Six Degrees of Separation: Daisy Jones & the Six to The Scarlet Pimpernel

I have seen people do the Six Degrees of Separation meme for a long time, and I have thought about trying to do it on and off. Ever since I have been trying to blog more this year, I have made the comment on a few posts that I wanted to try it but I wasn't sure if I could, but here I am giving it a go. I actually ended up doing more than one version which I guess means I found it a bit easier than I expected it to be

Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid - Our starting point this month but a book that I haven't actually read. I've seen that was a big hit book last year. Maybe I'll get to it one day but also maybe not.

Staying at Daisy's by Jill Mansell - I've gone with an obvious link here with the titular character Daisy. In this book, Daisy runs a country house hotel that is owned by her family.

Best Exotic Marigold Hotel by Deborah Moggach - Originally published as These Foolish Things, the book was re released as a movie tie in. Our main character here, Sonny, is also running his family's hotel.

Tulip Fever by Deborah Moggach - By the same author, Tulip Fever tells the story of when the tulip bulb was the most prized asset that you could own during the period of tulip mania in 17th century Netherlands.

The Masque of Black Tulip by Lauren Willig - This book is the second book in the Pink Carnation series. This series features a series of female spies who take crazy risks to foil Napoleon's dastardly plans, which leads me neatly to...

The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy - another dashing adventure where the Scarlet Pimpernel, using various disguises, his charm and his wit, save aristocrats who otherwise would have met their ends under the sharp blades of Madame Guillotine.

Turns out that by taking random leaps of association can be quite fun!



Six Degrees of Separation is hosted by Kate from Books Are My Favourite and Best.

Next month's starting book is Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner which is a book I know absolutely nothing about!! Will you be joining in?

Staying at Daisy's by Jill Mansell

Life is easy, it's men she'll never figure out...

When hotel manager Daisy MacLean meets cocky sports hero Dev Tyzack, it's a no-brainer - stay away. He is arrogant and sarcastic - but also incredibly sexy. Daisy tries her best to steer clear of him, yet soon comes to realize he is the one guest she can't bear to see leave.

Then she learns a devastating truth: most people are now who they seem to be, for better or for worse.

The other Saturday morning I woke up feeling pretty average. After cancelling the usual Saturday morning gym session, I lay in bed but couldn't get back to sleep, so I went and perused the shelves for a perfect pick me up read. When my eyes lit upon a Jill Mansell book, I knew I had found what I was looking for, and it helped that I knew that I needed to read it for a review. Three hours later I closed the book with a sigh. Of course, you don't need to be feeling sick to want to read this author, you can read them anytime. What I do know about the Jill Mansell books that I read is that I might cry but I will also definitely laugh. I don't mind if I am crying when reading a book because it means that I am emotionally invested in the characters to care! There is also something extremely satisfying about getting lost in a book so much that you can finish it in one sitting.

Daisy runs a successful high end hotel in a quintessentially English country village, and she is good at what she does - usually. Things don't quite go to plan when she meets the former professional rugby player Dev Tyzack in his capacity as best man at a wedding, especially given that their initial run in is due to her best friend Tara being caught in a compromising position with the groom on his wedding day. Dev is devastatingly handsome (no pun intended), charming and cocky, and Daisy knows that he is not only a former player, but he is something of a player when it comes to the ladies. There is no way that Daisy is going to open herself up to that kind of humiliation. She dealt with that with her former husband, and it is not going to happen again.

One thing that I love about Mansell's books are the supporting cast of characters, and once again we have the full set here. There is Daisy's completely over the top Dad, her lovable ex boyfriend, her best friend/chamber maid Tara, the new porter Barney who is an organ donor recipient who is looking for a new start, Mel, who has a secret that could change everything if it gets out, and Tara's aunt Maggie. One of my favourite scenes in the book is when Maggie gets fed up of dealing with incompetent tradies and takes matters into her own hands with hilarious results.

As Dev tries to prove to Daisy that he is not the type of man that she thinks he is, her father Hector is embarking on an affair with a famous film star, her best friend Josh comes to stay, and she finds out a secret to do with her dead husband that will devastate her completely, life in the hotel for Daisy must go on.

I don't read a lot of chick lit all that often anymore. When I do though, I like authors like Marian Keyes and Jill Mansell, who not only do the single woman looking for the right man storyline but who also deal with issues. Mansell is particularly adept at incorporating these issues into the storyline without losing the balance between them and the rest of the story elements. 

If I was going to quibble about one thing it would probably be only how neatly all the loose ends are tied up at the end of the book. Really though, that is a pretty minor complaint.

While I was thinking about what I wanted to say about this book, I read through some of the other reviews I have written of Jill Mansell's books and I realised that I was pretty much going to be saying many of the same things over again. What this tells me is that her books are consistently entertaining reads and so I will continue to read her books.

