Summer Chick-Lit #3 & #4

 Although not all my reviews are spoilery, which I do not consider this one to be, here is a little warning just in case.

 

Review Written: 4th July 2012 [Happy Independence Day to any American readers]

Welcome to my World by Miranda Dickinson

Harriet Langton wants to travel the world. Sadly, the closest she’s got to fulfilling this dream is working as a travel agent and pouring over endless amounts of travel guides, especially of Venice. Her boyfriend Rob doesn’t like to travel far meaning her dream of going to Venice with her soul mate has been put on hold and instead, she’s stuck with camping.

Best friend Alex, owner of the local coffee shop, has travelled around the world and Harri listens longingly to his stories from across the globe. While I warmed to Alex, I failed to warm to her best female friend Stella for one reason; Harri wishes to travel the world with writer and explorer Dan Beagle and when the pair meet him at a seminar, it is Stella who steals this dream. Surely that isn’t part of the best friend role? Also, her ‘loving’ boyfriend, turns out to be not so loving with a shock twist in their relationship. Seriously, alarm bells were ringing everytime she declared her love and he simply said ‘I know.’ I’m not the most romantic person in the world, but if I ever date and say, fall in love, if all I got back was ‘I know’ then something is clearly wrong!!

You may remember me reviewing Dickinson’s previous book Fairytale of New York. Harri’s Auntie Rosemary has a daughter named Rosie who moved to America seven years previously and I thought it was quite a lovely tie in, connecting the two books together.

Another factor that connects the two together is the role of the male best friend. Fairytale of New York had Ed, and this book has Alex; both are serial daters who are ridiculously good looking and I instantly feel Alex is the perfect man for Harri. I believe they should go travel the world together.

This book has just the right amount of humour & embarrassing moments to contribute to the chick-lit genre making this an enjoyable read.

In other news, I read A Kiss at Midnight by Eloisa James.

I picked it up, thinking it was going to be a retelling of Cinderella, which it was, but it also went all 50 Shades on me. By this, I don’t mean bondage but I mean descriptive intimate moments with the absence of the word ‘there.’ (It appeared twice but I’ll forgive – oh, and I’ve not read 50 Shades because I refuse to jump on that bandwagon like I did with The Hunger Games, but I’ve heard a lot about it!) The story centres on Kate Daltry who has to pretend she is her beautiful stepsister Victoria when she takes ill. Accompanying Victoria's fiancé Algie to meet his cousin, Prince Gabriel, Kate & the prince embark on a relationship that isn't strictly allowed. This is because he is engaged to a wealthy Russian princess. I found it slow to get into at first but once you get past this hurdle, it is a good read.

NEXT REVIEW: I'm taking a break from Chick-Lit and going back into the world of vampire; something I've not read for a rather long time with Lee Carroll's Black Swan Rising.