The Blonde Diaries

Well, I took a short blogging break during the month of March and some of April and totally missed out on my weekly book posting. Now I don’t even remember what I have read this year and in which month. I am going to have to be better about that in May. After reading a bunch on the cruise ship, I slacked off last week. I have my nightstand loaded up and ready to go so hopefully this will be a good week.

Books completed last week:

1. Party Princess (A Princess Diaries Book) by Meg Cabot

Books I am currently reading:

1. Sweet Sixteen Princess ~ Meg Cabot

Up Next:

1. Undead and Unwed ~ MaryJanice Davidson  (book 1 of the Queen Betsy series)
2. Undead and Unemployed ~ MaryJanice Davidson  (book 2 of the Queen Betsy series)
3. Princess on the Brink ~ Meg Cabot

Hello and happy Monday! I am hoping to have a great reading week this week as I have been slacking big time! I am hoping that I can finish the Sookie Stackhouse series this week and continue my quest to finish the Princess Diaries Series. That will just leave me with the Stephanie Plum series as my only in progress series.  I have the Dead and Unwed series waiting on my TBR stack.

Books completed last week:

1. All Together Dead ~ Charlaine Harris

Books I am currently reading:

1. From Dead to Worse ~ Charlaine Harris

Up Next:

1. Dead and Gone ~ Charlaine Harris
2. Party Princess ~ Meg Cabot
3. Princess on the Brink ~ Meg Cabot

I have had 2 really good weeks of reading. I have been able to clear a few books off of my reading list and discovered a couple of new ones. I have a couple of Plum books which are ready for pick up at the library so I think I’ll be starting that series fairly soon. If you want to participate in the What are you Reading meme, click on the picture above and pop over to J. Kaye’s book blog and leave your linky.

Books I completed this week are:
~Bergdorf Blondes by Plum Sykes
~Mr. Darcy’s Diary: A Novel by Amanda Grange
~Secrets of a Shoe Addict by Beth Harbison
~The Sleeping Beauty Proposal by Sarah Strohmeyer

Books I am currently reading/listening to:
~ Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos
~ That Extra Half Inch: Hair, Heels, and Everything In Between by Victoria Beckham

Up Next:
~ The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
~ Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
~ One for the Money by Janet Evanovich
~ Two for the Dough by Janet Evanovich

Whew! That is a lot of reading that I have planned to get done in the next couple of weeks. I am up for the challenge though and can’t wait until the Christmas holidays officially start and I can read all day as long as I want!

I am a sucker for a book with a hot pink cover. If you put a book in a pink cover, 95% of the time I will buy it or read it. I have found though that not all books in a hot pink cover are very good. Nevertheless, when I was walking past the library book shelf, Accidentally Engaged caught my eyes and I had to check it out. Boy am I glad I picked it up and brought it home. This was a hilarious book. It was so good that I am going to start looking for my own copy soon.

Accidentally Engaged is the story of Clair Ivars, a tarot card reader who gets caught in the middle of family drama when a bride and her future sister in law (sil) come in for a reading 2 weeks before the wedding. The SIL tries bribing Clair for a good reading and the bride wants a bad reading so she can bail on the entire thing. Clair decides the bride needs the help more so she give the bad reading and is left to straighten things out when the bride leaves the 3 carat diamond engagement ring behind as well as her fiance’s name and address.

So rather than go on her much needed vacation, Clair heads to the wine estate to return the ring. Along the way we meet the evil future mother in law, the hot gardener with a surprising twist at the end, the jilted groom, and the grandma pulling the wool over the families eyes. We also learn why the bride wants to run away from the wedding – because she is being haunted by a ghost (but not any ghost it is Clair’s grandmother’s ghost!). There is something tugging on Clair though which draws her into the estate and keeps her much longer than she was expecting to stay. You definitely want to find out what all of the twists and turns in this book are as they will really get you laughing and bring a smile to your face. As I said earlier, I absolutely loved this book and can’t wait to read it again and again.

This review is just my opinion. I was not paid for this review nor did I receive this book for free or at a reduced price other than what bookcloseouts.com was selling it for when I happened to place my last order.

I picked up The Gatecrasher by Madeleine Wickham earlier this year but waited a while to actually read the book. After reading another one of her books I just wasn’t thrilled by the writing so I held off. I’m glad I gave her another try as this book was hilarious.  I’m not sure if you have seen the movie Heartbreakers with Jennifer Love Hewitt and Sigourney Weaver. It is the movie about a mother-daughter con artist team who con their way into men’s lives to get married and then set them up for a “he fault” divorce. It is pretty funny (and cheesy) if you need a movie to watch this upcoming holiday. Anyway back to the book.

This book focuses on Fleur, a late thirty something, who meets men, moves in, and then cashes out a small nest egg before moving onto the next hapless soul. She finds these men mainly at funerals – for their beloved wives. Over the top yes, but it seems to work and provide a bit of comedy in this book. Everything is going to plan until Fleur crashes the funeral of Richard, a grieving widow who starts to realize he never really knew his deceased wife nor the rest of his family. Fleur begins to provide the support Richard needs as well as the support his family needs and then trouble begins. Fleur starts to wonder if she should hang up her funeral crashing ways for finding true love with one person especially when her daughter Zara shows up and fits in so well with Richard’s family. The internal fight Fleur experiences leads to a few twists and I honestly didn’t know how this book was going to end. I think in either instance I would have been fine with the path she took.

There are lots of laughs in this book which was really nice as well as just one main plot. If you want to find out which path Fleur takes, I would recommend running to the bookstore and picking up this book today.

This review is just my opinion.  I was not paid for this review nor did I receive this book for free or at a reduced price other than what bookcloseouts.com was selling it for when I happened to place my last order.