Archive for the ‘4 Star Rating’ Category
Sunday, March 4th, 2007 |
There’s nothing like a marriage proposal to jolt you into reality and make you wonder what exactly you want out of life. When Becca Davis of Fashionably Late is proposed to by her longtime boyfriend Kevin, she accepts, but almost immediately realizes that it isn’t what she wants.
Instead, she decides to break the engagement and flee to Los Angeles to try and pursue her true passion of fashion design. She moves in with her sister and jumps into the industry bravely, not realizing how cut-throat and catty the industry is. She is forced to take a job at a restaurant to make ends meet while pursuing her dream.
Meanwhile, back home in Arizona, Kevin thinks that she will be back when she comes to her senses. What he doesn’t realize is that Becca has met someone else, sort of: the handsome Connor, who trades corny (but hilarious) pick-up lines with Becca, but who isn’t the type to settle down. Although he seems awfully interested.
With so many roadblocks and heartaches going on with both her personal life and career, Becca must figure it all out: what does she really want? What was she meant to do with her life?
As with Beth Kendrick’s other books, I thoroughly enjoyed Fashionably Late. It is filled with laugh-out-loud moments, crackling romantic tension, the ups and downs of following your dreams, and Kendrick’s signature witty, addictive writing style. She somehow manages to create characters that are so real, down-to-earth, flawed, yet at the same time endearing. Becca is a little clueless at times and doesn’t always make the right choices, she is easy to identify with and like.
Overall I highly recommend this to all Beth Kendrick fans, and to anyone who wants to read a great chick lit novel filled with style, humor, wit and a touch of romance.
Reviewed by: Rian Montgomery
Rian’s Rating: 4/5
Buy from Amazon
Posted in 4 Star Rating, Reviews | Comments Off
Tuesday, October 10th, 2006 |
Being an avid fan of Fantasy/Paranormal chick lit, I was eager to read this book. It’s a story about a girl named Claire who died nine years ago. For the past near decade she has sat in “Purgatory”, which is sort of like a version of the Afterlife, or Heaven.
Every nine years, souls in the Afterlife get to go back down to earth in their original physical body for one night - on Halloween. If in that time the person manages to touch a human’s soul, they are allowed to stay on earth for nine days and nights.
Claire is desperate to get down to earth because she is dying to have sex. Yes, that’s right - apparently in the Afterlife, there is no sex, no eating chocolate, no fun. (Who knew the Afterlife would be full of horny ghosts??) So upon her trip back to earth, she tries to track down the one man that she has desperately wanted to sleep with for years.
Little does she know that he is also “dead”, too.. and returning to Earth as a ghost.
This was a good read overall, but not spectacular. The book paints the most depressing picture of the Afterlife, for one. Imagine sitting in a Heaven, waiting to go back to Earth to have sex. And speaking of sex, this book is bursting with it. There are no less than 5 vivid scenes where the two characters go at it in great detail.
The sideplot of Claire trying to track down how and why she died was interesting. However, the ending of the novel was ridiculous and cheesy.
Overall, I’d give this book a whirl if you are into ghosts having a naughty good time.
Rian’s rating: 4/5 stars
Posted in 4 Star Rating, Fantasy Lit, Reviews | Comments Off
Monday, October 9th, 2006 |
Meet Chloe, the main heroine of The Truth About Diamonds. Although Nicole Richie is actually telling the story in first-person narrative, the book is about Chloe. At the beginning of the novel, Chloe is not yet famous, except for the fact that she has grown up in a priveledged family, is addicted to drugs (namely Xanax and some uppers), and hangs out in clubs regularly. She is one of those people that everyone is drawn to. She has style, but has a bad habit of hanging out with guys who are bad for her. One day she is approached by Simone Westlake, a gorgeous socialite who is famous for being famous. Simone, who is clearly portrayed as Paris Hilton, is vicious, stuck-up and manipulative. She quickly sucks Chloe into her inner circle and arranges for her and Chloe to do a reality commercial series which portray them as best friends, and spokesmodles for a cosmetic line.
Chloe decides to go into rehab, and is instantly loved and adored by her fans. But things begin spiralling out of control quickly; people from her past show up at the wrong times; there are rumors that she is back to her drug lifestyle; Simone shows her truly wicked side by doing all she can to take the spotlight, and in the process gets fired from the reality series. Through it all Chloe prevails as a realistic and likeable heroine, however.
First off, this book surprised me, because I thought I would probably hate it. But I didn’t. Granted, the story and characters were a bit plastic and unrealistic. But the writing overall wasn’t bad, and the story stayed consistent and interesting throughout. I thought it was fascinating how Nicole Richie managed to bring characters into the novel who were clearly based on real-life people, but twist the events around enough so that nobody could sue. (I’m personally dying to know who Chloe’s friend “Carrie” was supposed to be, the grasping would-be famous it girl). Simone was clearly Paris. That in itself was pretty amusing.
The only gripes I had with this book is that it didn’t always read like a novel. It was kind of “all over the place” and the entire story line could have been summed up in 2 pages.
But overall? This was a decently good read, had interesting and engaging characters and a glamourous but surprisingly touching plot. I definitely recommend it to anyone who was a fan of “The Simple Life” or Nicole Richie herself, as clearly the main character Chloe is an alter ego of the actress. Oh, and anyone looking for weight confessions will not find them in this novel.
Rian’s rating: 4/5 Stars
Posted in 4 Star Rating, Glamour Lit, Reviews | 4 Comments »