CLP Blog Tours: Meeting Miss Mollie

Today is my stop on the CLP Blog Tour for Di Jones' latest novel, Meeting Miss Mollie. I read Jones' debut novel, Transplanting Holly Oakwood, awhile back (check out my full review here if you missed it) and while I didn't loooove it, it entertained me and had me looking forward to this next book. Meeting Miss Mollie was cute and funny but I found it a little lacking.

Here's the synopsis:

She’s the Agony Aunt who has it all. Except for one small problem – her life is a disaster.
Annabelle is a hard nosed writer with a good marriage, a nice flat, a thriving career at Adorn magazine and a busy social life. She has only one ambition – to be the best known Agony Aunt in the UK.
When her world is turned upside down by her husband’s infidelity she strikes out on her own and goes flatting with a jet setting businessman. But things in her new house aren’t quite what they seem and her problems mount.
Through her ups and downs, Annabelle forges a relationship with the strangest of friends and discovers the best things in life are those she always avoided.

The thing that bugged me the most about this novel was that it was told from multiple perspectives. This is not normally a big deal for me but in the case of Meeting Miss Mollie, there were just too many characters. I can deal with three, at most. This one had the three main characters (including the dog, Mollie, which was actually quite cute), as well as Annabelle's boss, Christian's ex-fiancee, and Annabelle's dad (I feel like I'm missing one but I didn't write them down). It was a little much. Jones did do a good job of making sure most events were covered and there wasn't any duplication of scenes. However, I think the multiple perspectives thing lost a little something at the end because I have no idea what happened between the last scene and the epilogue (I think it was an epilogue...must start writing these things down...also, needing to check things like this is why paper books are better than ereaders). I don't want to give anything away but I needed way more links and connections than I was given. Instead of being happy for the ending, I was left scratching my head.

Enough negative talk. I did have fun reading this book. It was a fairly quick read, as I don't think it quite hit 200 pages, and it was easy to sink into over the course of a weekend afternoon. The story was cute and had a lot of elements that kept it from being too typical. The fact that Mollie got to narrate parts of the book and share her own thoughts was highly entertaining.

Finally, I have to say that I really like the covers for Jones' novels. They're bright and simple but really fitting for the story. 

Overall, Meeting Miss Mollie was a nice read but it won't be making any favourite lists for me. That being said, I will keep an eye out for Di Jones' next work. Third time's the charm?

Happy reading :)

CLP Blog Tour: Transplanting Holly Oakwood

Today is my stop on the CLP Blog Tour for Transplanting Holly Oakwood by Di Jones. I'm always interested in British chick lit so I was looking forward to this one. I wasn't disappointed as the novel was cute and kept me entertained.

Here's the synopsis:

Finding her lover in bed with her best friend was the worst thing ever, but leaving London for Los Angeles pushed trouble to a whole new level.
Holly Oakwood’s cosy life is shattered when her boyfriend has an affair with her best friend. Determined to mend her broken heart by throwing herself into her career, but unable to hide her contempt for her new boss, she loses her job as well.
She lands a dream job in a Consulate in LA, but that’s when her troubles really begin. She struggles to settle, loneliness begins to bite, and everyone around her is thin and shallow. She loses her confidence, makes a fool of herself once too often, and her new boss hates her. Can she salvage anything from the train wreck of her new life, or should she return to England?
What ensues is a comically entertaining series of events that catapult Holly into new friendships, the promise of romance and the realization that home is where the heart is.

This was a quick read. The novel is only around 200 pages and I thought it was just enough to get to know Holly and follow her on a seemingly crazy adventure. I don't blame her one bit for picking up her life and moving to a new country. I do wish that she had been able to leave on her terms on at least the job front, though the scene where she gets fired did have me chuckling.

There was the wackiness that you come to expect from a lot of British chick lit, which was entertaining, even though the book doesn't technically take place in Britain. Now that I think about it, Holly is actually from New Zealand. So. Take from that what you will, but I can't recall being overly irritated by Holly - always a plus. :) I did wish that she and her sexy boss explained themselves a little bit more. I found myself saying, "Just talk to him and tell him the truth!" and vice versa. Why don't characters ever just talk to each other?

The lack of communication translated into the main conflict of the novel as well. Holly is a smart woman and I can't understand why she did not see how evil Brittany was and why she didn't try to push her innocence. ("Innocence for what?" you ask? Nothing too major but I don't want to give anything away!)

I liked that there were different POVs but it sort of took awhile to see how people were connected and why it mattered that I was reading things from their perspective. I can see how reading from Brittany's eyes helped connect some dots but I almost wish her POV had been left out.

Overall, Transplanting Holly Oakwood was a cute read. It wasn't one of my favourites but I am looking forward to the other Di Jones novel I have to read for an upcoming tour. If you're a chick lit fan looking for a quick and funny read, I think you'd probably enjoy this one!

Happy reading :)