Modern Fiction Books > N Modern Fiction Books > 25 GBP and more

Advantages: Great characters
Disadvantages: Ludicrous ending

In the age of yummy mummies, it's quite refreshing to read about the other side of the story - those who don't have their well behaved children sitting neatly in spotless white outfits while they themselves show off their size zero bodies in the latest designer frocks. Those who are in fact more slummy than yummy. Lucy Sweeney is one of those mothers, the sort who count the day as successful if they remember to put a coat on top of PJs for the school ...
...the single figures. She first came to life in a column in the Saturday Times magazine, and her story continues now in this book. I really like the columns in the magazine - they were short and feisty, much like their heroine. There are two types of books-from-columns, those which are purely a collection of previously published materials, and those which take the ideas from said columns and pad out a story with them. This book is the second type, ... Read review

Advantages: Great read, extremely funny and entertaining throughout
Disadvantages: None

Shopaholic and Sister is the fourth book in the series of shopaholic and if you have been good and read them all in order then you will know that Rebecca Brandon nee Bloomwood is a shopaholic. In her last book she married her long term boyfriend Luke Brandon and this book begins where the last took off with them on honeymoon, well in actual fact they have been on honeymoon for the last ten months and life is great, apart from the fact that Becky ...
...As with all of the shopaholic books they are extremely funny and there have been some incidences where I have been in work reading on my lunch break and have laughed out loud at something Becky has said or done. Sophie Kinsella writes her character so well and she is so easy to relate to as I think Becky has a bit of everyone in her character and anyone can relate to her. Becky is a compulsive buyer and despite Luke's budgeting Becky still suprises ... Read review

Advantages: great book
Disadvantages: none

In my opinion Dorothy Koomson is one of the best writers of women's modern fiction around. I have read and enjoyed most of her books and I definitely think that this latest one really excels itself. She is not afraid to write about strongly emotional and sometimes difficult subjects and in this book she writes about surrogacy. This is no ordinary story about a woman choosing to have a baby for another couple though as there are lots of emotional ...
...the boy over the road that you grew up with. Then imagine that you have been hopelessly in love with him for years even though it seems that your love is not reciprocated. Add to this the fact that your friend eventually marries someone else and when it emerges that she the wife cannot have babies they ask you to be their surrogate. Would you say yes to such a request? Well that is the situation Nova finds herself in and after much soul searching ... Read review

Advantages: interesting storyline
Disadvantages: poorly written

Nineteen Minutes is the 14th of Jodi Picoult's contemporary novels, this time the subject matter is a severely bullied teenager who takes his revenge by going to school one day with four guns resulting in him killing 10 students and teachers and wounding 19 others. ~~ The plot and characters ~~ Peter Houghton is a seventeen year old student living in a small town who, since his first day in kindergarden, has been bullied verbally and physically ...
...school as well as his older brother Joey. As a small child, he is best friends with Josie Cormier, another girl his age who sticks up for him when he is bullied, until one day Josie decides that she doesn't want to be another loner and aligns herself with the popular kids in school thus ending her friendship with Peter. This novel flits back and forth between the modern day - or rather the day that Peter decides to go into school and do what he ... Read review

Advantages: Lovely story, great characters, so well written and enjoyable
Disadvantages: None

I was recently browsing my local charity shops for a new book to read, something new and an author I hadn't read before as I was getting a tad fed up of reading the same few people's work over and over. I wasn't having much luck until I set eyes on this small little paperback, written by an author I'd never heard of, and to be honest the wintery christmassy looking cover swung it for me. And for 75p, if I hated it I couldn't care! But luckily for ...
...young widow who has recently lost her boyfriend and father of her son Josh in an accident. She wants to make a fresh start away from the memories and the mother-in-law Mary so moves to Nevermorewell, a small village miles away from home. Amy soon settles into village life and life on the allotments and makes some new friends for her and Josh along the way. Amy is just settling in when local Doctor Ben Martin stumbles into her life and leaves her ... Read review