Book picks similar to
Lizzie Jordan's Secret Life by Chris Manby
chick-lit
fiction
romance
chic-lit
The Not So Secret Emails Of Coco Pinchard
Robert Bryndza - 2012
1 bestselling author Robert Bryndza.Coco Pinchard has just turned forty, and is feeling fabulous. Her long-held dream to be a writer has been realised, with the publication of her debut novel, her son, Rosencrantz, is attending a prestigious London drama school, and her musician husband, Daniel, seems more in love with her than ever. Coco feels poised to enter an exciting new chapter in life.When the New Year dawns after a hideous Christmas spent with her awful in-laws, Coco catches Daniel in bed with a younger woman, her novel flops, and Rosencrantz goes spectacularly off the rails.As her once-happy life unravels, and any chance of an exciting new chapter recedes into the distance, Coco's new iPhone becomes her confessional.Through emails to loyal friends Christopher, a neurotic middle-aged socialite, and Marika, a slightly alcoholic schoolteacher, Coco begins to document her seemingly endless (and often hilarious) run of bad luck.When Coco reaches the top of the local allotment list (after putting her name down nineteen years previously) she meets the drop-dead gorgeous Adam, and she's back in the world of dating as a single forty-something. Read the emails that tell the hilarious, feel-good tale of Coco picking up the pieces!Fans of rom coms by Sophie Kinsella will be glued to the pages of this totally addictive page-turner.
Drop Dead Gorgeous
Katie Agnew - 2003
She's young, pretty and she has a fabulous job on a glossy magazine, which involves interviewing celebrities (and air-brushing their personalities). But when she is offered a job presenting a trendy Friday night television show she can't resist the opportunity to experience fame first hand. Putting her puritanical Scottish upbringing, her intellectual boyfriend and her hippy best friend behind her, she soon hooks up with world-famous actress Lucy Lloyd and gorgeous, infamous rock god Ricky Jones, who introduce her to a hedonistic world of partying where appearance is everything and nothing really matters but sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. But as the stories about her private life become front page news, Laura begins to doubt those closest to her, and her life starts to spiral dangerously out of control. Packed with passion, glamour and danger, DROP DEAD GORGEOUS is a unmissable glimpse into the fame game - and the price you have to pay to play it.
All The Single Ladies
Jane Costello - 2011
Jamie, the love of her life, has announced he’s leaving, out of the blue. Jamie is gorgeous, loving, intelligent and perfect for Sam in every way but one – he’s a free spirit. And after six years in one place, doing a job he hates, he is compelled to do something that will destroy his relationship with Sam: book a one way flight to South America. Only Sam isn’t giving up without a fight. With Jamie clearly still in love with her, she hatches a plan to make him realise what he’s giving up. A plan that involves dirty tricks, plotting and a single aim – to win him back. Only, by the time the tortured Jamie finally wakes up to what he’s lost, a gorgeous new pretender has entered Sam’s life. Which begs the question . . . will she still want him back?
The Wedding Bluff
Lilly Bartlett - 2017
Just don't look too closely behind the scenes!When Emma’s boyfriend Daniel pops the question with a ring the size of a small country, she realizes just how different their worlds are. Her family can only afford a low-key wedding while Daniel’s mother is expecting a society party that their high-brow guests won’t forget!How will Emma put together a sophisticated champagne-sodden celebration fit for Lords and Ladies when her dad can’t accept any help from Daniel’s family, her best friend Kelly has become a world-class Bridesmaidzilla and her cross-dressing Uncle Barbara is dying to strut his stuff up the aisle?The big day is three months away. Just don’t look too closely, because nothing is as it seems!
The Age of Misadventure
Judy Leigh - 2018
. . a book that assures that life is far from over at seventy' – Cathy Hopkins, bestselling author of The Kicking the Bucket List’Brimming with warmth, humour and a love of life… a wonderful escapade’ – Fiona Gibson, bestselling author of The Woman Who Upped and Left
The List
Joanna Bolouri - 2013
It's been a year since she found her boyfriend Alex in bed with another woman, and multiple cases of wine and extensive relationship analysis with best friend Lucy have done nothing to help. Faced with a new year but no new love, Phoebe concocts a different kind of resolution. The List: ten things she's always wanted to do in bed but has never had the chance (or the courage!) to try. A bucket list for between the sheets. One year of pleasure, no strings attached. Simple, right? Factor in meddlesome colleagues, friends with benefits, getting frisky al fresco and maybe, possibly, true love and Phoebe's got her work cut out for her.[*Novel contains adult material*]
Welcome to the School by the Sea
Jane Beaton
Why had she never lived by the sea before? Why had she always looked out on housing estates and not the little white hulls of trawlers bobbing off in the distance?
It's gloriously sunny in Cornwall as the school year starts at the little boarding school by the sea. Maggie, the newest teacher at Downey House, is determined to make her mark. She's delighted by her new teaching job, but will it come at the expense of her relationship with her safe, dependable boyfriend Stan?Simone is excited and nervous: she's won a scholarship to the prestigious boarding school and wants to make her parents proud. Forced to share a room with the glossy, posh girls of Downey House, she needs to find a friend, fast.Fliss is furious. She's never wanted to go to boarding school and hates being sent away from her home. As Simone tries desperately to fit in, Fliss tries desperately to get out.Over the course of one year, friendships will bloom and lives will be changed forever. Life at the Little School by the Sea is never dull...
