Category Archives: Absolute Froth

Total unadulterated frothy fun, some light-hearted reading for you.

Bridal Bootcamp – Bella Bailey

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What to Expect:

Bridal Bootcamp is a contemporary romantic comedy set in Dublin, Ireland. When Yvonne’s boyfriend Simon accepts her marriage proposal, she resolves to give her family and friends the best wedding imaginable! And if the little matter of money gets in the way…well, she’ll worry about that later.
Besides, it’s not as if she has nothing else to fret about – Simon’s twin sister Tracey is hell-bent on finding a way to stop the wedding. When Simon’s ex, Sandra, returns from the past and reveals that Simon is the father of her baby, it looks like Tracey might get her wish – especially as Sandra is demanding a kidney from Simon for their gravely ill child.
And that’s the easy part….what Yvonne doesn’t know is that her best friend, Rachel, is harbouring a deadly secret that has the potential to obliterate Yvonne’s relationship with Simon forever…..a secret that comes to light in a dramatic crescendo on their big day in front of everyone they know.
The power of this young couple’s love is put to the test again and again, and they embark on a journey of discovery about their relationship. The issues they face force them to evaluate what’s really important to them – their wedding, or their impending marriage.

This one was difficult to categorise, and is possibly not as frothy as its cover design, blurb and title indicates. There’s some surprisingly serious subject matter towards the end, while the lighter parts were reminiscent of Don’t Tell The Groom.

Kooks for your Kindle?– A wide range of supporting friends and relatives provide added action and intrigue, although not many are fleshed out. Sandra, the ex-girlfriend, was nicely done as the desperate mother who has to convince Simon that her betrayal is insignificant when bigger issues are at hand. Simon was a nice down to earth chap who clearly adores our heroine, although her dramatics conflict with his desire for a quiet life. Naming five major characters with the letter S was a little cruel. Tracey and Simon are twins and the opposite sides of a coin- she has made up her mind about Tracey before they meet and her sole purpose seems to be to break them up, purely due to a bit of jealousy.

The Bella-Swan-Pathetically-Self-Sacrificing-Factor– Yvonne had (what I call) a touch of the Shopaholics- she waltzes along in her own reality while her obviously catastrophic decisions all pile up until her understanding man finds out. The financial choices are the worst- we’re told Yvonne is well organised and level headed but she goes so far over budget, the budget becomes a speck in the distance. Her bridezilla blog highlights her selfish overbearing character, as does her behaviour with her friends Molly and Rachel. It was hard to like her to be honest, but of course she learns her lesson when it all falls apart. Her saving grace, in my eyes, was her self respect and assertiveness.

Provoking your Inner-Pedant– Pedants like me will wince at the errors, a good professional proofreader would not go amiss.

Evaluation of your eBook?– For all my negativity above, I have to say the plot was gripping, and kept me hanging on into the early hours. There’s plenty of action and of course everything goes wrong. The serious subject matter towards the end (no spoilers!) was largely handled with sensitivity. I nearly gave up near the start as I found Yvonne so obnoxious, but the fast moving plot kept me going and it got better.

Frothy Ranking: 2.5/5 cocktails.

Can be obtained from:

UK: Amazon for £1.86, although recently it was on special for free, so click the price for the latest.

US: Amazon for $2.99.

To Catch A Creeper- Ellie Campbell

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Unfortunately I got distracted after reading this and didn’t immediately review it- apologies to Pam and Lorraine, AKA Ellie Campbell, who asked for the review. It’s a follow up to Looking for La La, and follows the further crazy adventures of Cathy with her disastrous foray into the world of advertising, unfortunately without the buffer of her partner in crime Rosa. The main focus of the book is her investigation into workplace sabotage and the latest neighbourhood shenanigans which have once more taken a turn for the murderous. Just as in the previous book, Cathy is juggling domestic catastrophes while solving multiple mysteries, earn a living and keep her marriage alive.

