Glamour - Louise Bagshawe

Apologies for the hiatus in posting; I have been reading, but I've started a new job and have been quite busy tutoring in the evenings, so my blogging had fallen to the wayside for a little while. However, I am back!

I took a copy of Glamour by Louise Bagshawe out from my local library a few weeks ago, as it was one of the Books of the Month on Goodreads.com, and I'd read another Louise Bagshawe book last summer and quite enjoyed it.

With Glamour, however, I had quite the experience.

I must have had an original copy of this book, because it was RIPE with ERRORS! There were characters with different last names on different pages (or sometimes, a character had a different last name in two spots on the SAME PAGE of the book). There were missing capitals, poor punctuation, and overall confusion with the names of characters. It was really difficult to read around the mistakes.

The story itself was pretty good, but by the end of the book I had grown pretty tired of the characters and started to get bored. At one point I told my boyfriend that I just wanted to finish the damn book; I had lost a lot of interest. I did not feel like this when I was reading Sparkles, but I think that's because Sparkles had a mystery element to it, and when you reached the end you were itching for the exciting conclusion. This story felt like it went on for a bit too long, with much of the same conversations happening over and over.

I know that in updated versions of the book, the errors were fixed, as other readers on Goodreads.com did not encounter what I did with this story.

The most surreal thing that happened when I was reading this book? I had twittered about all the errors in the story... and then the next day, Louise Bagshawe herself started "following" me on Twitter.

How much do you want to bet she's the type who Googles her own name too?

I'm torn about recommending this one. I'll just recommend Sparkles, the other Louise Bagshawe book I've read, and then I'll say you might enjoy this one (I did for a good majority of the book), but just be prepared that the ending sort of drags in my very humble opinion. I'll file this one under "library it".

Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella

Yesterday afternoon I had a nice, long bubble bath. When I have my bubbles baths, I have to spend a chunk of that time enjoying a good book. Rather than starting a new book, I picked up Sophie Kinsella's Remember Me? which I had read when it first came out, and was wanting to read for a second time.

I ended up finishing it by the time I went to bed last night.

And I just wanted to say, as I've said before, I love Sophie Kinsella stories.

So, just recommending Remember Me? and everything else Sophie Kinsella once more.

I think I might re-read The Undomestic Goddess next...

Chasing Harry Winston

I recently finished reading Chasing Harry Winston by Lauren Weisberger.

I very muched enjoyed The Devil Wears Prada and Everyone Worth Knowing so I was excited to read this next book and I took it out from the library a week or two ago, eager to dive in.

The story is of three best friends, all of very different personalities, who live in New York and make a pact to change their love lives in a year. The slutty/sexy friend vows to look for a husband, the serial-monogomist friend vows to start having a few more flings and one-night stands, and the third friend doesn't know what her resolution will be (as her life seems near-perfect to everyone but her), but it's the third friend who discovers that more will change for her in the year than she necessarily expected.

And the verdict? I liked it, I really did.

But I didn't love it. It was a good chick-lit read, and the characters were enjoyable, but it wasn't an amazing-omgz(!!!) story that I'd necessarily rush to recommend to people.

I say, if you're looking for a new chick-lit book to read, then go for it. Her writing style is definitely better than some authors out there, and it is a good enough story. But, I wouldn't necessarily rush to read this one, as it's nothing out of the ordinary, in my very humble opinion of course. I prefered her other two books to this one.

I'm filing this review under a new tag called "library it", because I say, give it a read... but maybe don't waste money buying it. The tag "recommendation" will be for something I'm sure of, and "avoid" is pretty self-explanatory.

Currently Reading:
One for the Money: A Stephanie Plum Novel by Janet Evanovich

Full of It - Wendy French

This book was okay for a very light read... but not great.

We're constantly told that the main character has this flaw where she "blurts" what she's thinking... and she keeps getting in trouble for it... but I don't really see actual evidence of HUGE! AMOUNTS! OF! BLURTING! that cause the getting into trouble. It's very contrived.

Also, the main characters friends are so whiney. Her best friend is constantly ticked at the main character for being "selfish"... but really? The best friend just comes off as selfish and rude. I don't think that's what the author meant to do, but I just didn't get why the friend was being such a biatch... there wasn't enough evidence provided of the main character really having issues for the best friend to get like that.

So... meh. Not that impressed, but if you need a light read, it's alright I suppose.

Same review as posted at GoodReads.com

PS, I Love You

At GoodReads.com (awesome, awesome website), a group I've joined of Chick-Lit fans had chosen to read PS, I Love You by Cecelia Ahern as our February Valentine's Book.

When the movie version of PS, I Love You came out, I didn't see it in theatres, but later lovingly forced martin to rent it with me (isn't he a sweetheart for giving in?). Needless to say, he really hated the film. And frankly, I didn't enjoy it either. I felt disconnected from the story, the movie was really missing something.

So, when this book was chosen for one of our Book of the Month, I was willing to give it a go (because of a favourite mantra - don't judge a book by its movie!), but I was feeling unsure as to whether or not I'd enjoy it.

Well, it was true again in this case. Do not judge a book by its movie version. I really enjoyed this story. The reason the movie felt like it was lacking something? Was because it was lacking the actual story it was based off of. The movie was missing characters, had new characters not from the book, was not completely set in Ireland as the book is, and generally lacked the overall feeling of the book because of these changes. (I've complained about book to movie adaptations before, this is yet another shining example).

For Chick-Lit lovers, I definitely recommend you give this one a go. Whether you enjoyed the film version, or not.

Find PS, I Love You online here...

Amazon.ca

Amazon.com

Chasing Fireflies: A Novel of Discovery

Last week I finished reading Chasing Fireflies by Charles Martin. This was a book that my aunt gave my grandma for Christmas, and having read the back cover, I decided to borrow it.

It was fabulous!!! It was a 2008 Christy Award winner as well, if anyone who reads this cares to know that. :-) This was the first time I've ever read a Chris Martin novel, but I really enjoyed it and his style reminds me of Nicholas Sparks (and I've made it pretty well known on here that I love Nicholas Sparks).

It wasn't a chick-lit romance like my usual books are, it was a story of family and the search for identity and connection. It was really well-written, with a twist ending that I wasn't expecting at all.

Very good book, highly recommended!

Find it online here:

Amazon.ca
Amazon.com

January Reading Update

I need to post more here, so I'm just going to restructure my posts to less elaborate info about the books I've read... in order to entice me to keep posting.

Books Read In December/January:

By Nicholas Sparks
The Choice
The Lucky One

Both highly recommended (The Lucky One especially). More fantastic books by Mr. Sparks. LOVE HIM.

By Charlaine Harris
Dead Until Dark (book 1, Sookie Stackhouse series)
Living Dead In Dallas (book 2, Sookie Stackhouse series)
Club Dead (book 3, Sookie Stackhouse series)
Dead to the World (book 4, Sookie Stackhouse series)

I am absolutely in love with this book series, and am going through them like CANDY. Read them. READ THEM NOW. (Here's a link to the box set that I purchased on Amazon)

Currently Reading:
Dead as a Doornail (book 5, Sookie Stackhouse Series) by Charlaine Harris
Chasing Fireflies by Charles Martin

I just joined GoodReads.com and I am addicted to this website now. You can find a link on my sidebar for my profile!