I am in the process of compiling a complete archive of Need To Read that will include all the original posts starting way back when it was a Live Journal. Check it out here.
Scroll down for the most recent entries! And thanks for stopping by!
I’ve decided two things for 2010 in regards to reading. First, I’m going to branch WAY out from YA and start reading a lot of other stuff. I talked more about it here . The second thing I’m going to do is keep a running list of everything I read here. Normally, I only tell you about books I love. Since I won’t be writing any reviews though, I’m just going to list everything.
If I read more than fifty pages, but stop reading for some reason after that, I’ll make the notation: SR for Stopped Reading.
If I really love something, I’ll put MR next to it for Must Read.
When I started my blog Need to Read several years ago over on Livejournal, there weren’t that many book blogs. At least, not that I remember. Now it seems like everyone and their brother is doing book reviews.
I’ve reached a point where I don’t really have time for one more task if I ever want to find time to actually write books, so I’ve decided to stop posting to Need to Read. I will leave all the archives up because they’re a wealth of great book recommendations. And I will continue to do my Fave 15 of the Year each year. And, of course, I’ll continue to read! When I find something that I don’t want you to miss, I’ll just incorporate it into my regular blog. It’s been fun, but it’s time to let others take over that job!
I have joined Goodreads though, and you can keep up with any books I love there. And you can put Restoring Harmony on your bookshelf because someone added it! Wasn’t that nice of them? Oh, and I have my very first review of the book too. You can read it on Goodreads or here.
By the way, I only post on Goodreads about the books I can give 4-5 stars so you know it will be my favourites on there.
After all the blogging about Betsy and the re-release of the Betsy-Tacy high school books, I felt compelled to read a few. I read Heaven to Betsy and Betsy in Spite of Herself. Basically, I walked around for three days with a smile on my face because they’re just so darn enjoyable. I had planned to read all the grown-up ones in a row, but the library FINALLY got me my requested copy of Being Nikki by Meg Cabot. Ooooh! That was so exciting. I like almost everything Meg Cabot writes, but I really like the adventure-type stuff. Like The Mediator Series. And this series. I can hardly wait for the third one, Runaway. I doubt I’ll be able to wait for the library to get it though because it took them something like ten months to get this one. Maybe I’ll buy it and then donate my copy to circulation so that someone else doesn’t have to wait forever for it.
My friend Kim recommended this book to me ages ago. There were a zillion and one holds on it at the library, but luckily another friend just called the other day and offered to lend me her copy.
This is an amazing book. I know, I’m late to the game, but still…maybe if all you read is YA, then you missed this book (it’s adult fiction). I am a big fan of Nevil Shute and it reminds me of a story that he would tell in a way he would write it. It’s got a bit of femininity to it that his books don’t have (even though he’s a master at writing female characters), so it’s not quite the same as reading one of his books. But if you like his writing, you’re bound to like this one. Highly recommended!
I am never quite sure when to blog about ARCs, and since that is primarily what I’ve been reading lately, I haven’t posted. Is it more helpful to hear about them early so you can add them to your TBR list? Or when the book comes out? I have decided to just list them here and then if I love them (and I remember later – don’t hold me to this), I’ll blog about them closer to their release date.
Here’s what I’ve been reading:
LYNN VISIBLE by Julia DeVillers – a fun read that comes out in March.
THE SECRET YEAR by Jennifer R. Hubbard (I loved this so much that I tracked down the author and interviewed her for Wild Card Wednesdays – I’m even going to give away my ARC to a lucky commenter)
MY BOYFRIEND’S DOGS by Dandi Daley McKall
THE TRAGEDY OF A GIRL NAMED HAMLET by Erin Dionne
THE WITCHY WORRIES OF ABBIE ADAMS by Rhonda Hayter
RUNAWAY TWIN by Peg Kehret
PALACE BEAUTIFUL by Sarah deFord
SECRET SATURDAYS by Torrey Maldanodo
DRIZZLE by Kathleen Van Cleve
THE TIMEKEEPER’S MOON by Joni Sensel – the sequel to THE FARWALKER’S QUEST and even better than the first!
