Tag: Sophie Kinsella

Review: Wedding Night by Sophie Kinsella

Posted July 24, 2013 by Rowena in Reviews | 1 Comment

Review: Wedding Night by Sophie KinsellaReviewer: Rowena
Wedding Night by Sophie Kinsella
Publisher: Dial Press
Publication Date: May 13th 2014
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 464
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
two-half-stars

Lottie just knows that her boyfriend is going to propose, but then his big question involves a trip abroad — not a trip down the aisle. Completely crushed, Lottie reconnects with an old flame, and they decide to take drastic action. No dates, no moving in together, they’ll just get married . . . right now. Her sister, Fliss, thinks Lottie is making a terrible mistake, and will do anything to stop her. But Lottie is determined to say “I do,” for better, or for worse.

I’m a fan of Sophie Kinsella’s work so going into this book, I was pretty excited.  I loved Can You Keep a Secret? and her last book, I’ve Got Your Number.  Both books had me bent over at the waist, laughing my guts out but I can’t say the same for this one.

This book wasn’t the worst book ever but it was really slow to pick up for me.  The beginning dragged and the middle picked up some but it still took me a long time to get into the story.  And when I finally did get into the story, a lot of things made me roll my eyes and sigh.

Lottie is dating Richard and when Richard brings up going on a special dinner, Lottie thinks he’s going to propose and when that turns out to not be the truth, she flees the scene and dumps Richard as well.  Lottie is depressed and does what any sane woman would do after a heartbreaking break up (not really).  She marries her old boyfriend from many, many years ago.  That whole thing didn’t come off the way that I’m sure the author wanted it to come off for the reader.  As insane but in a funny way.  I thought this was completely dumb.

To make matters worst, Lottie’s sister Fliss (short for Felicity) comes up with the plan to break up the marriage by flying to Ikonos to put a stop to all of the madness.  And she stops the madness by hiring her friend at the hotel Lottie is staying at to create diversion after diversion so that Lottie and Ben (the new husband) can’t have sex.  If they don’t consummate the marriage, they can get an annulment and an annulment will save Lottie from the heartbreak and bitterness that Fliss is drowning in (being divorced and miserable as she is).  Fliss meets up with Ben’s best man Lorcan, who is a guy that Ben doesn’t even like (because he was jealous of Lorcan’s relationship with his late father) and they both intend to fix the mess that Ben and Lottie find themselves in.  The only problem with that is Lottie and Ben don’t to end the marriage.  And both Fliss and Lorcan have different reasons for wanting to break up the marriage.

Getting to know all of the characters in this story made me want to wring someone’s neck. I mean, the situations that they found themselves in (both Lottie and Fliss), the decisions they made, the crap they jumped into – it all made me want to punch a wall or something.  But there were times when I laughed and the ending really made up for the rest of the book.  I liked the ending and I’m glad that I stuck with it but the ending only saved me from giving this book a 1.  While I ended up liking the characters in the end, getting there was a lot of work and came with a lot of frustrations.

Grade: 2.5 out of 5

This book is available from Pocket Books. You can buy it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

