India's Summer by Thérèse

Title: India's Summer
Author: Thérèse
Publisher:  Fiction Studio

About the book: Single and about to turn forty, India Butler, a grade school teacher in London is having a meltdown. Desperate to reinvent her life she flies out to LA to spend the summer with her sister Annabelle a famous Hollywood actress and her brother in law a legendary rock musician. She maintains a wry detachment until she begins dating Adam, a gorgeous A- list actor. In an attempt to appear more successful she tells him she creates and teaches motivational workshops. 

When Adam’s friend is in a drunk-driving accident, Annabelle finds a lump on her throat and a mutual friend’s stepdaughter overdoses, India is drawn behind the veneer of Hollywood glitz and glamour and into their private lives. As her illusions about the perfection of their LA lifestyle fade away, India has an epiphany about her own real talents. She begins designing the kinds of classes and workshops she has fantasized about to Adam and successfully launches a series of workshops to help parents relate to their teenage children. She also drafts a book proposal.

In love with a movie star and with a burgeoning new career as a self- help guru, India is in her element until a defamatory video, filmed of her venting to Annabelle soon after her arrival goes viral. Her new life unravels. Humiliated and depressed, she returns to London where she repairs the damage with those closest to her. When her agent calls with news that he has sold her book proposal she takes control of her life. Shakily re-united with Adam and still balancing life on both sides of the pond, she returns to America to promote her book.

My thoughts:  This one was just okay for me.  While I liked India and her sister Annabelle, I found the storyline a little jumpy and hard to follow.  Many times I had to reread as all the sudden we were in a new place or it would jump from one person's POV to another and I wouldn't know whose eyes I was supposed to be seeing out of.  

India moves to L.A. for the summer to live with her sister Annie and her rock star husband.  She doesn't seem to be satisfied with who she is, as it sounds like over the years she has tried to find a "style" that fits her and in her eyes has been unsuccessful.  She is also burnt out on teaching and is wondering if she shouldn't try a different career.  

She is thrown into the celebrity whirlwind with parties, fund raisers, and paparazzi.  She begins to date a movie star, Adam, but when he questions her about her career she tends to be vague about the fact that she was a teacher in England.  She creates this fantasy job that she comes to realize is closer to what she really wants to do. 

When tragedy strikes it seems like it all happens at once (and actually, it does seem that that is how it happens. . .)Even though India isn't always true to herself, she is loyal and true to her friends and makes herself available to them when they need her.  Following this path she really does start to develop some workshops as well as a book proposal and finds her niche in helping people.  

There is more chaos and more success before the book wraps up.  All in all it wasn't a page turner for me but it was entertaining.  

~I received a complimentary copy of this book from Book Sparks PR in exchange for my unbiased review.~

Buy India's Summer:  Amazon

Link to Thérèse'S website: http://thereseblogs.com/indias_summer

Link to Thérèse on Twitter: https://twitter.com/theresetweets

India's Summer
Publisher/Publication Date: Fiction Studio, Jan 2012
ISBN:  978-193655834-6
259 pages

Girl Unmoored by Jennifer Gooch Hummer (Book Review)

Title: Girl Unmoored
Author: Jennifer Gooch Hummer
Publisher: Fiction Studio Books


First sentence:  Jesus was in his underwear.


About the Book: Apron Bramhall has come unmoored.  Fortunately, she's about to be saved by Jesus.  Not that Jesus -- the actor who plays him in Jesus Christ Superstar.  Apron is desperate to avoid the look-alike Mike, who's suddenly everywhere, until she's stuck in church with him one day.  Then something happens -- Apron's broken heart blinks on for the first time since she's been adrift.


Mike and his boyfriend, Chad, offer her a summer job in their flower store, and Apron's world seems to calm.  But when she uncovers Chad's secret, stormy seas return.  Apron starts to see things the adults around her fail to -- like what love really means, and who is paying too much for it.


Apron has come unmoored, but now she'll need to take the helm if she's to get herself and those she loves to safe harbor.


My thoughts: Apron is just finishing up the seventh grade and has had a pretty rough year.  Her mom passed away and her dad has started a relationship with Margie (or M, as Apron calls her).  Margie is from Brazil and had been her mom's nurse, but now lives with Margie and her dad.  She is on a work visa in the United States and Apron believes is looking for Mr. Right so that she will not have to leave. Meanwhile, that is all that Apron wants her to do -- leave.

To top it off, her best friend Rennie has decided that it is time for them to make other friends, so has pretty much abandoned her as well. Now M is pushing to get rid of The Boss, Apron's guinea pig!  Before you can blink an eye, it is announced that she is pregnant and is marrying Apron's dad.  She is not looking forward to summer having to be around M all the time!

As luck would have it, she is left in a church with her next door neighbor's nephew, who she had seen in the musical, Jesus Christ Superstar.  Apron was there as it was her dad's wedding day and Mike was there with his partner Chad decorating for a wedding. Together they ran a flower store called Scents Appeal.  They enlisted Apron to help with the decorations and it was the beginning of a great friendship.  It also opened Apron up to a world in the 80's that not a lot of people had experience with.  At 13, it was a lot to handle.  I don't want to say any more about it, as I don't want to spill Chad's secret.

It was really a coming-of-age story for Apron, as she learned to deal with the different ways that you can love people and that sometimes you didn't have to do anything for someone to hate you.  This was Jennifer's debut novel and I can't wait to see what she writes next.  I definitely look forward to reading more of her work in the future.

About the author: Jennifer Gooch Hummer has worked as a script analyst for various talent agencies and major film studios. Her short stories have been published in Miranda Magazine, Our Stories, Glimmertrain and Fish. She has continued graduate studies in the Writer’s Program at UCLA, where she was awarded the Kirkwood Prize in fiction. Currently, Jennifer lives in Southern California and Maine with her husband and their three daughters.


You can find her online at www.jennifergoochhummer.com.

~I received a complimentary copy of this book from BookSparks in exchange for my unbiased review.~

Girl Unmoored
Publisher/Publication Date: Fiction Studio, March 2012
ISBN: 978-193655830-8
325 pages