Review: Kissing In Technicolor

July 21, 2009 by Rian  
Filed under 4 Star, City Girl, Reviews

kissingintechnicolorCharlie Frost is 27, about to graduate from film school, and is trying to make a name for herself in the film industry. Making ends barely meet as a Yoga instructor, and having her latest screenplay rejected, she has no idea her life is about to change. On the advice of one her professors at school, she begins to revise one of her earlier plays in hopes it will be made into a movie. At the same time, she meets a handsome soap star, Hank, who is definitely interested in her.

When she receives the great news that she will be able to direct the play, Charlie is thrilled. Hank manages to convince her to give him the lead part, but she isn’t too sure of her decision. When problems break out during the rehearsals and taping, she realizes it may not have been the best idea… (more…)

Review: Couch World

July 19, 2009 by Rian  
Filed under 5 Star, City Girl, Reviews

couchworldEver dream of leaving it all behind and pursuing your dream? How about going so far as to living on friend’s couches in order to stay truly mobile and free? That’s exactly what PJ, main heroine of the story, has done. Once a Systems Analyst at a major hospital in the Bay Area, PJ now is a well-known punter (back-up D.J.) who spins her own blend of music at various glam clubs a couple nights a week. Her good friend Sticky, a popular and well-loved bouncer, hooks her up with friends’ couches. PJ may not have a place of her own, but she is independant, self-contained, and doing what she likes best.

When famous Jonathan Hadeis “discovers” PJ one night and offers to manage her, she isn’t sure what to make of it. Meanwhile Samantha, a 19-year old struggling model, is determined to make Jonathan her own. Leslie, a personal’s editor at a newspaper, is also tangled up in the drama. She is trying to break into the feature’s department at work, and in order to do so, she needs to come up with a good story. She has one – she is covering PJ’s life as a couch-hopping DJ, but she needs to get a juicier angle in order to get the story published. When she discovers a secret about PJ’s past that can mess things up, she must make a decision: write the story of her life, and in the process ruin PJ’s life, or continue on in her miserable job? (more…)

Review: Citizen Girl

July 19, 2009 by Rian  
Filed under 3 Star, City Girl, Reviews, Working Girl Lit

citizengirlAfter seeing all the bad reviews of this book, of course I was curious to read it! The main heroine of the story is Girl (yep, that’s her name). She is stuck in a job with a boss from hell and a tiny studio apartment in the city. However, her job doesn’t last long – after stealing a year’s worth of research from her, Girl’s boss Doris fires her unceremoniously. Girl enters the desperate world of job seeking, and through a series of accidental meetings she lands a job at My Company. (Yeah, that’s the name of the actual company.) Guy, her loud, obnoxious boss spends most of his time screaming obscenities into his cell phone, and doesn’t exactly make clear exactly what she’s supposed to do. As a result, she spends half of her time trying to figure that out, and the other half covering up her mistakes when she discovers her original assumptions were wrong. If that isn’t enough, the people she is subletting her apartment from notify her that she has to move immediately, as they need to take possession of it. (more…)

Review: Unbecoming Behavior

July 19, 2009 by Rian  
Filed under 5 Star, City Girl, Reviews, Working Girl Lit

unbecomingbehaviorIf you are looking for a novel filled with a sharp sense of humor, witty dialogue and very interesting characters, look no further – you’ve found it.

Meet Shannon McCormick, the witty and endearing main heroine. Much to the chagrin of her mother, she isn’t a lawyer, but does work at a law firm catering to the every whim of the interns. Trying to evade dismissal for the Unbecoming Behavior that the firm often let people go for, she slugs away at her thankless job, deals with rude interns, a demanding and ridiculous boss, and the knowledge that she is disappointing her mother. Her only reprieve is Van, the funny, friendly security guard in the lobby of her company’s building. Shannon knows she doesn’t want to become a lawyer, as she cannot stand them, but what other options does she have? She’s not happy in her job and she knows time is running out. (more…)

Review: Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?

July 19, 2009 by Rian  
Filed under 4 Star, City Girl, Reviews, Wedding & Marriage Lit

whoseweddingisitEloise is about to find out if there is such thing as a free wedding.

