wonder if perhaps she was not to blame…

From Newcastle to London and back again, with dodgy jobs, eccentric bosses and annoyingly handsome journalists thrown in, Delia must find out where her old self went – and if she can ever get her back.

This is my third book by McFarlane and I think it’s safe to say that I’m a fan. I have enjoyed each of her books and I just really like her writing style.

This book follows Delia Moss as she makes some changes in her life after she finds out that her boyfriend has been cheating on her for months. The life that she thought was hers, doesn’t feel like it is anymore and the man that she’s loved for 10 years becomes a stranger to her faster than you can snap your fingers. She quits her life in Newcastle and makes her way to London to stay with her best friend Emma to get away for a little bit and get her head back on straight. While she’s there, she starts a new job, meets a frustrating but super hot journalist and starts to make a life for herself. Slowly but surely, she starts to move on from her life in Newcastle even though she misses it but every day she spends in London, she regains a little more of herself again. The parts of her that made her uniquely, her. The parts that have been missing the last 10 years.

During this time, Paul (the cheating ex) is trying to make her remember that they love each other. Yeah, he messed up but he’s willing to do whatever it takes to fix their relationship because he wants a future with Delia and over the course of the book, you see Delia figure out exactly what she wants.

I was completely Team Adam from the minute he stepped onto the page and that’s saying something because he was a complete dickhead when we first meet him. Sure, his good looks helped his cause but right from the beginning, I knew he was special and I’m glad to see that I wasn’t wrong.

I really enjoyed getting to know Delia. I thought she was such a normal character. I related to her character and through the ups and the downs, I liked her. I even liked her when she was driving me up the wall with everything with Paul. I loved her friend Emma and even forgave her for giving Delia such crap advice when Delia was torn. Nobody’s perfect. *shoulder shrug*

McFarlane delivers another great contemporary romance with loads of laughs, some heartbreaking moments and an ending that I could totally get behind. McFarlane has found her way onto my auto-buy list and that’s saying something since I’m cheap and try not to buy too many books. I definitely recommend this book.

Grade: 4 out of 5

This book is available from Harper. You can purchase it here or here in e-format.

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Review: Boomerang by Noelle August

Posted September 17, 2014 by Rowena in Reviews | 1 Comment

Publisher: Avon, Harper Collins

Rowena’s review of Boomerang (Boomerang #1) by Noelle August.

The first book in a sensational New Adult trilogy from Noelle August

Welcome to Boomerang.com, the dating site for the millennial gen with its no-fuss, no-commitments matchups, and where work is steamier than any random hook-up

Mia Galliano is an aspiring filmmaker. Ethan Vance has just played his last game as a collegiate soccer star. They’re sharp, hungry for success, and they share a secret.

Last night, Ethan and Mia met at a bar, and, well . . . one thing led to another, which led to them waking up the next morning—together. Things turned awkward in a hurry when they found themselves sharing a post hookup taxi . . . to the same place: Boomerang headquarters.

What began as a powerful connection between them is treated to a cold shower courtesy of two major complications. First, Boomerang has a strict policy against co-worker dating. And second, they’re now competitors for only one job at the end of summer.

As their internships come to an end, will they manage to keep their eyes on the future and their hands off each other, or will the pull of attraction put them right back where they started?

I liked this book. It was such a different take on the NA books that I’m used to reading. There wasn’t a tattoo or an abusive childhood going down in this book. This book was about two normal people who are dealing with being grown ups.

Mia just landed an internship that she’s excited about so she heads to the bar to celebrate her good fortune and one things leads to another and next thing she knows, Mia is waking up to a very sexy guy named Ethan who she just had an explosive night with. Mia would have preferred to wake up on her first day at her new job in her own bed, with her own clothes and not in the same clothes she was in yesterday but she can’t really complain about the fun she had the night before so she makes the best of things and gets ready to start her day…at a random guy’s place.

Her one night stand needs to get ready for work so they do that…together.  And then they share a cab to work, only to find out that they work..together.  To make matters even more embarrassing, they find out that they’ll be battling it out for a job. There is only one job at the end of this internship and the job is going to one of them.

