Women’s Fiction | Stacy Alesi's BookBitch.com™

THE LAST ORIGINAL WIFE by Dorothea Benton Frank

December 27, 2015

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I have been hearing about this author for years and finally picked up a book at random. It was a quick read, and an enjoyable one. Set in the South Carolina Lowcountry, a place I’ve never been that is described so beautifully, I can’t wait to go.

Wes and Les have been married forever and live in Atlanta, Georgia. They have two grown children who are making their way in the world, albeit not in the most positive ways.

Wes is a domineering and secretive husband with a bit of a temper. Not abusive, at least not physically, but certainly demanding and shouty. Les has been a stay at home mom and housewife for all of their marriage, just the way Wes wants it. They belong to the local country club and the two couples they’ve been closest with have undergone some changes. Harold left Danette for a much younger woman, and Paolo’s wife died, and he’s with another much younger woman. Les has nothing in common with these women, making their couple time together uncomfortable at best.

Les’s brother Harlan is gay and lives in the South Carolina Lowcountry, where Les grew up. Wes is completely homophobic and has forbidden Les from having her brother stay with them or even visiting him. One day at the club, the two young trophy wives get into a cat fight, and Wes yells at Les for “allowing” it. She is pissed, leaves the club and goes home.

Les finds the file cabinet open that her husband has always kept locked, and starts looking around. She is dumbfounded to find a financial statement in both their names with a balance of over $22,000,000. Her husband leases a new Mercedes every few years, but Les has been driving used cars and scrimping and saving for years, never realizing how wealthy they were because her husband never told her. She really loses it then and decides to run away from home.

Les goes home to her brother, who is off to Italy for a month. She spends some time alone, and then with an old high school boyfriend. Learning about the deception in her marriage forces Les to do quite a bit of soul searching, with interesting results. And she rekindles her relationship with her brother.

It was refreshing to read about a woman who was turning 60 and still had a life. I enjoyed this and will be reading more of this author.

12/15 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

THE LAST ORIGINAL WIFE by Dorothea Benton Frank. William Morrow Paperbacks; Reprint edition (April 1, 2014). ISBN 978-0062132475. 368p.

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SECRET SISTERS by Jayne Ann Krentz

December 8, 2015

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Madeline was a young girl at her grandmother’s hotel when a guest assaulted her. Her best friend, Daphne, woke up to see Madeline being dragged away and got help in time to save her friend. It was a night none of them would forget.

Many years later, Madeline is running her grandmother’s hotels, but that hotel, the scene of the crime, has been abandoned all these years. There is a caretaker, and when Madeline’s grandmother dies, she has to go settle up the estate, including that hotel.

No one ever knew about that night, and it’s been twenty years since Madeline and Daphne were together, but circumstances bring them back and the friendship picks up as if it had been two weeks. Madeline brings along her chief of security, Jack, and he brings his brother along to help with the tech stuff.

An attempted murder and a new romance make the pages fly by in the latest entry from one of the doyennes of romantic suspense. This was my first Jayne Ann Krentz book, and now I know why she has been on the bestseller list for so many years. This is an entertaining read for sure.

12/15 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

SECRET SISTERS by Jayne Ann Krentz. Berkley (December 8, 2015). ISBN 978-0399174483. 352p.

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HEADS IN BEDS by Jacob Tomsky

November 25, 2015

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A Reckless Memoir of Hotels, Hustles, and So-Called Hospitality

Jacob Tomsky works the front desk of high end, luxury hotels. Here he offers up the inside dirt on what really goes on, how to get the most bang for your buck, but really his point is how to beat the system – all told in a most entertaining fashion. Think of it like Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential for the hotel industry.

Not all of his tips are, how shall I put this…ethical? But he explains why you shouldn’t worry about it. Personally, I have to sleep at night so his tips on how to avoid paying for in room movies and the minibar just didn’t sit right with me. But I will definitely use his tips on how to avoid paying the cancellation fee, how to get upgrades, why and when you need the concierge, and why you should always use and tip the bellman.

I listened to the audiobook, which the author reads, and he does a really good job. I actually had to stop it a few times to take notes! But for the most part, the note taking portion is in the appendix. The book itself is by turns funny, horrifying and always interesting – at least to anyone who has ever stayed or is planning to stay in a hotel. A fun and informative read.

