Take a Chance on Me by Jill Mansell (Book Review)

Title: Take a Chance on Me
Author: Jill Mansell
Publisher: Sourcebooks

My synopsis: This is the story of Cleo, a 20-something living in Channing Hill and working as a chauffeur.  Happily ensconsed in a new relationship with Will, she is upset when her childhood nemesis, Johnny LaVenture, arrives back in the neighborhood and brings up bad school memories.

It isn't long after his arrival that Cleo's life starts to fall apart, beginning with Will and the secret life he has kept from Cleo.  Cleo's brother-in-law Tom, has also been keeping a secret from Abbie, Cleo's sister and his wife.  When Abbie discovers clues to why Tom has been acting dodgy, she reacts very uncharacteristically for her and does something she soon regrets.  Fortunately Tom's secret was not as bad as Abbie thought, but she cannot change what has now happened.

Cleo, now single, keeps running into Johnny and doesn't understand why Johnny actually seems to be a nice guy.  She keeps remembering the brat he was in school and is confused when she realizes that she seems to be falling for the guy.  Before she can make a fool of herself, he hooks back up with an ex, Honor,  and soon is seen all around town with Honor on his arm.

Then there is her best friend Ash, who is besotted with Fia, the new cook at the local pub.  But for all the charm and wit he exudes as a local morning dj - when he is around a woman he likes, his words fail him and he comes off as a complete jerk.

My thoughts: I really liked Cleo.  She is honest and funny and loyal, but isn't afraid to stick her nose where it doesn't always belong and gets it out of joint once in a while as well.  Ash is hilarious as her friend the way he kicks himself when ever he freezes up around Fia.  I love the way that Ms. Mansell writes and brings life to her characters.  They have feelings and assumptions and thoughts that are real - some of which I have had myself. I can totally relate to feeling insecure like Ash and even Cleo, of hating the feelings that childhood memories evoke,  and of making random mistakes due to assumptions. 

For anyone who has ever had their heart broke, have been in a relationship, or is secretly yearning for the cook at the local bar, you should read this romantic comedy.  It may not solve your problem, but it will definitely put a smile on your face.

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

Take a Chance on Me

Publisher/Publication Date: Sourcebooks, Oct 2010

ISBN: 978-1-4022-3751-5

412 pages

Rumor Has It by Jill Mansell (Book Review)

Title: Rumor Has It
Author: Jill Mansell
Publisher: Sourcebooks

My synopsis:  Tilly and Erin have been friends since college - but after Tilly went to London and Erin went home to Roxborough to care for an ailing mother.  After her boyfriend moves out of their flat and leaves her with the rent, Tilly decides it is time for a change.  When visiting Erin for the weekend she stumbles across an ad for a job - a "girl Friday" and decides to give it a shot.

Strong-arming her way in for an interview, she meets Max Dineen - interior designer, father of Lou, and decidedly gay.  He had been married to Kaye, Lou's mom, but finally had to admit that he was gay and so they divorced.  He was looking for someone to help him with his business and raising his teenage daughter.  Lou had lived in California with her mother for awhile, but decided that she missed this home too much.  Max and Tilly hit it off famously and the deal was sealed.

Tilly meets Jack Lucas soon after moving to Roxborough and is warned by everyone that he is a "love 'em and leave 'em" type of guy and that she would just be a notch on his bedpost.  She does a good job of keeping her distance until she learns that Jack had been engaged and that his fiance had died.  She continues to get to know him, and despite herself, the attraction grows.  She continues to push him away, telling herself that regardless of what he says, she would not be different than any other girl. Finally with a weekend with Max and Lou out of town, she decides to accept a date with Jack. Unfortunately Jack's almost in-laws show up that night and he has to call and cancel.  For Tilly, that was the last straw - she feels she was saved from certain disaster.

Jill Mansell gives you a whole cast of wacky characters to round out the story.  There is Erin, Tilly's friend. Fergus, Erin's boyfriend who is married but separated from Stella - Scary Stella as some call her.  She has a way of being mean to just about everybody but tries to use the reasoning that she is just telling them the truth.  Kaye, Max's ex-wife also joins the fray when she arrives from America - having been put on "trial by tabloid"  and losing her job on a TV show. Oh - and we mustn't forget Betty, Max and Lou's dog!

