Vision in White

This is the first book in Nora Roberts' Bride Quartet.  She does this a lot - writes separate novels for a group of friends or siblings to make a miniseries.  I wouldn't consider this her best series, but the topic is one of my favorites - wedding planning!  If I weren't a teacher and were a braver person, I'd start my own wedding planning business.  In this series, the girls were childhood friends and each grew up with a different skill set that combined to create a highly successful company.  "Vision in White" is about the photographer.  Nora Roberts is pretty predictable at this point, but I still love her!  I especially love her dialogue.  It's fast and witty and really funny sometimes.  The girls have great chemistry and the guys they eventually fall for are nicely original.  (After you've written 100+ romances, it's probably difficult coming up with completely new stories every single time.)  I won't bore you with a blog about each book in the quartet, but if you're into weddings, you should definitely read them!

Call Me Irresistible

It took me a couple chapters to get into this book because the names of the characters are really strange...Fleur Savagar Koranda...Cornelia (Nealy) Case Jorik...they were just weird.  But the two main characters, Meg and Ted, were quite engaging.  Their personalities were a lot like the Cinderella Deal, actually.  The girl was flaky in an "I don't know what I'm doing with my life" kind of way and the guy was very well put together like Mary Poppins - "practically perfect in every way."  Some parts of the book stretched the limits of my imagination (things were just a little too contrived sometimes), but I enjoyed it and by the end of the book, literally couldn't put it down.  I was putting groceries away and reading the book at the same time!  :)

I discovered at the end of the book why all the other couples in the book (Meg's parents, Ted's parents, Ted's childhood best friend, Meg's best friend's parents) were so cutesy and happy together...it's because they were subjects of previous books by Susan Elizabeth Phillips!  So now I have to read all those.  :)  There are seven books in this series that take place in "Wynette, Texas."  The first one is "Fancy Pants," if you like reading books in order. 

Helen of Pasadena

I loved this book!  I didn't really think I would.  It's one of those books that has been sitting on my "to read soon" shelf for months.  I think it was another one of those Borders-is-closing purchases, but it fit nicely into the romance theme of the month and I had a really good time reading it!

I'm actually having a hard time describing the story, though...I've erased what I wrote at least four times!  It's funny, it's got a lot of interesting characters, including the "sidekicks," it's heartwarming, it's not completely "everyone lives happily ever after" (which usually happens in a romance), but still happy...  It's also kind of a novel take on your typical romance because it involves a middle-aged woman who has a thirteen year old son.  The challenge in the book is that Helen's cheating husband dies suddenly, leaving her and her son in financial straits, but to maintain her image in society (think Real Housewives of Orange County), no one's supposed to know about it, but everyone does.  Anyway, Helen's a really strong woman, and I highly recommend this book!

As an aside, I found a cool link to another online book club blog with an author interview from this book...looking forward to the sequel!

http://www.manicmommiesbookclub.com/2010/12/january-2011-selection-helen-of.html

Bookends

I bought four books by Jane Green from Borders when they were having their closing sale (moment of silence for Borders...).  Bookends was the first one I read.  Honestly, it was kind of boring.  The beginning was OK and then I needed the story to move along faster, so I skipped the middle, picked it up again about 100 pages from the end and felt like I hadn't missed much.  It's the story of a bunch of college friends who drifted apart after a fight with one of the group.  A few of them stayed in touch and they each have different relationship issues - too needy, can't commit, no spark, etc.  It's a story about how friends can help and hinder your search for love and companionship.  As a whole, it was enjoyable, but not gripping.

After Four Months

One of our members is an author!  Leslie writes stories based on the TV show "Combat."  I'll let her explain more, but she sent me a couple of her stories.  If you're interested, let me know and I'll e-mail you a couple.  (I tried to attach one, but apparently you can only upload pictures and videos.) 

"After Four Months" is one of her romantic stories.  It's basically the story of how one of the main characters in "Combat," Saunders, meets his wife during the war.  Even if you've never watched "Combat" (I haven't), it's still a really great story...romance, action, humor!  It's all very impressive how everything flows together, actually.  Good for you, Leslie!