The only already published book I’ve read recently was AFTER YOU by Julie Buxbaum. This is a FANTASTIC book. Adult fiction, beautifully written. Just fantastic. Definitely add it to your list. You won’t be sorry. I loved her first book too, THE OPPOSITE OF LOVE.
Summer is over. There’s a fire in the woodstove and I have a big TBR pile, so it’s time to get back to Need To Read.
The first book I’ve read in almost a month (I know!) is Gorgeous by Rachel Vail. This is the companion book to last year’s LUCKY. I vaguely remember that I liked LUCKY, although I was slightly disturbed to discover that I couldn’t really remember anything about it except the stunning cover! Anyway, this book takes place at the same time as LUCKY and is about her older sister.
I really liked this book. It has a little extra something that gives it a step-up from your every day YA, but I wont’ tell you what. I’m a big fan of Rachel Vail, but I have to say that if I’d read this, not knowing who the author is, I wouldn’t have guessed. It’s a bit of a departure (but in a good way) from her normal writing. Anyway, try it. I think you’ll like it!
If you’ve been hanging out here for any length of time, you’ll know two things about me. I only write about books I really love here on Need To Read, and every time Suzanne Selfors writes a book, I have no choice but to write about it. She’s quickly becoming one of my favourite authors! SAVING JULIET made my Fave Fifteen of 2008, and COFFEEHOUSE ANGEL, her new book is a fantastic read too.
When Katrina spots a homeless guy sleeping in the alley behind her grandmother’s coffee shop, she leaves him a cup of coffee, a bag of chocolate covered coffee beans, and some pastries to tide him over, never expecting this random act of kindness to turn her life upside down.
I won’t tell you what happens, but I will say if you’re looking for a good read, something to make you smile, and a special twist to brighten your outlook (or just your day), this is a book for you. Coffeehouse Angel is available now.
Hiya! Just a quick note to say that Need To Read is on a summer hiatus. You’d think that I’d be reading more, not less in the summer, and I actually am, but I’m not really reading things that apply to NTR. I am reading some adult fiction, some ARCs for books that don’t come out for ages, and a lot of gardening and cookbooks. One of our goals (mine and my husband) is to become more and more self sufficient in regards to food. Last year was our first year as gardeners, and we learned a lot and even grew some of the easier to grow things (lots of zucchini, for example!). This year, we have quadrupled our garden space, and I’m getting invloved too. Also, one of my roles in the sustainability equation is food prep and storage. I’m having to study up on all this.
Just in case you’re interested, here are some of the things I’ll be reading this summer. Maybe you might feel inspired to try your hand at some gardening, or if you’re a pro and want to offer me tips, I’d love to hear them. Or maybe you just want to check out the cookbooks. Either way, if I read anything I think you might like (YA-wise), I’ll add it, but overall, postings on this blog will be light (I will keep up my regular homepage blog though). Enjoy your summer and eat well!
Organic Gardening For Dummies – your basics
Food Security for the Faint of Heart by Robin Wheeler – tonnes of great info on storing food
Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades – highly recommended by our gardener friends and proving invaluable to us West Coasters
Perfect Vegetables – if you think you don’t like veggies, or you only eat the basics, this is the BEST book ever. It will get you eating ALL of them. Trust me…I only ate carrots, corn and potatoes until I was 35. Now I eat it all (except eggplant) and this book went a long way towards getting me to this point.
How to Cook Everything Vegetarian – my turn-to book for EVERYTHING. Worth every penny (if you’re not a vegetarian, Mark Bittman has some other great cookbooks out too).
Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone – my new favourite. A recent gift and one that I’m sure will become another turn-to cookbook. Lovely and delish recipes.
I know Ruby Oliver is not the title of the book, but I’m going to blog about the first two books in the series. I’m still hoping to be on the ARC list for the third one, but I don’t know if I’m going to be lucky or not.