I always enjoy reading one of Ms. Mansell's books.  This one was no exception.  The characters are fun and full of life and the books are always very humorous.  If you are looking for a good British chick lit book/author - you need look no further.  I am definitely a fan!

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

Rumor Has It
Publisher/Publication Date: Sourcebooks Landmark, May 1 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4022-3750-8
404 pages

Millie's Fling by Jill Mansell (Book Review)

Title: Millie's Fling
Author: Jill Mansell
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark

First sentence: The view from where they were sitting was spectacular, but Millie Brady couldn't help wondering why Neil had driven her up here today to Tresanter Point.


My synopsis: The book starts out as Millie's boyfriend is asking her to move in with him (she thought he was going to propose). But before she can answer, she is distracted. A woman arrives and launches herself out of her car and begins to pace at the edge of the cliff. She becomes so focused on the thought that the woman is going to jump than rather than give her boyfriend an answer - she gets out of the car and runs toward the woman.

Her concerns were right, she realizes, as she sees the suicide notes lined up on the dash of the woman's car. She discovers that the woman is Orla Hart, a best-selling romance novelist whose own marriage is on the rocks. Millie ends up talking her out of jumping and a friendship between the two women blossom. Orla decides her next book is going to be based on events in Millie's life and invites her to Cornwall for the summer. She is bound and determined to find Millie the man of her dreams!

My thoughts: Jill Mansell never fails to delight me with her books. Her characters are always warm and far from perfect - which makes them so lovable! She also provides us with a supporting cast of characters that equally as humorous. This is my third Jill Mansell book this year - and while I was a little intimidated at the length the first time I read one of her books - they are so engaging that you are done before you know it!

Millie's Fling
Publisher/Publication Date: Sourcebooks Landmark, Sept 2009
ISBN: 978-1402218347
512 pages

Teaser Tuesday 9-8-2009

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:
Grab your current read.
Let the book fall open to a random page.
Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
Please avoid spoilers!

Any monkey-nut jokes, Millie decided, and she'd be forced to run over his foot. Plus, he'd better not mention bananas. (p137, Millie's Fling by Jill Mansell - uncorrected copy)



Teaser Tuesday is hosted at Should be Reading. Come on over and share your teaser, too!






Millie's Fling
Publisher/Publication Date: Sourcebooks, Sept 2009
ISBN: 978-1-4022-1834-7
512 pages

ARC Arrival: Millie's Fling

Millie's Fling by Jill Mansell

Publisher: Sourcebooks

I received this ARC from Danielle at Sourcebooks. I have loved her 2 previous books and can't wait to read this one!

About the book: Millie's life is about to turn around. . .

Bestselling romance author Orla Hart decides to make her friend Millie Brady the heroine of her next novel, even though Millie doubts that her boring life will inspire a steamy page-turner. But whatever excitement doesn't happen to Millie naturally, Orla is secretly determined to stir up. . .

While Millie faithfully recounts the hilarious mishaps of her friends and family, Orla schemes to match Millie with the perfect romantic hero to really spice things up. But Orla doesn't know that Millie has deliberately left out the juiciest recent development. . .(from the back cover)

About the author: Jill Mansell lives with her partner and children in Bristol, and writes full time. Actually, that's not true; she watches TV, eats gum drops, 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 ways to procrastinate does she write.

Millie's Fling
Publisher/Publication Date: Sourcebooks, September 2009
ISBN: 9781402218347
512 pages

Miranda's Big Mistake by Jill Mansell (Book Review)

Title: miranda's big mistake
Author: Jill Mansell
Publisher/Publication Date

First sentence: It was the first day of April.

About the book: Even the worst mistake of your life can lead to true love in the end. . .



Miranda's track record with men is horrible. Her most recent catastrophe is Greg. he seems perfect - gorgeous, witty, exciting. And he and Miranda are in love. . . until Miranda discovers he left his wife when he found out she was pregnant.