two-half-stars

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What I Read Last Week

Posted February 21, 2012 by Tracy in Features | 8 Comments

Hi there!
I’m a day late with this but I’m finally putting it together.
Unfortunately my lovely 3 day weekend was spent taking care of a sick child (my youngest again) and heading to the urgent care. Luckily she’s better now and on the road to recovery but I think I might need 3 days off to recover from my 3 days off! lol
Since she wasn’t moving much we played a lot of games and watched a lot of movies while cuddled on the couch together.  (Unfortunately mommy couldn’t be too far away from her baby before baby started whining. :).) This weekend I saw (again): Wizard of Oz, Peter Pan (the live action one), The Prince of Egypt, Willow, Jumanji, Thor and A Series of Unfortunate Events. I think I’m movied out for a while. 🙂
My reading was a bit schizo this week as I had lots of little bits of time to read rather than long periods. Hopefully this week will be back to normal.
I started off with Sea Change by Darlene Marshall which is the book that I read for my TBR Challenge. It was a great historical – ship – with a cross-dressing heroine book. You can read my review here. 4 out of 5
After that it was I’ve Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella. The story with this one starts with our heroine, Poppy, looking for her engagement ring after a tea with friends. She then gets her cell phone stolen and because she gave out the number to everyone to contact her about the ring – which is a family heirloom from her fiancé – she’s beside herself. She then finds a cell phone in the trash that still works and since it’s finders keepers she keeps the phone. She’s not really willing to give up the phone even once she discovers that the phone belonged to a personal assistant and the man she was assisting needs it back. A fun and funny story. You can read more in my review here. 4 out of 5
My next read was for The Book Binge and it was a novella called Love Revealed by Sorcha Mowbray. This was the story of a woman who is on the outs with the ton because of the fact that her now dead husband had syphilis. Of course it is thought that she must have it too – which is untrue. She takes care of her baser needs at a place called The Market where she can play out her sexual fantasies – and those she hadn’t ever thought about before. There she meets a man who goes by the name of Sir who wants her as a long term partner. Little do they know that they know each other. The story was definite an erotic historical romance that was light on the romance. It was a good book but just too short. There were lots of things to work out between the couple and I just didn’t think they were fleshed out enough by the end of the story. 3.25 out of 5
After that I picked up Few Are Chosen by Storm Grant. I liked this story so much but I wish there had been more of it! lol The story is about two boys who are fighting demons with one going the traditional demon hunter route with the speech and all and the other going more street gang. You can read my review here. 4 out of 5
The Husband Hunt by Lynsay Sands was my next read. This is book 3 in the Madison Sisters series and the story was about Lisa. Lisa is in love with Robert who she practically grew up with. Robert only sees her as a little sister and Lisa goes back and forth with giving up on him and hunting for a husband then trying to make him jealous. I really wanted her to choose one or the other and stick with the plan. You’ll be able to read more in my review when I post it this week.
Another book that I read for The Book Binge was Not Wicked Enough by Carolyn Jewel. This was the story of a woman who was visiting a friend and falls for her brother. Only she doesn’t exactly fall…more like makes a slow slide into it. lol The book was really great and I’ll definitely let you know when my review posts. 4.5 out of 5
Happy World by Kiernan Kelly and Tory Temple was about a man who works at Happy World (kind of like Disneyland) as a groundskeeper. Kyle loves working at Happy World but would really like to get into the theatrical part of it and become a “character”. For now Kyle is stuck training Rory as a groundskeeper and Rory isn’t one to follow rules to the T. The more time the men spend together the more they attracted they come and eventually start a relationship. But there are people who are out to get one or the other and secrets that are kept and this all might bring the relationship skidding to a halt. The story was very sweet and fun. I really liked both men and the story was great. Thanks for the rec., Tam! 4 out of 5
Another of Tam’s recommendations was Grand Jeté by Diana Copland. This story is about an ER nurse, Jordan, who starts falling for one of his patients, Davis. Davis is a ballet dancer who has been hurt and then deserted by his boyfriend and his dance company. He has nowhere to go so Jordan offers to let him stay at his place since he’ll only really be around for about a day. That day…and some…is enough for the two men to get together and form a bond. But Davis has to go back to the west coast and when Jordan tries to contact him his cell is turned off. Jordan has no way to contact him and eventually resigns himself to the fact that he was a bit used. But was he? This was a great story. I loved Jordan and Davis and though the book is pretty simple it was very sweet and pretty darned hot all at the same time. 4 out of 5
My Book Binge reviews that posted last week:
Happy Reading!

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Review: I’ve Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella

Posted February 16, 2012 by Tracy in Reviews | 0 Comments

I’ve lost it. The only thing in the world I wasn’t supposed to lose. My engagement ring. It’s been in Magnus’s family for three generations. And now, the very same day his parents are coming, I’ve lost it. The very same day. Do not hyperventilate Poppy. Stay positive!!

Poppy Wyatt has never felt luckier. She is about to marry the ideal man, Magnus Tavish, but in one afternoon her ‘happy ever after’ begins to fall apart. Not only has she lost her engagement ring but in the panic that followed, she has now lost her phone. As she paces shakily round the hotel foyer she spots an abandoned phone in a bin. Finders keepers! Now she can leave a number for the hotel to contact her when they find her ring. Perfect!

Well, perfect except the phone’s owner, businessman Sam Roxton doesn’t agree. He wants his phone back and doesn’t appreciate Poppy reading all his messages and wading into his personal life.

