CHICK-LIT ANYONE??

These smart, sassy, & sexy novels of love in the modern world are populated by 20-to-30 something women (usually) who are out there in the real world dealing with life-style choices, dead-end jobs, incomptaible roomates, well-meaning friends, nagging mothers, and bad hair days while trying to find the perfect (ha!) mate.

We've even thrown a "chuck-lit" or two in here!

Trisha Ashley
Every Woman for Herself. T. Dunne, 2002.
Divorced and in financial straits, Charlotte—Charlie—Rhymer is forced to move back home to the bosom of her odd-ball family. There she is stalked by the widow of a neighbor Charlie accidentally killed with a frying pan, deals with her father’s latest mistress, and meets brooding actor Mace North.

Louise Bagshawe
Glamour. Plume, 2008.
Three young women become friends at an exclusive girls’ school in L.A. and vow that nothing will ever tear them apart. But when catastrophe strikes, two of the young women find themselves grieving and penniless, and the third will be forced into a fate she could never have foreseen. By the same author: The Go-To Girl (2004), The Devil You Know (2003), etc..

Mark Barrowcliffe
Infidelity for First-Time Fathers. St. Martin’s Griffin, 2003, 2001.
Stewart Dagman finds himself in a bit of a sticky wicket when both his girl-friend of ten years and his mistress get pregnant.

Jennier Belle
Going Down. Riverhead, 1996.
In order to put herself through NYU, 19-year-old Bennington Bloom goes to work as a call girl in high-class New York City brothels. By the same author: High Maintenance (2001).

Rebecca Bloom
Tangled Up in Daydreams. Morrow, 2003.
Mooly seems to have it all: a growing business, supportive family, and a great guy in up-and-coming musician, Liam. But when he begins to fall into the darker side of fame, she must decide if her love is strong enough to save him…or should she let him go in order to save herself.

Beverly Brandt
The Tiara Club. Griffin, 2005.
Second-generation beauty queen, Georgia Elliott, has one big secret she would like to keep from her controlling society mom, and so she turns to the women she knows she can trust—the Tiara Club, whose members are all former pageant winners.

Karen Brichoux
Coffee and Kung Fu. NAL, 2003.
Nicci Bradford lives in Boston where she lives paycheck-to-paycheck in a boring job. Her only comforts come from coffee and kung fu movies...at least until life presents her with two choices: Ethan, who works at the neighborhood coffee shop, and Rob, a wealthy and handsome sailboat dealer. Which man can make her dreams come true?

Elizabeth Buchan
Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman. Viking, 2003, 2002.
Things look bleak for Rose Lloyd when her marriage of 25 years and her career hit the skids. But it's amazing what prolonged reflection, the slimming effect of a lost appetite, a new slant on independence, and the reappearance of an old flame will do.

Candace Bushnell
4 Blondes. Atlantic Monthly, 2000.
From the author of Sex and the City come these four novellas of women facing up to the limitations of their rapidly approaching middle age in an era that worships youth. Followed by: Trading Up (2003).

Rebecca Campbell
Slave to Fashion. Villard, 2002.
Self-confident & materialistic fashion design assistant Katie Castle blows her perfect life to smithereens when she gives into temptation by cheating on her fiancé—who happens to be her boss's son—with a delivery man.

Josephine Carr
The Dewey Decimal System of Love. NAL, 2003.
Ally Sheffield hides her extravagant nature and sensuous lifestyle behind her librarian reserve. But when she falls in love—really in love—she discovers that what she needs to know cannot be found in any book.

Leslie Carroll
Herself. Avon, 2007.
Just when it seems she has it all Tessa Craig sees her fabuluous life fizzle when her Congressman boyfriend dumps her. By the same author: Miss Match (2002), Reality Check (2003), etc.

Anna Cheska
Drop Dead Gorgeous. T. Dunne, 2002, 2001.
When she finds a photograph of a seductive-looking young blonde among her deceased husband’s papers, Imogen is astonished that he had a secret life. Although, she is desperate to learn the truth her best friend thinks she should leave the past behind and join her in her search for the perfect man.

