Star Book Review: The Art of Forgetting by Camille Noe Pagan

The Art of Forgetting was a fantastic debut and notable addition to the library of contemporary women’s fiction. Camille Noe Pagan introduces readers to bffs, Marissa and Julia, who have a love-envy relationship not unlike that of the infamous chick lit pair, Rachel and Darcy. Julia and Marissa have been through just about everything from childhood to adulthood, Michigan to New York, break-ups to make-ups but one night changes everything.

When Julia is victim of a tragic car accident, her brain sustains devastating injuries, affecting every facet of her life. No longer able to remember the past or basic self-care skills, Julia’s parents move her back home to Michigan, and she and Marissa are separated for the first time in their friendship.

Adapting to life in New York without Julia is no easy feat for Marissa but life must go on. Boyfriend Dave is ready to take the next step with her but when ex-boyfriend, Nathan reappears, will old habits and forgotten relationships be rekindled? Marissa’s career at Svelte Magazine leads her down a new path and coworker, Naomi introduces her to a new extracurricular, helping and inspiring young girls to run a 5K.

With so many changes in her life and within her relationships, Marissa is growing up at a faster pace than she’s used to. Will she adapt to all the changes or will she want to run back to her roots and Julia in Michigan?

I’ve added The Art of Forgetting to my list of MUST READS for 2011. I absolutely love how the author took some of the integral components of chick lit and combined it with fresh facts and serious drama to create a tale that’s never been told. You won’t want to forget this one!

5 STARS

To read an excerpt from The Art of Forgetting, check out her web site at:

http://www.camillenoepagan.com/taof.html

Want to get some tips on writing while learning about Camille’s everyday life?? Visit her blog at http://thewahmdiaries.com/

***I received a copy of The Art of Forgetting by Camille Noe Pagan via NetGalley solely for review purposes. All thoughts and ideas about the book are my own opinion.***

Star Book Review - The Accidental Bestseller by Wendy Wax

One of the latest books I read was by an author who was new to me as of only about two months ago, Wendy Wax. After being approached by her publicist at the Penguin Group publisher, I posted a favorable review of Ten Beach Road on my blog. I truly loved the plot inTen Beach Road and even more so, I enjoyed the intersecting stories of four strangers whose lives crossed one another and they became unlikely friends while fixing up a house in Pass-A-Grille, Florida. For the full review of Ten Beach Road , check back to an earlier blog post Here. I was more than thrilled at the anticipation of reading The Accidental Bestseller when my book group the Chick Lit Book Club on Goodreads chose to read it for our June “Beach Read” book. See our discussion and thoughts on the book and catch a glimpse at what Wendy Wax, herself, had to say to our qustions: here.

The Accidental Bestseller was one of my favorite women’s fiction books that I’ve read in a long time. It told an interwoven story of four goods friends in the publishing industry who are challenged to find out just how far they are willing to go and how much they are willing to risk for their friendship with one another.

Kendall, Mallory, Faye and Tanya are all at different points in the writing careers but are brought together for an annual conference in New York City which can make or break Kendall’s future in writing. When Kendall does not win the award at the conference she anticipates, she hightails it out of the conference, away from her friends and back home before anyone tries convincing her otherwise. Unfortunately when Kendall returns to Atlanta, her future prospects only worsen.

Facing a final book deadline that could be the impetus for a failing writing career and meeting a shifty woman, disguising herself solely as a realtor but really the mistress behind her failing marriage, Kendall once again does what she knows best at the moment and runs away to her house in the mountains. There she sinks into a deeper depression, displacing every emotion into fix-it and repair projects all over the house.

When the three other women don’t hear back from Kendall, they know something’s wrong and vow to get to her as quick as possible. Mallory is the first one reach her and is shocked at the disarray of Kendall’s life, her house and her state of being. Determined to get Kendall back to her old self, the three friends rally behind Kendall and decide to attack things one at a time, starting with her looming book deadline. They agree to work on her pending novel, Sticks and Stones, which is loosely based on the four friends’ lives anyways and remain ghostwriters.

Each woman creates their character who matches a little too close to their real selves and the secret lives that they’ve kept harbored in the past for so long; but since Kendall’s publisher doesn’t plan to do anything more than bury her book, the women assume and hope they have nothing to worry about.

The Accidental Bestseller was an excellent expose into the lives of four friends and revealed the difficult decisions friends must go through in order to protect their selves, their families and maintain their friendship. This was one of the quickest books I’ve ever read, giving testament to its fabulous story and expert writing. It’s possible that this book hit a little closer to home to someone like me who is an aspiring writer but I think that any woman can relate to the aspect of friendship, the secrets and struggles each person shares. A plus.

