Mr. Maybe

This was a fluffy little book. Libby is looking for her Mr. Right. She has a list of what she wants in a dream man - rich, great sex, someone that she finds attractive, someone who wants to get married.

Unfortunately, she can't seem to find all of those properties in one man. One the one hand, she has Nick. Great in bed and attractive, but broke and not ready for commitment. Libby falls for him so hard that she get almost frustrated. She hates his friends, she hates that he has no money, but she wants to be with him.

He dumps her.

She's heartbroken until she meets Ed. He's stinking rich and wants to get married. Unfortunately he has an unattractive mustache, he's ridiculously boring, and terrible in bed.

She ends up having to make a choice between the fairy tale life as a rich man's wife and being happy and in love no matter what the bank account balance is.

Just a fluffy read after some rather deep reads that I've had lately.

Another Piece of My Heart

I had a bit of a love/hate relationship with this book. I loved it because, well, come on, chick lit. But it was a sweet book that had a lot of human nature in it.

Andi marries a man who is divorced and has two daughters. She desperately wants a baby of her own, but almost immediately after marrying Ethan, she begins to go through peri-menopause which makes conceiving almost impossible. The younger of Ethan's daughters, Sophia, loves her new stepmom. But the older, Emily, despises Andi for taking her father away from her. It's a serious mess because Ethan feeds into the teenagers temper tantrums and Emily knows it. Andi starts to resent her husband for not standing up for her against his daughter and for the fact that he does not seem to see how badly she wants to be a mother, not just a stepmother.

There are dramas and conflicts throughout this whole book. Ethan's ex-wife, Brooke, is an alcoholic that essentially pushed her entire family away. Emily is a toxic child who acts out for the attention she gets from her father. Then, Emily gets pregnant and this new drama causes the family to go into a tailspin.

It's a real book. The family may be fictional, but it could exist anywhere in this country. Andi has some crises that she has to work through. Ethan has to work through his relationship with Emily. And Emily really just needs to grow up.

I had some issues through it just because certain parts of the book made me roll my eyes because it was so implausible, but overall I found myself feeling for Andi as she struggled through her marriage and family, hoping that Emily would stop being a selfish brat and grow up, and hating that Ethan could be so manipulated by his child. I loved Sophia because she was so down-to-earth, and I didn't even really have a problem with Brooke. It was just another family going through the dramas that come from divorce and marriages.

Babyville

I must say, I enjoyed Babyville much more than I liked Jemima J. Same author, but this story was a lot more enjoyable and less anger inducing.

I think part of the reason I liked this book was because I saw so much of me in each of the three main women.

First, Julia. She has been with her boyfriend Mark for four years and they decide to try for a baby. Not the best idea since their relationship is a miserable one. But they try anyway. There's just a problem. They can't get pregnant. Julia tries everything. Nothing works. I relate to this because I've done the try everything method just to have it fail miserable.

Second is Maeve. Maeve effectively takes over Julia's role in, well, everything. She fills in for her job when Julia goes on leave since she became so baby-obsessed that she stopped doing her job. But, she also kind of takes over Julia's role as Mark's girlfriend. Yeah. That's an interesting story line. Mark was supposed to just be a one-night stand. But Maeve got pregnant off that one-night stand. She initially says she'll have an abortion but Mark convinces her otherwise and one thing leads to another.

Third is Sam. Sam is a new mom. She's obviously dealing with postpartum depression. She hates her life, her marriage, her husband. Everything except her son. I can totally relate. I had those same feelings after my first child. Sam soon finds herself falling for another woman's husband, convinced that her marriage is over and this man is who she is meant to be with. She has full fantasies about it. Eventually she discovers the dirty truth about this man and manages to find her way out of the PPD fog to appreciate her husband again.

So, right now I'm at 50/50 with Jane Green books. I think I need to read more just to get a clear impression of her.

Jemima J

Eh. I can honestly say I didn't love this book. For the most part, it's normal chick lit. Very lightweight romance. But I had a problem with one major piece of the story line.

Jemima Jones is fat. She admits it herself in the beginning of the book. She hates how she looks, she wishes she was thin, but she has an addiction to food.

Jemima is in love with Ben, her coworker at a local newspaper. Ben doesn't notice her. Because she's fat.

Jemima meets Brad online. She tells him that she's thin and beautiful. He believes her. He wants to meet her.

Jemima drops over 100 pounds in 3 months. See, she trades out her food addiction with an exercise addiction. Then, she, for the most part, stops eating.

Here's my problem with the storyline. It practically glorifies eating disorders. It doesn't show how Jemima would really be feeling if she stopped eating more than one meal a day and exercised three times a day. She wouldn't be feeling fabulous and beautiful. Chances are, she'd be feeling rather weak and run down.

Sure, it ends with a happily ever after, but I wasn't a fan of this.