Jenney Colgan
Amanda’s Wedding. Warner, 2001, 1999.
Melanie and Fran are determined to save Mel’s former crush, a kind & decent minor royal named Fraser, from their rich, social-climbing old school chum, Amanda. By the same author: Talking to Addison (2001) and The Boy I Loved Before (2004)

Jill Davis
Girl’s Poker Night. RH, 2002.
Dissatisfied both with writing a “Single Girl” column and her current boyfriend, Ruby Capote sends her best columns and a six-pack of beer to the editor of The New York News and lands herself a job. She institutes a gal’s version of Poker Night where she and her friends eat, drink, share stories, and, most of all, raise the stakes. But when Ruby falls for her boss, though, all bets are off.

Jacqueline deMontravel
The Fabulous Emily Briggs. Strapless, 2004.
An independent young woman looks for success, love and self-discovery in the Big Apple. Followed by: Escape from Bridezilla (2005).

Anne O. Faulk
Holding Out. S&S, 1998
Lauren Fontaine, a bold, successful female executive, is so outraged when the wife of the chief justice of the Supreme Court commits suicide after years of spousal abuse, that she organizes a campaign calling upon the nation's women to withhold sex until he is brought to justice.

Helen Fielding
Bridget Jones’s Diary. Viking, 1998
An unmarried thirty-something "singleton" decides to take charge of her life and chronicles her numerous experiences with love, weight, and the quest for inner peace over the course of a year. Followed by: Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (1999)

Katie Fforde
Second Thyme Around. St. Martin’s, 2001, 2000.
When her ex-husband suddenly resurfaces as the local inn's new chef, Perdita, whose small produce operation supplies fresh vegetables for the restaurant, is horrified to find herself attracted to him and fights what she foresees as a recipe for disaster tooth and nail. By the same author: Stately Pursuits. (1998).

Annie Flannigan
Love and a Bad Hair Day. Avon, 2003.
The Hadleys and the O'Malleys have been feuding for generations, and things aren’t looking too good for a reconciliation when Ry O’Malley comes home to Verbena, North Carolina with plans to tear down the South Winds Trav'O'Tel and All-Day Buffet. His intention is to end the feud, but he isn’t counting on the opposition of Jolene Hadley, whose hair salon is directly across the highway.

Mina Ford
My Fake Wedding. Red Dress, 2003.
Office worker Katie agrees to “marry” her gay friend’s lover so that he can stay in the country, but when love comes from an unexpected avenue, Katie, who has been resigned to never finding her soul-mate, is surprised to find herself torn.

Whitney Gaskell
Pushing 30. Bantam, 2003.
Ellie has just broken up with her boyfriend, hates her job, is being driving crazy by her dysfunctional family, and horror of horrors, is about to turn 30. But her life becomes really complicated when she becomes interested in a witty, sexy man twice her age---who isn’t interested in dating younger women.

Mike Gayle
Mr. Commitment. Doubleday, 2000.
Benjamin Duffy is an aspiring stand-up comic whose girlfriend, after four years of waiting, has issued an ultimatum: marry her or lose her. He caves in, but soon begins to wonder if he truly is husband material.

Laurie Graff
You Have to Kiss a Lot of Frogs. Red Dress, 2004.
Disastrous fix-ups, strange chance encounters and missed opportunities abound in these vignettes about a woman’s 15-year search for Prince Charming

Jane Green
Babyville. Broadway, 2003.
Julia, a wildly successful television producer who appears to have the picture-perfect life, is stuck in a loveless relationship with her boyfriend, Mark, Julia thinks a baby is the answer but she may want a baby more than she wants her boyfriend. Will a trip to New York City with a jet-setting friend--and all the glittering energy and eligible men the city brings--help her discover what she really needs? By the same author: Mr. Maybe (2001, 1999)

Ron Hansen
Isn’t It Romantic? HarCol, 2003.
A quarreling Parisian couple find themselves stranded in a small Nebraska town of Seldom, where the locals take them in. Add a handsome rancher and a sexy, no-nonsense waitress to the mix and hilarity ensues.