It would be best to read La La first as it’s more of a continuation of that, although it would work on its own. It’s best described as madcap, which is one of those words you wouldn’t use in conversation, but fits quite well. There is an occasionally confusing abundance of colourful characters, most of whom come under suspicion at some point; and a tangled web of plot lines which somehow get sorted out by the end. Neither Cathy nor her husband learned their lessons in communication after the last book; this nearly leads to the demise of their marriage again. It’s fun and fast moving, wittily told, and definitely frothy.

UK: Amazon for £1.99, sometimes on special for less.

US: Amazon for $2.99.

Millie and the American Proposal – Annabel Scott

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What to Expect:

Millie’s boyfriend James gets offered a job in Singapore, he accepts, thinking that she’ll give up her job and go with him. Only Millie gets offered a work secondment to New York which is too good an opportunity to turn down. When she arrives in the city, she soon discovers that she’s not the only one new in town; her ex-boyfriend, Rob, is back, and he’s separated from his wife. It’s time for Millie to work out what she wants from life. She’s got to decide whether she’s Team James or Team Rob as she gets her very own American Proposal.

This is the follow up to Millie and the American Wedding, and Millie and the American University, and as they were much loved, it’s great to see further transatlantic adventures of our heroine. It’s best if you’ve read the others first, or at least the former, as there’s a lot of backstory.

The Bella-Swan-Pathetically-Self-Sacrificing-Factor– Millie immediately makes a strong choice by ditching James as soon as he makes the executive decision that her career means nothing, and that they are moving to Singapore where she will hang around while he works long hours. A serendipitous offer then takes her away from her loneliness and back over the pond to the New York branch of her ad agency, where she shows how much she loves her job and could never have given it up for James, who fades into the distance at first.

Kooks for your Kindle?– All Millie’s old mates are back, firstly London party girl Amber, who visits her in New York and manages to have disastrous effects on Millie’s most important client. James and Millie were together for four years, and he seemed to be having trouble balancing career and relationship. His idea of placation was to throw money at the problem, but he obviously still adores her. Millie has a new colleague and flat mate, a rather tense girl by the name of Gillian who brings new depths to the work focused. Kristen and Joel (who got married in the first book) are parents of two now, but still come into the city when they can to meet the others and let their hair down. Tara and Tyler who met at the wedding are expecting a baby, and finally Rob, last seen moving to Colorado with his awful wife Collette, is back in town alone in a bachelor pad. He’s separated from Collette, sees their daughter Vivienne at weekends, and spends the rest of the time trying to get Millie back into his life. He’s changed a bit, he seemed a little weak in previous books but knows what he wants now.

Painting a Picture for your Paperback?– I’m not convinced Millie knows how lucky she is; two hot, eligible men chasing after her, a few months in the most fun city in the world without having to worry about visas, a ready made group of friends there already, great social life, what more could a girl want? It’s potentially an ideal world for a newly single woman in her late twenties, working and socialising in the city, and living within staggering distance of a good night out.

Evaluation of your eBook?– It’s shorter than I expected, but still a full length book, and once I started it I had to read the whole thing immediately. I guess when characters are already established you can jump right into the story. The conclusion’s not predictable from the outset, and *spoiler alert*, the proposal in question might not even be one of marriage! There’s plenty at stake; such as how much would you give up for someone, and should they ask it of you? There’s plenty going on and it’s well paced, give it a shot for a warm, fast read full of dilemas, but do yourself a favour and read Millie and the American Wedding first!

Frothy Ranking: 4/5 cocktails.

Can be obtained from:

UK: Amazon for £1.99

US: Amazon for $2.99

Looking For La La- Ellie Campbell

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What to Expect:
Bored stay at home mother, Cathy, finds her predictable routine upturned as she investigates a lipstick-covered love postcard sent to husband, Declan. Who is this mysterious La La? Could Declan really be having an affair? And – wait – is Cathy actually being stalked?
With all her friends hiding secrets, a sexy admirer igniting long-forgotten sparks, and the stress of organizing the school’s Save The Toilets dance, soon it’s not only Cathy’s marriage that’s in jeopardy. Add in the scheming antics of Declan’s new assistant and a possible murderer on the scene and the stage is set for a dangerous showdown and some very unsettling, even deadly, revelations.

