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Original poster

Bloody bastard chicklit with crap endings - sick of it, recommend a good one please!

114 replies

RachelRoyce · 12/04/2015 15:27

Adele Parks 'The state we're in' is the last one I read. I will not be reading anything else she has written, ever. Grrrrr. That's the 3rd book I've read this week with an absolutely shite ending Angry
I won't give anything away but the ending was just wrong. The two others I read just ended in a splat rather than a bang.

Is there no new, well written chick lit (oh how I hate that term)? I read good 'normal' fiction but I'm on holiday and I just want feel good happiness. I like Jill Mansell, Cathy Kelly and Fiona Walker. I have wifi and my kindle, best recommendations here please. Thanks!

OP posts:
ThursdayLast · 17/04/2015 19:43

Thank you Grin

You've made me doubly glad I didn't bother!

tobee · 17/04/2015 19:22

Whoops, sorry op, just re read that you wrote which you liked.

The problem with chick-lit (and any other successful/fashionable) genre is that it becomes a victim of its own success. Greedy publishers want to publish more and more and the standard might not be so good. It can become tired and formulaic. But there's always good stuff to be found.

PetraStrorm · 17/04/2015 18:53

OP - I haven't read the whole thread so apologies if someone else has said this, but if you're reading the Yorkshire Pudding Club and you enjoy it, I'd recommend you read her other books in publication order.

They're not a proper series, but you often get passing mentions of characters from previous books, and I think you'll get more from them if you read them in the 'right' order. YPC is her first book so you'll be off to a good start Smile

PuppyMonkey · 17/04/2015 18:45

Definitely try Mhairi McFarlane - she is very sweary and funny.

You Had Me at Hello
Here's Looking at You
It's Not Me, it's You

Original poster
RachelRoyce · 17/04/2015 18:42

YY I've read me before you. It was inevitable but at least they addressed the issues beforehand, I didn't mind that one so much.

'One Day' is another one with a shit 'twist' and the worst bit was the book limping on for ages after it. Can't understand why people love that book so much.

OP posts:
Original poster
RachelRoyce · 17/04/2015 18:39
Grin
OP posts:
SouthWestmom · 17/04/2015 18:37

Rachel the publishers are so going to get you.

Oscarandelliesmum · 17/04/2015 18:36

Urghhh, got angry just re-living the ending through your synopsis Rachel! Saw up thread someone recommended 'Me before you'......just beware another shit, depressing ending.

Hoviscats · 17/04/2015 18:32

YY to shit ending above. Wholly unsatisfactory!

OP have you read any Penny Vincenzi? Hefty books, one of my favourites (alongside Jilly of course). Smile

Original poster
RachelRoyce · 17/04/2015 18:26

Sure.

SPOILER ALERT IF YOU ARE READING ADELE PARKS 'THE STATE WE'RE IN, DON'T READ ANY FURTHER *

Really, don't read any further if you don't want to know the 'amazing' twist....

Jo finds out Dean's father left his mother for her mother.

Jo assumes Dean won't cope with it (they have fallen in lurve by this point) and leaves so she won't break his heart.

He follows her to UK. Meets her mother. Is furious with her mother but is talked round and leaves (we presume) to reunite with Jo.

He never turns up. Jo assumes he couldn't get over the fact that her mother was the person who 'ruined his life'.

The end.

Epilogue: Jo is married (to some bloke called Andy), has a toddler and another baby on the way and has travelled the world, found herself etc.
She meets a woman in the park who turns out to be Dean's sister. She tells the sister that Dean was the 'love of her life' (her poor bloody husband)
Dean's sister reveals....here's the BIG 'TWIST' that Dean is dead. He had been coming to find Jo and was killed in a car crash.

The end (again)

OP posts:
bimandbam · 17/04/2015 18:23

Just place marking so I can sit down tomorrow and order a couple.

I have struggled too recently with decent chic lit. I have just reread jane greens 'jemima j' which I really enjoyed a lot of years after I first read it.

If you like her stuff Jodi Picoults leaving time is good. Also daniela scarloti or whatever her name.is who was mentioned by a pp is very readable and enjoyable. And I am currently reading The Hive which I Can't remember the author of. But its quite good.

