Review: Staying at Daisy's by Jill Mansell

Staying at Daisy’s tells the tale of a hotel manager Daisy MacLean. Going through a rough patch in her love life, Daisy’s concentrating on making sure her hotel is running as smooth as possible, which proves nearly impossible when cocky sports hero Dev Tyzack seems to always be around. Her staff keeps her on her toes—her best friend and co-worker Tara, is involved with a shady ex, who happens to be newly married, her father and hotel owner Hector, starts dating a famous actress which has the whole town talking (but he’s keeping mum about what he does when he disappears some days) and one of her porters, Barney, falls madly in love with a woman from Daisy’s former husband’s past—and that reveals secrets no one could have ever imagined…

My thoughts: Does this sound like another mad-cap feel good adventure from Jill? You're right if you answered yes because nobody writes a fun chick- lit/romantic comedy book like Jill. Her characters never fail to amuse and delight me.

In Staying At Daisy's, we meet Daisy MacLean at her father's hotel where she is the manager. It's a busy day as a wedding and reception is scheduled for the afternoon but Daisy is worried that her friend and employee, Tara, will fall apart as the groom, Dominick, is Tara's ex-boyfriend. Tara assures Daisy she couldn't care less but Tara finds herself in a sticky situation when she tries to explain just who was hitting on whom after being found in a compromising position by the bride's sister.

Hector, Daisy's father, is quite the jovial character - one of those people some would call larger than life. He shares a love life with one of the locals but little does he know it's not  the  no-strings attachment that he pretends to himself that it is. I loved it when realization hit!

Then there's Barney, the hotel's new porter, who harbors a romantic secret himself. The old adage about it's a small world certainly fits Barney's situation. Daisy is dumbstruck when she finds out who Barney is seeing. Barney is one of those characters who is almost too good to be true but I found myself really rooting for him to get everything he wanted.

Let's not forget Maggie, Tara's aunt who has her own romantic adventures going on. I loved Maggie as a character; she has a lot of spunk and a great sense of humor. When the appliance company fails to fix her washing machine, Maggie comes up with a way to get the company's attention and it is one laugh after another.

Full circle back to Daisy; she's pretty much sworn off men since her late husband's cheating behavior devastated her trust in men. However, Dev, the best man in Dominick's  wedding is a well known sports figure with quite the reputation. Totally hot! He seems to keep turning up at the hotel. As much as Daisy tries to ignore him, she finds herself thinking of him more than she would like.

A lot of trial and error in the love department and a few mismatches but Mansell manages to tie the ends up neatly in a satifying conclusion. This enjoyable read is not to be missed if you like romantic comedy with a lot of humor and terrific characters in an English village setting. I really liked it a lot! 4****

Disclosure: A review copy of the book was provided by Sourcebooks in exchange for my honest opinion.

Teaser Tuesday: Farm Fatale by Wendy Holden

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by Miz B of Should Be Reading and asks you to:

1. Grab your current read
2. Open to a random page
3. Share 2 "teaser"sentences also citing the title of the book and the author and in that way people can have great recommendations if they like the "teaser.
4. Please avoid spoilers

This week's teaser comes from Farm Fatale , a romantic comedy, by Wendy Holden:

"I must say, I don't fancy his chances much."
"Someone else clearly does, however. Apparently our divine hostess just caught him in the bathroom shagging one of the waitresses. Tried to drown him in the bidet, I hear, but he got away."

And people think life in the country is dull! Review will be posted on Thursday of this week.

Teaser Tuesday: Rumor has it by Jill Mansell

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by Miz B at Should be Reading and asks you to:

1. Grab your current read

2. Open to a random page

3. Share 2 "teaser"sentences also citing the title of the book and the author and in that way people can have great recommendations if they like the "teaser.

4. Please avoid spoilers

This week's teaser comes from Rumor Has It by Jill Mansell.

