A genre that ruffles feathers

REVIEWS BY BARBARA SAMUEL

Chick lit has to be the most misunderstood genre in the book world at the moment, attracting a fierce heat that was once solely reserved for "bodice rippers." Yes, some of it can be a bit shrieky and shallow, but chick lit fills a long-missing gap in the timeline of romance, sliding neatly into the spot between young adult novels and those about the settling-down period. At its best, chick lit is an exploration of the ways—healthy and not—that young women become the whole person they must be in order to find a true mate. The Buenos Aires Broken Hearts Club by Jessica Morrison is just such a winning tale. Cassie Moore has played by the rules her entire life. At 28, she has a job she loves, a terrific fiancé (who proposed in a very romantic way) and a beautiful apartment in Seattle. In one day, she loses it all. Stunned and reeling—this kind of thing was never in her plan!—she reacts by doing something completely unexpected: booking herself a six-month trip to Buenos Aires. She's never been, doesn't speak Spanish, and when she arrives in the bustling, enormous city after dark to find prostitutes on her corner, she's sure this is going to be the biggest mistake of her life. But as she learns to find her way through the seductive and exotic landscape of the city, Cassie can't seem to stick to the many plans she keeps trying to put together, and eventually, with the help of ex-pat friends and her warm-spirited landlady, Cassie finds out that sometimes life has a much better plan than we could possibly make for ourselves. Fresh, inventive and highly appealing.


Meet me in Paris

Another exotic backdrop, Paris in the 1920s, forms the elegant spine of Anna Davis' The Shoe Queen, which will appeal to readers of historical romance, chick lit and even straight historicals. Wealthy English socialite Genevieve Shelby King has convinced her industrialist American husband to live in Paris, where Genevieve hopes to publish poetry. There she plays with a bohemian crowd, parties in glorious gowns and even more glorious shoes—for Genevieve owns hundreds of pairs. When she spies the most beautiful shoes of all on a social rival, she must have some as well. Thus begins a seductive narrative, where the passions of the heart, the body and the soul sometimes collide with dangerous consequences—but can often provide the shattering moments that rip apart a cage. A hypnotically luscious and intelligent tale.


Royal entertainment

Bringing to light the Georgian era in all its sly and earthy cleverness is Desperate Duchess by the always masterful Eloisa James. Lady Roberta St. Giles has endured a lifetime of living in the country with her eccentric poet of a father and his many scandalous mistresses. At a country dance, she spies the devastatingly handsome Duke of Villiers, known to be quite the rake, and it's love at first sight. Roberta is not a woman to stand by and wait for life to happen to her. She finagles a letter from her very wealthy father and heads to London to find a mentor in her mother's cousin, seven times removed (or so). There ensues a lively comedy of manners wherein no one is in love with the person they should be, and the shifting landscape is the backdrop for a dazzling and vividly intelligent romp.


Web of deceit

Elizabeth Lowell has long set a standard of excellence for thrillers that never stint on either romance or suspense, and the novels work well for romance readers because the characterizations are consistently rich. In Innocent as Sin private banker Kayla Shaw has been painted into a deadly web woven of hundreds of millions in dirty arms money by a ruthless gunrunner—and prison will be the least of her worries if she can't find a way out. Rand McCree is hard on the trail of a notorious criminal responsible for creating wars for profit—a man who killed Rand's brother. The troubled pair find solace and connection together, but can they unravel the deadly plot before they both end up dead? A riveting, highly entertaining novel.


Barbara Samuel writes women's fiction, romances and many other things, including a blog at awriterafoot.com.

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