Five women and one man come together every month to discuss a Jane Austen book. They are very different people with the love for Austen in common. Every month (is every chapter) another book is discussed at one of the group member’s home and the life story of that character is being highlighted in that particular chapter and throughout the story it becomes apparant everybody has had their own share of troubles, losses and other stuff that is common to life.

It is difficult to give my opinion about this book, because when I just started reading I was not sure I wanted Jane Austen’s work analyzed, but a bit further down the road I wished there was more analyzing of the books. It now seemed for me the book club could have read books by any author, because the book club is only a reason to give every character his/her own chapter. Nonetheless enjoyable enough read to keep me going ’till the end. 

The Weblog Review Please contact leg…@theotherbookreview.com so we can take legal action immediately.
Plugin by Taragana

Samantha Joyce works at The Hill and she is good at her job as political aid for Senator Robert Gary: professional, hard working and on top of everything. Wouldn’t it be great to have the same in her personal life. Unfortunately she doesn’t. She has a pet fish who tries to commit suicide every time he gets, her apartment is a mess and she is in desperate need of some hugs and kisses from the male species.
And in comes Aaron. Cocky to be sure, but also very handsome and male. Sam falls for him immediately, even though he is working as speechwriter for the opposition. A minor fault in an otherwise flawless man. Happy times all around!
And in comes Charlie: the horrible (and oh yeah, cute)  reporter who exploited her use of her Blackberry for his article.
Just when all the roles seem to be set and Sammy is happily juggling all the balls of life in the air, there has to be a disturbance. And there is…

I enjoyed this book a lot. It has a fresh sense of humour, a great heroin and sidekicks to match. Good read if you’re into chick-lit.

The Weblog Review Please contact leg…@theotherbookreview.com so we can take legal action immediately.
Plugin by Taragana

Three women, Molly, Paige and Kate, all have some goals they still haven’t reached. So although they are content with their lives some things are missing. For Molly and Kate a reliable male mate is missing and Paige wants to be a deputy. When all the goals are in hands reach it all seems so easy to grab it all, but especially then life gets more and more difficult. All three women have to look at themselves (and their pasts) to get noticed by the others. A harsh but necessary task if they want true happiness and a full life.

A nice enough read, but for me it all seemed a bit too chaotic. Instead of choosing three main characters, Webb could easily have written about only one of them. Following three lives left no room for digging deep into a character, so all three women were not as dynamical as they could have been. A pity really.

The Weblog Review Please contact leg…@theotherbookreview.com so we can take legal action immediately.
Plugin by Taragana

year/month	author	stars	title
2009-02	Pink & Ten Pas		The adventures of Johnny Bunko
2009-02	Urasawa		Monster — volume 5
2009-02	Urasawa		Monster — volume 6
2009-02	Urasawa		Monster — volume 7
2009-02	Urasawa		Monster — volume 8
2009-02	Urasawa		Monster — volume 9
2009-02	Urasawa		Monster — volume 10
2009-02	Urasawa		Monster — volume 11
2009-02	Urasawa		Monster — volume 12
2009-02	Urasawa		Monster — volume 13
2009-02	Urasawa		Monster — volume 14
2009-02	Urasawa		Monster — volume 15
2009-02	Urasawa		Monster — volume 16
2009-02	Urasawa		Monster — volume 17
2009-02	Urasawa		Monster — volume 18
2009-03	Obata		We were there — volume 1
2009-03	Obata		We were there — volume 2
2009-03	Obata		We were there — volume 3
2009-03	Sansom		The mobile library: The delegates’ choice
2009-03	Urasawa		Pluto 001
2009-04	Capcom		Phoenix Wright Ace attorney — vol. 1
2009-04	Inio		Solanin
2009-04	Ellis		How to hug a porcupine
2009-04	Urasawa		Pluto 002
2009-04	Urasawa		20th century boys 01
2009-05	Heyer		The Corinthian
2009-05	Mamet		State and Main
2009-05	Obata		We were there — volume 4
2009-06	Urasawa		Pluto 003
2009-06	Urasawa		20th century boys 02
2009-07	Austen		Pride and prejudice — re-read
2009-07	Harris		Three bedrooms, one corpse — Aurora Teagarden mystery (3)
2009-07	Levine		This pen for hire — A Jaine Austen Mystery (1)
2009-07	Lodge		Changing places
2009-08	Moore		Death by chocolate
2009-09	Langridge		Fred the clown
2009-10	Twain		The adventures of Huckleberry Finn
2009-11	Gaiman/Pratchett		Good Omens
2009-12	Harris		A bone to pick — Aurora Teagarden mystery (2)
2009-12	Harris		Real murders — Aurora Teagarden mystery (1)
2009-12	Wodehouse		Cocktail time

The Weblog Review Please contact leg…@theotherbookreview.com so we can take legal action immediately.
Plugin by Taragana

Jaine Austen (yes, her “mother is an Anglophile, and a bad speller”) has her own writing service and one day she has to write a letter for geeky Howard, who wants to ask a blonde female fitness instructor named Stacy for a date. Jaine is a bit reluctant to write it, but in the end, does what is asked by her client — money had a big influence in that decision. She had better gone with her instinct to refuse him, because next thing she knows, Howard is in prison, arrested for the murder of Stacy.
Jaine is 100% sure, Howard isn’t the culprit. The only thing she has to do now is prove her female intuition is right. Something that easier said than done.