What ensues is a hilarious and unpredictable turn of events as Poppy and Sam increasingly upend each other’s lives through emails and text messages. As Poppy juggles wedding preparations, mysterious phone calls and hiding her left hand from Magnus and his parents… she soon realizes that she is in for the biggest surprise of her life.
When Poppy Wyatt loses her engagement ring she has no idea that it will change her life forever. Because she is so frantic to find the ring in the hotel ballroom she is pacing the lobby trying to get her cell phone to work. When she heads outside to get a signal she gets her cell swiped! Now she’s beside herself because all the people who could contact her about the missing ring have that cell number. Again pacing in the lobby she happens by a trash bin and what does she find…a cell phone. Hey – finders keepers, right? She needs a phone and there’s one just laying there…why not use it.
The phone is actually the property of a company and belonged to Sam Roxton’s personal assistant who ended up quitting her job on the spot and throwing the phone away. Poppy and Sam begin a strange and insightful relationship into each other that is at times antagonistic and others quite sweet. Poppy helps Sam with many things – including a scandal that breaks out at his company – and Sam helps Poppy stop and think about her own life.
But then there’s Magnus, Poppy’s fiancé. He is brilliant and wonderful and loves Poppy to pieces – or so she thought. Maybe that’s not really what’s going through Magnus’s mind and if he doesn’t love her to pieces, why is he marrying her? And why are his parents against the wedding? And why is she thinking constantly about Sam and looking forward to his texts in the midst of her wedding semi-breakdown?
I’ve Got Your Number takes us into the lives of Sam and Poppy and the proof that two people who are nothing alike can find a common ground and possibly love.
The story was quite interesting as it took Poppy and her phone a lot of different places. It did make me stop and think about how much we use our phones for our lives these days. Sometimes it’s hard to turn the darned thing off and just not care about the outside world for a while. Poppy definitely had this problem as well but it ended up being a good thing.
Poppy was an intelligent woman. She was a Physiotherapist (which I believe in America is a Physical Therapist) so she was very helpful to other people and she really cared about the outcomes of her patients – even going so far as to give a few of them her cell number and having them contact her in emergency – or in some cases to give her good news. She loved her family and cared about her friends but at times during the story she came off as a bit flighty. I think part of the problem was that she was trying to be a friend to everyone and that made her push aside some of her own feelings. I think the brushing off of her own feelings made her seem a ditzy and she really wasn’t. That was one of the things that Sam helped her with and I loved that he saw this part of her.
Sam came off as a workaholic but really we only got to see the work side of him. He was networking or working in his office most of the time and that made him incredibly focused. Poppy even managed to realize at one point that she really knew nothing about his social life or family because all she knew was his work. This did bother me a bit as I would have liked for him to talk to her about himself some more. Sam and Poppy shared a lot of texts and Sam was abrupt to start with but eventually began to loosen up which was nice.
The romance in this book is most definitely not typical. It is done mostly by text and phone call and while that was entertaining it lacked a certain depth for me. I’m glad the book ended up the way it did (I’m not giving anything away) and I can only hope that Poppy and Sam get to know each other better…off page. 🙂
Overall a fun book that I really enjoyed reading.

Rating: 4 out of 5

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Review: I’ve Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella

Posted February 15, 2012 by Rowena in Reviews | 5 Comments

Review: I’ve Got Your Number by Sophie KinsellaReviewer: Rowena
I've Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella
Publisher: The Dial Press
Publication Date: February 14, 2012
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley
Point-of-View: First
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 433
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
four-stars

I’ve lost it. 🙁 The only thing in the world I wasn’t supposed to lose. My engagement ring. It’s been in Magnus’s family for three generations. And now the very same day his parents are coming, I’ve lost it. The very same day! Do not hyperventilate, Poppy. Stay positive 🙂 !!

Poppy Wyatt has never felt luckier. She is about to marry her ideal man, Magnus Tavish, but in one afternoon her “happily ever after” begins to fall apart. Not only has she lost her engagement ring in a hotel fire drill but in the panic that follows, her phone is stolen. As she paces shakily around the lobby, she spots an abandoned phone in a trash can. Finders keepers! Now she can leave a number for the hotel to contact her when they find her ring. Perfect!