11/15 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

HEADS IN BEDS by Jacob Tomsky. Anchor (July 30, 2013). ISBN 978-0307948342. 320p.

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THE MARRIAGE PACT by M.J. Pullen

November 16, 2015

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Marci is turning thirty and her life is not what she expected. Living in Austin, Texas near no one she knows and working temp jobs is her sad reality. Her only relationship is an illicit affair with one of her bosses, who is married.

On her birthday she gets an email from one of her best friends from college, Jake. They had made a pact that if neither of them was married by the time they turned thirty, they would marry each other. Not that he’s pushing.

Marci is so involved with Doug and being at his beck and call around all his marital obligations that she has no time for anyone else and it is starting to wear on her. Eventually things take a turn as they often do in these sorts of relationships, and Marci quits her job and moves back home. Her best friends are there to help her muddle through and there is always Jake to the rescue. But Marci is torn; should she marry her friend while she’s still in love with Doug?

I had a hard time with this book. I know I was supposed to root for Marci to find her happy ending, but as a child of divorce with a father who was a cheater, I have a real problem with infidelity. I was tempted more than once to just put it down and forget about it, but I finished it. If you don’t have a problem with the other woman storyline, then go for it.

11/15 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

THE MARRIAGE PACT by M.J. Pullen. Thomas Dunne Books; First Edition edition (November 3, 2015). ISBN 978-1250070937. 304p.

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TOO MANY COOKS by Dana Bate

November 14, 2015

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Kelly Madigan is a cookbook ghostwriter; she helps professional chefs turn their recipes into something a home cook could use. She lives with her boyfriend of six years, who is neat, dependable, a cardiologist in training and ultimately boring. Then she loses her mom suddenly, and finds her mother left her a letter with her dying wishes, the ultimate guilt trip.

Her mom tells her that she needs to take risks, leave the Midwest and travel a bit, and not rush into marriage with Dr. Boring. So when Kelly is offered the opportunity to ghostwrite a major Hollywood star’s cookbook, she jumps at the chance, even though it means moving to London for the better part of a year.

Her boyfriend is devastated and furious. He kicks her out and she gets to spend a few weeks with her father before moving to London and perhaps making the biggest mistake of her life.

Natasha Spencer is imperious, demanding and a definite nut case. Her assistant, Poppy, isn’t much better and they combine to make Kelly’s life a living hell. But the money is too good to pass up, even if she doesn’t get paid for months, and the only bright spot is Natasha’s husband, a rising star in Parliament who seems like a genuinely nice guy. They are a power couple to be sure, except that they sleep in separate beds and seem to live separate lives.

This was an interesting look at how a cookbook ghostwriter works, and how all that Hollywood glitz and glamour comes at a price. It reminded me a bit of The Devil Wears Prada (the movie version, not Lauren Weisberger’s awful book) but veers off in the romance department. All in all, I liked it and if you’re a fan of foodie fiction like I am, then this is the book for you.

11/15 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

TOO MANY COOKS by Dana Bate. Kensington (October 27, 2015). ISBN 978-1617732621. 352p.

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1 Comment | Book Reviews, Fiction, Romance, Women's Fiction | Tagged: Food | Permalink
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MAYBE IN ANOTHER LIFE by Taylor Jenkins Reid

November 9, 2015

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I didn’t realize how much I missed reading chick lit until I read this. Now it’s probably called women’s fiction since chick lit appears to have disappeared from book vernacular, but however it is being characterized, it’s a fun read, and an interesting one.

I love those books that ponder the road not taken; one of my favorites is What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarity (2011.) That book looked at woman who forgets the previous ten years of her life. This book looks at the future instead of the past, and it’s just as intriguing.

Hannah Martin is twenty-nine years old and still searching for…something. Her parents and sister moved to London while she was in high school, leaving Hannah to live with her best friend Gabby back in Los Angeles. She graduates from college and starts drifting from city to city, job to job, boyfriend to boyfriend – her last being Michael, a married man with two children, but never forgetting her first love, Ethan. They broke up during college but both still harbor the feeling of unfinished business.

