To join in with the #FridayFiveChallenge please read the rules at the bottom of the page.
My book search this week was for a book involving a New Year. The book I found, The Year of Taking Chances, starts at a New Year’s Eve party:
It’s New Year’s Eve, and Gemma and Spencer Bailey are throwing a house party. There’s music, dancing, champagne and all their best friends under one roof. It’s going to be a night to remember.
Also at the party is Caitlin, who has returned to the village to pack up her much-missed mum’s house and to figure out what to do with her life; and Saffron, a PR executive who’s keeping a secret which no amount of spin can change. The three women bond over Gemma’s dodgy cocktails and fortune cookies, and vow to make this year their best one yet.
But as the months unfold, Gemma, Saffron and Caitlin find themselves tested to their limits by shocking new developments. Family, love, work, home – all the things they’ve taken for granted are thrown into disarray. Under pressure, they are each forced to rethink their lives and start over. But dare they take a chance on something new?
The book title is appealing and the phrase, “A new start, a dream career, the love of your life,” sound like excellent wishes. What does put me off slightly is the author’s name, Lucy Diamond. It’s just too perfect for chicklit! I’m also not especially keen on the names of the three women especially Saffron but maybe I’m just a fuddy-duddy.
Among the 500 plus reviews averaging 4.5 stars was this fairly representative comment:-
This is an escapist book. The world that these women inhabit isn’t quite like the real world and co-incidences do happen quite conveniently. However that really didn’t matter as I read this book. I wanted things to come together for these women and it didn’t bother me that it was a little glossy around the edges.
This book is a step up from a basic chick-lit book. There are some aspects which really hit home and as a reader you are stopped in your tracks. I don’t suppose the same things hit every reader but it did add a depth of thought to this book which I appreciated. At one point Gemma is described by her daughter as “just a Mum”. How many women have heard something similar, quite a few I imagine. It is certainly a thought provoking comment and I can quite see how it upset Gemma and acted as a spur to be more than “just a Mum”.
So shall I BUY or will I PASS?
At a cost of £3.59 for kindle & the reservations I have I will PASS, but I will look out for this author in the charity shop or my local Library.
What have others chosen this week?
Rosie has chosen one of my favourite authors M C Beaton for an Agatha Raisin adventure https://rosieamber.wordpress.com/2016/01/08/its-back-fridayfivechallenge-would-you-buy-or-pass-agatha-raisin-and-the-day-the-floods-came/comment-page-1/#comment-18623
Cathy selected a post apocalyptic book ironically called Home
Searching for Stars, Shelley found Vampires
So now it’s your turn.
Get yourself a cuppa and give yourself 5 minutes.
In today’s online shopping age, readers often base their buying decisions from small postage stamp size book covers (Thumb-nails), a quick glance at the book description and the review. How much time do they really spend making that buying decision?
AUTHORS – You often only have seconds to get a reader to buy your book, is your book cover and book bio up to it?
Rosie’s Friday Five Challenge is this….. IN ONLY FIVE MINUTES….
1) Go to any online book supplier,
2) Randomly choose a category,
3) Speed through the book covers, choose one which has instantly appealed to your eye,
4) Read the book Bio/ Description for this book, and any other details.
5) If there are reviews, check out a couple,
6) Make an instant decision, would you BUY or PASS?
Lizanne lost in a good book 
Not my kind of book so I’d pass but I love the cover and title 🙂
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Not too keen on chick lit or overly convenient coincidences so it would be a pass from me though I would be attracted by the title 🙂
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A pass from me too although I do have one of Lucy Diamond’s books from a previous FFC which I haven’t yet got round too.
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Maybe one of us will get round to reading one of her books sometime!
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I’ll get to it…. eventually 🙂
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I’ve given up on chick lit, it just isn’t for me.
I was amused by your comments about names!!! In my WIP, a novella, I have a successful chick lit writer, and I tried SO many different names for her. The first one was Saffron! I think it’s getting a bit overused now, though. I called her Eden in the end (she’s a spoiled daughter of a chav, rich builder and his wife, so it’s probably about right!!). I tried Summer, Tiffany, Madison – all the ghastly ones I could think of, but I can live with Eden so I settled on that! Oddly, I’ve chosen a name I dislike for the main character – Becky. I don’t mind Rebecca, but really don’t like the shortened version of it. However, it’s the right name for HER. She was called Rowan all the way through the first draft and I kept trying to work out why I couldn’t ‘see’ her – then I realised it was because I had her name wrong!
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Names are so important aren’t they. I definitely approve of Eden as a name. It’s modern and contrived so suitable for a chick lit author. Becky would be bubbly & blond to me but that’s because I’ve taught girls like that.
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I think I might give this one a go, I like the title and as you know a similar titled book set me off on a two year challenge to do one Good Deed a day, first for a year and then for two years and that was life-changing for me. Not too bothered by the names and I don’t mind a bit of Chick Lit.
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I’m tempted – sneezing and snuffling my way through the worst cold I’ve had in tears, I could do with a bit of escapism.
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It could be just the medicine you need.
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