Monday 7 May 2012

Baby Be Mine by Paige Toon

Baby Be Mine by Paige Toon



Another predominantly pastille book!  Have the printers run out of any other colour range?  I have decided the next book I review will be black with huge luminous green writing - just for the hell of it.   I need some variation.  Mind you, if you love the chicklit genre and celebrity culture, this is the book for you, even if you're as sick of pastille book covers as I am.  Don't let the cover put you off!

Yes this is a romance, yes this focuses on celebrity, yes this is a bit tedious in places, but yes I liked it.  I'm almost ashamed to admit it.  It seems I have more a of a leaning towards this sort of thing than I thought.

So what happens?  Meg works for rockstar Johnny; Meg falls in love with Johnny; it all goes wrong so Meg then falls for Johnny's best mate, Christian; Meg has a quick fling with Johnny again but refuses to leave Christian; Meg finds out she's pregnant with Johnny's baby but daren't tell Christian in case he leaves her. *Takes a breath*.  The stage is set!  (probably very bad punctuation there, but it's been a while since school, sorry)

As the baby grows older he begins to look more and more like Johnny and Meg's secret is out.  Christian leaves her and she begins the rocky road to accepting her new life as the mother of a baby fathered by a multi-millionaire, off the rails, rockstar.  The main hook of the book is 'Will Meg tame Johnny and his alcoholic, drug taking, wild ways and turn him into the father Meg needs him to be - and will he leave his horrible pop-star girlfriend and love her again instead?'

Meg's baby is always her priority, and the book spends quite a bit of time showing how responsible Meg is as a mother so it did focus on other themes other than romance, although I did find it all a little shallow.  There were a few bits in the book that puzzled me too.  Meg has a fling with someone mid-plot and Paige Toon hints at a past where this man had to fight for his living and mentions a distant look in his eyes - no further explanation is given.  I got the impression that the author had plans for this character that never actually got to print.

I suspect if you dream of one day living in LA surrounded by A-list premieres and sky blue swimming pools - you will absolutely love 'Baby Be mine.'  Meg is whisked away to beautiful locations on the back of a motorbike, is showered with gifts of new cars, credit cards with no limit and is treated to all the trappings that money can buy.  Every now and then I found myself rolling my eyes at the excessive luxury - but that is central to the plot so I suppose I can't complain too much.

Anyway!  Baby Be Mine was as addictive as an episode of Saturday night trashy TV, you can't tear your eyes away from it, but you know you should really be doing something useful like picking the blu-tac out of the carpet maybe.  This isn't a great book by my standards (but what do I know!), but it's certainly compulsive reading.  Go on...grab a copy and drift off into a lifestyle that most of us can only dream of!

If you'd like a copy of this book it is published by Simon and Schuster and can be found here for £5.91 (precisely).  Perfect for slotting into your beach bag as you saunter down to the sunbeds on your summer holidays.

Sunday 6 May 2012

All The Single Ladies - Jane Costello


All The Single Ladies  - Jane Costello



Before I start this review, let me just apologise in advance because... I just can't help myself here:


*sings Beyonce style whilst wearing ridiculously high heels and a dodgy black leotard that makes my bum look big* 'All the single ladies, All the single ladies, All the single ladies, All the single ladies......Oh Oh-oh Oh Oh-Oh, Oh,OoOh, Oh-oh Oh!'  *waves a hand covered in tin foil cos I can't find a metal glove* 


There I've got that out of my system, now for my review.

Initial impressions, the cover is nice, it looks fun, light-hearted, girly and feminine.  There are three skinny women on the cover throwing love hearts around, there's also a recommendation from Cosmopolitan comparing this book to Sophie Kinsella.  All these things made me think that 'All The Single Ladies' would be fun, fashionable and maybe a bit too sickly sweet for me.  But no!  If this book was a sweet it would be caramel with a hint of sea salt - it's sweet, but not overbearingly so.

 All in all it was a fantastic read, I turned into a hermit for 48 hours and read as much as I could, whenever I could.   Jane Costello is obviously a very talented author and I'll certainly read her other books if I can get hold of any more of them.  I really admired her writing style, although she didn't go in for reams of character descriptions and oodles of adjectives - Jane Costello very carefully built up the scenes in the book and the main character's view through detailed, realistic dialogue.  I felt as if I was the invisible fourth friend in the group, sat listening in to their conversations as they gossiped and chatted about love, life and lots of things in-between.  Every character is given a back story and reads as if they were real.  This is a huge strength in this book and the main reason I loved it so much.

A plot summary! Samantha Brook's long term boyfried has left her, after having what can be summarised as a 'mid life crisis'  She is abolutely heart broken and with the support of her best friends Ellie and Jen, she vows to get him back at any cost.  If this means dating other men and parading them in front of him, or looking gorgeous in the places where he's most likely to be, or by pretending she's not heartbroken - then so be it!  Samantha throws herself into a full blown plan of action - her man will be hers again!  Or will he?

There are plot twists and turns you don't quite expect, and a lot of laughs along the way.  Within the story there are sub-plots too and it's not all as straightforward as you might think.  Yes, this is a romance, no this is not predictable.  I can't stand being able to predict what happens in a book, and this kept me guessing right up until the last page. This is Chicklit at its very best.

I'll give this a 9/10, I'm only deducting the one point because the book cover is generic and rather typical of this genre which I find a tad boring.   But.....this was the only flaw I could find.  A great read and one I'd recommend to anyone who loves light hearted romance, rounded characters and above all a good giggle.

If you'd like to buy a copy of this book you can find it here for £6.49.  Its a keeper!

P.S.  The spacing has gone nutty on this blog and I can't stop it from leaving irregular gaps. Sorry.  Blogger is being an arse.   Thanks for your patience :O)