Catering Girl by @LaurieBoris #BookReview

Genre: Women’s Fiction/Humor/Contemporary Fiction

Description:

“Frankie Goldberg, struggling actress and stand-up comic in Los Angeles, can't keep her day jobs thanks to her smart mouth and a lot of other bad habits. Now a thirty-something catering assistant on a movie set, she reluctantly agrees to bring a cappuccino to the resident diva. The young star Anastasia Cole is in tears, distraught about disturbing changes in the script. Frankie serves a side of common sense with the coffee, and excited to have an ally, Anastasia offers her the role of a lifetime. It's not what Frankie had in mind -- but being needed might be exactly what she needs.”

Author:

“Laurie Boris is a freelance writer, editor, proofreader, and former graphic designer. She has been writing fiction for over twenty-five years and is the award-winning author of six novels: The Joke's on Me, Drawing Breath, Don't Tell Anyone, Sliding Past Vertical, Playing Charlie Cool, and A Sudden Gust of Gravity. When not hanging out with the universe of imaginary people in her head, she enjoys baseball, cooking, reading, and helping aspiring novelists as a contributing writer and editor for Indies Unlimited. She lives in New York's lovely Hudson Valley.”

Ms. Boris’ novel Sliding Past Vertical was the winner in the Contemporary Fiction category of BigAl’s Books and Pals 2014 Readers’ Choice Awards.

You can follow Ms. Boris on her blog or stalk her on Facebook.

Appraisal:

I haven’t read The Joke's on Me, so this is my first introduction to Frankie Goldberg. She has a strong devil-may-care personality, which tends to lead her into trouble when expressing her opinion. She moved from New York to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career, but bless her heart, she just can’t catch a break and this plays havoc with her self-esteem issues. What she does have going for her is intelligence and courage to try new things. Ms. Boris has a talent for writing realistic characters in believable situations and managing to invest her readers’ attention in whatever journey may be at hand.

Poor Frankie is having trouble finding where she belongs, since her dream of becoming an actress has fallen flat. She has learned along the way that she has a knack for cooking food in large quantities, organizing events, and managing other people. She just has trouble applying these talents to her own life. I laughed when Frankie caught herself sounding like her own Jewish mother while dealing with Anastasia Cole. Ana is a young bombshell actress who seeks career guidance from Frankie, despite the Oscar she possesses for supporting actress. This relationship works well for both of them for a while. Then a few unexpected twists set the whole story spinning out of control.

I found Catering Girl a fun, captivating story. I would highly recommend this book if you are looking for something quick to read. Now I am interested to see how Frankie makes out in The Joke's on Me.

Buy now from:    Kindle US     Kindle UK

FYI:

Catering Girl is a prequel novella to the romantic comedy The Joke's on Me.

Format/Typo Issues:

None!

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: ?wazithinkin

Approximate word count: 14-15,000 words

Reprise Review: Sliding Past Vertical by @LaurieBoris

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Description:

“Sarah Cohen is a walking disaster. She means well, but the ex-diver’s hasty decisions wreak havoc on her life in Boston. Good thing Emerson is a phone call away in Syracuse, with a metaphorical mop to clean up the mess. Their long-distance friendship can be excruciating for him, though. Years after they shared a brief college romance, he’s still in love with her. When everything goes wrong, Sarah takes another plunge: back to the scene of her last mistake, to start fresh. Unfortunately for Emerson, the move puts her too close for comfort. Her attempts to straighten her life’s trajectory are sometimes amusing and sometimes catastrophic. With Sarah around, is anyone safe?”

Author:

Laurie Boris is a freelance writer, editor, proofreader, and a regular contributor to the multi-author blog, Indies Unlimited. This is her fourth novel.

For more, visit Laurie’s website.

Appraisal:

This is the third Laurie Boris novel I’ve read. Sliding Past Vertical has one significant difference from the other two, there isn’t a major character with a fatal illness. But the qualities from her previous novels that made them both excellent reads are present in Sliding Past Vertical. Characters you can relate to, with typical human flaws and mostly likeable. Even those you don’t care for are realistic and not unlike people you’ve met in real life. The stories each have real world plots that shine a light on the human condition in an entertaining way while possibly enlightening the reader about their fellow man.

As for the specifics of this book, I liked Sarah, the protagonist. At least for me, that is important. If I don’t like the main character, warts and all, I find it harder to care what happens to them. However, the character I related to the most was Emerson. It was obvious early on that Emerson’s feelings for Sarah were much deeper than hers for him. He’s been biding his time and now sees his chance. How and whether this will resolve itself is a question until the very end and one that could easily have hit a false note, regardless of the resolution. Somehow Boris hit the perfect pitch.

Buy now from:    Kindle US    Kindle UK    Paperback

FYI:

Some adult language and situations.

Added for Reprise Review: Sliding Past Vertical was the winner in the Contemporary/General Fiction category for 2014 Readers' Choice Awards at BigAl’s Books and Pals. Original review ran September 28, 2013.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: ***** Five stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 75-80,000 words

Reprise Review: Don't Tell Anyone by @LaurieBoris #eNovAaW

Genre: Women’s Fiction

Approximate word count: 60-65,000 words

Availability    

Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES   Smashwords: YES  

Author:

A freelance writer, editor, proofreader, and former graphic designer, Boris is the author of two other novels, The Joke’s on Me and Drawing Breath. She lives with her husband in the Hudson Valley of New York.

For more, visit Boris’ website.

Description:

“When pneumonia lands Estelle Trager unconscious in the emergency room, it ruins everything for the stubborn 65-year-old woman. She'd been keeping a secret—a deadly secret—that she'd planned on taking to the grave. But now her son Adam and his wife, Liza, know about her tumors. Adam is outraged, but Estelle, who watched her mother and grandmother suffer from breast cancer in the days when no one dared speak its name, has no intention of putting her family or herself through the horrors of cancer treatment. Estelle decides there is only one solution: ask Liza, the 33-year-old daughter-in-law she once called a godless hippie raised by wolves, to kill her.”

Appraisal:

This is the second book I’ve read by Laurie Boris, and although the story and characters are much different, it struck me that the other book, Drawing Breath, had a character suffering from a serious disease too. This is a time-tested recipe to create conflict, one of the more important qualities a book needs to draw a reader in and make them care about what happens.

I would describe Don’t Tell Anyone as character driven. The main point-of-view character is Liza and the story revolves around how she, her husband Adam, their family, and friends deal with Liza’s mother-in-law, Estelle, after she is diagnosed with cancer. Not to mention how Estelle reacts and the chain-reaction among all concerned. It’s an interesting spotlight on the dynamics of relationships, both within families and between friends.

Availability:       Kindle  US      Kindle UK       Smashwords  

Format/Typo Issues:

My reading was based on a beta version. Unable to judge the final product in this area.

Reviewed by: BigAl

Rating: ***** Five stars