If you haven't ever read one of this author's books, or it has been a while, maybe now is a good time to pick up a Jill Mansell book to read.

Thanks to Sourcebooks for sending me a review copy of this book.

Millie's Fling by Jill Mansell

When Millie Brady saves Orla Hart's life she doesn't realise how drastically it will change her own – not least because the boyfriend who was asking her to move in with him at the time stormed off in a huff. Actually, Millie's relieved. She's quite happy to enjoy a man-free summer in Cornwall. But bestselling novelist Orla has other ideas. She's determined - for her own reasons - that Millie should meet the man of her dreams. Dropped wallets, roller-skating gorillagrams, the world's most flirtatious boss and a helicopter in the back garden all conspire to produce a summer neither Millie - nor Orla - will ever forget.

Years and years ago, I was given two Jill Mansell books as a present. One was Good at Games and the other was this book.

It has been a sufficiently long time so that I couldn't remember too much about what happened in this book, all except for one scene. If anyone ever talked to me about a Jill Mansell book, I would always talk about the very last scene in this book, or more precisely, the very last line. It is not that it is a perfect ending,, although all the loose ends are tidied up nicely, and it is not that the line would be particularly funny taken out of context, but the last line finishes off this book in such a perfect tone and was so memorable to me that I could still remember it six or seven years after I originally read it. The closer I got to the end of the book, the more I was looking for the clues of how we would get to that last line. I guess it is kind of strange to begin a review talking about the last line of a book though!

Our main character is Millie. She works for a very uptight travel agency in Cornwall, and shares a house with her friend Hester. Her boyfriend is about to ask her to move in with him when she notices a woman standing on the edge of a cliff. Regardless of what her boyfriend thinks Millie talks the woman away from the edge, and so in the process saves the life of well known novelist, Orla Hart. Orla is in an unhappy marriage, and her latest book has just been completely savaged in a review and so she is feeling quite desperate.

When Orla crosses paths with Millie again, Millie finds herself out of a job, as well as minus her boyfriend (no great loss there) and so Orla decides that she is going to try something completely different for her next book - she is going to write about Millie's life. Now Millie and her housemate have just vowed to have a summer free of the complications that having sex brings, so that isn't necessarily going to provide the novelist with a lot of fodder, so she steers several good looking young men her way. Her new job as a gorilla gram also provides many ideas, as does Hester's long standing crush on Millie's new boss, even though she has a loving boyfriend who is currently working at the other end of the country.

Millie tries to navigate her way through her love life, all the while falling for a man who is emotionally unavailable, Hester finds out that she doesn't necessarily want what she thinks she wants, and Orla finds more out about herself.

One of the highlights for me is the dialogue between the characters, especially between Millie and the major male character. What starts off as a very awkward introduction blossoms nicely and their dialogue is sometimes light and entertaining, and at other times much deeper, and the author has a deft touch in knowing when to include each type of dialogue.

At around 560 pages long, this is not a short book by any means, but it reads as a much shorter book than it really is. I find myself getting lost in Mansell's books, and I am looking forward to reading another from her.

For a reader who doesn't normally do rereads, I think the fact that I can see myself reading this book for a third time at some time in the future speaks volumes.

If you are looking for good chick-lit, you can do yourself a favour and pick up one of Jill Mansell's books. Luckily Sourcebooks is currently releasing some of this author's books which were previously not easily available everywhere.

Other Blogger's Thoughts:

Booking Mama
S Krishna's Books
A Bookworm's World
Diary of an Eccentric

Miranda's Big Mistake by Jill Mansell

Miranda is thrilled with Greg. He's gorgeous, funny, and practically perfect. Greg thinks Miranda is great, but he hasn't told her everything about himself. After all, even the sweetest girl is likely to be put off by a man who's left his newly pregnant wife. But there's now way she'll ever find out... is there?

When Greg inevitably breaks Miranda's heart, her friend Danny is there to cheer her up, and they quickly wreaks an unforgettable revenge. Miranda's now ready to move on to another affair - but will Danny get a chance to tell her he's in love with her himself...

There are some days when you don't want to read something that is hard to concentrate on or just long! When I read this book, I was actually in the middle of reading The Terror by Dan Simmons. I may (or may not) have stayed up until 2am messing around on the computer and so was really, really over tired when I began my trip to work, and the thought of carrying around an 800 plus page opus that was somewhat heavy to read as well was the last thing that I would be able to stay awake for. So instead, on my way out of the door, I grabbed this book, and it was a perfect read for me. In the end I read it on the train trip to and from work, and then finished the last part of the book that night. It was exactly what I needed to read on that day! Probably could have done without tearing up on the train at certain parts of the book, but I like it when a book affects me emotionally.

The two main female characters in this book are Miranda and Chloe. Miranda is a somewhat unique young lady who works as an apprentice hair dresser at a celebrity hair salon run by a very patient boss by the name of Fenn. She lodges with an older lady named Florence who is now in a wheelchair and is a little neglected by her family, unless of course they want something from her.

