Dietland - Sarai Walker

Title: Dietland
Author: Sarai Walker
Pages: 272
Published: 2015
Genre: Contemporary
Edition: E-book
Source: Personal copy

Description:
The diet revolution is here. And it’s armed.

Plum Kettle does her best not to be noticed, because when you’re fat, to be noticed is to be judged. Or mocked. Or worse. With her job answering fan mail for a popular teen girls’ magazine, she is biding her time until her weight-loss surgery. Only then can her true life as a thin person finally begin.

Then, when a mysterious woman starts following her, Plum finds herself falling down a rabbit hole and into an underground community of women who live life on their own terms. There Plum agrees to a series of challenges that force her to deal with her past, her doubts, and the real costs of becoming “beautiful.” At the same time, a dangerous guerrilla group called “Jennifer” begins to terrorize a world that mistreats women, and as Plum grapples with her personal struggles, she becomes entangled in a sinister plot. The consequences are explosive. (via Goodreads)

Thoughts: At first I thought this would be an interesting read and it was an interesting read no doubt.  But as I read the book, I found the main character to be rather narcissistic at times and a bit immature.  And as the book wound on, I really didn't want to read it and just wanted to slap the main character silly.

Bottom Line:  I thought it was an okay read.  There were times I liked how the book was going but there were times that I really got mad at the main character and her behaviour.  If you are attracted to a sort of chick-lit book with a feminist bent.  Overall, it was okay and wouldn't recommend it for everybody.  Recommended.

Rating: 2.75/5

I've Got Your Number - Sophie Kinsella

Title: I've Got Your Number
Author: Sophie Kinsella
Pages: 433
Published: 2012 (first published 2011)
Genre: Fiction, Chick Lit
Challenges: Support Your Library
Edition: Hardcover
Source: Library

Description: I've lost it. The only thing in the world I wasn't supposed to lose. My engagement ring. It's been in Magnus's family for three generations. And now, the very same day his parents are coming, I've lost it. The very same day. Do not hyperventilate, Poppy. Stay positive!!

Poppy Wyatt has never felt luckier. She is about to marry the ideal man, Magnus Tavish, but in one afternoon her 'happy ever after' begins to fall apart. Not only has she lost her engagement ring but in the panic that followed, she has now lost her phone. As she paces shakily round the hotel foyer she spots an abandoned phone in a bin. Finders keepers! Now she can leave a number for the hotel to contact her when they find her ring. Perfect!

Well, perfect except the phone's owner, businessman Sam Roxton doesn't agree. He wants his phone back and doesn't appreciate Poppy reading all his messages and wading into his personal life.

What ensues is a hilarious and unpredictable turn of events as Poppy and Sam increasingly upend each other's lives through emails and text messages. As Poppy juggles wedding preparations, mysterious phone calls and hiding her left hand from Magnus and his parents... she soon realises that she is in for the biggest surprise of her life. (via Goodreads)

Thoughts: I have come to really like Sophie Kinsella's stand-alones more than the Shopaholic series, which seem to be waning and have become less and less interesting as that series goes by.  But this one could definitely have a sequel to this book and I would feel like the story had been adequately completed.  While Poppy comes off as being a little flaky at times, she doesn't compromise herself into becoming somebody that she knows she isn't.  The footnotes that appeared through out the book were nice, but towards the end they were a bit off-putting.

Bottom line:  Its a pretty good summer/vacation read and at over 400 pages, it may be the only one you need to read during the course of a vacation, but I would pack another book or two, depending on how quickly you are able to get through the book, as the story goes pretty quickly and one can probably finish this within a day or two, if its the only one you are reading.

Rating: 2.875/5

Pages for 2012: 13561

Girls in White Dresses - Jennifer Close

Title: Girls in White Dresses
Author: Jennifer Close
File size (pages): 2206 KB (304)
Published: 2011
Challenges: 2012 Support Your Library
Genre: Chick lit
Edition: E-book
Source: Library

Description: Isabella, Mary and Lauren's friend Kristi is engaged and they are all bridesmaids. Despite being happy for their friend, by the sixth shower they are really sick of celebrating her. Saturday after Saturday they coo over toaster ovens and deep fat fryers. They collect wrapping paper and ribbons, tying them to paper plates. But beneath the toasting and clapping, we see these women struggling amid the celebration. Isabella dreams of quitting her job at a mailing list company, where she's both extremely successful and wildly unhappy. Mary falls deeply in love, realizing too late that her new mother-in-law is really her husband's favorite. And Lauren, single and adrift, finds herself drawn to a man she's pretty sure she hates. (via British Columbia Libraries)

Thoughts: I had a really tough time to even like this one.  I can understand the premise of the book, but honestly it didn't quite grip me in the way that I thought it would.  I kept anticipating something that wasn't there, at least from what I was given from the description.  Hence, why it was a difficult book for me to get through and I almost quit the book near to the beginning, but I kept reading hoping that I would get what I had hoped for, which I didn't.  Maybe whoever did the blurb for the book should have actually read the book before describing it, because basically it describes one of the chapters later on in the book, but doesn't really describe the book and is misleading to any potential readers.

I found the book to drag, even though the first chapter was quite good and really hooked me, and hence took me a while to read it.  I also found the characters to be rather self-absorbed and lacking any sort of depth and they never really changed, if at all.

Bottom line: Its a book that can either be read very quickly or can be one that drags, depending on how quickly you get into the story and are able to read it and if you enjoy this type of literature.

Rating: 1/5

Pages for 2012: 9804