In first post about chick lit, I was getting ready to read some great books by my top 3 authors who I mainly featured in the post. Here is a recap of those, although they have been out for a while.

Emily Giffin’s Where We Belong (2012) is about a TV producer whose long lost daughter rings her doorbell and turns her world upside down.  It is about a powerful secret, its effect on two families, and how it changes all their lives forever. I really enjoyed this book, as I do all of Giffin’s novels. They keep getting better and better.

Sophie Kinsella’s I’ve Got your Number (2012) is about a newly engaged woman who lost her engagement ring and her adventures of trying to get the ring back all the while planning her dream wedding.  Wedding Night (2013) is about a woman who thinks her boyfriend is going to propose and when he doesn’t, she goes on to marry her college fling. All the while, her sister tries to stop her and ends up sabotaging her honeymoon. As in all of Kinsella’s novels, there are twits and turns right up into the very end that will have you guessing until the book is over.

Jennifer Weiner’s The Next Best Thing (2013) is about a young woman trying to make it as a TV writer in Hollywood. The main character was disfigured as a child from a bad car accident that turned her into an orphan. She was raised by her grandmother and is determined to make it as a writer with hopes for her own TV show. This books deals a lot with beauty, self image, and overcoming obstacles.

New books:

There are two new books coming out that I’m really excited about. Read the summaries from their publishers:

Emily Giffin: The One and Only
Out: May 20, 2014

“Thirty-three-year-old Shea Rigsby has spent her entire life in Walker, Texas—a small college town that lives and dies by football, a passion she unabashedly shares. Raised alongside her best friend, Lucy, the daughter of Walker’s legendary head coach, Clive Carr, Shea was too devoted to her hometown team to leave. Instead she stayed in Walker for college, even taking a job in the university athletic department after graduation, where she has remained for more than a decade.

But when an unexpected tragedy strikes the tight-knit Walker community, Shea’s comfortable world is upended, and she begins to wonder if the life she’s chosen is really enough for her. As she finally gives up her safety net to set out on an unexpected path, Shea discovers unsettling truths about the people and things she has always trusted most—and is forced to confront her deepest desires, fears, and secrets.

Thoughtful, funny, and brilliantly observed, The One & Only is a luminous novel about finding your passion, following your heart, and, most of all, believing in something bigger than yourself . . . the one and only thing that truly makes life worth living.”

Jennifer Weiner: All Fall Down
Out: June 17, 2014

“Allison Weiss has a great job…a handsome husband…an adorable daughter…and a secret. Allison Weiss is a typical working mother, trying to balance a business, aging parents, a demanding daughter, and a marriage. But when the website she develops takes off, she finds herself challenged to the point of being completely overwhelmed. Her husband’s becoming distant, her daughter’s acting spoiled, her father is dealing with early Alzheimer’s, and her mother’s barely dealing at all. As she struggles to hold her home and work life together, and meet all of the needs of the people around her, Allison finds that the painkillers she was prescribed for a back injury help her deal with more than just physical discomfort—they help her feel calm and get her through her increasingly hectic days. Sure, she worries a bit that the bottles seem to empty a bit faster each week, but it’s not like she’s some Hollywood starlet partying all night, or a homeless person who’s lost everything. It’s not as if she has an actual problem.

However, when Allison’s use gets to the point that she can no longer control—or hide—it, she ends up in a world she never thought she’d experience outside of a movie theater: rehab. Amid the teenage heroin addicts, the alcoholic grandmothers, the barely-trained “recovery coaches,” and the counselors who seem to believe that one mode of recovery fits all, Allison struggles to get her life back on track, even as she’s convincing herself that she’s not as bad off as the women around her.

With a sparkling comedic touch and tender, true-to-life characterizations, All Fall Down is a tale of empowerment and redemption and Jennifer Weiner’s richest, most absorbing and timely story yet.”

Can’t wait for these books to come out, but one of my favorite authors, Sophie Kinsella (pen name for Madeline Wickham) has not come out with anything new in a while. Where’s your next novel Kinsella!?

If you missed my second guide to Chick Lit, read it here. I hope these guides have been helpful to you and that you have found some great books to read. What books are your favorites on your bookshelf?