Jane Heller
Lucky Stars. St. Martin’s, 2003.
Aspiring actress Stacey Reiser moves to Hollywood, leaving her meddlesome mother behind. Imagine her dismay when Helen pulls up stakes and follows. To make matters worse her mother is catapulted into overnight Hollywood stardom. Suddenly, their roles are reversed when Helen's boyfriend, who seems to be the perfect catch, arouses Stacey's suspicions and she becomes the meddler.

Wendy Holden
Farm Fatale. Plume, 2002, 2001.
Two couples from opposite ends of the financial spectrum leave the city for the rustic bliss of country life. By chance, they all converge on the quaint village of Eight Mile Bottom where they are soon swept up in various romantic entanglements, mix-ups, and unlikely seductions in their search for ever-greener pastures

Nick Hornby
How to Be Good. Riverhead, 2001.
After Katie Carr, a mother of two with a small London medical practice, demands a divorce from her cynical and sarcastic husband, he undergoes a conversion and becomes such an idealistic do-gooder that she is forced to re-evaluate the meaning of the word “good.”

Kelly James-Enger
White Bikini Panties. Kensington, 2004.
Plain, sensible Trini Elder like s to play it safe. But when she discovers that her boyfriend is cheating on her, she re-enters the dating scene with both a vengeance and some brand new underwear.

Elise Juska
Getting Over Jack Wagner. Downtown, 2003.
None of Eliza’s past boyfriends has been able to live up to the image of her original rock-star crush: actor/crooner Jack Wagner. When her latest catch turns out be another disappointment, Eliza finally begins to realize love is nothing like her favorite '80s song.

Donna Kauffman
The Big Bad Wolf Tells All. Bantam, 2003.
When romance columnist Tanzy Harrington agrees to house-sit for her great-aunt, she finds herself sharing close quarters with Riley Parrish. At first he seems a bit too much like the “sheep” Tanzy derides in her column--polite, responsible and boring. But Riley, it seems, is a “wolf” in sheep’s clothing and the ultimate alpha female is about to take a fall

Marian Keyes
Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married. Avon, 1999, 1996.
Even though she doesn’t even have a boyfriend, a psychic tells Lucy that she will be married within the year. She has her doubts, but when the predictions for her three friends all come true, Lucy looks at each man who comes into her life in a new light.

Sophie Kinsella
Confessions of a Shopaholic. Dell, 2001, 2000.
Becky Bloomwood has a fabulous flat in London's trendiest neighborhood and a closet brimming with the season's must-haves. The only trouble is that she can't actually afford any of it. Eventually, her uncontrollable shopping and her "imaginative" solutions to her debt attract the attention not only of her bank manager but of handsome millionaire Luke Brandon. Followed by: Shopaholic Takes Manhattan (2002), Shopaholic Ties the Knot (2003), Shopaholic and Sister (2004), & Shopaholic and Baby (2007).

Sally Koslow
Little Pink Slips. Putnam, 2007.
Magnolia Gold (that's Maggie Goldfarb to the folks back home in Fargo, North Dakota) sees her dream job as editor of Lady magazine usurped by gauche celebrity talk-show-host Bebe Blake. While she kowtow to Bebe in order to keep her job, Magnolia is determined to save her beloved magazine from the "trash" heap. By the same author: The Late Lamented Molly Marx (2009).

Linda Francis Lee
The Ex-Debutante. St. Martin, 2008.
Now a successful divorce lawyer, erstwhile Texas debutante Carlisle Wainwright Cushing returns home to to deal with her mother’s latest marriage break-up and learns that the opposing counsel is the true love of her life.