Ellie Campbell is actually a team of two sisters who kindly offered me a review copy, which I had to decline…. because I’d already bought it! It’s akin to recently reviewed Goodness, Grace and Me in general theme- batty housewife investigates possibly cheating husband and uncovers all sorts of neighbourhood shenanigans. Luckily I read a palate cleanser inbetween to avoid confusion.

Kooks for your Kindle?– There’s almost an overabundance of characters here, it’s quite a busy book. Everyone is well characterised though, and everyone’s a possibility in the hunt for La La: Many varied mum friends, some old friends, some random acquaintances. Declan is Cathy’s stressed husband who is mostly on board with Cathy’s scatty nature, but has his impatient moments and he’s oblivious to the manipulations of his assistant at work. Raz is an old mate who enjoys a child-free, career-minded life while temporarily inhabiting Cathy’s loft conversion, while Rupert is her boyfriend who seems to have a creepy fixation on Cathy.

The Bella-Swan-Pathetically-Self-Sacrificing-Factor– Cathy begins the tale as a rudderless housewife, struggling with domestic chaos even though her kids are at school and she has a weekly cleaning lady. Although her husband Declan first fell for her nuttiness, he’s running out of patience now and is pressuring her to rejoin the paid masses. Despite Cathy’s loopiness, she has her feet on the ground some of the time, has a refreshing outlook on life and can put away an impressive amount of alcohol. She’s kind and good to her friends, bordering on too soft especially where creepy Rupert is concerned. Now that I think of it, she reminds me of an older, domesticated Bridget Jones- I’ll have to read her latest to check.

Evaluation of your eBook?– For such a frothy book it has a cast of thousands, and more red herrings than sea world. If you can guess whodunnit before the end, bravo, I was certainly still guessing. I did like Cathy, even though her insane decision making made me shout at her occasionally. There’s a lovable collection of extras, almost all of whom are suspects at some point, and made for a warm, chaotic, dramatic and funny read.

Frothy Ranking: 4/5 cocktails.

Can be obtained from:

UK: Amazon for £2.65, although it was 99p for a while, so click for the latest.

US: Amazon for $3.99.

Goodness, Grace and Me- Julie Houston

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What to expect:
When Harriet’s husband, Nick, throws in his safe, but boring job in order to set up a new business during the current recession, Harriet is distraught. More so when she realises Amanda, her and best friend Grace’s old enemy from school is back in their lives. Amanda, it turns out, is Nick’s new boss’s wife and, because of her legal and language skills, will be accompanying Nick on his business trips to Italy. How will Nick not succumb to the ruthless charms of the utterly gorgeous Amanda once he’s away from Yorkshire and in glamorous Milan? Knowing Nick is being seduced is bad enough, but when Grace falls madly in love with Sebastian, Amanda’s precious, much younger son, it can only mean trouble ahead. Determined to fight for her man, Harriet’s seduction techniques go into overdrive. Unfortunately she is hampered in her attempts by two bolshy teenagers, an increasingly eccentric mother and a job teaching horrible children. Not to mention something very strange going on at the bottom of her garden! Can Harriet save her marriage, and also her friendship with Grace? And what will happen if Nick’s new venture fails, especially now that the one thing Harriet has not even considered in all this mess appears to be staring her right in the face…?

It might just be me, but the title and the cover immediately made me think it was fiction of an upstanding Christian nature and nearly ran a mile, but don’t fear, it’s quite the opposite. Many thanks to the author for the review copy.