DuchessofMalfi · 17/04/2015 18:21

Or Jonathan Harvey. I read one of his novels (a MN giveaway last year) but wasn't wildly enthusiastic about it, but it certainly would fit the bill - reasonably well written, good story etc - The Confusion of Karen Carpenter.

Has anyone mentioned Deborah Moggach? Or Lottie Moggach? I liked LM's Kiss Me First, although it may be a marmite book :o. DM's books are pleasant and easy to read.

What about Jodi Picoult? She's not bad either. I quite like her wwyd dilemma stories, even though they sometimes make me Hmm

And Tracy Chevalier? I liked her Girl With a Pearl Earring.

ThursdayLast · 17/04/2015 18:20

Oh and for literary chick lit as it were, have you tried a bit of Nancy Mitford? I love those.

ThursdayLast · 17/04/2015 18:18

YY to Marian Keyes - I just dragged out my old copy of Rachels Holiday for a bit of non-stressful reading. Bloody love those real men.

I've also downloaded an old Freya North which I remember fondly from reading in my late teens.

By the way Rachel can you spill on the ending of The State we're in? I got approx 80% in and I was just so bored. Surely it didn't get worse???

Original poster
RachelRoyce · 17/04/2015 18:17

LOL! Noeuf! You mean you don't spend all your time talking about ADELE PARKS books? I'm sure my friends and I would have not a word to say to each other if it wasn't for ADELE PARKS. Thank feck she started writing, the silence was getting awkward.

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SouthWestmom · 17/04/2015 18:13

Who's that bloke that writes good stuff? Jonathan Coe - try him.

SouthWestmom · 17/04/2015 18:12

It was so self important, like this is such an amazing twist in an ADELE PARKES book like its a thing and she's really popular and we all talk about her books and wait with bated breath for the next one.
I appear to be inordinately furious about it Grin

DuchessofMalfi · 17/04/2015 18:11

I've just finished reading The House We Grew Up In by Lisa Jewell. I don't know whether you would class that as chick-lit. It's written by a woman, and I don't know what her other novels are like, but I really liked it. It dealt with some serious issues (hoarding and mental health problems amongst others). The ending was a good one. Worth reading.

You might like to try Brooklyn by Colm Toibin, or his more recent novel Nora Webster. Not chick-lit, by any stretch, but very accessible, easy to read and he seems to be able to write very well about women :) Satisfying novels.

GreenMouse · 17/04/2015 17:56

Have you tried Cally Taylor? She's written two chicklit novels, quite good: Heaven can wait, which is also a ghost story (although not very scary) and Home for Christmas

Original poster
RachelRoyce · 17/04/2015 17:56

Nouef - YY the publisher's note made my blood boil. Almost want to ruin it for as many people as possible so they don't even start reading the ruddy thing in the first place.

OP posts:
everygalaxy · 17/04/2015 17:56

I like jo Carnegie she makes my commute bearable Smile

Original poster
RachelRoyce · 17/04/2015 17:52

I still hate the term. It's used as a derogatory/dismissive term and often people look down their noses at it as a genre.
I complained about the crap endings of the ones I'd read recently, citing other good chicklit that I'd read (with accompanying good endings) and asking for recommendations for some more. I didn't ask for sneery comments and judgement. I knew there would plenty of mnetters out there who could help. I'm not sure what the point of you posting was other than to be snidey and perhaps make yourself feel superior for not reading it.

I completely agree Justahardworkingmum - I don't think it can be an easy genre to write for at all.

And whoever recommended it - I read the Yorkshire Pudding Club and enjoyed it, thanks Smile On to Liane Moriarty next.

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SouthWestmom · 17/04/2015 17:51

I like , for a non arduous bit interesting book:

Sophie hannah
Jane fallon
Harlan Coben

And for difficult but worth it

Anne Tyler
Margaret Atwood
Lucretia grindle

Libitina · 17/04/2015 17:49

Its not really chicklit (i dont know how to categorise it) but jodi taylors books are very good. Female lead, bit of romance, bit of comedy. I think the first one is Just One Damn Thing After Another. Nice and light but still well written, perfect for a holiday i reckon

I love all of her books!

SouthWestmom · 17/04/2015 17:47

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/adult_fiction/2302918-So-many-books-where-the-whole-plot-is-utterly-predictable

I hated it so much I went to a search for the thread