                                         5 stars

Want more info on Wendy? Visit her web site here:

http://www.authorwendywax.com/

Special Guest Post: Book Review by Jessica Sinn - The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen

The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen

Book Review by Jessica Sinn, Chick Lit Café

The Girl Who Chased the Moon is the literary equivalent of a gorgeous pink-frosted cupcake – rainbow sprinkles and all! It’s light and sweet and so much fun to gobble up in one sitting. The only hitch with cupcakes is that they leave me wanting more. That’s how I felt after I devoured the last chapter of this book.

The story begins when Emily sets foot in Mullaby, a wooded patch of a sparsely populated southern hamlet that her mother left behind. Left in the care of her eccentric 8-foot-tall grandfather, the orphaned teen is lost and alone in a town that seems to resent her. As Emily struggles to adjust to her new – and very peculiar – surroundings, she uncovers some startling secrets about her mother’s past.

Things really get strange when Emily spots the elusive “Mullaby lights” floating in the woods outside her bedroom balcony. And when she falls for a boy who can only be seen during daylight hours, she begins to wonder what kind of world she’s living in.

Just what did her mother do to upset the entire town? And why does her grandfather forbid her to chase after the Mullaby lights? Emily is determined to find out.

Enter Julia Winterson, a free-spirited pastry artist who’s back in town to make a profit off of her deceased father’s barbecue joint, sell it to the highest bidder and get the heck out of dodge. When she discovers the new girl in town is the daughter of Mullaby’s resident mean girl, she vows to keep her distance. But when she senses Emily’s sadness and isolation, she can’t help but take the fragile teen under her wing. While protecting Emily from the pitiless townsfolk, Julia learns to open her heart to an old flame and realize that perhaps she can come home again.

From magical wallpaper to mysterious lights to a reclusive giant, the world Sarah Addison creates in this book drew me inexorably in and made me feel like I was in the center of a fairytale. A wonderful novel of love, forgiveness and family, it’s imbued with the author’s enchanting prose and a vitality that reminds me how good it is to be loved and in love.

5 STARS

A big Thank You to Jessica Sinn for sharing her book views and reviews with us at Lip Gloss and Literature this week. For more reading and writing with Jessica Sinn, please visit her at the Chick Lit Cafe at http://loonachicklit.wordpress.com/

Girls Night Out! Chick Flicks – Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin, The Movie

Second Date

I thought for the second rendition of Girls Night Out! Chick Flicks I would combine a Chick Flick I have been eagerly (obsessively) anticipating for the past two years, Something Borrowed with a book review of its original text of the same title by chick lit queen, Emily Giffin.

Emily Giffin broke out into the chick lit scene one of the heights of the genre. Red Dress Ink was firmly established in the US as a popular publication house for chick lit novels only, with the UK’s Little Black Dress books right on its tales. Although Emily Giffin never published any of her books with either of these houses, she became a prominent figure in the genre of chick lit, where she remains firmly planted to this day and Something Borrowed was the book that set her career in motion. A classic tale of two rivaling best friends, Darcy and Rachel – perhaps, better known today by the term coined by tv show, Sex and the City, as “frenemies”, aptly labeled for their love-hate relationship which continually crosses that fine line between friends and enemies. As Darcy deals with the stress of planning her wedding to handsome lawyer, Dex, and Rachel deals with the stress of turning 30 and still being single, the two best friends’ lives intersect in more ways than ever before. Through all the fights and milestones, nothing has torn them apart, but Darcy and Rachel’s friendship is about to be tested in ways they never could have imagined.

In the opening scene of the novel, Something Borrowed, we find Darcy, Dex, Rachel and all their friends at a Manhattan bar, celebrating Rachel’s 30^th birthday. Darcy, ever the party girl, is in her prime, drinking, dancing on tables and otherwise stealing the spotlight as she has always been so inclined to do. After her umpteenth cocktail, it’s decided that she’d be better off calling it a night, and Dex, usually the perfect gentleman and boyfriend, puts her in a cab and stays behind with Rachel and friends. By night’s end, when the last of their friends, Marcus, announces his departure, it’s only Dex and Rachel left standing – and “standing” quickly shifts into a more horizontal position as they, too, leave, together for Rachel’s apartment. Unplanned, unpredicted, but definitely not unwanted, Rachel is confused, to say the very least at what has just happened. Was it a one-night stand? Does Dex actually have feelings for Rachel? What about his engagement to Darcy? Is it over? Will he tell her? Should she tell her? When sex, best friends, fiancés, and a wedding are on the line, things can only go in one direction – down and Dex and Rachel learn how “one-night” can quickly turn from complicated to dangerous to disastrous. Who will be left standing and who will be together in the end?