Kooks for your Kindle?– Harriet’s husband Nick is yummy enough to keep things happening in the bedroom even 15 years or so (and 3 kids) into their relationship, and he clearly cares for her more than she realises. The eponymous Grace is Harriet’s bestie from school days, partner in crime and still her closest mate. She’s undergoing her own crises which, by coincidence and the nature of a small town, become entangled with Harriet’s. ‘Goodness’ is the old school days nickname the girls had for Amanda Goodners, former head girl, current wife of Nick’s business partner and translator for Nick on his business trips to Italy, much to Harriet’s horror. Throw in the dramas of Harriet’s parents, sister, kids and job, it’s quite a busy tale.

The Bella-Swan-Pathetically-Self-Sacrificing-Factor– An awful lot goes wrong for Harriet in the course of this book and for the most part she handles it with a sense of humour, strength and some wine. Which beats whining. She’s never spent any significant amount of time living on her own, pre-family, and just wants a little room to call her own to sit down for a read, but never really gets the chance. I’m not sure I’d handle it all so well, but then control freaks like me don’t thrive as well on chaos.

Evaluation of your eBook?– I wasn’t sure in the first couple of chapters, but once it gets into its stride it’s quite a ride. Harriet is a resourceful heroine, keeping things together with no sleep, money, husband or hours in the day. The ending was not predictable, which I always appreciate, fortunately all is not as it initially seems -this goes for most of the problems faced by Harriet- and the surprises make for a good ending. It’s quite over the top in the sheer scale of the calamities than happen to everyone concerned, and really quite funny, but with some real heartache and serious family issues at stake too.

Frothy Ranking: 4/5 cocktails.

Can be obtained from:

UK: Amazon for £1.99

US: Amazon for $2.99.

After Wimbledon – Jennifer Gilby Roberts

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What to expect:

After 12 years on the pro. tennis tour and four years with her sort-of boyfriend, Lucy Bennett has had enough. She wants real life… and real love.

Her life, her decision. Right? Well, no one else seems to think so. With opinions on all sides, Lucy’s head is spinning. And she’s stumbling right into the arms of long-term crush and fellow player Sam. Shame her boyfriend – his arch-rival – would sooner smash a racquet over their heads than agree to a simple change of partners.

As the Wimbledon Championships play out, Lucy fights for her life on and off the courts. The question is: what will she be left with after Wimbledon?

The author kindly gave me a copy to review, I had a feeling I might like it being something of a tennis nut myself. In an ideal world I would take those 2 weeks off every year and sit in front of my telly with an endless supply of Pimms… It’s by the author of The Dr Pepper Prophecies, just as readable but in a different way.

The Bella-Swan-Pathetically-Self-Sacrificing-Factor– Lucy’s not your average frothy heroine, she certainly doesn’t obsess about the size of her bum and is extremely fit- as you might expect of someone with one grand slam title under her belt. Unfortunately she knows that a win at this stage of her career is against the odds- especially as she’s not even sure she wants this life any more. Lucy knows what she wants, and that’s the normal world away from the travelling circus of the tennis tour. Of course this being a frothy read Lucy isn’t quite so clear cut with her love life, and she faces many complications over the two weeks of Wimbledon.

Kooks for your Kindle?– Lucy’s American boyfriend Joe is the men’s number one ranked player- but doesn’t rank so highly on her own list any more. He’s spectacularly obnoxious and became Lucy’s boyfriend by accident after they slept together a few years previously and forgot to stop. The couple become the talk of the tournament as Lucy becomes friends with Joe’s biggest rival Sam, once Sam defects from the New Zealand team and becomes the Great British Hope (in a world without Andy!). In this age of paparazzi and the internet there are no such things as private lives for those even a little bit famous.

Lucy’s parents are having their own dramas, thanks mostly to her mother finally facing up to her resentment of giving up her own career once she became pregnant with Lucy years earlier. They run a tennis academy together but probably could have used the occasional break from the sport. Rounding up the crowd are Lucy’s extended family, most of whom work for the academy, and her former-player girlfriends.

Painting a Picture for your Paperback?– For someone like myself who’s into tennis, chick lit and celebrity gossip this one really was a great eye opener and brings the reader right to Wimbledon.