The titles are: The Boyfriend List and The Boy Book
These were great books. I’ll admit it, I’d never read them because from the covers and titles I figured they were chick lit. I personally have NOTHING against chick lit YA. In fact, I often enjoy it. But I have to be in the mood and it pretty much has to be in front of me. These books are popular and don’t sit on the shelf, so I’d never come across them. But after reading Frankie Landau Banks and How to be Bad, I started thinking I’d like to read more E. Lockhart, so I put these on hold. I got the first one on audio and the second as a regular book. Oddly enough, I think it works better as an audio book.
Here’s the deal. I have a love/hate relationship with footnotes and these books have them. I love to read them, I HATE how they take you out of the story and you have to stop what you’re reading to check them out. Asked for my advice, I would say please leave them out. But what I discovered is that when they are worked into an audio book, they really work well and are very fun!
Also, these books do what so many people try to do, but rarely accomplish. They explore very serious things – self esteem, sex, relationships, mental health – in a fun and interesting way and never once does the reader feel like they’re being taught a lesson. I am sorry to admit that I was more like Ruby Oliver than was probably good for me. How fantastic if I’d read this book as a teen! I mean, it might have given me things to think about in a way I’d never seen them. I did not relate to boys any better than Ruby (and sometimes in the exact same ways!) and I knew things were screwy, but I didn’t know how to fix them. As Ruby figures things out and learns things, the reader does too. But it’s all so subtle and beautifully done. And if you don’t have the same problems as Ruby, you get entertainment value from her issues! Such a deal. I would give these books to any teen I know…hmmm…I know of a few birthdays coming up…
I just read most of the worst book I’ve ever read. Seriously. Previously, I thought THE EVENING STAR was the worst book I ever read, and I guess it still is because at least I finished it (it took me months though). This is the worst book I almost read all of.
Quite frankly, I’m flabbergasted as to WHY a publisher would want to publish this. I won’t tell you the title, but I will say that it is a mystery series (Yes! A series! There are more! Lots more!) and that the whole idea is a poor, sad, pathetic rip-off of Diane Mott Davidson’s mysteries. And the writing was soooooo bad. I happen to know that several writers have done “food sleuth” series, so I haven’t narrowed it down so much that it’s obvious here. I mean, the chances of that writer ending up on my site are slim, but people write under pen names and so you know…maybe she writes YA and is a regular reader. I’d rather not go there.
I am posting for two reasons…one, just because it makes me feel better to rant (since I can’t get my 5 hours back) and two, because I want to know…Have you ever skipped to the end to find out whodunnit? Until today, I HAVE NEVER DONE THAT, but I was DESPERATE, I TELL YOU, DESPERATE to put this book down, and how do you put down a murder mystery and not know whodunnit? So have you? Do you ever skip to the end? Come on, fess up. Do you ever read the ending of a book you’re liking, or only ones you’re hating?
Funny…I just looked at the book cover to get the title because I had no idea what it was! I picked this book up for one reason only. Dame Mary Stewart wrote it. It’s set during Arthurian times and based on a legend (which I didn’t know until the end when I read the author’s notes). I love Mary Stewart’s books, especially the ones about Merlin (The Crystal Cave, the Hollow Hills, etc.), but my most favourite book of hers (and actually just a fave in general) is The Ivy Tree*. If you haven’t read it, I suggest you hunt it down. None of this is YA, but I think teens might enjoy MS’s books.
Just as a matter of interest, when I was studying screenwriting years ago, I wrote Mary Stewart a letter (she must be in her nineties by now) and asked if she would mind if I tried adapting The Ivy Tree into a screenplay and then selling it on spec. Sometimes writers let you do this without optioning the book (or at least, that’s what my handy dandy screenwriting book said!). She sent my letter to her agent who said, “NO WAY! We are already working on several deals for that book!” (haha…like I was going to fall for that…the book had been out for 35 years and was OP). However, Dame Stewart and I exchanged a couple of very nice personal letters and I still have them! She has beautiful handwriting.
