A Kept Woman - Louise Bagshawe

Advantages: Good story, easy to read
Disadvantages: Typos!

...on Louise Bagshawe books, I'm a huge fan of hers, so when I received this book for Christmas (after many hints to my sister!), I had high hopes for it. Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed. Don't get me wrong, its still a very good book, but not quite as excellent as her others. I certainly didn't "care" about the main character, Diana, from the start, like I usually do with Louise's books, though I was rooting for her by the end. I think ...
...Diana Foxton, is married to a high-flyer called Ernie - an East End lad made good - who gets head-hunted to work in America. Once they get there, Diana's life consists of parties, shopping, manicures and gossiping with her friends. However, things start going wrong for Diana when she finds out Ernie is having an affair, and they split up. The rest of the story is Diana's fight back from being destitute after the divorce to being the rich girl again, ... Read review

Advantages: a good summer read, easy to get it to
Disadvantages: quite predictable

...to business man Ernie Foxton. A hotshot in the publishing world with a reputation for ruthlessly firing and hiring in companies to increase their profits... whatever the cost in personal feelings. Ernie has one thing on his mind... making money and lots of it. It's what he's good at after all. Ernie had done what he could in England, married Diana then moved out to the USA to do it all again over there. Diana was happy to be a perfect wife, organising ...
...goes out and gets herself a job, with a very handsome, young, boss and after the initial shock of no longer being 'kept' she finds herself enjoying her new world. I won't reveal too much more of what happens in the book, but I will say that i enjoyed reading it and would read it again. It wasn't too heavy going and the story was easy to get into. Having not read a lot of Louise Bagshaw's work I will definately try out some of her other novels. ... Read review

Advantages: Some incredibly amusing situations
Disadvantages: A bit slow at the start

...so I started reading with a completely open mind about the style and content of the writing and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. The main character of this book is an ‘It Girl’ who has is marrying a publishing big shot and moving to New York – Diane Foxton, makes being a trophy wife a perfectly acceptable career choice and at first I found myself almost taking a dislike to her – but soon, while living in New York, a darker side to her husbands ...
...the book (for me) got a little more interesting as the character of her new boss Michael is written from quite a complex view point and is someone I found quite enthralling. Diane as a working girl is far more fun to read about than Diane the trophy wife and I started to warm to her as she showed her modern sassiness to the full and takes on (and of eventually brings about the down fall) of her ex-husband and then falls for the ever elusive Michael. ... Read review

Advantages: Okay holiday read.
Disadvantages: Predictable, characters not likeable.

...- A Kept Woman and The Devil You Know - are by far superior to this. None of the characters in 'Tuesday's Child' were particularly likeable. In my opinion, a good book should make you feel some sort of emotion towards the characters whether it is liking, loving or hating them, but at the end I really didn't care what happened to any of them. I think the main problem was that Louise Bagshawe tried too hard to make the female character different to your typical female lead in a romance and lost the plot of the story. Hopefully her next book will be up to her usual standards. ----Other titles by Louise Bagshawe---- Career Girls, The Movie, Tall Poppies, Venus Envy, A Kept Woman, When She Was Bad…, The Devil You Know, Monday's Child. Currently the book is only availbale in hardcover, but the paperback is due for release on 29... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Thoroughly good read
Disadvantages: Nothing

...Bagshawe* Career Girls The Movie Tall Poppies Venus Envy A Kept Woman When she Was Bad... The devil You Know Monday's Child Tuesday's Child Sparkles I bought this book in Hardback for £12.99 (as a book this size is best read in Hardback). It has been out since last year now so can probably be bought a lot cheaper. You can try Amazon or Tesco's.... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Easy, likeable characters, fast moving story.
Disadvantages: Not up to standard of previous books

...to be the best and then turned on its head at the end. However, I did enjoy reading it and finished it fairly quickly. As I touched on at the beginning Bagshawes previous book Sparkles was in my opinion brilliant. This pales in comparison. But maybe it was just too hard an act to follow. If like me you enjoy reading chick-lit, you like a story to have a bit of everything, you know sad bits, funny bits and dont want to test the brain too much then this is still a good easy read book. Its just not as good as her last one. -Other stuff- Louise Bagshawes other titles: Career Girls, The Movie, Tall Poppies, Venus-Envy, A Kept Woman, When She Was Bad..., The Devil You Know, Monday's Child, Tuesday's Child, Sparkles She is 35 and lives in Northamptonshire with her husband and three children. When visiting her website www.louise-bagshawe.com I... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful