Book review: (Un)like a Virgin

(Un)like A Virgin by Lucy-Anne Holmes

The blurb: Is Gracie in love for the very first time?

You know that bit in The X Factor, when the singer tells everyone about the rocky road they travelled to pursue their dream? Well, that’s Gracie Flowers’ story.

Gracie is very focused for a woman of almost twenty-six. Her favourite book is ‘The 5-Year Plan: Making the Most of Your Life’. And her five-year plan is going very well. That is, until she is usurped from her big promotion by a handsome, posh idiot; she is dumped by her boyfriend; and discovers her loopy mother is facing bankruptcy.

Hormones awry and ice cream over-ordered, a dream Gracie thought she’d buried ten years ago starts to resurface. A dream that reminds her of the girl she used to be and everything she wanted to become.

My review: I hated the first scene in this book. If I didn’t have faith in the wonderful Lucy Anne Holmes (50 Ways to Find a Lover is fantastic!) I would’ve thrown this book across the room. The early morning sex scene really wasn’t a way to begin, too much information! It made me dislike the heroine from the get go which is a difficult position to come back from. Plus it was really schmaltzy, all the cute Dad scenes, the singing in the bathroom, a tad to sacchrine for me.

But you can’t help but admire Holmes, she has an amazing way of pulling the threads of all the storylines together, producing events that don’t feel out of the realms of possibility, actions and reactions of her characters that are believable and emotive. And it’s not a simple story, it’s multi-faceted with each character having a seamlessly thought out plot arc, the imagination of this author is just fantastic, I don’t know how she manages to think out every twist so thoroughly but so realistically.

So (un)like a Virgin isn’t my favourite Lucy Anne Holmes novel. However there are moments of pure genius here and once I had learned to like Gracie Flowers, it took some doing she is quite annoying! I was a complete convert, it does what it says on the tin, it’s fun, heart-warming and sometimes sad, a nice easy beach read.

7 out of 10 stars! *******

Book Review: The (Im)perfect Girlfriend

The (Im)perfect Girlfriend by Lucy-Anne Holmes

The blurb: We kissed until it became necessary to stop so that we could breathe, by which time my lips were so swollen it looked like I’d been pleasuring a brillo pad. We grinned at each other again and I felt the urge to utter something brilliantly intellectual.

‘Have I mentioned that I’m hopelessly in love with you?’

Actress Sarah Sargeant has finally landed the perfect boyfriend. But as she leaves London for LA, Sarah finds herself morphing from the perfect girlfriend, baby voicing ‘i love you’s, into a nutty one who throws phones and screams a lot.

Where did it all go wrong? Was it the photo of a semi-naked ex-girlfriend doing a downward dog she found in her boyfriend’s filofax? Or maybe it’s the steamy sex scene she films with the handsomest man in the world, ever.

Laugh-out-loud funny and brutally honest, The (Im)Perfect Girlfriend is the story of one woman’s search for her happy ever after. It is a novel that firmly establishes Lucy Anne Holmes as one of the best writers of romantic comedy today.

My review: I love Sarah Sargeant. She’s brilliant, funny, intelligent and as accident prone as the next girl. I do secretly think she’s probably gorgeous and not as fat as Lucy-Anne Holmes makes her out – there’s just too many compliments and too many men after this woman for her to be chubby! Sarah has a nice level of insecurity about her character, she’s extremely likeable despite some very unladylike characteristics. For one I hate the use of the term ‘semi’ if I could have it banned from this book my review would have added in another star. I don’t think anyone uses that saying so for me it stuck out like a sore thumb!

The (im)perfect girlfriend is a girl friendly book, intelligent enough to keep intelligent women interested but light hearted and humorous enough to make reading it a real pleasure. The characters ARE NOT perfect. This is what makes this book ten times better than some of the other chick-lit I’ve read recently. There will always be parts of these kinds of books that are unrealistic but frankly when it’s done this well – who cares? Not me, I could read it again and probably will! Worth a visit and why not try 50 Ways To Find A Lover – also genius!

7.5 stars out of 10 *******.5!

BUY ME! The (Im)Perfect Girlfriend

Book Review: 50 Ways To Find A Lover

50 Ways To Find A Lover by Lucy-Anne Holmes

50 Ways To Find A Lover by Lucy-Anne Holmes

 The blurb: I feel like a failure. It’s now been 351 days since I had sex. That’s a carnal drought. If Bob Geldof knew about it he’d hold a concert.

Sarah Sargeant has been single for three years and nine months. She has just spent five months plucking up the courage to ask out a balding man with a paunch who works in her local pub. The gentleman in question informed her that he would rather stay in and watch the Narnia movie on DVD. Her pride has not just been bruised, it’s been disembowelled. And she vows it’s the last time she will ever reach out to a member of the opposite sex.

But her family and friends have other ideas. They enter her into a reality TV show against her will, persuade her to go speed dating and even more radically, they encourage her to start a blog. Suddenly Sarah Sargeant is on a mission.

My Review:

This book made my holiday and is the perfect pool-side reading! Lucy-Anne Holmes is a hilarious writer; I found her wit engaging and her characters frankly hysterical.

Sadly there are not 50 ways to find a lover in this book but I don’t think any the less of it because of that. The characters are well-rounded creations bordering ever so slightly on the unrealistic but this doesn’t detract from the plot, they are occasionally predictable if you have read loads of chick-lit but what the hell!

There are some very unpredictable twists in the plot, more than once I was left feeling surprised that my smug idea of where the story was going had been swept away. Well-written, fast-paced and hugely involving, I was really routing for Sarah by the end. Lucy-Anne Holmes is a lady not afraid of bad language, bad dates and bad hair days. If you haven’t picked a book to take on holiday yet I strongly recommend you take this one! All my friends had read it by the time I came back from my holiday and once you get over the annoyance of them sniggering to themselves on their sun loungers you won’t stop recommending it to people!

8.5 stars out of 10!

To buy the book click here or to find out more about other titles by Pan Macmillan visit their website.   

BUY ME! 50 Ways to Find a Lover