Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella

This is another delightful, lighthearted novel with a hilarious spin on it from Sophie Kinsella. We meet Lara, who is a bit idealistic and ditzy (as most of Kinsellas heroines tend to be), at the funeral for her Great Aunt Sadie (age 105). During the ceremony, Lara hears a voice and finally actually sees Sadie and stops the funeral as Sadie needs her beautiful dragonfly necklace to have peace in the afterlife (I guess you could say). I know this sounds far fetched and odd, but somehow it really works. Lara and Sadie balance each other very well and have funny chats and it all just makes Lara look a bit more odd (you know, she looks as if she is talking to herself all the time) and therefore, enduring. As they start forth on their journey to find the missing necklace, they have plenty of bumps along the way (business partner takes off, getting over ex-boyfriends) and sparring matches (Sadie can yell into peoples ear, like an "inner voice" and basically make them say whatever she wants them too) which lead to quite a few embarrassing, funny and disastrous moments all on the path to discovery and true love.

I would rate this story a solid four stars and it is something I would definitely reread someday in the future. It is a wonderful story about family, friends, loyalty, and values. If this is your first novel by Kinsella, I would please give her a try. I do not think you will be disappointed...of course, I love all her books....but this one is a great stand alone.

Holly's Inbox by Holly Denham

Product Description – From Amazon.com “System alert: Inbox full of scandal, romance, and office hilarity! Meet Holly Denham. It’s her first day as a receptionist at a London investment bank and inexperienced Holly is struggling. How’s a working girl supposed to have a love life with a demanding job, crazy friends, a dysfunctional family, and gossipy colleagues? Not to mention that Holly’s been keeping a secret from everyone – and the past is about to catch up with her. An affair with a sexy VP heats things up at the office, but when Holly’s first flame (who, she thinks, left her in the lurch) gets a job at the same company, complications abound and Holly’s inbox becomes a daily source of drama, laughter and scandal.”

Holly's Inbox was an interesting read for me as it is written entirely in email format. This gets a bit distracting though, as you need to constantly check who is writing to whom. The storyline is great and gets you hooked in, even though the middle seemed a bit sluggish. The last third of the book really got to me and the story was more interesting -- I finished the last two hundred pages or so (of 667!) in less than an hour. I give it 3 1/2 stars. Will I reread it in the future--probably not. Was it worth the time to read it -- yes! It was a nice change of pace from my normal romance books. Be sure to check of http://www.hollysinbox.com/ to follow Holly's 'real' emails.