Nookie for your Nook?– Lucy has none of your usual hang ups about bodies or sex, as you might expect from someone in the sporting world.

Evaluation of your eBook?– I was a little impatient for Joe to be given the boot, for he had no redeeming features, unfortunately it would have been rather heartless timing for Lucy to have done it at the start of such a big fortnight. The story was well paced, keeping the drama going over the two week period, with tennis, men, family and friend dramas all sending Lucy’s stress levels over the edge. There are a few parts where there’s quite a bit of game detail, but it’s not too much and if you’re not really interested in that it doesn’t take away from the story- in the end the tennis results paled in significance with the rest of the mad goings on. Recommended for a gossipy, sporty, chaotic, quick, romantic read.

Frothy Ranking: 4/5 cocktails.

Can be obtained from:

UK: Amazon for only 99p.

US: Amazon for only 99c. Not found on Kobobooks.

Christmas Carol – Michele Gorman

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What to expect:
One winter wedding, two happy couples, three ex-boyfriends. And a very uncomfortable weekend.

Carol hates Christmas. Being recently dumped, she’s not crazy about weddings either. So her sister Marley’s nuptials, over the Christmas weekend, are making her positively Scrooge-like. When she arrives for the weekend at the stately home in rural Scotland to find her three ex-boyfriends in attendance, Carol has no choice but to face her ghosts to discover what really happened in those relationships, learning a lot about herself in the process. As the snow falls outside and the fire crackles in the hearth, might one of the wedding guests become the harbinger of Christmases to come?

Just a mini-review for this one, as it’s a small novella. It feels a little early to be featuring christmas books, but this has far more of a wedding theme than Christmas. Written by the talented author of Bella Summer Takes a Chance, it tells the short tale of Carol attending her sister’s big fat Christmassy wedding in a Scottish blizzard, while facing her 3 ghosts of boyfriends past. A surprising amount of backstory and lead character development are squeezed into this brief read, with some interesting smaller characters and a delightful granny. Carol is somewhat scrooge-like in her work obsessiveness and her neglect of her family, but remote Scotland in bad weather has its own way of dealing with Blackberry addiction. It’s a shame the book was so short- it felt like it had the legs to be developed into a full size frothy read. Worth a peek to get you in the mood for a romantic festive season.

UK: Amazon for £1.99.

US: Amazon for $2.99.

The One Before The One – Katy Regan

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What to expect:
Caroline’s life was meant to be sorted when she made the decision to end her engagement, 3 months before the big day. With her to-do list tasks getting crossed off and her career going great guns, Caroline is sure she’s now a fully functioning adult. So when her 17 year old half-sister Lexi, arrives unexpectedly at her door, it doesn’t quite fit with her image that she’s drunk and wearing her wedding dress!

Lexi has come to stay for the summer but their relationship is strained, as Lexi is the result of their father’s infidelity. An affair that led to the divorce that destroyed Caroline’s mother and ruined her own childhood. Needless to say, Caroline is in no hurry to confess her relationship with her married lover Toby.

As the summer wears on, Caroline has decisions to make, and a life to reconsider, but surely a 17 year old can’t teach her anything about how to live well?

The Bella-Swan-Pathetically-Self-Sacrificing-Factor– Caroline is surprisingly easy to like, despite her occasionally inconsiderate behaviour and stunningly bad decision making; some of these decisions include an affair with a married man, lying to her family about her breakup with Martin, and stringing Martin along for purely selfish reasons. Caroline is an intelligent, professional, lively, attractive, thirty-something who falls into a messy spiral when her mistakes catch up with her. I often struggle with books like this where the heroine brings it all on herself, but in the second half of the book she really begins to redeem herself, thanks to her straight-talking younger sister.

