Nick begins to treat a six-year-old named Charlie who was burned in a fire at a school mate’s home.  Since they live in a small town and Nick also has a six-year old child Tessa quickly becomes involved in the rumor mill of what happened and how Charlie’s mother should/should not be reacting.  Valerie is Charlie’s single mother and already had felt like an outcast in the small prestigious community.  Valerie stays by Charlie’s side as he recovers from his burns and becomes closer to Nick who, as Charlie’s doctor, is visiting every day.  The line between a professional and personal relationship get blurred as Nick and Valerie become more interested in each other.  Tessa knows that something has changed in her marriage but does not know quite what is wrong or how to fix it.

In this story all of the characters are very likable.  Nick helps injured children and both Valerie and Tessa are trying to do their best to protect and care for their own children.  While I liked this book, I did like some of Emily Griffin’s earlier books better.  I would recommend this if you are looking for a good easy read.

In This Charming Man the story is told by the perspective of four women in their early 30s.  They have all been in some way connected to Paddy de Courcy, an Irish politician who is one of the most eligible bachelors around.  Lola was his most recent girlfriend, finding out they were no longer together when the news announces his engagement to someone else.  Grace is a journalist pursuing the story who knew Paddy in his younger days and has recently been reacquainted with him.  Marnie, Grace’s sister, dated Paddy during high school and college.  And Alicia, his current fiance.

All of the women have different voices and have different sentiments about Paddy during the story…however none of them seem to be able to get away from him.  It turns out that Paddy is abusive towards the women he dates and he has left his mark, physically and emotionally, on all of these women.

Overall it was a good book.  I did have a problem with the parts that were written in Lola’s voice because there were a lot of sentence fragments which I find distracting…and a little bit annoying.  It’s not that I don’t write sentence fragments but it seemed like every sentence was not grammatically correct.  I’m sure this was done to bring out Lola’s voice and personality, but I had a hard time getting past it and found myself speed reading her parts so that I didn’t have to look at it.  Otherwise I enjoyed it and thought it was a good summer read.

This is the story of DarcyRhone, who is not a very likeable main character.  She comes from a background of believing that things are about appearance and that being beautiful is one of the most important parts of her life.  She works in PR, is very into shopping and partying and seems to judge everyone, even those she is closest to, on very shallow standards.  At the beginning of this story she is cheating on her fiance with one of his groomsmen, becomes pregnant and goes to break off her engagement only to find that her fiance has been seeing her best friend.

Darcy tries hard to play the part of the victim and becomes very obsessed with Rachel and Dex’s new relationship even as she tries to make a go of things with her new boyfriend.  Very quickly she realizes that her relationship with Marcus was about lust and not much more and she tries to figure out what to do now that she is pregnant and having relationship problems with just about everyone in her life. 
Darcy ends up running to England to visit Ethan, a childhood friend.  She stays with him for several weeks before he speaks very pointedly about the flaws he sees in her character and then she makes some effort to change.  However even in her efforts to change for the better I never felt that she actually did anything to truly change.  Darcy was able to make progress on some fronts but was very self-centered pretty much throughout the story. 

This was a good fast read (beach book?) and like I said, I’ll probably go back to visit Something Borrowed. 

Summer Sisters follows the lives of Victoria “Vix” and Caitlin as they begin a friendship while entering their teenage years that lasts throughout the years.  Vix is a responsible girl who helps in her large family, particularly with her disabled brother.  Caitlin is new to their school and she is the girl that everyone wants to be friends with.  Vix is thrilled and a little terrified with Caitlin invites her to come and spend the summer with her at her dad’s house at Martha’s Vineyard.  Vix continues to go spend summers with Caitlin and her family becomes Vix second family and allows her opportunities in school and life that she would not have otherwise been able to afford.  The summer house is described as dirty and chaotic and Caitlin is pleased when Vix seems to “get it”, whatever “it” may be.

As Caitlin and Vix grow older they begin romances with boys that they have known on the island for years.  Vix becomes involved in a a serious, steady love affair with Bru that continues even as she goes to college and pursues her goals.  Caitlin is a little more flighty and jumps around between men as well as places she lives and jobs.

It is truly a story about this friendship and how it develops over the years and the growth of two girls.  This book follows Caitlin and Vix into their adult years and where they end up and I was happy about that.