P.S. I know I have not updated Need To Read very much but it is because I’m just not reading that much due to edits (oh, okay…and baseball). I intend to tackle my library stack and some of the 50+ ARCs I have though, so look for more updates soon!
*Ooooh! Very exciting news. The Ivy Tree appears to have been rereleased in 2007, so you can actually get it. My copy is from 1961 and the print is so tiny I can hardly read it. I should get a new copy! Hmmm…I wonder how soon the movie is coming out?
I know I haven’t posted here much, but I’ve been reading some adult fiction and also the couple of YAs I’ve tried just did not work for me. However, I am HAPPY to say that Audrey, Wait! is fantastic. I first heard about it on Meg Cabot’s blog, but my library didn’t have it and I forgot about it. Recently, Alexa mentioned it to me, and my library had purchased it, so I put it on hold. It came in last week.
On Friday afternoon, I decided to celebrate my good writing week by reading this book. I settled into the Big Blue Chair with tea and a snack and I’d read about three chapters when my wonderful writing buddy and cat, Grinder came in and sat next to me. After a while I got up to get something and when I came back, he was settling into the chair so I scooped him up and moved him onto the bed next to my napping husband. That woke my husband up and so we were chatting while he petted the cat, and then something very sad and tragic happened. If you don’t want to read that, then the gist of it is that Grinder passed away suddenly.
Anyway, with Grinder gone and taking a huge part of my heart with him, I needed a distraction like nobody’s business. And I am pleased to say that AUDREY, WAIT! did an excellent job. This book is hilarious. It’s fun and funny, full of great music, and overall just a kickass read. It reminded me of Meg Cabot humour meets Sarah Dessen reality. In other words, it is extremely entertaining with great characters, but they’re very real in that they smoke, they drink, they do drugs, they colour their hair, they banter wickedly, and they have sex. And that’s just who they are. It’s not about any of those things, but these are teens involved in the music world in LA and if you leave that stuff out, well, then…I don’t think you have much of a book. Luckily, Benway wrote it like she sees it, and it is highly entertaining. I will be going directly to her site now to find out what else I can look forward to!
I’m a little behind in that this is the first Lauren Myracle book I’ve read. I got it as an ARC and thought the cover looked fun. Of course, I’d heard of the author, but none of her books had crossed my path before.
I really liked this book. I thought the characters and ideas were fascinating. I liked the twists it took. And I felt very emotionally involved in this book. It also got me thinking about our imaginations as writers and how we are sometimes limited by our personal experiences and values.
In this book, the family is a very wealthy family living in the Buckhead area of Atlanta. What I found interesting is that when I imagine wealthy characters, they pretty much live by my values. In the YA I just finished, the family is independently wealthy due to a windfall. However, the way they spend their money is they live in a super environmentally sound house, they buy high quality and organic food, they purchase items that are made in sustainable ways, but not a lot of these items, etc., and the mother does not have a job, but does nearly full-time philanthropy work. In other words, they live how I would live if I were rich (only my husband would be the professional volunteer…I would still be a writer).
I have never even met anyone wealthy enough to live in Buckhead (that I know of anyway) and to create a story set there is beyond my imagination. Sure, I could research it…if I even knew it existed (which I didn’t…even though I’d lived in the south and heard of the neighbourhood). It got me thinking about how we, as writers can expand our worlds. Or do we need to? Is our imagined world going to expand someone else who can only imagine a penthouse on the Upper East Side, or a rented shack on the wrong side of the tracks? Hard to say.
Anyway, I loved this book and think you will too. The photo is one my husband took for his blog and there’s a bit of history behind it here if you want to read about it. You can see it better there too.
I had seen this book in my library and avoided it for a couple of reasons. The first was the cover. It looks like rich-girl-chick-lit. Sometimes I love YA chick-lit, but I’m not so much into the elite rich girl stuff full of brand names. Another reason I didn’t pick it up was because it was by three authors and I, for some reason, thought it was a collection of short stories and I can never get into short stories. The reason I did finally pick it up is because I read something else by Lauren Myracle and E. Lockhart and loved them both, and I already loved Sarah Mlynowski, so I thought, “What the heck?”