Kooks for your Kindle?– Some of Caroline’s issues stem from her childhood, her father left her mother and started a second family, producing her younger sister Lexi when Caroline was 15 and feeling abandoned. Caroline’s bitter mother still bears quite a grudge years later, while her father and his second wife are born-again hippies. Martin is an old man waiting to happen, and it’s not hard for everyone except Caroline to see how he still pines for her. Toby is the married man, he puts on such a show of normality I think there might be a touch of the sociopath there. His poor wife Rachel was lovely, and really well done. Finally Lexi, I adored. A girl with no appropriateness-filter when she talks, open and honest, she makes friends easily. Of course this also means she’s a target for those taking advantage, but she’s such a ray of sunshine she bounces back and is an inspiration.

Painting a Picture for your Paperback?– I’m not a fan of London, but books like this make it seem really nice in the summer, and the houseboat featured reminded me of The Pollyanna Plan, as did a few other aspects. If you enjoyed that you’ll probably like this too.

Nookie for your Nook?– Quite spicy, would fail the Mother-In-Law test.

Evaluation of your eBook?– Caroline’s character was a little mixed, she’s an uptight, control-freaky list-maker who claims to be the last person that would sleep with a married man, but she comes across as quite scatty and uninhibited. It’s a quintessential frothy read, girl meets boy, girl makes mistakes, things eventually get fixed in the end and she’s a better person for it. The younger sister as life-teacher theme has popped up a few times lately but this doesn’t feel unoriginal, the characters are distinctive enough to make this their own story.

Frothy Ranking: 4/5 cocktails.

Can be obtained from:

UK: Amazon for £5.29, although sometimes on special for less.

US: Not on Amazon, Kobobooks have it for $8.39.

Facebook Jeanie – Addison Westlake

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What to expect:
“Ever wonder if you made the right choice? What if you could go back and find out?

31-year-old Clara is in a steady relationship—with Facebook. Every night after her depressing bureaucratic job (so much for saving the world), Clara comes home to her empty apartment (yes, she was dumped) and settles down with a pint of ice cream for some good, old-fashioned Facebook stalking. It’s her college boyfriend, The One Who Got Away. With the bod of a God and a net worth of umpteen bamillion, he now has the perfect life—everything she could have had if she hadn’t been so, so stupid.

But, wait. Jeanie from Facebook shows up at Clara’s job. There’s a new app they’re beta-testing and Clara’s perfect for it. That night she clicks on it and… nothing happens. But the next morning when Clara wakes up at noon, hung over, listening to her roommate blow-drying her hair and singing “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It”, she realizes she’s back in college. With the chance to do it all over again.

Back in the world of frat parties, BFFs, and long-suffering, overlooked lab partners, join Clara as she discovers what it really means to hit the reset button on life. What could possibly go wrong? And, this time, can she get it right?”

I wasn’t sure whether I’d like this, what with the two main themes being Facebook and a hint of Groundhog Day (a movie I can’t like, despite the legendary Bill Murray). However the Facebook element is minimal, just a dash of your regular ex-boyfriend stalking and a mysterious time-resetting app. The time travel aspect doesn’t have the annoying repetitiveness of Groundhog Day, so fine by me!

Kooks for your Kindle?– Brad is the one who got away, happily married to the woman who was waiting in the wings in college and he’s earning a fortune as an investment banker. His polar opposite is Alek, formerly a foreign student from the Czech Republic in the flashbacks, and a seemingly humourless physics nerd with an attitude and well hidden charms. Jeanie is the woman who makes the craziness happen, and pops up like a pink-clad version of Mr Benn (pardon the obscure British reference).

The Bella-Swan-Pathetically-Self-Sacrificing-Factor– Clara has hit rock bottom and is a walking disaster having been ditched by her boyfriend, stuck in a dead-end job and overdosing both herself and her laptop on wine. Her misguided attempt to fix her situation involves accepting Jeanie’s offer and having a do-over; thus not breaking up with Brad and inserting herself into his happy-ever-after- which turns out to be a little different to his life with his original wife. Unfortunately she’s blind to the obvious and it takes a second re-set before she sees the answer to her problems and gains a refreshing perspective on life, redeeming her, somewhat. Clara’s not totally self-centred, even in her student days her passion was to help younger kids less fortunate than herself.