Do you want to know a secret
Claudia Carroll - 2008
All she has to focus on is thinking her wildest fantasies into reality. A bit like Pollyanna except with a magic 8 ball, a mortgage and a lot of vodka... so along with her two beyond fabulous best friends they vow to project manage each other's lives with hilarious consequences
Who's Afraid of Mr Wolfe?
Hazel Osmond - 2011
But Sam is always at work and her fresh ideas keep being overlooked. Her life gets more complicated when new boss Jack Wolfe – Heathcliff in Jeans – arrives at the agency. With his brooding good looks, trademark scowl and plans for change, he challenges Ellie to smarten up and prove herself. To Ellie's horror, she finds herself both repelled and attracted to the sexy and dangerous Jack. But this particular wolf has an awful lot to hide...
English as a Second Language
Megan Crane - 2004
So when he crosses the line by telling her that she'll never get into graduate school in the United Kingdom, that's precisely what she does.Armed with imported cigarettes and extra strength coffee, Alex leaves home and crosses the Atlantic to face all that Great Britain and grad school have to offer, including ill-considered romantic interludes, a red-headed nemesis with intellectual pretensions and ulterior motives, a preponderance of eighties music, and more books than she can possibly read in a year. What she discovers, however, is that instead of running away from home - she may have actually found it.
Not Quite Nice
Celia Imrie - 2015
Forced into early retirement, fed up with babysitting her bossy daughter's obnoxious children, she sells her Highgate house and moves to the picture-perfect town of Bellevue-sur-Mer, just outside Nice.With its beautiful villas, its bustling cafes and shimmering cerulean sea, the village sparkles like a diamond on the French Mediterranean coast. Once the hideaway of artists and writers, it is now home to the odd rock icon and Hollywood movie star, and, as Theresa soon discovers, a close-knit set of expats. There's Carol, the infinitely glamorous American and her doting husband David; the erstwhile British TV star Sally; the ferocious Sian and her wayward Australian poet husband; the sharply witty Zoe with her strangely youthful face and penchant for white wine--and the suave Brian who catches Theresa's eye.As Theresa settles to the gentle rhythm of seaside life she embraces her new-found friendships and freedom. However, life is never quite as simple as it seems and as skeletons start to fall out of several closets, Theresa begins to wonder if life on the French Riviera is quite as nice as it first appeared.
What Would Mary Berry Do?
Claire Sandy - 2014
She has a lovely husband, three wonderful children, and a business of her own. Except, her cupcakes are crap. Her meringues are runny and her biscuits rock-hard. She cannot bake for toffee. Or, for that matter, make toffee.Marie can't ignore the disappointed looks any more, or continue to be shamed by neighbour and nemesis, Lucy Gray. Lucy whips up perfect profiteroles with one hand, while ironing her bed sheets with the other. Marie's had enough: this is the year it all changes. She vows to follow - to the letter - recipes from the Queen of Baking and at all times ask 'What would Mary Berry do?'Husband Robert has noticed that his boss takes crumb structure as seriously as budget sheets and so puts on the pinny: serious redundancies are on the horizon. Twins Rose and Iris are happy to eat all the half-baked mistakes that come their way, but big brother Angus is more distant than usual, as if something is troubling him. And there is no one as nosey as a matching pair of nine-year-old girls . . .Marie starts to realise that the wise words of Mary Berry can help her with more than just a Victoria Sponge. But can Robert save the wobbling soufflé that is his career? And is Lucy's sweet demeanour hiding something secretly sour?This is a delicious feast of a funny novel, perfect for fans of Jenny Colgan and Allison Pearson.*** This is a work of fiction, in no way endorsed by Mary Berry, and where neither Mary Berry herself nor her recipes feature. ***
The Desperate Bride's Diet Club
Alison Sherlock - 2012
But at size 18-20, the thought of finding a wedding dress fills her with horror. What she needs is a miracle wedding day diet.So when a leaflet advertising a new diet club - New You! - that drops through her letterbox, it seems like her prayers have been answered. But the club is run by the terrifying Trudie, who secretly despises her fat clients, while pretending to encourage them. Things go from bad to worse; everyone just gets fatter on the horrible New You! drink shakes. At work, Violet's half-Italian boss - a man with a lively sense of humour - looks on in amazement and finally persuades her to take a break from New You! and lunch with him at his family's delicatessen. Inspired, she persuades her fellow dieters to form a new club, with secret weigh-ins at her house - while pretending to Trudie, of whom they are all petrified, that it is the New You! diet which is transforming them. Fabulous Italian recipes gradually begin to work their magic, but can Violet the duckling really become Violet the swan in time for her wedding?
Billy and Me
Giovanna Fletcher - 2013
But when famous actor Billy comes to town to play Mr. Darcy in a new film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, Sophie's quiet life is quickly turned on its head. Billy is adored by women around the world, but he only wants Sophie on his arm. But being with Billy comes at a price, and Sophie is thrown in the spotlight after years of shying away from attention. Can she handle the constant scrutiny that comes with being with Billy?Brimming with humor, wit, and genuine warmth, Billy and Me is a book about taking a chance on life and on love.