Special Guest Post: Chick Lit Cafe's Jessica Sinn Reviews Wishbones by Carolyn Haines

A Review by Jessica Sinn of the Chick Lit Café

I always look forward to Jessica Sinn’s book views and reviews. Jessica Sinn is the woman behind the Chick lit Café. She reviews all different kinds of subgenres of chick lit, including fashion, romance, mystery and everything in between. Visit her blog for more of the latest and greatest in chick lit books and reviews; find out what she’s reading and more at http://loonachicklit.wordpress.com/. Thank you so much to Jessica Sinn for sharing her thoughts with us at Lip Gloss and Literature this week. Be sure to drop by the Chick Lit Café and say hi to her.

Wishbones by Carolyn Haines

Anyone who has seen Steel Magnolia’s or Gone with the Wind should know that southern belles are a force to be reckoned with. Any southern lady worth her salt can bring men to their knees with just a bat of an eye. She must always look her best – even when she’s taking out the trash in sweltering heat. Most importantly, she must never accept defeat from the enemy. And Sarah Booth Delaney – the hottest detective in Zinnia, Mississippi – is no exception!

In this eighth installment of Haine’s charming Southern Belle Mystery Series, the sassy sleuth leaves her beloved plantation home and PI agency to pursue her dream of becoming a Hollywood starlet. She soon lands the leading role in a steamy remake of the movie Body Heat alongside her old flame, Graf Mileu.

Nursing a broken heart after a bad breakup with her longtime love, Sarah tries to keep her relationship with Graf professional, but the chemistry between them is undeniable. And when the love scenes heat up, so does their off-screen relationship!

Just before she could get her bearings in the big city, the director Frederico’s former lover is found dead in the foothills of Lettohatchi Canyon, a wildfire breaks out, and a foreboding message in lipstick appears on Sarah Booth’s bathroom mirror.

Refusing to heed to the perp’s warning to “go home, hick,” Sarah Booth sets off for Costa Rica to film on location in Frederico’s gorgeous – and reputedly haunted – mansion.

The bad luck continues when the ghost of Federico’s dead wife Carlita stalks the corridors, disembodied voices resonate behind the mansion’s walls, and a set balustrade crumbles. All signs point to Frederico’s angry daughter, Estelle, who threatens the entire film crew to leave the mansion or suffer the consequences.

When Sarah Booth’s best friend and fellow PI, Tinkie, catches wind of all of the unexplained accidents, she comes to the rescue. Hot on the trail, the sassy sleuths hunt down suspects and explore the mansion’s hidden nooks and crannies. With some help from their gal pals in Zinnia, Tinkie and Sarah Booth research Frederico’s dark family history and discover some startling secrets about Carlita’s past.  

Assisted by her resident “haint” (aka Resident Haunt) Jitty, the busybody ghost of her great-great-grandmother's nanny, Sarah Booth digs up all the dirt she can find about the haunted mansion and its shady residents. And when Tinkie and her dust mop of a dog, Chablis, fall victim to the next “accident,” Sarah Booth must piece together the clues before she loses the ones she holds most dear, as well as her chance at stardom.

Readers who like cozy mysteries with a lot of sass, madcap adventure and gutsy characters will love these fun little mysteries!  Carolyn Haines tailors all of her stories with sharp murder plots, romantic tension and amusing dialogue. And if that isn’t enough – she even throws in some adorable four-legged sidekicks! So pull up a chair on the porch, pour yourself a sugary glass of iced tea and spend a lazy summer afternoon in Sarah Booth’s intriguing world of murder and mayhem!

For more info on Carolyn Haines or any of her mystery and chick lit novels, visit her website at http://www.carolynhaines.com or check out her Goodreads Profile.

A big thank you to Jessica from the Chick Lit Cafe!! I can't wait to read about what you're reading next!

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/