Hannah decides to move home to L.A., and Gabby offers up her guestroom. Gabby is married to Mark, who Hannah likes well enough, and they all get along. Shortly after arriving, they go out to a club where Hannah runs into Ethan. Later that night, Gabby tells her she needs to get home and Hannah needs to decide whether to go home early with Gabby, or hang out with Ethan for a while longer.

The book then moves forward in two storylines; one in which she goes with Gabby, the other with Ethan. Told in alternating chapters, Hannah is living two different lives, a sort of choose-your-own-adventure with amazingly different results.

This was an engrossing story and a real page turner. I was torn between which life I thought she should be living, up until the very last page of the book. Reading this is like going on a roller coaster through Hannah and Gabby’s lives, and these characters were so well developed and likeable that I didn’t want the ride to end.

11/15 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

MAYBE IN ANOTHER LIFE by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Washington Square Press (July 7, 2015). ISBN 978-1476776880. 352p.

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CHRISTMAS BELLS by Jennifer Chiaverini

November 7, 2015

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I figured if I keep reading Christmas novels, eventually I’ll find one I can rave about…and here it is!

This book is a twofer – two stories told in alternating chapters that are set over a hundred years apart. The obvious inspiration of the historical story neatly focuses the modern day one, and I loved them both.

“Christmas Bells” is a Henry Wordsworth Longfellow poem (see below) that was turned into a Christmas carol, “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.” Chiaverini tells the story of how the poem came to be written, which is a mostly a biography of Longfellow, and she does a terrific job. Starting at the beginning of the Civil War, right before the first shots are fired, we learn how Longfellow lived, the tragedies that befell him and his family, and about his home and its historical significance in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The alternating stories are about St. Margaret’s, a Catholic church in the nearby town of Watertown. Sophia is a music teacher whose job is threatened by budget issues. She also is the children’s choir director at the church. Her accompanist is in love with her, but it is an unrequited love due to various factors. Stories also are spun about two of the children in the choir, Charlotte and her younger brother, whose father is serving in Afghanistan.

One of the most memorable characters in the modern day story is Sister Winifred, a nun who has the rather unnerving habit of talking to herself. But she also has the uncanny ability to ferret out truths about her parishioners and the priest that seem other-worldly, or perhaps divine?

This is heartwarming, of course, but also fascinating and beautifully written. This will be the Christmas book I”ll be recommending this season.

11/15 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

CHRISTMAS BELLS by Jennifer Chiaverini. Dutton (October 27, 2015). ISBN 978-0525955245. 336p.

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I HEARD the bells on Christmas Day

Their old, familiar carols play,

And wild and sweet

The words repeat

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come,

The belfries of all Christendom

Had rolled along

The unbroken song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Till ringing, singing on its way,

The world revolved from night to day,

A voice, a chime,

A chant sublime

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Then from each black, accursed mouth

The cannon thundered in the South,

And with the sound

The carols drowned

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent

The hearth-stones of a continent,

And made forlorn

The households born

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;

“There is no peace on earth,” I said;

“For hate is strong,

And mocks the song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:

“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;

The Wrong shall fail,

The Right prevail,

With peace on earth, good-will to men.”

2 Comments | Book Reviews, Fiction, Women's Fiction | Tagged: Holiday | Permalink
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THE DRESS SHOP OF DREAMS by Menna van Praag

October 31, 2015

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This is a fabulist, wondrous story about a girl, the guy whose been in love with her for most of their lives, and her grandmother.

Scientist Cora Sparks lost her parents in a house fire when she was a young child. Her grandmother, Etta, raised her, and they are very close. Etta owns a very special dress shop, where the dresses pick the customers, Etta adds a few special stitches and the customers find their lives changed – a bit fantastical yet somehow believable in van Praag’s fine hands.

In the book shop down the street, Walt, the owner, has been in love with Cora since the first time he laid eyes on her when he was just ten years old. Walt has another job besides the bookstore; he reads books aloud on the local radio station each evening, and women are falling in love with him because of his voice. But he has no interest in any of them.

Unbeknownst to Walt, his boss at the radio station is answering all his fan mail, and eventually strikes up a correspondence with Milly, a young widow. Despairing of ever winning Cora’s heart, Walt meets Milly and they form a relationship, but he doesn’t know about “their” letter correspondence.