"Oh, Gavin, it's too late. How could I trust you? Every day I'd come home from work and wonder if you were still there." Whereas in reality she'd been coming home from work and enjoying the fact that he wasn't.

This is a really enjoyable romantic comedy!

Review: Rumor Has It by Jill Mansell

Paperback; 416 pages

Language: English

Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark

May 1st 2010
ISBN-13-978-1402237508

From the publisher: " Rumor Has It sizzles with internationally bestselling Mansell's signature fresh sense of humor, poignancy, and happy ending with a twist… Newly single Tilly Cole impulsively moves to a small town, only to find she's arrived in a hotbed of gossip, intrigue, and rampant rivalry for the most desirable man—Jack Lucas, whose reputation is beyond bad. Tilly has no intention of becoming another notch on his bedpost. But she finds the thoughtful, caring guy she comes to value as a friend doesn't seem to fit the town's playboy image. Should she listen to her friends or her heart? Is Tilly being mature and sensible—or running away from the love of her life?"

My Thoughts: Such a fun read! Okay, so Tilly is not heartbroken that her boyfriend Gavin has left her but she is in a predicament. It will be hard to pay the rent on their pricey London flat without his half. While on a spur-of-the-moment visit to her best friend Erin in the small town of Roxborough, she answers an ad for a girl-Friday and talks herself into an immediate interview. The man running the ad is Max Dineen, a successful interior decorator, who needs help with his 13 year old spirited daughter Lou and anything else that needs doing. The three of them hit it off right away. She's hired and goes back to London to pack.

Tilly moves to the small town where it seems everyone knows everybody else's business and they are not afraid to let their opinions be known or let truth get in the way of a good story. When Max introduces her to Jack Lucas she is smitten at first glance. It seems Jack is a bit of a lad and has quite the reputation. Or so the gossip goes anyway, but when he takes Tilly out he doesn't make any untoward moves. This makes Tilly wonder if it is just her or is his reputation overblown. Through a lot of attemps on Jack's part to impress Tilly, she just is too afraid to admit that she has fallen for him because she thinks he is commitment challenged. And of course there is that reputation to worry about . . . .but finally Tilly gets the brilliant idea for a way to ferret out the truth. Now if it will only work!

Meanwhile, Tilly's best friend Erin has her own romantic challenges to work out. She got seriously involved with Fergus months after he left his wife Stella. The problem with Stella, besides her acting like a crazy woman, is she finds it hard to believe Fergus would actually leave her. How could he? She is so fantastic! Do you think Stella has an ego problem? Stella makes it her mission to make Erin's life miserable. Stella's cat Bing isn't the only one with claws!

Rumor Has It is just such a delightful book with many more plot threads to enchant fans of romantic comedy. I was immersed in the story right away and I especially liked Mansell's humorous style of writing. Her characters seemed so real to me. I loved all their shenanigans, their insecurities and illusions and their way of coping with life in general. The pace was quick, the dialogue was witty and the action kept me turning the pages almost non-stop.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jill Mansell is an internationally bestselling author, with over 4 million copies sold. She has written 20 women’s fiction novels with multi-generational appeal, Mansell’s cheeky writing style is loved by fans both here and abroad and has been compared to Sex & the City and Bridget Jones’s Diary.
Jill’s books have been consistently shortlisted for the Melissa Nathan Award for Comedy Romance. She was recently ranked #60 on The Guardian’s 100 Top Bestselling Authors of the decade. Rumor Has It was ranked at #50 on The Bookseller.com’s Top 100 Bestselling UK Titles of 2009.
Jill currently lives in Bristol, England, with her partner and their children, and writes full time. Actually that’s not true; she watches TV, eats fruit gums, admires the rugby players training in the sports field behind her house, and spends hours on the internet marveling at how many other writers have blogs. Only when she’s completely run out of displacement activities does she write.

Disclosure: A review copy of the book was provided by Sourcebooks, Inc.