With the help of her friends, Miranda plans the sweetest and most public revenge a heartbroken girl can get. But will Miranda learn from her mistake, or move on to the next perfect man and ignore the loveof her life waiting in the wings. (from the book cover)



My thoughts: This was another fun read from Jill Mansell. Again, her cast of characters are so loveable that you want them to be your friends! Miranda's life seems to be a mess - but she is surrounded by many friends who love her and care about her - from her landlady Florence, her boss at the hair salon, Fenn and her best friend Bev. Even though she seems to have her share of bad luck when it comes to men, it seems that everyone who comes in contact with her is instantly taken in by her warm and giving personality.



Miranda befriends a homeless man who sits outside the salon - she gives him half her lunch whenever she sees him - and even goes so far to give him money for tea and a scarf and gloves. Of course, the gloves were left at the salon by a client, and after waiting weeks to take them and give them to this homeless man, the client phones up and wants them back! This sort of tells you how her life in general seems to go. How would you feel if you had to go back to a homeless man just minutes after giving him a warm pair of gloves and tell him that you needed them back?

After Miranda finishes with Greg, the soon-to-be ex-husband baby-daddy of her new flatmate, she decides that she is happy just as she is - until, of course, she catches the eye of a very handsome, very well-known race car driver. How fast can she fall for him?

I have really been enjoying Jill Mansell's books. If you missed my review of An Offer You Can't Refuse you should really go check it out too. I also did an interview with Jill Mansell - just click on her name. I am really excited to tell you she is going to have a fall release also - Millie's Fling! Watch for details.

Miranda's Big Mistake
Publisher/Publication Date: Sourcebooks, June 2009
ISBN: 9781402218323
488 pages

Winner!

We have a winner of An Offer You Can't Refuse by Jill Mansell! That winner is Tiffanyak1986! I have sent Tiffany an email and she has until Wednesday morning to get me her information, or I will draw for another winner. Congrats Tiffany!

Author Interview - Jill Mansell and a Giveaway!

I am so excited to welcome Jill Mansell to Books and Needlepoint for my very first author interview! Jill is the International Bestselling Author of An Offer You Can't Refuse which is being released in the U.S. this week!

1. Jill, where is your favorite place to write?

I make myself very comfortable, either on the sofa in our living room or upstairs in bed, and I always have the TV on while I’m working. It amazes me that successful authors go and work in little sheds in their gardens! Where’s the fun in that!


2. Besides crisps, fruit gums (gum drops) and coffee (and of course, your Harley Davidson pen) is there anything else that you need close by while you write?

That’ll be the TV remote control. I love daytime TV. I’ve just discovered the Ellen Degeneres show on cable. Brilliant.


3. I love it when Ellen dances at the beginning of her show! TV would probably distract me from writing. What is the biggest distraction to your writing?

For the next three weeks my kids are home from school. When they’re fighting and yelling at each other, that’s pretty distracting. Yesterday they managed to break our laptop. Lucky I write my books by hand!


4. I just celebrated my birthday - what is your birthday month and do you do anything special?

Happy birthday! Mine’s in June, which is nice because the weather is usually good. Our favourite thing is to go out to a really good restaurant. Being a writer is like endlessly having to revise for school exams – you feel incredibly naughty whenever you take a day off, but it means you enjoy it all the more!


5. Thanks for the birthday wishes! Do you have any hobbies?

Food! Shopping! Jewelry! Reading books! Jumping on our trampoline! Reading more books!


6. When I was younger I used to jump on our trampoline alot - not so much these days! In the book, An Offer You Can't Refuse, Lola is the manager of a bookstore - do you have a favorite bookstore that you like to go?

I find it physically impossible not to go into any bookstore I happen to pass. I always hope I’ll find a book I haven’t seen anywhere else. I can’t have a favourite – I just love all of them.


7. I know what you mean about bookstores - I even have to go into the used bookstore at our library whenever I am there! You mention the TV show Friends in An Offer You Can't Refuse - do you have a favorite American TV show? British TV show?

Ooh, now you’re asking! I do love Friends. And one of my all-time favourite sit-coms is Veronica’s Closet. I adore The Apprentice but they’ve stopped showing the U.S. version over here now. I’m also a fan of reality TV – I’m just fascinated by people’s characters. And I love The Office.