Well, perfect except that the phone’s owner, businessman Sam Roxton, doesn’t agree. He wants his phone back and doesn’t appreciate Poppy reading his messages and wading into his personal life.   What ensues is a hilarious and unpredictable turn of events as Poppy and Sam increasingly upend each other’s lives through emails and text messages. As Poppy juggles wedding preparations, mysterious phone calls, and hiding her left hand from Magnus and his parents . . . she soon realizes that she is in for the biggest surprise of her life.

Sophie Kinsella delivers again. I really loved Can You Keep a Secret by Sophie Kinsella. I loved Jack and I loved Emma, it was such a fun book that I re-read it every so often just to fall in love with both Jack and Emma again. I read a couple of the Shopaholic books but after a while, Becky Bloomwood got on my nerves and I couldn’t pick another one up. I haven’t read any of the other books by Sophie Kinsella but I’m so glad that I picked this one up.

This book follows Poppy Wyatt as she goes completely crazy, trying to find her lost engagement ring. She’s engaged to a guy with a family that has bigger brains than her house. They’re so smart and she always feels inferior. So after she loses her engagement ring, she tears the hotel that she was at up trying to find it. Her phone gets lifted and she goes crazy all over again. She finds a new phone in the trash and snatches it up, fully intending to use it as her own until she can find her ring and move on with her life.

The phone belongs to the personal assistant of a businessman named Sam Roxton. All of his emails are sent to the smartphone in Poppy’s possession and Poppy works her magic on Sam and gets him to agree to let her use the phone until she gets her ring back. It is while she has Sam’s phone and is forwarding everything over to him that the story takes off. Poppy gets herself into all manners of madness while she has the phone and to make things even better, she gets Sam mixed up in her madness as well. The longer that Poppy has the phone, the closer they get and it is through the texts, emails and phone calls that their story is told. I loved it all. I fell in love with Sam right along with Poppy. Sam and his blunt, in your face personality, was a real treat to get to know. The way that he was with Poppy, helping her cheat at Scrabble, giving her advice when she needed it and then at the end? To know him was to love him.

Poppy was a fabulous main character as well. Her personality was sparkling and utterly charming and I really enjoyed getting to know her. The things that she got herself into had me laughing my guts out. She had such a great sense of humor and the way that she saw things, the way that she saw life was just a real treat. Even when she should have known better where Magnus is concerned, I liked her.

My only gripe with this story was the end. I thought it took Poppy too long to come around and when the end was nearing and she was still confused about Magnus and Sam, I wanted to bean her in the head. I thought that she should have been let Magnus go long before she did but alls well that ends well. Overall, the story was fun, funny and just too cute for words. I’m so glad that I read it and I definitely recommend this book. Fans of Kinsella will enjoy it as will fans of chick lit fiction. This book is a definite treat!

Grade: 4 out of 5

This book was received through NetGalley and is available from Dial.

Buy the book: B&N | Amazon | Book Depository
Book cover and blurb credit: http://barnesandnoble.com

four-stars

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What I Read Last Week

Posted December 30, 2009 by Tracy in Features | 11 Comments

So Merry Christmas to you all! I know I already said that in a previous post but I just had to do it one more time. We are still in the 12 days of Christmas so I have the right, right? 🙂 I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and received everything your little heart desired.

We had a lovely time at the Tracy household. As I told you I went to 2 services on Christmas Eve so that my ding-a-lingers could play their chimes. I managed to get video of them playing Away in a Manger at the 3:00pm service but the lighting sucked. Sorry. AND the priest (my boss) apparently was talking to a child in the back of the sanctuary and hadn’t turned her mic off – how like her! lol Just ignore that part. Please take into consideration that these kids have only been chiming for about a month…but they’re still damned cute! (My two are the the end one on the left with her back to you and the tall one in the blue dress.)

Christmas Day saw my family gathering at my house with my mom and dad, brother, s-i-l and 1 niece for dinner. It was a nice smallish group and we had a great time. Now I just have to get ready for my oldests 12th birthday tomorrow – yikes! lol

I received a new ereader for Christmas! Yay! I ended up getting the Astak 6″ ezreader and I have to say, I love it. The page turning thing is really the only thing that is taking some time to get used to since it’s more delayed than my ebookwise was but I’m learning to hit the page turning thing a tad early and it’s working out nicely. The lovely Chris, who has an ezreader as well, informed me of some little tricks and tips for adjusting to the new reader and it’s been even better. (I have to admit to ordering it myself. I asked my hubby, which I never do, what he was going to get me and he hemmed and hawed about a new ereader – he didn’t want to let the cat out of the bag. I told him which one I wanted and he told me to order it. Of course I couldn’t open it until Christmas but it was a small price to pay. :))

What I read this week: I actually read 1 book last Monday and then didn’t get to read a novel again until after Christmas. It was nice to catch up this weekend though.

