Messing with Matilda - Cat Lavoie

Description

As a professional organizer in New York City, Matilda Hart wages war against chaos and clutter on a daily basis for her clients—and she vows to never let it invade her own well-ordered world.

But when her boyfriend decides to deviate from the path she’s been planning for them, Matilda's perfectly structured life begins to crumble. She reluctantly finds herself back in the tiny hometown she fled a lifetime ago—determined to lay low and avoid running into anyone she used to know. So why is she reconnecting with her former best friend and putting up with the bridezilla antics of Amber, her high school nemesis?

When Matilda is tasked with keeping the bride-to-be’s heartbroken ex away from the ceremony, she discovers she has history with the man who’s trying to sabotage the wedding. Matilda quickly realizes that teaming up with cute and quirky—but hopelessly devoted—Silas Flynn could be mutually beneficial. He needs help wooing the woman he considers the love of his life and Matilda can't pass up the chance to finally get back at the meanest of the mean girls by assisting Silas in his attempts to disrupt her wedding.

Will everything go according to plan for this mismatched pair? Or will working so closely together make uptight Matilda and laid-back Silas lose sight of their common goal?

One thing's for sure—things are about to get messy.

Review

This really is chick lit at it's best. I loved the fast paced narrative of this book. Cat Lavoie has a real knack of writing great dialogue with humour.

When we first meet Matilda she seems to have it all and is about to be proposed to - or so she hopes. But things rapidly change for her and her perfectly planned lifestyle spirals slowly out of her control.

It all happens in such a way that it was really easy to just go with the story line and get caught up in it along with Matilda. I read this book in just a couple of sittings as I really wanted to know how it would all pan out for Matilda.

It's a different take on romance with a bridezilla who was Matilda's high school bully thrown in for good measure and a lovesick ex who wants to recreate his past. I could see this being made into a film as it's such a great story.

My only tiny regret is that there weren't more references to Matilda carrying out her job as a professional organizer - as it was one of the reasons I was drawn to the book. However, I loved dipping into her life even when it became kind of crazy.

I'm giving this book 5 out of 5 stars. My thanks to Netgalley and Karan & Co. Author Solutions for a copy of the book for review.

Letters to Iris - Elizabeth Noble

Description

A gloriously uplifting story about love in all its forms from the Number One Sunday Times bestselling author of The Reading Group and Things I Want My Daughters to Know Tess has a secret - one which is going to turn her life upside down in just nine months' time. The only person she can confide in is her beloved grandmother. But Iris is slipping further away each day. Then chance brings a stranger into Tess's life. Gigi's heart goes out to Tess, knowing what it's like to feel alone. She's determined to show her that there's a silver lining to every cloud. As their unlikely friendship blossoms, Tess feels inspired to open up. But something still holds her back - until she discovers Iris has a secret of her own. A suitcase of letters from another time, the missing pieces of a life she never shared. Could the letters hold the answers that Tess thought lost for ever? An uplifting, unforgettable story about keeping secrets, taking chances and finding happiness where you least expect it. Praise for Elizabeth Noble 'A great writer. You'll be rooting for Noble's protagonists as soon as you meet them' Daily Mail 'Noble is the mistress of the tearjerking message of love' Express 'Deliciously readable' Times

Review

I found this book very slow to start and even slower to get to what I thought was going to be the mainstay of the book "The Letters to Iris". It wasn't until about a third of the way into the book we finally get to find out what the letters say. At one point I began to wonder if the author had forgotten the title of the book altogether.

The book divides it's storyline between Tess and Gigi. At first I couldn't understand how Gigi was going to fit into the storyline and it felt like two very different stories being told. However, Gigi was a character I grew to love in the book and I was more eager to find out her story than that of Tess.

A very sensitive book which explores lots of human emotions with care. The author is very adept at portraying the everyday mundane aspects of life but at times that got a little long winded. Unfortunately for me the book did not live up to my expectations as I was expecting more from the letters angle.

I'm giving this book 3 out of 5 stars and my thanks go to Netgalley for an advance copy for review.

Standard Deviation - Katherine Heiny

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Description

Graham Cavanaugh’s second wife, Audra, is everything his first wife was not. She considers herself privileged to live in the age of the hair towel, talks non-stop through her epidural, labour and delivery, invites the doorman to move in and the eccentric members of their son’s Origami Club to Thanksgiving. She is charming and spontaneous and fun but life with her can be exhausting.

In the midst of the day-to-day difficulties and delights of marriage and raising a child with Asperger’s, his first wife, Elspeth, re enters Graham’s life. Former spouses are hard to categorize – are they friends, enemies, old flames, or just people who know you really, really well? Graham starts to wonder: How can anyone love two such different women? Did he make the right choice? Is there a right choice?

Review

I was drawn into this book immediately - I just loved it from page one. The book as such has no plot, rather it ambles through the lives of Graham and Audra and all whom they come into contact with. Not forgetting also their son Matthew and those he interacts with too - especially the members of the Origami Club.

Maybe you feel already the book is not for you, and you may be right if you like a beginning, middle and end, rather than a peek into other people's lives. It's kind of like an extended sitcom episode where you just love all the characters and wish you could be there with them.Don't get me wrong plenty happens, but it's just life - however in the hands of Katherine Heiny it is laugh out loud funny.

The star of the book for me is Audra - and whilst you may think she is an empty bucket that makes the most noise, when you look deep down, as Graham her husband often does, you see that actually she's quite the strategist. Mainly to progress her son she forges bonds and unlikely friendships but there is also a very kind side to her demonstrated through the multitude of house guests invited to stay - and we aren't talking overnight here.

Audra also has some cracking lines such as  "...his employee discount to buy some scented candles and I told him he should buy one for Elspeth but he said she didn't believe in them. How can you not believe in scented candles? They're not like UFOs". I could quote so many more fantastic lines like that.

I'm giving this book 5 out of 5 stars and my thanks go to Netgalley for a copy to review