stargirl
Blueblood
Posts: 1,783
Apr 11, 2005 22:21:31 GMT -4
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Post by stargirl on Jul 1, 2005 15:23:14 GMT -4
You might start off by trying See Jane Date by Melissa Senate. It came out before the huge overload of subpar chick lit books, and I remember thinking it was pretty good. Also, everyone I know who has read Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married by Marion Keyes loved it. It fits the in the genre, but it's not just light fluff.
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tinyshoes
Guest
May 19, 2024 10:53:55 GMT -4
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Post by tinyshoes on Jul 7, 2005 15:49:01 GMT -4
I posted here the other day, but it disappered.
Anyhoo, I might have to run to Half-Price Books and see if they have See Jane Date. I'm pretty leery, since it's from Red Dress Ink. My experience with their books has been pretty iffy. Their books have been "meh" at best, MST3K material at worst. Maybe I've just been picking up the wrong titles. I keep getting sucked in by their spiffy cover art.
Has anyone read any chick-lit mysteries? That's supposed to be the next hot thing with the genre. The closest I've come to are books from Laura Levine's Jaine Austen series (This Pen for Hire, et al). They're a little cheesy, but so fun to read, and she does keep you guessing mystery-wise.
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stargirl
Blueblood
Posts: 1,783
Apr 11, 2005 22:21:31 GMT -4
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Post by stargirl on Jul 7, 2005 16:13:48 GMT -4
Actually, you might want to skip See Jane Date. I reread it this weekend, and it wasn't that great. I don't know if my tastes have matured so much in a few years, or if I confused it with another book, but I take back my recommendation. But as far as chick-lit mysteries, I guess the Stephanie Plum books by Janet Evanovich qualify. They're fun to read.
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Deleted
Posts: 0
May 19, 2024 10:53:55 GMT -4
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Post by Deleted on Jul 8, 2005 1:37:50 GMT -4
For chick lit mysteries, I'd recommend Lauren Henderson's Sam Jones novels. Sparkle Hayter's Robin Hudson series isn't bad either. For an overview of a bunch of authors, check out Tart Noir, edited by Lauren Henderson and Stella Duffy. (Figures that my calls on the next big thing are all several years old, and neither author has written a mystery in a while - Henderson's writing straight chick lit [not bad, but I wish she'd go back to Sam] and Hayter wrote a werewolf novel.)
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Deleted
Posts: 0
May 19, 2024 10:53:55 GMT -4
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Post by Deleted on Jul 8, 2005 4:27:26 GMT -4
Does Cecelia Ahern's P.S.: I Love you count as Chick Lit? Well, I read it a few months ago and I really have no idea why the hell this book's been so successful. It's so poorly written that I'm beginning to believe that even I have at least one book in me. So many things don't make sense and I thought that Holly's husband was a bit of an ass. Why didn't he encourage her to be a bit more ambitious while while he was still alive? All it apparently took was one sentence from him.
Also, I kinda had the feeling that Cecelia Ahern desperately wanted to write about little adventures she and her friends might have had one time (the night club episode, the beach incident). Was Holly really supposed to be 30 years old? She behaved like a 16-year old. Not in her mourning for her husband but in all other aspects of her behaviour.
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dutchninja
Guest
May 19, 2024 10:53:55 GMT -4
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Post by dutchninja on Jul 8, 2005 6:25:29 GMT -4
I went through a phase of reading a lot of chick lit and ended up hating it. So much of it was appallingly written, and the characters just seemed so pathetic. I must confess that I've switched to straight romance (well, Julia Quinn) and find that to be more honest in its approach.
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Post by carrier76 on Jul 8, 2005 10:19:42 GMT -4
I think a lot of the Red Dress Ink books are poorly written from a technical standpoint. They're also laughably formulaic. I keep thinking that even if I think my writing is sophomoric at its worst, I could send a manuscript in to RDI. Hell, it's better than a lot of that stuff!
I read the first book by Ariella Papa (can't remember what it was called) and it was really bad. I try to steer clear of RDI books now as well...unless it looks REALLY good. See Jane Date was a good ABC Family movie!
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Deleted
Posts: 0
May 19, 2024 10:53:55 GMT -4
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Post by Deleted on Jul 8, 2005 17:26:23 GMT -4
It's funny that you mention Red Dress Ink. Long story but I'm a sucker for free stuff so I stupidly signed up online to join the Harlequin Book Club so I could get two free books. Well, I never read the damn things but it also hooked me into a Harlequin e-mail notice that came out monthly with news about their new books.
Red Dress Ink is owned by the Harlequin company and in about 2003 they had this whole paragraph on one of their member e-mails about how they were looking for book submissions for Red Dress Ink. They had a page limit and all of these little qualifications but honestly it seemed sort of odd that they were asking for chick lit submissions through e-mail to their membership base. Prior to that their big books were See Jane Date and Milk Run which were both pretty good. I noticed the quality of their books really took a big dive after that.
Now they aren't accepting submissions anymore from the general population which is a good step in the right direction.
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Post by Shanmac on Jul 9, 2005 11:46:10 GMT -4
Love these books (I'm reading the latest one right now). My stuffy, pseudo-intellectual ex was just appalled, appalled I tell you, when I started reading them. Whatever. They're formulaic, but I like 'em.
I don't know if they qualify as "chick lit" ( I would think so), but I love Sloppy Firsts and Second Helpings by Megan McCafferty.
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Maddiemoo
Landed Gentry
Assistant (to the) Regional Manager
Posts: 957
Mar 7, 2005 20:45:36 GMT -4
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Post by Maddiemoo on Jul 10, 2005 3:26:25 GMT -4
Awww, I love Sloppy Firsts and Second Helpings. Marcus Flutie is like, perfection in a literary boy. Le sigh.
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