The Cinderella Deal

Biz introduced me to Jennifer Crusie and this is the first of her romantic comedies that I've read.  It's a very cute story and while it's a pretty simple plot, the characters are fun and they feel like real people that you'd like to get to know.  Basically, you've got a carefree hippie girl and a straight-laced serious guy who need to pretend to be engaged (she needs money and he needs to appear old-fashioned and respectable).  It's sort of hate at first sight, which eventually becomes, what else...love!  It's got the same feel as Evanovich's books without the loony tunes bits (a la Grandma Mazur and Lula).  Great book to kick off the summer!

Something Blue

This book is the sequel to "Something Borrowed," which I blogged about in January.  To recap, Rachel and Darcy are best friends.  Darcy is marrying Dex, but Dex and Rachel begin an affair.  Darcy, who is not the most faithful of girls, also begins an affair with Dex's friend Marcus.  Not only does she have an affair, she becomes pregnant!  Eventually everyone finds out what's going on.  "Something Borrowed" is about Rachel's side of the story.  "Something Blue" is from Darcy's perspective and continues the story from when everyone found out. 

Emily Giffin is very into discovering yourself and writing about women realizing that what they have is not necessarily what they wanted and what they wanted is not necessarily what they needed.  Her characters are very relatable and even when they drive you crazy (Rachel drove me nuts cuz she wouldn't just say what she wanted - she was really passive and Darcy drove me nuts cuz she was just so self-absorbed and oblivious), you still feel for their predicaments and want happy endings for them.

I do suggest reading "Something Borrowed" before you read "Something Blue."  "Blue" can be a stand alone book, but the backstory and character relationships are much more powerful if you read "Borrowed" first.

Couplehood

I find Paul Reiser HILARIOUS!  I loved watching "Mad About You" (sitcom from the 90s), and I've bought three of his books - Couplehood, Babyhood, and Familyhood.  I recently re-read Couplehood and laughed for about 20 minutes straight.  And I finished the book in about a half an hour.  It's an extremely fast read, but highly amusing!  As you can probably tell from the title, "Couplehood" is about the foibles of getting into relationships and then maintaining one.  The first chapter is about what I call "fitting."  Gist: if you don't "fit" the person you're with it's not going to work.  How you define "fit" is up to you, but it's physical and emotional.  I totally agree with this and there's lots of tests you do to figure out if you and the person you're with "fit."  Here's an excerpt from the book, just cuz I'm not as funny as Paul is.  :)

When I was twelve, I remember holding hands with this girl - I want to say, "Patty," but I'm guessing here - and something about the way she held hands was just...wrong.  Our fingers didn't line up right.

You know how when you grab someone's hand, the fingers sort of automatically slide into place, your thumb next to their thumb, second finger next to their second finger?  Simple, right?  Not a lot of ways to screw that up.  This girl did.

I think what she did was slide her fingers in too early so they were all out of sync with mine.  (I'm sitting here, holding hands with myself to try to explain this to you.)  Okay...here's what it is: I like my pinkie to be on the outside.  And she started one finger too soon, so her pinkie was on the outside, and my pinkie was smushed up between her third and fourth fingers. 

Now, I'm not saying she's a bad person.  But the second we held hands, I knew she wasn't for me.  We just didn't fit.

And I knew I couldn't explain it to her, either.

But I remember thinking that if you're going to be with someone, you should find someone who fits.

Not to get all sappy, but I found someone who fits!  I fit right under Chris' chin.  And our hands fit too.  (My pinkie on the inside and my arm behind his.)  It just works.  :)

At the Altar

Besides Disney princess movies, I think my first childhood romance was Anne and Gilbert.  In addition to her series on this famous little orphan, LM Montgomery wrote hundreds of other pieces about life and love in the form of novels, short stories, and newspaper serials.  "At the Altar" is a compilation of matrimonial tales.  They're all a sweet mix of whimsy, old-fashioned morals, and amusing predicaments.  

Once In Every Life

I just love Kristin Hannah.  This is the third book by her that I've written about on the blog.  This one has an unusual premise. Tessa is killed in a bus accident at the beginning of the book.  She is offered a second chance at love by an angel and is transported into the body of a woman who died in childbirth in the pioneer west.  This woman was not a very loving person.  She felt that her husband's "cowardice" during the Civil War ruined her chance at a comfortable life as a Southern belle.  After Tessa is "reborn" into this woman's body, the family has to come to terms with the "new and improved" wife/mother.  There's a lot of initial distrust, and a surprising "based on a true story" mystery at the end.  Hannah just writes emotional stuff really well.  I get so wrapped up in the characters!