6// Bad Brides by Rebecca Chance
This was given to me by my sister with the warning that it has some racy moments. She was not wrong. This book is pure filth...and not in a good way. The main story line of the book is not too bad - it's based on two girls who are having high profile weddings and both want to be on the cover of the big wedding magazine. Pretty standard chick lit stuff. However, the story is punctuated with pages of absolute debauchery. Maybe I am a prude (I absolutely am) but this was really something else! There is every type of sex you can imagine - engaged couples, 2 women, a woman and two male prostitutes, two men, a man and his mother-in-law to be, a girl and a pig farmer....it's all going on. I didn't enjoy it at all. Take out all the unnecessary sex (really, 5 pages of a woman and her two male prostitutes fits into a wedding rivalry how?) and the book would have been passable. As it was, I was left as the only person feeling unsatisfied.
7// Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
You may have heard of this, or seen the movie. I read it as part of a new book club I have joined and it's not something I would choose to read myself. However, I'm so glad I have done as it was really great. The story is told from two perspectives - Nick and his wife Amy. Amy mysteriously disappears on their 5th wedding anniversary, and the book starts to tell the tale of how oddly Nick acts in the wake of her disappearance, and his behavior in the run up to the day. Did he do it? This book is fabulous. I did pretty much guess what had happened....but not the intricate details behind it all. At the end of the book I sat, open mouthed, think what a whole load of weirdos the characters were! I definitely recommend it.
Not so much the film which is lacking a lot. We watched it the weekend after I read the book, and wish I hadn't bothered!
8// What a Girl Wants by Lindsey Kelk
I've only read half of this, as I am just not into it at all. I got the feeling from the first two chapters that I was actually on the second book, and it's prequel has passed me by. However, it doesn't say that anywhere on the book cover or on the blurb, so I'm still not positive - it's just a feeling. So far, it's about a girl who has just come back from a 'find yourself' holiday and gotten together with the love of her life...now she has jetted off to Italy to do some photography even though she is in marketing. Hmmm. I'm hoping to finish it this week, but it isn't inspiring me. Even though I haven't then technically finished my books 6-10, I think this is a fair reflection of the book - that I dislike it so much I couldn't be bothered finishing it which is extremely rare for me. I very rarely dislike books, and read even true trash. But this just has not interested me at all.
9// The Great Escape by Fiona Gibson
I took this to Centre Parcs on holiday last week and was about 3 chapters in when I realised I've read it before! I read the rest anyway, and enjoyed it just as much as the first time. 3 university friends are all grown up, and none are 100% happy with their current life. They get together to celebrate one of their upcoming marriages, and it's about how they all use the time together to reevaluate their lives. A nice, easy to read, little story which I have now sent home with my mother-in-law.
10// The Playgroup by Janey Fraser
I nabbed this from my mum, drawn to it by just the cover, and am so glad I did as it's a lovely story. Centred around Puddleducks nursery school, it follows the nursery leader Gemma in her first term at the helm. She is an inherently likeable character however I wasn't keen on all the hints towards something horrific happening in her love life in the past, and never getting much info until it was all randomly spat out. There was no real suspense or build up, it was just drip, drip, GUSH. The male lead is again very likeable, but again there is the same annoying way of alluding to his past and trying to encourage the idea that he is gay before you find out he isn't. That served no purpose to me at all.
That aside, it is a lovely book with lots of little bits of story here and there. There are several other characters involved and it jumps between them all which I initially wasn't keen on, but by the end the stories all tied together really well. Overall, another easy reader but definitely has it's flaws.