Some of the themes that ran through this book were very familiar compared to what she has written before.  Kit is a recently divorced woman trying to re-establish who she is after her divorce.  She has shared custody of her children, some good female friends, and a job as an assistant to a famous author in the area.

The book is mainly about Kit trying to figure out her life, including her love life.  Her ex-husband is still in the picture (through visitation with the kids) and Kit starts to date again.  She also tries to be supportive of her friends as one goes through a huge financial crisis as her husband loses his Wall Street job and another becomes secretive and seems to be hiding something.

Overall it was a quick, decent read.  In some ways I liked that there were some characters and places in the book that I had read about before…but it did also feel a little bit repetitive.

Maggie is described throughout the books as the responsible sister.  She never went through the wild rebellious stage that her other sisters went through.  So when Maggie and her husband of nine years decide to separate, it is a big deal in the Walsh family and gives Maggie the opportunity to behave a little out of character.

Maggie leaves Ireland and visits her best friend Emily who is in LA working as a struggling screen writer.  While Maggie is there she acts as “assistant” to Emily in gets a taste of the entertainment industry, makes interesting and different choices about who to flirt with and even date, and gets back involved with her high school boyfriend, Shay, who works in the entertainment industry and travels to LA at times.

This whole story is very entertaining and an easy read.  Marian Keyes deals with some hard issues like divorce in a way that makes them real but still has humor and light.

In that regard, for the most part, I enjoyed this book.  My major drawback would be that there were very graphic sex scenes that were just a little uncomfortable.  I don’t know why seeing some of the words (or word combinations) in written form makes it worse (for me), but I did feel almost embarrassed in some parts. I had to do a little bit of skimming but I do understand that may just be an issue of personal preference.

The main story of this book was about the building, One Fifth Avenue, a prestigious place to live that others aspire to be part of.  There was an elderly woman who died and a young couple from “new” (hedge-fund) money that moved into the building and caused some tension to develop.  There was the 45 year old single male writer with his gossip columnist aunt and his 22-year old girlfriend/assistant.  His first love, an actress who moves back into the building.  Another middle-aged couple who both are writers and are just on the brink of “making it.”  And there is also idea that in the close lifestyles of those sharing a building in New York City, that you are more than just neighbors, you are more like family.

There are arguments, gossip, tension and love between the characters in this book.  But throughout it all, One Fifth Avenue is featured and everything keeps going back to it.  This book also tackled some of the issues of writers and journalists facing a new age of internet and gossip news and some of the difficulties, challenges and surprise successes found working in new mediums.  I would recommend this, if you go in understanding that there are some pretty steamy sections.  Which is what I should have probably expected from the author of Sex and the City

To add to this Claudia has a sister who is having trouble getting pregnant after two years of trying and a 35-year old best friend who is single and considering her options if she wants to have children.  Comments are made from these people she loves, to her, that she could not understand the pressure and sadness that they are feeling being childless and wanting children.  Claudia is forced to explain her reasoning, and also to try to explain that she still has feelings, pressure and sadness in the other alternative.

I truly enjoyed Baby Proof and think others would too.  It’s definitely what I would call lighter reading, but it dealt with some very real issues.  If you like books in the chick lit genre, this would be a good one to try.

In Twenties Girl Lara is a twenty something woman who is having problems in her love life and her professional life.  She goes to a funeral for her 105-year-old great aunt Sadie, who she had only ever met once, and while at the funeral a younger version of Sadie appears to her and asks her to stop the funeral as she does not have a certain necklace on.  Lara does stop the funeral by saying she thinks that her great aunt has been murdered…by the nursing home staff…and an investigation follows buying her time to find the missing necklace.

Lara proceeds to try to find Sadie’s necklace with the help of Sadie who is able to transport herself wherever she wants to go.  Other people such as Lara’s ex-boyfriend can be influenced by Sadie talking to them but no one can hear her or see her the way Lara can.  Sadie helps Lara with her business, plays matchmaker, and together they discover the secret behind the missing necklace and it’s importance.

I know that this should have been a fun, enjoyable read, yet I just never really got into it.  I promised myself that I would read a book through if I was going to write about it, but if that had not been the case I would never have finished it.  The characters were not believable and the story just never developed into anything great.  I had read on some other book sites that this was a good summer read but I enjoyed other books Sophie Kinsella had written a lot more.