Review: Unpregnant by Jenni Hendricks and Ted Caplan

Seventeen-year-old Veronica Clarke never thought she’d want to fail a test—that is, until she finds herself staring at a piece of plastic with two solid pink lines. With a college-bound future now disappearing before her eyes, Veronica considers a decision she never imagined she’d have to make: an abortion.

There’s just one catch—the closest place to get one is over nine hundred miles away. With conservative parents, a less-than-optimal boyfriend, and no car, Veronica turns to the only person who won’t judge her: Bailey Butler, a legendary misfit at Jefferson High—and Veronica’s ex-best friend.

What could go wrong? Not much, apart from three days of stolen cars, crazed ex-boyfriends, aliens, ferret napping, and the betrayal of a broken friendship that can’t be outrun. Under the starlit skies of the Southwest, Veronica and Bailey discover that sometimes the most important choice is who your friends are.

Review: I expected to like this book but I really didn't expect to love it as much as I did. This book made me laugh, it made me think and it kept me turning the pages because I ended up reading it in one sitting. 

This book deals with some very serious issues, unwanted pregnancy and the choices that causes, what coming out can do to friendships and also just how it feels to break up with friends at a pivotal point in high school. It deals with those issues through the vehicle of two wonderful main characters though and so it does it in the best possible way. Bailey and Veronica are just great to read about because they really are ying and yang but they complement each other so well, diluting and strengthening one another in equal measure that it just makes for awesome reading. 

This book is also a road trip book-how awesome is that? I had no idea I would be going on a journey when I picked this book up but the road trip aspect of this is just another wonderful vehicle to tackle these big issues. The chapters are numbered in miles which i loved and some of the stops provide for some fabulous comedy moments. 

There are definite care warnings here for pregnancy termination and also to some extent controlling/mentally abusive relationships so make sure you take that into consideration when choosing this book. Those issues are dealt with really well though. At no point did I feel like these authors were talking down to me or simplifying anything. This book is honest and to the point and yet it deals with these issues and these characters with consideration and with a sense of humour. I loved this book and definitely recommend it. 

To order your copy now, just click the link: UK or US

Review: The Sunday Lunch Club by Juliet Ashton

The first rule of Sunday Lunch Club is … don't make any afternoon plans.
 
Every few Sundays, Anna and her extended family and friends get together for lunch. They talk, they laugh, they bicker, they eat too much. Sometimes the important stuff is left unsaid, other times it's said in the wrong way. 
 
Sitting between her ex-husband and her new lover, Anna is coming to terms with an unexpected pregnancy at the age of forty. Also at the table are her ageing grandmother, her promiscuous sister, her flamboyantly gay brother and a memory too terrible to contemplate.
 
Until, that is, a letter arrives from the person Anna scarred all those years ago. Can Anna reconcile her painful past with her uncertain future?

Review: Even just the synopsis of this book made me laugh and made me very very intrigued as to what was going to down inside the pages of this novel, so you can imagine that that reaction was increased a hundred fold once I began reading. I was drawn into this book and this family right from the word go and I didn't want the adventure to end-ever!

Anna is a fabulous main character to steer this ship and she really is the main sail of her family too. We get to know so much about her family as the book progresses, I feel like I am part of their family too. They seem to welcome everyone into the fold, not always with open arms, and so you as a reader are definitely welcomed in as well. We all have a little bit of Anna in us, she is so fiercely independent, partly through choice and partly through necessity, but that doesn't always mean that she is safe from hurt and safe from generally bad things happening to her. The way she grows and changes over the course of this book was pretty spectacular and was heart warming to the very end. 

Each Sunday lunch club is an event in itself where secrets are unearthed, revelations are made and bonds are broken and mended. Each of these lunches could be a soap opera in their own right. At the heart of these gatherings though, is that family value that runs all the way through this book. No matter who is there, where they are, what is eaten, someone always leaves feeling a little better about themselves and problems are dealt with as a group, despite what each member of the family might reveal to the others over the course of the lunch. 

There were some really funny moments in this book, Anna's 'situation' provides some humour amongst her family and it is impossible not to laugh at other people's reactions when they experience their first Sunday lunch as a friend or a lover as one of the family members in attendance. There are also some lovely moments of family rallying round each other as the book goes on, this was really great to see because four bother's and sisters and a hell of a lot of secrets doesn't always mean that will be the case. And there were of course moments that had me in tears because it would't be a Juliet Ashton Novel without emotions that are poles apart. I cried with sadness and joy though and because I really did feel like part of the family. 

This was a truly wonderful read. I barely felt able to put it down and I ended up finishing it during my own Sunday lunch time, not something I planned to do. The story is gripping, the characters endearing and I am sure that you, too, won't want it to end!

To order your copy now, just click the link: UK or US

Review: How Not to Fall in Love Actually by Catherine Benetto

Life is 10% planning, 10% design and 80% totally winging it... 

