Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella

This was my first furore into a book by British author Sophie Kinsella, although I have seen the movie Confessions of a Shopaholic based on her best selling series about the Shopaholic.  Just looking at the front cover of Remember Me? screams chick lit and humour, and I wasn't disappointed.  There is a little drama and mystery to this book too.


Anyhow, here is the front cover and blurb.

The central character is Lexi, who has been in a car accident.  She wakes up in hospital thinking it is 2004, the last thing she remembers is being out for a night with the girls from work the evening before her father's funeral.  However, she is actually in 2007 with designer clothes, straight teeth, a flash hair do, a fabulous job and a husband she doesn't remember.  And no friends - well, at least not the friends she used to have.


Lexi has post-traumatic amnesia.  No one can tell her when - or even if - her memories will return.  Lexi has to learn her life all over again.


After being introduced to most of the main characters while Lexi is still in hospital - her mother, younger sister Amy and husband Eric - Lexi goes home to the appartment she shares with Eric, who is a property developer.  Gradually Lexi understands that her house keeper is scared of her, she eats practically nothing, her clothes are all very corporate and her friends are high-maintenance.  When Lexi makes it to work she discovers all her old workmates/friends hate her and that she is a golden girl to management.


However there are three sticky factors: she feels no connection to her husband, she can not figure out how Jon (her husband's colleague) is connected to her, and something is not right at work.


There are some amusing and embarrassing experiences.  Lexi realising she does know how to drive is one.  Lexi trying to fake her way through a senior management meeting without remembering what they are all referring to is another.  Lexi figuring out why her friends are no longer her friends and how Jon fits into her life as well as what a Mont Blanc is are also quite noteworthy.


This is chick lit through and through.  It demonstrates how a flaky girl turns into an ambitious take no prisoners woman who then realises what she truly wants in life.  A good summer read.

Chocolate Cake for Breakfast by Danielle Hawkins

Don't you just love reading books about places and people that are similar to you, that give you the fantasy that you are similar to the person in the book and that scenario just might happen for you?

Well that is what Chocolate Cake for Breakfast by Danielle Hawkins did for me. 

Danielle Hawkins is from Otorohanga in the Waikato/King Country.  Yep!!  Another Kiwi author based in rural Waikato!!  Who would've thought that country life could be so inspiring to a writer?  This is the second book Hawkins has published, and to give you a clue, I enjoyed it so much I went out and purchased her first novel Dinner at Rose's which I will also review soon.  This NZ Herald article from May 2012 gives you an insight into Danielle Hawkins.

So here is the cover of the book and the blurb on the back... I hope I'm not the only one who was intrigued by the cover of the book:

The lead character, Helen McNeil, is a small town rural vet in the Waikato, recently returned from her OE and not long out of a long lasting relationship that had fizzled.  After many years away due to university and travel, she is adjusting back into the community where she grew up and has relatives seeping out of every nook and cranny - some of whom are rather painful.

Her cousin makes her attend a party on a night that she is the on call vet.  And as the back of the book describes, in her attempt to avoid the dullest girl in town, Helen literally trips over an All Black.  She doesn't even recognise Mark Tipene's name when they strike up a conversation in the dark shadows.  Mark is impressed by this lack of recognition, and soon begins his pursuit of Helen.

The fact that Helen is always on call (so it seems), that it is calving season, and that she seems inept at talking to the male of the species combined with Mark's eagerness leads them on some interesting first dates.  It will also give the reader some appreciation of some of the more gory parts of being a vet than the average cat or dog owner wouldn't ordinarily think of.

Of course it is not all smooth sailing for Helen and Mark.  There is a major problem that soon tests their relationship, and lack of communication and assumptions compound it.  But these issues do not stop the very interesting support characters from introducing some hilarious scenarios into the book and that is probably what makes this book so funny and readable (apart from the romance of course).

I loved this book so much I read it twice in three weeks (I've never done that before) and it promoted the fantasy that so many girls in New Zealand have.... an All Black falling in love with them.... even in the back blocks of no where!!

Bridget Jones - Mad About The Boy by Helen Fielding

I was on my OE in London when I first really heard about Bridget Jones's Diary... probably because the film was coming out that starred Renee Zellweger as Bridget Jones, Colin Firth as Mark Darcy and Hugh Grant as Daniel Cleaver.  Also the flat I was dossing in just happened to have a copy of Bridget Jones's Diary conveniently on the shelf in the lounge room.  It was a cringe fest and too funny not to laugh out loud.

I enjoyed that book so much I bought the second book Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason and laughed and cringed my way through that book too.

So I was quite excited to find that Helen Fielding had written a third book... then devastated to find through the publicity machine that she'd killed Mark Darcy off!!!  I couldn't possibly think of how that could have occurred.  Luckily this third book does eventually explain it.

Anyhow, here is the front cover and blurb for Bridget Jones - Mad About the Boy:

 

So Bridget is now a mother... and if you remember how chaotic she was as a Singleton (remember the blue leek soup?), well she isn't much better as a mother.  She is desolate still at the loss of Mark, despite it being five or so years down the track since he died.  She is trying to get a career again, get back in the dating game, come to grips with technology like Twitter and texting, and of course there is that perpetual old chestnut, her weight issues. 

Just to add some more colour to the story are the men she dates, her crazy friends with their own dating/love life issues, a mother who is still on a completely different planet, and a barely holding it together Daniel Cleaver. 

And then there are her two kids, Billy and Mabel, also still coming to terms with the death of their father, coping with their mother's grief and just being your typical kids.

The text swings between your traditional diary entries, lists, graphs, tweets on Twitter, emails and texts.  Chapters are generally short.  There are still the laugh out loud moments and the pure cringe that only a character like Bridget can bring.  There are situations in the book that are so obvious the worst will happen that as you read it is like watching a train wreck unfold in slow motion.

At 386 pages long it is a solid read.  I kept it by the bed and read it bit by bit during the term... but I did go some long periods between reads so had to re-read some parts to get the gist again.  There were other days that I feasted on the book.

If you loved how riridiculously funny first two books, you won't be disappointed by this book (apart from sharing Bridget's sorrow at the loss of Mark Darcy).  It is a good solid completion of Bridget's story.  I'd be hard pressed to see how Helen Fielding could write another book about Bridget before she hits the retirement village now!!

Hand Me Down by Michelle Holman

I was introduced to writer Michelle Holman towards the end of 2010 when a colleague said I should read at book called Bonkers.  She then gave me the book.  It was a funny, kick arse piece of chick lit written by a Kiwi author and I loved it.

I've since bought several of Michelle Holman's books and loved and laughed with them all.  Michelle Holman is a trained nurse and lives in Cambridge in the Waikato with her husband and family writing wonderful romantic comedic novels.  You can read more about Michelle here.

This is the cover and blurb for Hand Me Down:

This book had me hooked from the first page (which is good, because I did pay for it!).  The main female character, April Ritchie, is feisty and difficult, with a secret that is slowly eeked out through the book.  Tarn Elliot, the main male character, also has a bit of mystery about him, and he balances the feistiness of April with his calm manner and decisive actions.  There are plenty of interesting support characters that bring more drama, humour, subversion and secrets to the plot.  There are plenty of cringe moments, laugh out loud moments, mushy moments... and I even learned the odd new fact about running a cherry orchard.  I was thoroughly satisfied with the ending... and it left me wanting to read more from this author.

If you are looking for a book with some escapism, romance, laughter and a feel good ending, this is a good book for a summer's day on the beach, a read on an international flight or curled up on the couch on a raining day too.