Chloe thought she was happily married to a man named Greg, until she finds out that she is pregnant. Greg had told her that he didn't want children and left her as soon as he found out about the baby. Chloe works in an antique shop that happens to be owned by Florence's somewhat lame son. Unable to continue to afford her current flat, Chloe is thrilled when Florence offers her a room in her house at an affordable cost.

Greg and his mate attend a celebrity function where he meets Miranda and they instantly click. Miranda falls hard for Greg and has no idea that he has been less than honest about his past. To the reader, Greg is clearly a cad, and when the truth comes out Miranda determines that she needs to teach him a lesson.

To aid her in her ruse, Miranda enlists the help of not only Florence, Fenn and Chloe, but also the resources of her new friend Danny who is a journalist who has made Miranda one of the stars of the documentary he is shooting about the plight of homeless people in London.

Whilst Miranda is recovering from her broken heart she meets grand prix racing driver Miles, and she again finds herself treading the path towards new love. With Danny on the sidelines, Florence providing advice and getting one up on her snivelling son and daughter in law, and Chloe beginning to find her own feet in her new life, there is a lot going on.

I must confess I was very surprised at the twist in the tale of this one. When I read my last Mansell (An Offer You Can't Refuse), one of the things that I was a little critical of was how neatly all the loose ends were tied up at the end of the novel. The same is true of this one, all the loose ends are tidied up, but in no way would I call it a neat solution for all the characters.

With a full cast of entertaining characters, interesting secondary storylines, a few tears and more than a few smiles and laugh out loud moments, this is definitely a book that I would recommend to anyone who likes chick lit, or who just wants a fun beach read.

If you want to read for pure entertainment then so far Mansell hasn't disappointed. If I had to pick whether I enjoyed An Offer You Can't Refuse or this book more, I would probably have to go with this one, but it is a very close race! The next book to be released by Sourcebooks is going to be Millie's Fling which I read years ago along with another book called Good at Games . I have fond memories of both books and I am planning to reacquainting myself with more fun characters, and an entertaining storyline.

My thanks to Danielle from Sourcebooks for sending this book to me for review.


Other Blogger's Thoughts:

S Krishna's Books
Cindy's Love of Books
Bermudaonion
Booking Mama

An Offer You Can't Refuse by Jill Mansell

A new bestseller from one of the UK's biggest authors.

Seventeen-year-old Lola has no intention of accepting when her boyfriend's snobbish mother offers her a huge bribe to break up with him. Then Lola discovers a secret that makes her think again, and the only way she can help one of the people she loves most in the world is to take the money and break Dougie's heart.

Ten years later, when Lola meets Dougie again, her feelings for him are as strong as ever. She'll do almost anything to get him back, but she can never tell him the truth. Can she overcome his bitterness and win his heart? She's attractive, persuasive, and endlessly optimistic, but even Lola's got her work cut out for her this time.

A number of years ago I was given at least two Jill Mansell books to read. I read them, enjoyed them, but then didn't really continue reading any of her books. So when I was offered this book for review, I jumped at the chance to renew my acquaintance with Mansell's work.

This is one of Jill Mansell's later books, having originally been released in the UK last year. It is the first of the books that Sourcebooks are planning to release into the US market this year. One of the things that I did wonder was how some of the more British language would translate to the US market. I lived in the UK for a number of years, but there were still a few terms that I didn't easily recognise. For example, what on earth are Toasta Bags? If my interpretation of what they do is correct, I want some, if you can toast a sandwich in the toaster without making a mess!

In terms of the actual story, the characters follow a fairly typical chick lit arc in the storyline. Lola is a young woman who is desperately in love with Dougie. When his mother offers her a sizable amount of money, Lola would ordinarily have said no, but due to an unexpected situation she realises that this is a chance to make someone close to her happy, even if it means that she must never see Dougie again.

Fast forward a number of years and Lola has just returned to the UK after living overseas. She has no way of knowing that by helping out a woman who is being attacked in the street, that she is going to bring herself into contact with Dougie, and his family again.

Whilst the story does focus on Lola and Dougie, the author also manages to fit in secondary stories for Lola's friend Gabe (his adventures in his new career as a paparazzi are both funny and poignant), Dougie's sister, Lola's mother and at least one other person from her past.

If there was one small criticism to be made of this book, it is that all the loose ends were so completely nicely tied up at the end, but that is a small thing really. If you want a fun chick lit read, then from my experience, both with this book, and with the other books I have read from this author in the past, you can't go wrong with Jill Mansell.

Thanks to Sourcebooks for sending me this book for review.

Rating: 4/5


Other Blogger's Thoughts:

Bermudaonion
My Friend Amy
Booking Mama
Savvy Verse and Wit