I really, really liked this book! It’s very seamless. You can’t tell (or I can’t anyway) who wrote what (it is a novel, not short stories). What I loved about it was that in some ways, it’s your typical road trip story, but in so many other ways, it’s not. The characters are all so well developed that you want to know them more, and it takes many surprising turns. It’s a very satisfying read. I would actually love to see a sequel.
This British YA is quite funny, light reading. If you like Louise Rennison, you’ll like this too. It made me laugh quite a bit. Also, just because you think you know where it’s going doesn’t mean it actually is going there! And the best part about this fun book is that it’s a series. Already out in Britain, and hopefully here soon. I got the ARC in October, so hopefully by the time this posts and you’re reading, my editor will have sent me an ARC of the next one!
That might be the title. Or something like it. Either way, this book is waaaaaay good. What are you waiting for? LOVED IT. I want to write more, but too tired from edits. Just read it.
(Adult fiction – a bit of swearing/foul language – still totally appropriate for YA – )
Here are my favourite RECENT book covers. Some I’ve just put up, and some I’ve commented on. The top 5 are first and then after that it’s in a random order.
Top 5.
1. The Rose Variations
I love everything about this cover. I love the photo itself. I love the placement and font of the text. I love the splash of colour along the bottom. I love what the photo evokes and I love that it has a bit of wackiness to it. It’s a perfect cover in my eyes.
2. Just One Wish
I’m apparently very fond of blue because there are several other books further down on the list that have this colour too.
3. The Musician’s Daughter
4. That Was Then, This Is Now
5. That Summer
The only thing I don’t like so much about this cover is the author’s name at the top. I prefer it at the bottom. I like pretty much all of Sarah Dessen’s covers despite the fact that her name is at the top on all of them!
Okay, randomly (forgive me for using Amazon links instead of an indie bookstore. It was just easier – you don’t have to shop there or anything!):
You can definitely judge this book by its cover. Fantastic cover, fantastic book! Suzanne Selfors is consistently great, so I always consider her books a “sure thing” and of course, I wasn’t disappointed at all. I’ve raved about her YA, Saving Juliet (out in paperback soon!) already and To Catch a Mermaid is her other MG that I love.
I am very lucky in that my fabulous agent is also her agent. That’s how I found out about her books. I’m double lucky in that he sent me a copy of this book. I got it yesterday afternoon, sat down in the evening with it, read until 12:30am when I finally had to give in and go to bed. I made myself do my writing today before finishing it, and whether I’m really fast, or I just cheated and did less writing than I normally would’ve (I’m not admitting anything), I finished by 2pm and settled in to read the end.
Oh, what a beautiful, fun, wacky, silly, fabulous, colourful story. If you like her other books, you’ll like this one too. If you like Jean Ferris, you’ll love Suzanne’s style. While I wouldn’t call myself an uncreative person by any means, I am definitely envious of Suzanne’s ability to come up with such crazy and yet totally plausible stories. So get this for your favourite ten year old, but make sure you read it first!
I know…I know…I’m always telling you how much I love this book or that book, but OMG I LOVE THIS BOOK. And yeah, I know that I’m kind of late to the party and that everyone around the world has been loving it for a while now, but what can I say? It was time for me to read it and so I did. Actually, I listened to it on audio (twice!) and I personally think, without actually having seen the print book, that it’s much better on audio because Gilbert is a true performer. She does accents and voices and her timing is fantastic and she makes you laugh, and she might even make you cry a little too. She opens your heart. And of course, I’m sure that we would be absolutely Best Friends Forever if when we meet someday.
What got me interested in this book in the first place is this TED video, where she speaks about genius. I have watched it no less than three times and I’m listening to it again now, which is making it sort of hard toproff to proof this.