Join Emma as she guides you through How Not to become accidentally knocked up at the age of 27, How Not to unceremoniously dump the father of your child, and then How Not to lose the job that (even though you hate it) is the only thing between you and being homeless...

Hilarious and heart-warming, How Not to Fall in Love, Actually will make you laugh, make you cry, and will reassure you that perhaps your life is not that bad, actually...

Review: Oh my goodness this was such a fun read, I don't know how I waited as long as I did to read this one! I have a paperback copy of this book but I chose to download it on audiobook for a road trip I took with my Mum and we had such a fun journey listening to this one. 

I recently bemoaned the fact that I hadn't read a book recently where someone has a baby and then this one comes along as if I knew I was waiting for it-so perfect. I just loved the whole storyline of this one. Anything that could go wrong for Emma does go wrong for her. Part of the mishaps that happen to her could possibly be blamed on her hormones and certainly the comedic way she deals with some of those mishaps are definitely because of the hormones, but some of them just come along and take her completely by surprise. I really enjoyed reading about how she deals with all those mishaps though. Despite the fact that so much is going wrong in her life, Emma stays optimistic that things will all work out eventually and we loved her for that!

I loved the selection of supporting characters in this novel too. Joe comes into Emma's life as a lodger and turns out to be so much more important to her than either of them realised. I totally fell in love with Joe and I would like to keep him please because he is just such a Prince Charming. I also loved reading about Emma's friend and family, who are course are all so funny and quirky in their own individual ways. I loved her friend Helen, particularly her reaction to Emma's pregnancy and impending child birth. I also really liked Emma's mum and I really wished that I had a sister like Alex to be there for me. I don't want to pass comment on Emma's ex and father of her child because this author has written him to be such a scoundrel that I don't like him one bit, a good job well done there!

This book just has it all and anyone trying to make relationships and career work in today's society will be able to sympathise and empathise with Emma 100%. I think though, that anyone would be able to find the comedy in this book and picking up this book will definitely keep you entertained from cover to cover, I can definitely recommend picking up this beauty for your holidays now!

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Review: Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty

Despite their differences, Erika and Clementine have been best friends since they were children. So when Erika needs help, Clementine should be the obvious person to turn to. Or so you'd think. For Clementine, as a mother of a two desperately trying to practise for the audition of a lifetime, the last thing she needs is Erika asking for something, again. But the barbecue should be the perfect way to forget their problems for a while. Especially when their hosts, Vid and Tiffany, are only too happy to distract them. Which is how it all spirals out of control... 

Review: Ok, full disclosure, this wasn't my favourite Liane Moriarty novel. I absolutely flew through her previous novels, most of which I listened to on audio book, waiting in the car for them to finish or staying up late to hear the end of a particular scene but this book took a while to get going for me. Liane Moriarty's novels are always very character heavy and so it can take a while to understand who is who and how they all relate to each other, but this book seemed to take extra long for that to happen. Once I worked out who all the characters were and what their individual quirks were, it was definitely easier to read/listen to and I really got into the storyline. 

The structure of this book is that there is a neighbourhood BBQ and we know right from the beginning that something happened at this BBQ but we don't really know what or who was involved and so this is where the thriller aspect of this novel, something which is ubiquitous with Liane's writing, really comes in. We have scenes set in present day and we also have flashbacks to the day of the BBQ. I think this may have been slightly easier to follow, had I read the print version of the book and not the audiobook, but sometimes it was hard to adjust back to the current storyline after the BBQ flashback because I had to work out which character's storyline it was. 

The storylines themselves are all very relevant. People having to struggle with being the second wife, with being a working mum. There are story lines dealing with mental health and hording, IVF and pregnancy, and what happens when an elderly neighbour suddenly hasn't been seen. I found all of the plot very interesting and I liked the way it was woven in with this thriller/mystery aspect of what happened at the BBQ, I think the clarity only becomes a little muddy when working out which mummy and daddy were which. 

I found all of the characters easy to read, once I had worked out who was who and for the second half of the book I was definitely rooting for them all. This author has a skill at spending part of the book portraying a character to be a little spoiled, or a bit of an outsider and then turning a corner and making you really sympathise or empathise with them and you really start to love them where you once hated them. I think my favourite character in this book was Erica. I liked her relationship with Oliver, her husband and I really liked the issues that Erica had to deal with. I think all the characters go on a journey over the course of this book, but I liked Erica's the most. 

If you are a Liane Moriarty fan then I definitely think you will enjoy this book. If this is going to be your first foray into this author's work then I would recommend picking up one of her other novels before this one as they are a little more fast paced and better reflection of her awesome writing. Not my favourite Liane Moriarty but I definitely enjoyed it from the half way point onwards!

To get your copy of this novel and see for yourself, just click here!