Painting a Picture for your Paperback?– The author certainly brings the past and the alternate timelines to life, with Clara’s pampered superficial life with Brad contrasting nicely to their second choice as hippies in San Francisco. The latter of those was particularly vivid and enough to scare anyone away from redwood trees.

Evaluation of your eBook?– I was pleasantly surprised, even though the romantic choices were foreseeable and the ending was very cheesy (especially the superfluous epilogue). The likable main characters and snappy narrative help, it’s fast paced and witty throughout. Both alternate futures were amusingly over-the-top, right down to Clara’s physical changes. I loved Jeanie’s explanation of how the system chooses sad candidates, the final straw being changing one’s profile photo to a cat (although I have to point out that the cat’s name, Jedi, is a type of person not the name of a character in Star Wars **nerd alert**). If you like funny, warm, frothy tales you’ll enjoy Clara’s transition from recently dumped, regrouping basket-case to….. someone a lot more together!
Many thanks to the author for the review copy.

Frothy Ranking: 3.5/5 cocktails.

Can be obtained from:

UK: Amazon for £1.93.

US: Amazon for $2.99.

No-One Ever Has Sex On A Tuesday – Tracy Bloom

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What to expect:
“Never has a one-night stand led to such chaos!
Childhood sweethearts Matthew and Katy agree they must never see each other again after they end up in bed together following a school re-union.
So all is forgotten… until eight months later when a shock meeting at an antenatal class forces them to confront the fact that Matthew could be the father of Katy’s baby. Oblivious to the mayhem unfolding, Matthew’s highly-strung wife frets over giving birth to twins and Katy’s much younger boyfriend refuses to take fatherhood seriously.
Love and life are messy but Katy and Matthew take things to a whole new level as deep emotions begin to resurface and hormones run riot.
How will they navigate their way through this almighty cock-up?”

The randomly catchy title might prompt you to declare “challenge accepted”, but if it’s the wrong day of the week then have a good read instead. Tracy Bloom seems to be the new big name in self publishing; she has two out now, and they are both high in the charts. If you google her there are interesting interviews discussing her publishing methods. Meantime, on with the review:

Kooks for your Kindle?– Katy’s boyfriend Ben (and first possible baby-daddy) is a lot younger than her, but a strangely good match. Although he initially appears superficial, he has (well) hidden depths. Sassy GBF Daniel is a good match for Katy’s equally large personality, and is a supportive friend in his own unique way. The third and final main man is Matthew, the ex-boyfriend and 2nd possible baby-daddy. He was perfect for Katy back in the day, but that was a long time ago and his wife’s twin pregnancy is having a frightening effect on him.

The Bella-Swan-Pathetically-Self-Sacrificing-Factor– Katy is extremely likable in a fun, sarcastic kind of way. She’s on the aggressive end of the assertiveness scale but it all threatens to go out the window when the surprise pregnancy takes her far from her comfort zone.

Painting a Picture for your Paperback?– The romantic glow of pregnancy is stripped away here for a refreshingly honest, if somewhat off-putting look at the harsh, occasionally hilarious reality.

Provoking your Inner-Pedant– Minimal errors, a rare pleasure in self-published work.

Evaluation of your eBook?– Even the smallest part is well characterised, I especially loved Ben’s football student Luke and his pregnant teen girlfriend Charlene who unwittingly fires off insults at the older mothers. The banter is smart and funny, especially between Katy and Daniel. The format works, with brief flashbacks to establish Katy and Matthew’s old relationship, as well as why they broke up and how they met again. Katy’s terror of impending unplanned motherhood is heart-felt and believable. The ending is wildly chaotic and fun, with everybody getting what they deserve. Recommended, great debut.

Frothy Ranking: 4/5 cocktails.

Can be obtained from:

UK: Amazon for £1.99.

US: Amazon for $2.99.