From back cover:

"Ellie has to admit that life as a grown-up isn't what she expectd.

She wanted: a penthouse apartment with billowing curtains and an impossibly handsome and sensitive man--preferably her teen idol Andrew McCarthy, 80's Brat Pack movie star.

She got: a poky flat shared with a Big Bastard who isn't even her boyfriend, and a sense that, somehow, things haven't gone according to plan for her and her friends. Julia won't marry her boyfriend, because he's way too nice, and Siobhan thinks that salvation can be found in the aisles of Ikea.

But perhaps the coolest wisest Brat Packer of them all can tell them where they went wrong? Armed only with the homicidally grumpy Julia, two weeks' supply of Cheez Whizz and an irrrepresible optimism, Ellie sets off to Hollywood to find Andrew McCarthy and get the answers to life's big questions.

She hopes..."

Rather ordinary chick-lit, bearable only because of its 80s-nostalgia hook.

I'm becoming more and more disillusioned with chicklit--must they all consist of tedious unnecessary dialogue and completely over-the-top characters?

The book does have a few good one-liners (mainly in the first and last chapter...an indication of the dearth of wit elsewhere).

My favourite:
"...[We loved the brat pack because] they had huge apartments... went to cool dances at schools... started out unpopular but then got really popular... had makeovers... and they were going to be friends for ever, despite their class and intellectual differences..."

Didn't we all have a crush on Andrew McCarthy? Mind you, he's changed these days! Check out the pics!

RELEASE NOTES:

To be released about 7.00pm at tonight's MeetUp.

*PHEW* That was a busy week! I haven't had a chance to sit down and journal my meetup catches until now. Picked this up because it can go in the chicklit bookbag. Might get a chance to read it before then.

Ok, so this wasn't literature but it was still a fun read. Not the best chick lit I've ever read, but certainly not the worst (I seem to be using that particular description quite a bit lately). There were some very obvious and clumsy plot maneuvers (e.g. why did Andrew McCarthy II storm off after the car crash? He already knew that Julia liked him and Ellie was trying not to hurt Julia's feelings. Was a temper tantrum necessary? No, it was only there so Andrew and Ellie could reconcile at the end at the skating rink!) but overall it was a feel good book. A nice break from the "real" novels I should be reading.

There were a few lines that actually made me laugh out loud:
about the night club - "You won't hate it," said Colin. "They have coloured lights that flash on and off in time with the music."
...
and with only two weeks to my own wedding day, the line about weddings - "Well I say, if someone asks you, you should just say yes immediately. It's going to fail anyway, and at least this way people buy you stuff and pay you lots of attention."

It also had some nostalgic value for me. I have fond memories of most of the movies mentioned in the book (The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, Weird Science, The Sure Thing, The Goonies). I think I might go out and hire some of them and re-watch them... will they live up to my memory of them?

And, I'm ashamed to admit, I've not seen St Elmo's Fire! Maybe I should hire that one too.

Received from Sabavana in the chick-lit book bag. I haven't read Jenny Colgan before, so I'm looking forward to it.

Passing this on in the chick-lit bookbag without reading it. It looks like it could be fun, but there are so many books and so little time ...

Taking this from the chicklit bookbag as it sounds quite interesting! I have both of Colgans other books here in the huge pile of books I haven't gotten to yet!

RELEASE NOTES:

putting aside for elisabethlily at registration night

Thanks wombles for putting this aside for me! And it is also great to get a book that augustusgloop registered, as she once found one of mine on a train "if my memory serves me correctly". I absolutely had a crush on pretty boy Andrew McCarthy as I was growing up, and am always dismayed when I see him as a serial killer in Law and Order or similar..
Looking forward to reading this.

I think I agree with a lot of the comments previously written about this book. However, there were a couple of moments during the book that I actually laughed out loud.. which I do very rarely normally. I also liked the references to eighties songs, and they would often set me off having a little sing. Mind you, every radio station seems to be having an eighties regression at the moment, so you can sometimes hear Mister Mister's Broken Wings three times in a week (that's twice too many in my opinion).
I found the pace very formulaic at times... it reminded me of Jilly Cooper books which of course I only read when I was VERY young. But overall, it was a nice diversion from the things that I should have been doing, so that was good.
I plan to wild release in Perth next week, unless any previous journallers would like it to go elsewhere?