8. I love Friends also - I miss those types of sitcoms! I usually listen to The Apprentice while I am blogging! Where do you come up with the names for your characters?

I go through my books of names for babies, then my telephone books for surnames. If I happen across a great name I’ll add it to the list I keep in one of my jewelled notebooks.


9. My maiden name was Kendall - hmmm, that would make a great first name too. I'll give you a minute to write that down! Just kidding! I read that your daughter doesn't read your books because she is afraid she will read something that she said - Do you remember ever writing anything she has said and can you share it with us?

Ooh, can’t think of any off-hand, but she finds my books hard to read because they sound so much like me. She’s now typing my manuscripts for me (for money, not for love!) and keeps finding things I say myself, like when a character complains about a banana skin being thrown in a waste paper bin which now smells of bananas. I spend my life moaning about the smell of bananas. And cucumbers. They’re disgusting and should never have been invented. Basically, though, when my daughter was young I dreamed about her reading my books when she was older. And now she’s older, she doesn’t want to read them! Luckily all her friends do. I’m very popular with them!


10. Now there is a job I could get into - typing manuscripts! That is neat that her friends read them! Do you have a favorite book out of the ones that you have written?

Can’t answer that! Cruelty to books!


11. After Miranda's Big Mistake - are there plans for more of your books to be published in the U.S? (keeping fingers crossed)

Yes, there are three being published this year, then another three next year, and hopefully lots more after that. I’m so excited to finally be published in the U.S. – it’s a dream come true. And thank you so much for your lovely review of An Offer You Can’t Refuse – I’m thrilled you liked it!

There you have it! Two more books this year and another three next year! I can't wait to start reading Miranda's Big Mistake!

Now for the giveaway! Sourcebooks is offering one book to a lucky commenter - so to enter the giveaway, please leave a comment below pertaining to this post or to my review which is here. Also leave an email address so I know how to reach you! This contest will run until May 1! (Sorry - only available to U.S. and Canada - no P.O. boxes)

An Offer You Can't Refuse by Jill Mansell (Book Review)

Title: an offer you can't refuse

Author: Jill Mansell

Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca

Genre: Romantic Fiction

Available: April 2009

ISBN: 9781402218330

This book was made available to me for review from Sourcebooks. Thanks Danielle!

First sentence: There are some places where you might expect to bump into your boyfriend's ultra-posh mother.

Lola and Dougie were very much in love. Though only 17 and 18, they had promised each other forever. This changed in the blink of an eye. Dougie's mother was not a big fan of Lola's. She didn't think that Lola belonged in her son's "privileged" life, so she offers Lola 10,000 pounds to leave Dougie and convince him that it is over. Lola is outraged and is bound and determined to tell Dougie what kind of mother he has. Before she has a chance to speak with him, her circumstances change and she is forced to accept his mother's bribe.

Now, 10 years later she is working as a bookstore manager and living in Notting Hill. Coming to the aide of a woman in distress manages to land her face to face with her old love. Can she fan the flames and reignite his desire for her? Or will the truth of what she did keep them apart forever?

This is a great chick-lit book! The story has a host of secondary characters that are just as entertaining as Lola. They also each have their own story to add to the mix! We have Blythe, Lola's fashion-challenged mother; Malcolm- Blythe's monopoly-loving boyfriend; Gabe - the neat-freak, next door neighbor - who also happens to be Lola's best friend; Sally - Dougie's sister and Gabe's eventual flatmate - and she is as messy as Gabe is neat. Let's not forget Dougie himself and his current girlfriend Isabel - who is both beautiful and intelligent. Throw in a couple of celebrities and a long lost relative and you have a delightful read. I found this book hard to put down. If you like Sophie Kinsella, I think you will like Jill Mansell.

Jill is a current sensation in the UK - this is her first book to be published in the U.S. She has a second one due out in June - Miranda's Big Mistake.

Come back later this week as I will be interviewing Jill Mansell - my first author interview! You can find out how to win a copy of her book then!

For other reviews:

Diary of an Eccentric

My Friend Amy

Bookopolis

Savvy Verse & Wit

A Bookworm's World

Booking Mama