by Kyra Davis

San Francisco mystery novelist Sophie Katz, half Jewish, half African American, drinks chocolate brownie frappucinos as if they were nutritional supplements and talks to her cat as if he’s a person. In this, the first book about her and author Kyra Davis’s first novel to be published, she also finds life imitating art, as she ends up trying, with her friends (one of whom owns a sex toy store, the other of whom is her gay hair stylist), to solve a murder that seems as if it’s ripped out of the pages of her last novel.

Along the way, she also has to deal with her mother, her sister and young nephew, and the fact that her prime suspect for the murder is also the man who stole her newspaper at Starbucks, and whom she’s dating…sort of.

Davis’s writing is fresh and funny, and manages to blend chick-lit with the mystery genre, her characters are interesting, and her plot works. A good mixture of froth, foam, and fear.

Last week, I wrote about my frustration with the book The Goddesses of Kitchen Avenue, by Barbara Samuel. I’m please to report that we’ve worked out our issues, and I’m in a place of enjoyment with the book.

Any frustration I had is partly my own fault. The cover art features a cafe table with a lovely blue tablecloth, and a bunch of coffee mugs and glasses, a couple of desserts, and many women gathered around, sharing the food. We don’t see their faces, but we can see that they are friends.

I bought the book in flagrant defiance of the “Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover” rule, because I liked the picture, and then, I became frustrated when it wasn’t a happy cozy cafe book, but a deep look at fractured relationships. Just because I’m writing a happy cozy cafe book, I expect everything to be like that.

Anyway, I’ve set it aside while I finish a Trek novel for review later this weekend, and will review it formally sometime next week.

by Julia Holden

Why I Picked This Book:
I saw it from across the room, the image of a man and woman dancing across the cover of a book. As I moved closer, I saw the title, One Dance in Paris. While the name of the author, Julia Holden seemed vaguely familiar, I was certain that I had never read her work. Even so, the title intrigued me, and the purchase of this novel rounded out the collection of French-themed books that I gave myself for my birthday last month.

Brief Plot Summary:
Linda Stone lives in a Boston suburb with her father who has never quite gotten over the death of her mother, when she was a girl. For that matter, neither has Linda, who runs as an escape from the reality of her life in which she works successive low-paying job, generally as a waitress, and avoids Harvard men as much as possible.

When a mysterious package arrives at her door - a single feather and a photograph - Linda decides she has to solve this personal mystery. She travels first to Las Vegas, to meet the sender of the package, and then to Paris, and along the way she learns that a headliner is not a showgirl, that her mother was a headliner, and that sometimes people can mentor you from beyond the grave…sort of.

My Thoughts About the Book:
I loved this book. I wanted it never to end, and I have to admit, I’d have loved a couple more chapters in Paris, both before and after the actual end point. While elements of the story were preposterous, Holden wove them into a story that sucks you in enough that you can buy into Linda’s tale. The dialogue is fresh, the clothing descriptions are fabulous, and there’s a breezy sense of adventure that pervades the entire novel. This is chick-lit, but it’s chick-lit at it’s best: light, fun, and immensely satisfying.

Not only to I recommend this novel, I’m also eager for the first of the month to roll around, so I can buy the author’s other book, and read that as well.

If you’re a fan of off-kilter heroines, Paris, or Project Runway, you will LOVE this book.

by Christopher Moore

I borrowed this book, Island of the Sequined Love Nun, from one of my ComedySportz troupemates, without quite knowing what I was getting into. What I found was an hilarious trip that had plane crashes, hard luck stories, and off-kilter romance. If Clive Cussler wrote chick lit, this would be it.

The main character, Tuck, is a pilot for a company that is clearly supposed to be Mary Kay cosmetics, right down to pervasive use of the color pink. He crashes the plane, gets sent to a tropical island that is loosely affiliated with the Federated States of Micronesia, meets a male drag queen prostitute and a talking bat, and ends up involved with a doctor and his wife, who has taken on the role of the Sky Priestess for a tribe of natives who have become a cargo cult.

At times poignant, sad, funny, exciting, action-packed, horrifying, and romantic, sometimes all at once this book is a must read for anyone who has ever thought that chick-lit needs more gunfights.

Venus Envy by Shannon McKelden

Venus may be a goddess on Mt. Olympus, but she’s been sentenced to play fairy godmother to the lovelorn until Zeus decides she’s learned whatever lesson he might intend. Rachel Greer, bank employee and frequen dater of loser men, is Venus’s latest mission - and it’s not an easy one. Rachel’s relationship history has bruised her so badly that even when a hunky firefighter is practically stalking her (in a good way, honest!) she keeps avoiding him.

McKelden’s characters are quirky and funny, and this novel is a feel-good read that reminds us what the best chick-lit is all about.