Comments on: REVIEW: This is How It Happened by Jo Barrett

By: Jayne

Jayne — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 12:54:10 +0000

I’m almost ashamed to admit that I’ve not read “Bet Me” since I’ve loved Crusie’s category novels. Yet another book languishing on my TBR piles and heaps and mountains.

By: Jennifer McKenzie

Jennifer McKenzie — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 12:34:56 +0000

“Bet Me” by Jennifer Crusie is my favorite probably because it DOESN’T fit that “chick lit” definition. “Bridget Jones Diary” is painful to me. A woman stumbling and falling all over the place through most of the story and a short resolution at the end isn’t my cup of tea.
This book sounds like one I wouldn’t have made it through.

By: Kristen

Kristen — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 15:08:11 +0000

Has anyone got any recs for Chick Lit that is different from what we’ve all read before?

Oh, dear (author) reader, have I got a book for you. HIT REPLY by Rocki St. Claire (yes, the same wickedly awesome author of the Bullet Catcher series). This book is unlike anything you've ever read or my name isn't Orville - wait, that isn't my name. You get the idea. It's smart, funny, touching and impossible to put down. It's written entirely in emails and IM's and at first, you might think that wouldn't make for an engaging read, but baby, does it ever! It even made me a little teary in some spots, and I do NOT cry over books. You really must read this. In fact, I dare you. That's right. I went there. This book is everything great chick lit should be without any of the bad aftertaste.

By: carolyn Jean

carolyn Jean — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 14:21:00 +0000

I get tired of heroines wackily screwing up over and over, too, in chick lit as well as other genres. In my own mind, I always relate it to Gilligan from Gilligan’s Island – he always just messed everything up and I’d get so mad, and I guess I never got over it.

I agree, there’s no reason chick lit has to exclusively feature that sort of action. I just read Happy Hour at Casa Dracula, which to me is chick lit vampire, and I was impressed by the savviness and intelligence of that character.

By: Jayne

Jayne — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:35:14 +0000

I laughed when she made the brownies but as you say, got tired of watching her fall on her face again and again.

By: Jayne

Jayne — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:33:53 +0000

I tried the Linda Francis Lee book and didn’t make it past chapter 9. Didn’t care for the snobby heroine, most of her family, the debutante setup and hadn’t seen enough of the hero to care about him.

By: Harry~DayDream

Harry~DayDream — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:33:11 +0000

You gotta admit that there oughta be more characters like Maddy, since we all need a bit of a laugh now and then and watching a woman in scorn do all the mistakes that she can make and a bag of chips to that, is hilarious. Although you can get tired really fast watching her make that many wrong moves.

By: Ann Bruce

Ann Bruce — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 01:01:26 +0000

Jayne, I just reviewed Linda Francis Lee's The Ex-Debutante. It's very predictable, but the narrator didn't fall into TSTL territory.

By: Kerry

Kerry — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 00:40:16 +0000

Neither Pug Hill nor Through Thick and Thin were up to her first.

By: Jayne

Jayne — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 00:29:09 +0000

Oh I loved that one. Her third book didn’t work quite so well for me but she sent me a copy of “Pug Hill” that I need to try someday.

By: Kerry

Kerry — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 00:26:21 +0000

I need to write a review on it myself, but Alison Pace’s first book If Andy Warhol Had a Girlfriend was great because the heroine’s journey had almost nothing to do with a guy. Jane has to get away from her insano boss and develop her backbone. She’s a little drippy, but not stupid.

By: Jayne

Jayne — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 00:04:32 +0000

I’m still willing to try Barrett’s next book as I liked her first one. And the book did flow. And I read it quickly. But no more doormats please.

By: Jayne

Jayne — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 00:02:59 +0000

Thanks Carolyn Jean. But at this point, I’m getting tired of the cliches of standard chick lit and looking for something different from the subgenre. I’m not as willing to wait though the whole book for a heroine to stop being silly and stop putting up with nonsense in the name of humor.

Has anyone got any recs for Chick Lit that is different from what we’ve all read before?

By: jmc

jmc — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 21:13:02 +0000

I really wanted to like this book. Ms. Barrett’s voice and style worked for me. As long as I didn’t concentrate on the content, this book flowed fairly well for me. But once I stopped and thought about all the events of the book? It became a wall-banger. As you put it:

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, or in Maddy’s case, fifteen times, and shame should be dumped on her head.

Eventually I lost all respect for Maddy, finding it hard to believe in her brilliance and business acumen when she was so very spineless and unseeing about Carlton and “their” business.

By: carolyn Jean

carolyn Jean — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 20:14:55 +0000

I love your definition of chick lit:
“a heroine who does some dumb things and gets done over by a villain guy. And that she doesn’t recognize the good guy hero, who’s often not prominently featured, for a lot of the book.”