Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy by Helen Fielding

From Audible:
With her hotly anticipated third instalment, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, Fielding introduces us to a whole new enticing phase of Bridget’s life set in contemporary London, including the challenges of maintaining sex appeal as the years roll by and the nightmare of drunken texting, the skinny jean, the disastrous email CC, total lack of twitter followers, and TVs that need 90 buttons and three remotes to simply turn on.

An uproariously funny novel of modern life, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is a triumphant return of our favourite Everywoman.

This seems to be getting mixed reviews but, having loved both of the previous Bridget Jones’ books (& the subsequent movies), I feel like I owe it to her character to read on – if only to see where life takes her next. And, as I’ve said once before: It’s only chic-lit so… how bad can it be?

The Perfume Collector by Kathleen Tessaro

From Audible:
One letter will turn newly married Grace Munroe’s life upside down: ‘Our firm is handling the estate of the deceased Mrs Eva D’Orsey and it is our duty to inform you that you are named as the chief beneficiary in her will. We request your presence at our offices at your earliest convenience, so that we may go through the details of your inheritance.’ There is only one problem. Grace has never heard of Eva D’Orsey.

So begins a journey which leads Grace through the streets of Paris and into the seductive world of perfumers and their muses. An abandoned perfume shop on the Left Bank will lead her to unravel the heartbreaking story of her mysterious benefactor, an extraordinary woman who bewitched high society in 1920s New York and Paris.

New York, Paris, a mystery inheritance and perfume history? Who could resist that? Seriously, though, this sounds like a nice, escapist little read and is getting great reviews by others, so I’ll definitely be checking it out sometime – sooner rather than later…

Accidents Happen by Louise Millar

From Audible:
How many times, when things go wrong, have you said to yourself ‘Why me?’ Some people seem to have more than their fair share of bad luck, and Kate Parker is one of them. So when Kate and her ten-year-old son Jack move to Oxford to start a new life, Kate is determined that events of the past will not come back to haunt them. Despite the suffocating support she receives from her overbearing in-laws, she starts to feel threatened. Somehow her comfortable family home doesn’t feel quite safe – it’s almost as though someone is watching them.

A chance meeting with a charming Oxford professor helps to convince her that she can overcome her fears, and that she and Jack can start to live a normal life once again. But just when she feels happier than she’s felt in years, a shocking revelation blows all of their lives apart.

I find that being able to relate to the main character of a book always helps with getting into it and enjoying the experience more than you might normally do – and this is, without a doubt, the case here. In matters of luck, at least, I often seem to have it as bad as Kate and that is what first drew me to this. The terrible past and precarious present angle added the spice needed to earn this a spot on my TBR list.

Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

From Audible:
Bernadette Fox is notorious. To Elgie Branch, a Microsoft wunderkind, she’s his hilarious, volatile, talented, troubled wife. To fellow mothers at the school gate, she’s a menace. To design experts, she’s a revolutionary architect. And to 15-year-old Bee, she is a best friend, and quite simply, mum. Then Bernadette disappears. And Bee must take a trip to the end of the earth to find her.

Where’d You Go, Bernadette is a compulsively readable, irresistibly written, deeply touching novel about misplaced genius and a mother and daughter’s place in the world.

As I have mentioned before I can’t help but be intrigued by unusual book titles, so I have to admit to being interested in reading this, even before checking out the synopsis. Title aside, however, this sounds like an interesting & uplifting read. Here’s to hoping it won’t disappoint.

Innocence by Kathleen Tessaro

From Audible:
It’s 1987 and Evie is leaving home for the first time, headed for London to study acting. Along with her fellow students and roommates, Imogene (a born again Laura Ashley poster child and frustrated virgin) and Robbie (native New Yorker, budding bohemian, and very much not a virgin), Evie’s determined to make her mark both on stage and off. But then life and love, in the shape of struggling rock musician Jake Albery, intervene. And everything changes.

Fourteen years later and Evie’s stuck. She’s now a single mother teaching drama classes, her dreams long since abandoned. Robbie’s dead, killed in a car accident, and Imo’s lost touch. Then a friendship from the past comes to haunt Evie. Literally. And suddenly everything is about to change again.

This is a bit of an outsider, in that I wasn’t immediately interested in it per se -but kind of indirectly led to it because of a review posted under “The Perfume Collector” (see above), praising Kathleen Tessaro’s other work. Having checked it out (& realised that one of the characters in it has my old “pen name”, Imogen) I decided to give it a try. I will, however, pick it up after I’m done with Tessaro’s latest offering (& most probably, only if I enjoy that).

That wraps up this week’s “Press Play”. Join me next Wednesday for more book suggestions and remember: as always, this post will be updated with links to reviews, whenever any of the above mentioned books are completed.

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