I expected a really nice read, but didn’t get it. Just before reading this one, I read Three bedrooms, one corpse by Charlaine Harris and what I was afraid of that would happen in the plot didn’t. Unfortunately, in the story of Jaine Austen it did. -show spoiler

The Weblog Review Please contact leg…@theotherbookreview.com so we can take legal action immediately.
Plugin by Taragana

Aurora (Roe) Teagarden gave up her work as librarian when she unexpectedly inherited a house and money. She decided to give the real estate business a chance. After all, her mother is one of the most successful agents in town. It should give Roe a head start. Well…it gives Roe a start, but not the start she wanted, for her first house showing ends with a naked corpse in the master bedroom. Not the way Roe hoped her new career would take off and to make matters worse, one of her new-found colleagues has fallen under suspicion.
Time to jump into action. Roe, the natural-born sleuth, will not have piece until she has unraveled this mystery.

I really enjoyed this little charming detective story. The plot is not too obvious and there are enough comic notes to have you laughing throughout the story. I recently acquired the knowledge of this being book three in a series and it will not be long before you will read another review of the Aurora Teagarden Mysteries.

The Weblog Review Please contact leg…@theotherbookreview.com so we can take legal action immediately.
Plugin by Taragana

Frankie is a pediatrician in the Upper East Side of New York. Her clients are the high society of the city and throughout the book Frankie is the binding factor for all of the other characters we get to meet. There is Judy the wannabe, Samantha the accomplished and Barry the Hollywood movie-maker, amongst others. Per chapter we get to hear from them, about their struggles to get to the top or the tiresome task of staying there. At some point their lives aren’t as real anymore as they all might have thought and that is when everything starts to crumble down. How do they cope when their society as they know it seize to exist.

What a great book! It made me laugh, it made me cry — in the positive sense of the word — it made me bump into things (and people…sorry!) because I didn’t have time to look up from the book, it was so absorbing that even my boyfriend, who reads a lot himself, got a little impatient with me when after the x-th time I still didn’t answer him.
On the cover of the book it says it is a modern-age Jane Austen and I can relate to that. The critic on society and cultural rules are plenty represented, but never a hassle. The style is upbeat, but with an in depth story (line), a lot of round characters, intertwined with each other and each making their own life within the given circumstances.
This is definitely a book I could read again.

The Weblog Review Please contact leg…@theotherbookreview.com so we can take legal action immediately.
Plugin by Taragana

Cannie is a ‘larger woman’ and the whole freaking world knows it because her ex-boyfriend Bruce explained her body so fully in his column for the Moxie magazine.
Cannie just wanted a little break in her relationship with Bruce, but he seems to have moved on. Cannie is miserable. This is not how she imagened her break-up to end.
But Cannie is a fighter and wants to make the best of it. So she signs in for a test at the hospital with an experimental drug to help her lose spare pounds…and sits at home waiting for Bruce to call…not pathetic at all, right?
When Bruce’s father dies they see, and especially feel, each other, what later proved to be the last time, at his parent’s house. And from that moment on Cannie’s life does a 180.
Will she continue the be brave, will she keep going to the hospital and will she really get over Bruce?

Weiner proved herself once again to me. She really knows how to write humoristic chiklit with the hard reality woven through. You will laugh, you will cry, but most of all, you will not be able to put the book down once you started. Three times hooray for Jennifer Weiner.

The Weblog Review Please contact leg…@theotherbookreview.com so we can take legal action immediately.
Plugin by Taragana

Kate Stein is a housewife. Together with her husband Ben and her three children she lives in Upchurch, a little city in Connecticut with, so it seems, only perfect housewives. The problem is, she is not one of them. She can’t look sophisticated, doing the household, looking after the kids, have time for extracurricular activities all at the same time.
She is used to the lifestyle of New York where she has lived most of her life. First together with her parents, then together with her best friend Janie and even with Ben for a little while. But New York is no more and she is bored. What can happen to make her feel like an independent woman with her own life again? Well…a murder! One of the perfect wives is murdered under suspicious circumstances. Why should a normal housewife be killed and who did it? Kate is intrigued and determent to unravvel this mystery. Will she succeed together with Janie and her old flame Evan?

I really enjoyed this book. It’s a good mix of humor, chick lit and thriller and Kate and Janie are memorable characters.

The Weblog Review Please contact leg…@theotherbookreview.com so we can take legal action immediately.
Plugin by Taragana

Not as good as Rachel’s holiday, but good enough non the less.

Lisa is send from London to Dublin to set up a new Women’s magazine Colleen. Lisa is used to her glamorous lifestyle, something she has to give up in Ireland so it seems. Ashling is her “second in command” with her own set of problems. She is very insecure about her lack of waist, her lack of brilliant ideas and her lack of self esteem. Clodagh is Ashling’s best friend, married, two kids, in a total dip and wanting something completely different in her life. Jack is Lisa’s and Ashling’s boss, having problems in his relationship with a finger biting Asian girlfriend.

So, there are a couple of main characters in this book, Lisa, Ashling, Jack, Clodagh and some other characters, which are getting some sort, any kind, of relationship with each other around page 100. That was when the book started to grab me and didn’t let go anymore. And although the outcome of the book (like all Keyes’ books) was apparent after the first few chapters, still the book had some surprising twists and disturbing reality to it.

The Weblog Review Please contact leg…@theotherbookreview.com so we can take legal action immediately.
Plugin by Taragana