Sue Margolis
Apocalipstick. Delta, 2003.
Fed up with being the beauty columnist for the Daily Vanguard, Rebecca Fine longs to be an investigative reporter. She gets her chance when she receives a hot tip about a supposedly “miracle” anti-wrinkle cream, hoping that blowing the lid on the scam will get her the recognition she deserves and perhaps the man of her dreams.

Anna Maxted
Behaving Like Adults. Regan, 2003.
Holly, the owner of a successful dating service, can’t seem to make her own match. So when her friends dare her to pick a man off the top of the pile, she goes for it. The date turns into a disaster when perfect-on-paper Stuart turns out to be a thorough cad and she feels she has lost her “touch.”

Hannah McCouch
Girl Cook. Villard, 2003.
Layla Mitchner is a 28-year-old Cordon Bleu graduate who knows she’s got the talent to be a great chef, but there she is slaving for a misogynistic boss who’d sooner promote the dishwasher than give a woman the chance to prove herself. On the love front, she must decide where her future lay: with nice, upstanding, but WASPy Dick, or the sexually adventurous musician, Frank, who has dead-beat written all over him.

Sheri McInnis
Devil May Care. Atria, 2003
After she encounters a handsome, rich, charismatic TV network president, a struggling actress’s career takes a sudden (often bizarre) change for the better. Is he the man of her dreams…or the devil himself?

Jillian Medoff
Good Girls Gone Bad. Morrow, 2002.
Unable to deal with her obsession for her ex-boyfriend, Janey Fabre joins a therapy group and finds herself among six other equally neurotic women. The revenge they plot on Janey’s behalf wreaks havoc on their lives but the power of loyalty and the true meaning of friendship prevails in the end.

Mil Millington.
A Certain Chemistry. Villard, 2003.
Brooding, self-loathing British ghostwriter Tom Cartwright lands the plum assignment of penning the autobiography of the wildly popular soap-opera star Georgina Nye, and soon finds himself succumbing to her charm and risking his relationship with the woman he still loves. By the same author: Things My Girlfriend & I Have Argued About (2002) & Love and Other Near-Death Experiences (2006).

Sarah Mlynowski
Fishbowl. Red Dress, 2002.
When an oddly matched trio of young women are left with a big bill after their apartment nearly burns down, they are forced to come up with creative ways to raise money, including throwing big parties at a local bar and offering a seminar for men hoping to meet girls. Naturally, their own relationships with men only complicate matters.

Dean Monti
The Sweep of the Second Hand. Academy Chicago, 2001.
Malcolm Cicchio, who runs a struggling art movie cinema, is concerned because he is losing one minute of sleep each night and his long-time girlfriend, who has never returned his watch, is getting married to a cardiologist. Malcolm feels his life will turn around if only he can get his watch back, and if he has to crash her wedding to do it, so be it.

Clare Naylor
The Goddess Rules. Ballantine, 2005.
Kate Disney, a noted pet portrait artist, is commissioned by reclusive legendary actress Mirabelle Moncur to paint her favorite lion cub. The irrepressible Mirri quickly decides to make-over the sloppily dressed artist and soon has Kate dancing on tables, drinking like a dockworker, flirting like a goddess and embracing the tenet that like can be fabulous. By the same author: Dog Handling (2002), The Second Assistant: A Tale from the Bottom of the Hollywood Ladder (2004), & The First Assistant: A Conttinuing Tale from Behind the Hollywood Curtain (2006).

Ariella Papa
Up & Out. Red Dress, 2003.
After her roommate moves out and a corporate takeover leaves her jobless, Rebecca has to find a way to afford both her rent and love of fine dining.

Adele Parks
Playing Away. Pocket, 2000.
Connie Green, who seems to have it all—a great career, wonderful husband, and a bunch of great girlfriends—threatens to lose her Happily Ever After existence when she begins an affair with a sexy man at a business conference. She learns the hard way that when you play with matches you run the risk of getting burned.