And get this, I went to her website and her sister is the fabulous YA writer, Catherine Murdock! Can you believe how much talent that one family has???? Wow! If you haven’t read Murdoch’s Dairy Queen or The Off Season, what are you waiting for? And as a sort of bonus, I realized I hadn’t checked out Murdock’s site in a while, so I went there and get this! She’s got a third book coming out in this series called FRONT AND CENTER. You can read a sample of it, but I’m waiting for the real thing. I was kind of bummed to see that her publisher is not my publisher, so there’s not much chance of an ARC and I’m going to have to wait just like everyone else…oh, well. It will be exciting when it comes out. Gives me time to read the first two again.
So there you go…now you have a whole pile of books to buy/borrow/get from the library. You can thank me later!
This is a perfect book. I know, I know…I love everything I write about, but this is really good. It’s also 13 years old and perfectly timely, even though it was a contemporary book at the time. The only thing that dated it was the cover, and now it’s got this cool new one!
What I love about Bauer’s books is that she packs them with all this information that just isn’t that common. In this case, pool. But she’s also worked a ton of mathematics into this story and it’s FUN! If I were a kid, I would think, “Wow. Math might be kind of interesting after all.” And she packed in some history, physics, a bit about theatre, some blues guitar, and a pig! I just love how she takes the ordinary and makes it extraordinary. I told my husband, “I wish I could write like Joan Bauer.” and he said, “Well, you can’t. You have to write like you.” I know he’s right, but I still updated my facebook status to say: If I didn’t write like me, I’d want to write like Joan Bauer.
Alex recommended this book to me (for once I actually remember who recommended the book) and she had me pegged. I LOVED this book. You could say I flipped over it. I actually listened to it on audio, which added a bit to it, I think because there are two points of view in this book, a young boy, and a young girl, and the producers of the audio book hired two narrators- a male and a female. I think this added a lot to the telling (although, the actor was exceptionally good and the actress slightly annoyed me, but I did get used to her). If you like audio, this is one to add to your audio list. If you don’t, then get the book.
This was an amazing book in that it seemed sort of straight forward and about the two main characters, but as it unfolds, you find out there are many, many layers to the story. At one point, one of the secondary characters does and says some things that sort of made my jaw drop. I just couldn’t believe anyone could be so…so…ignorant and arrogant. I think that was the turning point for me where I realized this book was special. Anyway, I do think you’ll like it and I’ve put another of her books on hold so I’ll let you know about that one eventually too. Yay!
I am pretty sure that this is the only adult romance novel I have ever read. Boy, was it fun! The characters were kind of stock, but true to Cabot’s style, they were all well drawn. It was laugh out loud funny in places, and the adventure took some good twists. I can’t really see me jumping onto the romance bandwagon or anything, but this was highly entertaining. Not to mention steamy. I’m so used to YA, where they either don’t mention sex beyond a kiss, or it’s the whole focus, or it’s some terrible or embarrassing thing. I’d totally forgotten that in adult books there is fun, exciting, and romantic sex allowed.
As you may already know, this book was written by Meg Cabot, but is billed as being written by Princess Mia Thermopolis from Cabot’s Princess Diaries books. I love that idea. Because Princess Mia is a huge supporter of Greenpeace, all the proceeds from the sale of this book are donated to Greenpeace. I’m thinking with Cabot’s popularity, that might save a lot of whales! If you really think about what it means to donate the proceeds of this book it’s quite amazing. Even if you write really fast, to write a 400 page book takes time. Lots of time. And commitment. And generosity.
I’ve always thought that Meg Cabot is a great person based on all the plugs she gives new writers and the way she encourages girls to really embrace and love themselves for who they are, not who they want to be, but this is really quite impressive. I borrowed the book from the library, but I think I will find it in my budget to buy it. After all, if she can donate months of her time to write it, that’s the least I can do. Besides, if we’re lucky, there’ll be a sequel and I’ll want to read it again anyway!
I am happy to announce the release of JUST ONE WISH. I think this is Janette’s best book yet. Definitely worth putting on your to-buy list. Janette is always funny, but I think that in this book, she takes her writing up a notch. I am sure you’ll enjoy it too.