Review: Perfect on Paper by Maria Murnane

Maria Murnane was very generous and kind in sending me a copy of her new book, Perfect on Paper. Thank you so much Maria, for such a fun read!

Everything is perfect! He’s handsome, rich, smart and comes from a very impressive family. What more could a girl want? For one thing, for the wedding to actually happen, not for him to back out just 2 weeks before the fairy-tale day. I was drawn in immediately with the contrasts between Waverly and her fiance. This was a good way to set up the scenario and it definitely worked.

With a broken engagement behind her and a broken heart to be mended, Waverly Bryson tries to retreat from the land of the dating until her two best friends McKenna and Andie try to get her out of her funk. This effort involves blind dates, yuk! Some are just plain horrible while some are barely tolerable. Some of these scenarios will have you laughing out loud. Murnane shows her incredible sense of humor through out the entire book. At one gathering, Waverly looks over the crowd and says, “just like straight off the rack at Nerds R Us.” There is plenty more where that came from.

I liked the way Murnane builds up Waverly’s character. She has a conflict in her feelings with her father and the emotion in this shows clearly. The dialogue between Waverly and her two best friends is always witty, while still being caring. I found it very plausible with only one quibble. Do almost thirty year olds say they would like to meet “cute boys”? I would think by that age they would be looking for “hot men”. But this is only a small annoyance because over all the book is very good.

Murnane creates a character you want to root for as this book made me smile, laugh and at times groan out loud. Waverly learns to discover her true inner self and comes to the realization that she needs to do what makes her happy, not what others think should make her happy. Out of what seemed like the end of her world in the beginning, came a lot of good for the future. Perfect on Paper is perfect for those who like humor and chick lit with some real substance to it. I give it 4 ½ *****

Review: Talk of the Town by Sherrill Bodine

A big thank you to Sherrill Bodine for sending me an advance copy of her new book, Talk of the Town.

When Rebecca Covington, 15 year veteran gossip columnist for the Daily Mail in Chicago, finds out she has lost her job to a younger woman, she goes into a tailspin. It seems the paper has been bought out by an as yet unidentified media mogul. Her boss tells her she will now be working with Kate, editor of the home and food section. This will be tricky because Rebecca hates to cook, doesn’t even really know how and on top of that her oven is broken. Rebecca’s friend, Harry ,has recently inherited a lot of cookbooks and is willing to help her after Kate tells her she must actually cook a recipe while adapting it to her tastes. What follows is a hilarious episode in Harry’s new kitchen. Absolute laugh out loud moments.

Rebecca is determined to keep up her image because she feels in no time she will get her old job back. As she tells Kate, “her job is her identity, the armor she puts on every day. She needs it back to feel safe.” It seems that Rebecca’s husband had left her for a younger woman, leaving Rebecca with a lot of abandonment issues and fear of commitment.

When Rebecca is invited to a charity function, she spots an absolutely gorgeous man and the sparks fly as the two exchange looks. No stretch of the imagination to know that this is the new owner of the paper, David Sumner. When David tells Rebecca she can put her own spin on the food column, she does it in a big and very successful way. While their personal and professional lives progress, it is not always in a smooth fashion. There are a lot of bumps along the way.

This book has a lot more going for it than just a romance. Although at times, you can turn up the air conditioning because there are some steamy love scenes here! Some “chick lit” books, I find are vapid without much real content, but not so this one. The plot line is extremely plausible. The characters are very well drawn, especially Rebecca and David. The reader gets to see all facets of their personalities as Bodine makes them come to life on every page. They both have had some triumphs and disappointments in life along with real heartbreak that left them with commitment issues. Both work at learning how to deal with the fallout, finally figuring out what they really want out of life. There are several more subplots involved with some wonderful peripheral characters that will keep the reader interested from the beginning until the very end. This new book from Sherrill Bodine will have you talking for quite a while. I really liked this story. 4****