What a cute book this one turned out to be. I enjoyed getting to know both Mia and Ethan. They were such enjoyable characters both together and a part. I liked that Mia was all over the place, so unsure of her future but completely sure of herself.  She was such a likable character that it made the story that much more easier to fall into.

Ethan was a good hero. I want my own Ethan. I liked that he was a good guy who was struggling to start his life and completely out of his element but fumbling around anyway. I liked his roommates and his family and especially his soccer team. They were too cute for words.

I liked the romance between Ethan and Mia too. It was hot and steamy and so full of cute. I thought they tackled their problems in a realistic way that was still fun.  This book wasn’t perfect but it was still enjoyable. There were times when both Mia and Ethan did something that made me want to poke them in their eye but nothing they did ruined the book for me.

I’m so glad that I read this book and I cannot wait to get my hands on the next one.  I will definitely be reading it.

Grade: 4 out of 5

This book is available from William Morrow Paperbacks. You can purchase it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

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Review: I Heart New York by Lindsey Kelk.

Posted September 20, 2010 by Rowena in Reviews | 2 Comments


Rowena’s review of I Heart New York by Lindsey Kelk.

Angela Clark is in love—with the most fabulous city in the world!

When Angela catches her boyfriend with another woman at her best friend’s wedding, she’s heartbroken and desperate to run away. With little more than a crumpled bridesmaid dress, a pair of Louboutins, and her passport in hand, Angela decides to jump on a plane for . . . NYC!

Settling into a cute hotel and quickly bonding with benevolent concierge Jenny—a chatterbox Oprah wannabe with room for a new best friend—Angela heads out for a New York makeover, some serious retail therapy, and a whirlwind tour of the city. Before she knows it, she’s dating two sexy guys and blogging about her Big Apple escapades for a real fashion magazine. But while it’s one thing telling readers about your romantic dilemmas, it’s another working them out for yourself. Angela has fallen head over heels for the city that never sleeps, but does she heart New York more than home?

I was looking for something to read and browsing the bookstore last weekend while school shopping with Brenna and after reading Chapter One just standing there, I decided to buy it. Boy was I glad that I did. It was perfect for what I was in the mood for and I ate up Angela Clark’s adventure from London to New York. The book starts off with Angela finding her fiance Mark with his pants around his ankles with some chick that she doesn’t know but that her best friend knows. The day she catches Mark in the act of cheating on her just so happens to be the day of her best friend’s wedding and when she finds out that everyone besides her knew about Mark’s affair, she takes off for the bright city lights of…New York in the US of A.

This story follows Angela has she journeys from London to New York and everything that happened while she was there. Living in London, she did what she had to do but it wasn’t until she moved to New York that she found herself. It’s amazing how easy it was for her to find her way around New York, thanks to the help of Jenny Lopez, the concierge in the hotel that Angela was staying at.

I really enjoyed getting to know Angela. She’s smart, she’s cute and she’s a very likable character. She wasn’t perfect and because of that, I adored her. As awesome as Angela was, for me, it was all about Alex. I loved Alex. I thought he was a great addition to an already colorful cast of characters that I came to love over the course of the book. From Jenny and all of her friends to Alex and even Tyler, I thought they were all great characters because they were “real”. They weren’t fluffy characters that served to move the story along but they were a part of the story and we got to know them at the same time that Angela was getting to know them and I thought Kelk did a great job of making me connect with all of them.

This is the perfect book for a woman to fall into. Kelk creates a story that you’ll want to escape to for a few hours at a time and I thought she did a wonderful job of sucking me into Angela’s life. I rejoiced with her, I got good and pissed off at her, I got teary eyed for her and the overall journey that Angela goes through in this book was great. There were a few things about Angela that got on my effing nerve…like her fight with Tyler? I couldn’t understand why she got so pissed when she was doing what she was doing with both guys and blogging about it as well. I thought she didn’t have a leg to stand on with that argument but in the end, I was happy with the way the book ended and it made me thirsty for more.

I found out that there are more Angela Clark adventures in I Heart Hollywood and I Heart Paris and I am on a mission to get those books to read them. This book was great fun to read and I recommend this to chick lit fans who are in the mood for something light with a dash of adventure!

Grade: 4 out of 5

This book is available from Harper. You can buy it here or here in e-format.

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