Something Borrowed was an unforgettable and incredible debut from St. Martin's Press author, Emily Giffin, who has since reigned as one of the foremost queens of chick lit. She dares to broach subjects that others may feel are too taboo to write about, such as lovers, affairs, fantasies about ex-lovers, love triangles between best friends and fiancés and more scandalous plot lines to tantalize all your reading senses. I listened to the audio version, which was narrated very eloquently by Jennifer Wiltsie. She created an audible world of friendship, overcome by love, passion and betrayal, taking my imagination of the novel to new heights. This classic chick lit book will remain on my shelf for years and decades to come. A + + / 5 Stars

Warner Bros. romantic comedy, Something Borrowed, is due for release in theaters nationwide May 6, 2011. It stars Kate Hudson as Darcy, Ginnifer Goodwin as Rachel, John Krasinsky as Ethan, Steve Howey as Marcus and Colin Egglesfield as Dex.

(Bonus: Be on alert for an Emily Giffin cameo in the movie!)

Star Book Review: Getting Rid of Matthew by Jane Fallon (Audio); Narrated by Rosalyn Landor

     Jane Fallon’s debut novel, Getting Rid of Matthew came out in 2007, joining the ranks of many other successful chick lit books on the subject of extramarital affairs, friendship and how one defines one’s self in the midst of such relationship chaos. takes a unique stance on the topic. Reminiscent of books like 1996’s How Stella Got Her Groove Back by Terry McMillan and 2004’s Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin and Marian Keyes’ Angels of the same year, Getting Rid of Matthew tackles a tough topic but adds its own unique perspective to the subject matter. When Stella catches her man cheating in How Stella Got Her Groove Back, she takes her pride back by throwing him and all his clothes out on the street, burns all his clothes, including his most prized possession: a hip, roadster sports car, to bits, symbolizing the love and relationship that he threw away like yesterday’s trash. In an alternate viewpoint, we get a glimpse at the lives of those doing the cheating in Emily Giffin’s Something Borrowed, which chronicles the saga of an affair from its inception when Rachel sleeps with her best friend’s fiancé the night of her 30th birthday. Later we find out, that it’s not just one fiancé having an affair. Darcy also commits the ultimate, adulterous pre-wedding crime and sleeps with her fiancé’s best man. Finally, in Marian Keyes’ Angels Maggie Walsh finds solace across the Atlantic as she makes a daring move from Ireland to the U.S. to start her life anew without her no-good cheating husband and finds happiness and herself in the City of Angels in Los Angeles, CA.

     Unlike its predecessors, Ms. Fallon’s story does not end with a cheating husband caught in bed with his mistress and thrown out on his rear. It does not indulge in the nuances of an illicit love affair and it does not take an entire ocean to separate the cheater from the cheatee to move on with their lives. Instead, Getting Rid of Matthew focuses on the women in Matthew’s life, and we get to see an affair from the vantage point of both the mistress and the wife of Matthew. In fact, at one point in the story, the two women form unsuspecting bond (although one of the women is entirely unaware of the other’s true identity). Nevertheless, I was surprised when this tale began when cheating husband, Matthew, showed up on the doorstep of his mistress, Helen, with all his possessions in tow. Ironically, in the tradition of the infamous saying “we all want what we can’t have”, Helen almost simultaneously decides she is “over” Matthew and no longer wants to be with him. However, feeling guilty, thanks to the constant reminder from Matthew about how he has just uprooted his entire family - wife, Sophie and two daughters - for her, Helen feels obligated to let him stay at her apartment. Nonetheless, as the label, an affair, often implies, Helen quickly realized nothing was about to be settled easily or amicably and as it became clearer to Helen that their living situation was anything less than temporary, she proceeded to orchestrate various “plans” to be rid of Matthew once and for all. Shortly into her master plan, Helen found herself in the midst of a predicament on the brink of disaster. Listen to the entire unabridged audio version to hear the hilarious recount of all the antics Helen pulls off in her attempt to break free form her married lover. This was a unique, fun, and unusual tale from British chick lit author Jane Fallon, made even more fun by seasoned narrator Rosalyn Landor. Ms. Landor excels at making emotion an audible expression such that listeners feel like they are part of all the narrative action.

Star Rating: 5 Stars