Meanwhile, Etta is determined to get her granddaughter’s mind out of just her work and to get her to realize that Walt has feelings for her. Etta’s magic starts a lot more than she expected – Cora decides to try and find out how her parents died. The fire was ruled an accident, but Etta tells her she was never convinced of that.

There are several storylines here that flow seamlessly together and make the pages fly by. This truly is one of my favorite reads this year, and were it in my power, I would make everyone who reads this review go read this book! It reminded me a bit of The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern but not quite as complicated, or maybe more like The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey – it has that fairytale quality to it.

I loved this magical read, and just might read it again – which is high praise indeed.

10/15 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

THE DRESS SHOP OF DREAMS by Menna van Praag. Ballantine Books (December 30, 2014). ISBN 978-0804178983. 336p.

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FOOD WHORE by Jessica Tom

October 29, 2015

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A Novel of Dining and Deceit

I do love me some foodie fiction so I was very excited to hear about this debut novel. Jessica Tom is a food blogger from Brooklyn, NY who blogs about dining in New York and also posts her own recipes. I poked around her site and found out the original title was “Bad Taste” which I have to say I much prefer. Food Whore will be a turnoff for some people and I wasn’t particularly enamored of it. But the publisher was, so there you go.

The book centers around Yale graduate Tia Monroe who has been accepted into a graduate food studies program at NYU. She moves to NYC as does her boyfriend, a botanist, who lands the job of his dreams. Tia has applied for an internship with her idol, Helen Lansky (think Ruth Reichl) and brings a gift of cookies for her. She is waylaid by Michael Saltz, the uber powerful NY Times restaurant critic, who tosses the cookies and keeps her from Helen.

Saltz is enamored of her palate and facility with language and offers her a deal she can’t refuse. His palate has gone awry; he has lost all sense of taste. He offers her an unlimited budget and access to a personal shopper at Bergdorfs, lunches and dinners at the best and hottest restaurants in NY in exchange for her writing his reviews (that he revises at will) and she is sucked in. He dangles the internship with Helen as she struggles to resolve the internship she’s been assigned at one of New York’s finest restaurants – in the coat room.

This tangled web eventually closes in on Tia, but not before she ruins several relationships along the way. The publisher is promoting this as “The Devil Wears Prada meets Kitchen Confidential,” which certainly got me to read it, but it is more about the evils of ambition then what really goes on…where? In a restaurant? At the New York Times? At the graduate school of New York University? Really none of those, so that was a bit disappointing. Nonetheless this was a good story, it drew me in even though I really didn’t like any of the characters. I know I was supposed to forgive Tia, even understand why she did what she did, but maybe I’m not the most forgiving person because I couldn’t.

10/15 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

FOOD WHORE by Jessica Tom. William Morrow Paperbacks (October 27, 2015). ISBN 978-0062387004. 352p.

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ANYONE BUT YOU by Jennifer Crusie

October 23, 2015

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Jennifer Crusie writes great contemporary romances, and I wish she’d write a new one. This book is from 1996, released as an eBook a few years ago. But it’s a great story and a quick read.

Nina Askew just turned 40. Newly divorced after she realized she hated being married to a high powered lawyer who wanted her to be his socialite. She didn’t hate the guy, just the marriage and is happily working for a small nonfiction press as an editor.

She gets herself a birthday present, the dog she always wanted and her husband wouldn’t let her have, and she decides to teach Fred how to climb out the window and down the fire escape into the fenced in yard to do his business. But he ends up in the 2nd floor apartment below hers, and Alex brings the dog back.

Alex just turned thirty. He’s an emergency room doctor from a family of doctors, all with high paying, high stress specialties, and they think he is hopeless. Alex and Nina form a friendship, watching old movies and playing with Fred. Nina is very drawn to him but is not comfortable with her 40 year old body and can’t imagine that Alex would be interested. Alex is very interested, but afraid of scaring Nina off.

Eventually they get together, with a lot of laughter and some great sex along the way. Terrific characters, lots of laughs, hot sex and a good story line are Crusie’s hallmarks, and this one is no exception. She hasn’t had a new book for a few years, and I miss her.

10/15 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

ANYONE BUT YOU by Jennifer Crusie. Harlequin HQN (October 15, 2012). ASIN: B0098ISVMY. 288p.

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