Lisa Maria Takes Off

Good quality, book. Received in a reasonable amount of time. Happy with experience.

While battling her boyfriend's thieving editor and landing her home town newspaper in legal hot water, Lisa Maria attempts to tame London. I liked the first adventure of this small-city advice columnist, but in Lisa Maria Takes Off, she really takes off! Her romantic misunderstandings are frustratingly funny, but when Lisa Maria's advice to a disappointed wife is taken literally and the husband is run down by a Hummer, her British friend Grace points out that Americans just don't get irony, and, of course, the plot thickens. This book gets my vote for "best in genre."

With the dreaded thirtieth birthday coming soon symbolized by two unwelcome gray strands, distraught American Advice Columnist Lisa Marie Marino goes to London to spend time with her boyfriend Robert McCallister. He is in England researching for a novel on Lady Jane Grey. Lisa Marie believes Robert is lovable, dependable, and trustworthy until she catches him with his beautiful editor Felicity Ashford-Foxcroft sneaking into a hotel; Lisa Marie assumes that Robert is the other type of guy, a promiscuous cad. Lisa Marie leaves Robert to Felicity and moves in with her new friend Grace. She begins to Americanize the British culture though Grace's Aunt Pru tries to Anglicize the Yank. However, in spite of Lisa Marie swinging in the upper reaches of London's in crowd, she misses McCallister. Her dreams of spending a lifetime with him remain in the center of her heart. This is a fun chick lit tale though the tension between Lisa Marie and McCallister seems unnecessary if she took the time to talk to the man she loves (and previously trusted). Still in spite of the lack of any seemingly real conflict, Lisa Marie swinging through London makes for an amusing novel. Lisa Marie and McCallister are likable lead characters and though Felicity is colder than a corpse, much of the support cast enables readers to see a glimpse of London albeit filtered through the eyes of the invading colonist. Sub-genre fans will fully appreciate Lisa Marie's real female rival for the affections of McCallister in this fine romp. Harriet Klausner

There definitely seems to be a British obsession going on in the world of chick lit! Either the main character's love interest is British, or the character herself goes to London. It is the latter in the case of Susan Hubbard's latest book Lisa Marie Takes Off. The story line continues from Hubbard's previous book Lisa Marie's Guide For the Perplexed. Lisa Marie has decided to follow her boyfriend to London, where he is researching and completing his latest book. Unfortunately things don't quite go as Lisa Marie had hoped. Her boyfriend seems suspiciously cozy with his gorgeous editor (who clearly dislikes Lisa); Lisa gets a call from her own editor back in New Sparta with very bad news about her column - she's being sued. Throw in a famous rock star who seems obsessed with her and a stint at Harrods where she pretends to be a true Brit. As things begin crumbling around her, Lisa wonders if she's made a mistake in moving to London. I enjoyed this book and had a hard time putting it down. Lisa Marie comes across as a very original, offbeat and unusual main heroine. The writing is also different - Lisa's story is told from a third-person narrative. All at once this novel seems to be about everything and nothing, but it draws you in. A really fascinating thing about Lisa Marie Takes Off is that the author explores many of the British/American stereotypes. She tackles both the American and British sides of it, and it's laugh-out-loud funny. The only downfall to this novel was that it seemed a bit far-fetched in some places. However, it was enough to make me like the book any less. Overall, I definitely recommend this book. Hubbard's intriguing and refreshingly original and unusual third-person narrative writing style will absorb you into Lisa Marie's life and keep you reading until the end.