First up was Remember Me by Sophie Kinsella. Lexi Smart wakes up in a hospital and is confused. She’s apparently been in a car accident and can’t remember the last 3 years of her life. She’s got a great job and what seems to be the perfect husband but she remembers none of it. Things have changed greatly for Lexi but she has no idea how or why. Also…the job and the hubby? Are they really so great? I really liked this book. I thought that, unlikely as it was, Kinsella did a great job of showing us that things can change immensely in a short period of time. But are the decisions we make under pressure always the right ones and the ones we really want to make or the ones we feel we have to make. 4.25 out of 5

Next was A Good Neighbor by Clare London. I thought I had read Ms. London before but apparently not. I did read a short that she did in an anthology which I liked but never a novella or novel. I’ll be reading more of her in the future. This story was about a teacher from a small town who was gay but hadn’t come out. He was having a once a month fling with his neighbor but they both wanted more. However the on the road job that the neighbor had didn’t really coincide with the domestic man that the teacher wanted to be. It was a sweet story and though it started off a little slowly it built up to a great finish. 4 out of 5

Next up was Change of Heart by Mary Calmes. I read about this book over a Chris the book pimps place and since I love shifter stories I just had to scoop it up. This book involved a man, Jin, who was beaten and exiled from his werepanther tribe because he was gay. Also because he was what was called a “reah” and apparently his tribe thought that was just all about wrong because reah’s could only really mate with “semel’s” (basically the alpha of a tribe) and since semel’s were all men his tribe thought he was an abomination. When he meets his semel mate and is accepted he has a hard time coming to terms with it all…especially since Logan, his mate, wasn’t gay before he met Jin. This was just a great story…a little of the “gay for you” going on but it was done so well that I just didn’t doubt Logan’s feelings for Jin. 4 out of 5

My Tracy’s TBR Challenge read for the week was The Angel and The Highlander by Donna Fletcher. A man is sent to bring home a neighboring clans daughter from a convent. The daughter is supposedly a shrew. When the man reaches the convent he finds that the daughter is dead but he falls in love with a woman there. When he finds out that the woman he loves is actually the shrew he takes matters into his own hands. I really liked this book up to a point. The romance that was going on between Alyce/Terese and Lachlan was just great until he finds out she’s Alyce and puts his foot down about things. On one hand I see that the man just wanted to be with Alyce and this was the only way he saw he could do it but on the other he tore her away from everything she loved and cared for. Yes, it all worked out in the end, and the whole “having a choice” thing was a major trope and I know that since it was a historical that that’s how they did things but I didn’t have to like it! lol 3.5 out of 5

One of the major highlights of my week was my last read; The Dark Tide by Josh Lanyon. This is the 5th (and for now) final book in the Adrien English mystery series. How do I love Josh’s work, let me count the ways. He just writes a damned good mystery!
Adrien has been renovating the other part of the hotel where his bookstore is located. When the construction workers make it to the 3rd floor they discover a skeleton under the floorboards! Adrien, who is recovering from heart surgery and being shot, hires Jake Riordan to look into some stuff for him regarding the 50 year old murder of the skeleton (well, he wasn’t a skeleton when he died. You know what I mean). In the meantime Adrien is trying to sort out his feelings for Jake after having Jake come out. It’s just not as easy as it would seem especially when he has all his old loves coming by to confuse him.
I have to say that I was so very pleasantly surprised when I started reading TDT. Not that I thought the book would be bad but I assumed that Jake and Adrien would be together and trying to work out the logistics of all that. Silly me. Josh just wouldn’t be that predictable and I’m so glad he wasn’t. The story was interesting and intricate in its mystery and I loved every word. If you haven’t read this series yet, do it! Just good stuff! 5 out of 5

Overall a damned good reading week! Did you read anything fabulous this past week?
Happy Reading!

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