I am in the process of compiling a complete archive of Need To Read that will include all the original posts starting way back when it was a Live Journal. Check it out here.
Part of me wants to wax poetic about this book, but really all that needs to be said is it is perfect. Yes. Perfect.
Hiya! Just a quick note to say that Need To Read is on a summer hiatus. You’d think that I’d be reading more, not less in the summer, and I actually am, but I’m not really reading things that apply to NTR. I am reading some adult fiction, some ARCs for books that don’t come out for ages, and a lot of gardening and cookbooks. One of our goals (mine and my husband) is to become more and more self sufficient in regards to food. Last year was our first year as gardeners, and we learned a lot and even grew some of the easier to grow things (lots of zucchini, for example!). This year, we have quadrupled our garden space, and I’m getting invloved too. Also, one of my roles in the sustainability equation is food prep and storage. I’m having to study up on all this.
I just read most of the worst book I’ve ever read. Seriously. Previously, I thought THE EVENING STAR was the worst book I ever read, and I guess it still is because at least I finished it (it took me months though). This is the worst book I almost read all of.
Funny…I just looked at the book cover to get the title because I had no idea what it was! I picked this book up for one reason only. Dame Mary Stewart wrote it. It’s set during Arthurian times and based on a legend (which I didn’t know until the end when I read the author’s notes). I love Mary Stewart’s books, especially the ones about Merlin (The Crystal Cave, the Hollow Hills, etc.), but my most favourite book of hers (and actually just a fave in general) is 
I know I haven’t posted here much, but I’ve been reading some adult fiction and also the couple of YAs I’ve tried just did not work for me. However, I am HAPPY to say that 
I had seen this book in my library and avoided it for a couple of reasons. The first was the cover. It looks like rich-girl-chick-lit. Sometimes I love YA chick-lit, but I’m not so much into the elite rich girl stuff full of brand names. Another reason I didn’t pick it up was because it was by three authors and I, for some reason, thought it was a collection of short stories and I can never get into short stories. The reason I did finally pick it up is because I read something else by Lauren Myracle and E. Lockhart and loved them both, and I already loved Sarah Mlynowski, so I thought, “What the heck?”
This British YA is quite funny, light reading. If you like Louise Rennison, you’ll like this too. It made me laugh quite a bit. Also, just because you think you know where it’s going doesn’t mean it actually is going there! And the best part about this fun book is that it’s a series. Already out in Britain, and hopefully here soon. I got the ARC in October, so hopefully by the time this posts and you’re reading, my editor will have sent me an ARC of the next one!
That might be the title. Or something like it. Either way, this book is waaaaaay good. What are you waiting for? LOVED IT. I want to write more, but too tired from edits. Just read it.
I know…I know…I’m always telling you how much I love this book or that book, but OMG I LOVE THIS BOOK. And yeah, I know that I’m kind of late to the party and that everyone around the world has been loving it for a while now, but what can I say? It was time for me to read it and so I did. Actually, I listened to it on audio (twice!) and I personally think, without actually having seen the print book, that it’s much better on audio because 
This is a perfect book. I know, I know…I love everything I write about, but this is really good. It’s also 13 years old and perfectly timely, even though it was a contemporary book at the time. The only thing that dated it was the cover, and now it’s got this cool new one!
I am pretty sure that this is the only adult romance novel I have ever read. Boy, was it fun! The characters were kind of stock, but true to Cabot’s style, they were all well drawn. It was laugh out loud funny in places, and the adventure took some good twists. I can’t really see me jumping onto the romance bandwagon or anything, but this was highly entertaining. Not to mention steamy. I’m so used to YA, where they either don’t mention sex beyond a kiss, or it’s the whole focus, or it’s some terrible or embarrassing thing. I’d totally forgotten that in adult books there is fun, exciting, and romantic sex allowed.
I am happy to announce the release of JUST ONE WISH. I think this is Janette’s best book yet. Definitely worth putting on your to-buy list. Janette is always funny, but I think that in this book, she takes her writing up a notch. I am sure you’ll enjoy it too.