The Unexpected Consequences of Love

The Unexpected Consequences of Love, by Jill Mansell, tells the intertwining stories of three couples, covering the whole gamut from old love to new love to unrequited love.


Love, Chocolate, and Beer

The premise of Violet Duke’s Love, Chocolate, and Beer is interesting and original: a brewmaster/pub owner and a master chocolatier and chocolate shop owner make a bet about whose product is ultimately more romantic: beer or chocolate. Their creative attempts to outdo one another are fun, and their relationship is fairly believable. I also enjoyed […]


Animate Me

Despite its male protagonist, I think women are more likely to enjoy Ruth Clampett’s Animate Me than men. The author tried to offer a man’s perspective, but it still feels very chick lit-y to me – which is no bad thing, just surprising. In any case, it’s a cute story for the most part about […]


Crazy in Love

If you like a little paranormal activity, some shady businessmen, and a murder or two mixed in with your love stories, Lani Diane Rich’s Crazy in Love might be right up your alley.


Village Books

Village Books, by Craig McLay, is about a guy who works in a bookstore. He talks about books, he meets a woman, he drinks a rare brand of hard cider – and that’s pretty much it. There’s not a whole lot of plot to this book, it’s really just about his day to day life, […]


Smart Mouth Waitress

The eponymous heroine of Dalya Moon’s Smart Mouth Waitress is an 18-year-old named Perry who has been left in charge of taking care of her father and younger brother while her mom is off on a creative quest. Perry decides it’s time to find a boyfriend and lose her virginity, and her first step on […]


French Relations

Fiona Walker’s French Relations has a lot of good points, and one scene in particular is laugh-until-you-bawl funny. But it has some bad ones too, like obvious and repeated foreshadowing (I think I counted 10 mentions of the same event) and an over-reliance on puns for laughs. They can be funny, sure, but that sort […]


Living Dangerously

I really liked parts of Katie Fforde’s Living Dangerously, and because of that I’ve read it several times. Polly, the protagonist, is 35 and happy to live on her own. She seems like a perfectly pleasant person. However, the implausability of it all eventually gets to me. SPOILERS