It all starts when Eloise is offered a free wedding from the magazine she works for. In exchange, she will have to keep a diary detailing her every move – from picking wedding cake, to deciding on a florist, to choosing a gown. Sounds amazing, right? It is at first, but things go downhill fast. First off, Eloise’s boss Astrid, who is calling all the shots, insists that she have her family at the photo shoot. The problem with that is Eloise’s mother passed away years ago, and her father has always been MIA. (He took off when she was a kid.) She also hadn’t spoken to her brother in some time. If that isn’t bad enough, Astrid is forcing Eloise to be the “modern bride”, which among other things means a canary yellow feathered wedding dress. (Yeah, you read that right.) To top everything off, Eloise is suddenly feeling as though she might be making a mistake marrying Noah. (more…)

Review: The Journal Of Mortifying Moments

July 19, 2009 by Rian  
Filed under 5 Star, City Girl, Reviews

journalofmortifyingI was happily surprised at how much I enjoyed this novel. Kerry Spence, the main heroine of the novel, is one of those characters who are good enough to make the book, should the book not have a good plot. She is funny (hilarious at times), endearing, clueless in some ways, and vibrant. However, since this book had an excellent plot too, the book ended up being amazingly good. At the beginning of our story, Kerry is stuck in an on-again, off-again type of relationship with Sam, a good-looking guy who she thinks is way out of her league. In order to try and get over the angst this dysfunctional relationship has produced, Kerry begins seeing a therapist, who instructs her to write down some of the most mortifying moments in her life. And mortifying they turn out to be – from a twelve year old kissing game that ended badly, to a horrifying ski “date” that ended with a terrible bloody nose, to a night where Kerry realized at the end that she had tape stuck on the bridge of her nose throughout her date (hence the odd, strange looks he’d been giving her the entire time), and much more. (more…)

Review: If Andy Warhol Had A Girlfriend

July 19, 2009 by Rian  
Filed under 5 Star, City Girl, Favorites, Reviews

ifandywarholDon’t you love when a book leaves you smiling at the end? I can’t say every book does that to me – in fact, very few do – but this novel certainly did. It turned out to be one of the sort that somehow gets under your skin and makes you think for days after reading it.

Meet Jane Laine. She works for the prominent Dick Reese gallery in New York City. At the beginning of our story she has just been dumped unceremoniously by her boyfriend Jack. She enjoys her artsy job, although Dick Reese, the gallery owner, is a complete tyrant, and at least one of her coworkers is catty and annoying. Jane holds a Master’s degree in Art and usually is really good at figuring out the meaning behind each artist’s piece. That is, until she comes across Ian Rhys-Fitzsimmons. Ian is known as a genius, and his work is highly regarded throughout the art world. When Jane’s boss drops the bomb on her that she has to accompany Ian on a five month international art fair tour, Jane is disappointed. How is she going to promote an artist’s work she doesn’t even “get”? And why now, when she is trying to get her love life started back up? (more…)

Review: Bundle Of Joy?

July 19, 2009 by Rian  
Filed under 5 Star, City Girl, Favorites, Reviews

bundleofjoyI read this book as soon as I got my hands on it, since I really like Ariella Papa’s writing style and previous books. This book might look like a mommy lit type of novel, but it’s really more of a “singleton’s best friend gets pregnant” book, and so much more.

The main heroine Voula is a character that really stands out from the norm. She had a turbulent and somewhat tragic childhood; she has a stubborn Greak mother who believes Voula should be living at home until she is married; she likes to be alone and has only had 2 1/2 boyfriends (technically) in her life so far. She lives with a beautiful Italian man with a large libido and has a freelance writing career that is satisfying, but just paying the bills. (more…)

Review: See Jane Date

July 19, 2009 by Rian  
Filed under 5 Star, City Girl, Favorites, Reviews, Working Girl Lit

seejanedateSee Jane Date by Melissa Senate was one of the first books in the Red Dress Ink series that I read. Several years later, it remains one of my absolute favorite chick lit novels.

Meet Jane, a 20-something-year-old gal living, dating and working in Manhattan. Having been single for a while after her last boyfriend dumped her unceremoniously, Jane is in a slight pickle: she had to find a date for her cousin’s wedding, since everyone in her family was under the impression that she had a boyfriend. With both parents dead, it was understandable that Jane felt a lot of pressure in her family.

After a few disastrous (but fun to read!) dates, Jane thinks she may have found the perfect man. After a few amazing dates with a doctor who suddenly stops calling though, she realizes she may be back to square one. At the same time her job has become very stressful. She is forced to edit a memoir from childhood nemesis Natasha (fondly referred to as “the Gnat” out of earshot by Jane and her friends). At the same time she is trying to placate her Aunt Ina and various cousins that everything is fine in her life. (more…)

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