Carly Philiips
The Bachelor. Warner, 2002.
The Chandler brothers are a trio of sexy, eligible guys who rush home believing their mother to be deathly ill. When her “final” request is to have a grandchild, Roman, the youngest of the brothers loses the coin toss and must find himself a wife. Pronto. He sets his sights upon his old high-school crush, Charlotte, a purveyor of sexy lingerie, and soon the sparks begin to fly. Followed by: The Playboy (2003) and The Heartbreaker (2003). By the same author: Under the Boardwalk (2004), Hot Stuff (2004), Hot Number (2005), Summer Lovin' (2005), etc..

Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Breathing Room. Morrow, 2002.
With every aspect of her life in shambles, dowdy self-help guru Dr. Isabel Favor escapes to the Tuscan countryside for two months to rest, write, and rethink her future. But her hoped for idyll is rocked when she learns that the villa she has rented belongs to notorious actor Lorenzo Gage, a man with whom Isabel had an unexpected one-night stand and thought she would never see again. Can these two polar opposites attract?

Allison Rushby
Hating Valentine’s Day. Red Dress, 2005
Jaded wedding photographer and Charles Dickens fan Liz Hetherington is glad indeed when it appears as though her matchmaking friends have finally given up. She may have found her own match in Drew, but is reluctant to be hurt again. So, it is up to Cupid himself to take charge by sending Liz the ghosts of Valentine's Day Past, Present and Yet-to-Come to make her see the light.

Karen V. Siplin
His Insignificant Other. Free Press, 2002.
Casey Beck, a 29-year-old African-American college professor from New York City is sick of her job, her friends, her boyfriend, even the margaritas at her favorite Southern-style bar. So, the last thing she needs is her boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend showing up on her doorstep. To top it all off, Casey finds herself attracted to one of her students, a fire-fighter named Josh.

Robyn Sisman
Weekend in Paris. Plume, 2004.
For small-town girl, Molly, a free weekend in Paris becomes a voyage of passion and self-discovery.

Jill Smolinski
The Next Thing on My List. Shaye Areheart, 2007.
After a friend is killed in a car accident, June discovers a list she had made of 25 things she wanted to do by the time she turned 25 and resolves to complete the list to honor her memory. By the same author: Flip-Flopped (2002).

Leslie Stella
The Easy Hour. Three Rivers, 2003.
When sportswear salesperson, Lisa Galisa, becomes the personal assistant to a Chicago socialite, she transforms herself from working-class girl to life of the party. But as she begins to buy into her own fraud, her eccentric family and a mysteriously handsome janitor with a penchant for astronomy dip into their own bag of tricks to keep her on the right side of sanity

Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez
The Dirty Girls Social Club. St. Martin’s, 2003.
Inseparable since their days at Boston University almost ten years before, six Latina friends still meet regularly to dish, dine and compare notes on the bumpy course of life and love.

Nancy Warren
Drive Me Crazy. Kensington, 2004.
When the “Indiana Jones of the Art World," meets a sexy town librarian who may know the whereabouts of a stolen Van Gogh meet, sparks fly.

Jennifer Weiner
Good in Bed. Pocket, 2001.
Cannie Shapiro, an over-weight pop reporter for the Philadelphia Examiner, is shocked when she reads a piece in a national women’s magazine called “Loving a Larger Woman”—penned by her ex-boyfriend. Hurt by the very personal nature of the article, she resolves to make changes in her life.

Laura Wolf
Diary of a Mad Mom-to-Be. Delta, 2003.
When Amy Thomas, a self-styled control freak, is possessed by the unexpected yearning to have a baby, nothing will stop her. But naturally, things do not go according to plan for this young woman who arranges her life around her “to do” lists.

Isabel Wolff
Making Minty Malone. Onyx, 2000, 1999.
After being jilted at the altar (she goes on her honeymoon to Paris anyway), Minty Malone decides to improve her life and not be such a pushover. She meets a charming novelist and screenwriter named Joe, but will she give love another chance?

Created and maintained by: Lynne M. Kennedy

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