"One of the top wedding photographers in town, Liv Hetherington, steadfastly single, hates Valentine's Day. This year she's putting her foot down and has vowed there'll be no dinner party set-ups, speed-dating frenzies or any other form of accidental dating organised by her father, flatmate or best friend.

What she hasn't counted on is that, this year they've given up on her.

Liv's ecstatic, to say the least. Now she can concentrate on more important things like setting up her own studio and polishing off her Dickens colelction. But are relationships not for her. Drew, the new man in Liv's life, would beg to differ. As would Cupid, who's had enough of Liv being stubbornly single and sends the ghosts of Valentine's Day Past, Present and Yet-to-Come to teach her a lesson or two where love's concerned...

Valentine's Day...bah, humbug. Or is all that about to change?"

Another good chicklit read. I really liked the Valentine's Day take on the three ghosts of Christmas. A couple of quips though.

(1) The dialog seems stilted and unnatural in parts. The first meeting between Liv and Drew in the cafe is particularly stiff.
(2) Photographers always wear black as they don't want to affect the light. Black absorbs light, White reflects light. I think Liv goes to photograph one wedding in a white shirt (Yes I know! A very minor mistake!).

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Bookray:
FuShMuSh - Sydney, NSW
Noodlebowl - Sydney, NSW
Bookfrog - Sydney, NSW
Kirst040 - Sydney, NSW
Catsalive - Sydney, NSW
Funkybamboozle - Sydney, NSW
Wombles - Caboolture, QLD
Mundoo - Hindmarsh Island, SA
Senna1 - Parafield Gardens, SA
Quilted-Elf - Adelaide, SA
Tramgirl - Melbourne, VIC
puppymummy - Melbourne, VIC
Skyring - Canberra, ACT
Sarahbear - St Helens, TAS
Sally906 - Darwin, NT
Ebears - Dawesville, WA
aussieangel2 - Yokine, WA
Littlemave - Sydney, NSW
sydney2259 - Sydney, NSW

Received at Trivia the other night from FushMush! Cheers matey!

====update====

I read/skimmed this book very fast so probably didn't do true justice to it. I enjoyed the wedding photography aspects of it, only coz we are organising our wedding atm, and some of the wedding details were funny like the garbage trucks. I enjoyed allmenarebastards.com but the Ghosts of Christmas past device was novel. Overall enjoyable.

Rcd from noodlebowl making a flying visit! Thanks matey!

Hrm.....
I enjoyed this I will begin by saying. I think I enjoyed allmenarebastards.com much better but saying that I did read 3/4 of this book in one sitting, the last 3/4.

I am not sure about the homage to Dickens with the spirits coming to help Liv but actually divine intervention was needed to get through her thick head to get a life.

I think the one thing that annoyed me (and was very minor and trivial) is that Liv kept talking about setting up her own studio and branching out on her own and I am not in that field but I would think here she had a boss who she really enjoyed working with and I am sure she was well paid for her job. I think it would be easier staying where she was seeing that once you have your own studio you don't earn as much as money you earn goes for renting the studio, paying insurance and taxes and all that jazz that comes with your own business. Very minor as I said. She could just become a partner or something?

What else?

Liv was a frustrating character and no wonder her family had thrown up their arms in despair over her behaviour. I think I would recommend allmenarebastards.com before this one but still a good read and a nice light fun read. Definetly chick lit and I have read much worse.

Picked up from bookfrog at meetup tonight. Thanks.

I enjoyed this and read it in one sitting. It had a nice easy humour and characters that were likable and familar. The ghosts of Valentine's Day past, present & future was a great idea (ok, I did think it was a bit cheesy at first but it didn't take long for me to come around). It added something to what would have been fairly ordinary chick lit.

It's good to see Allison Rushby's back to writing chick-lit with a twist. I thought It's Not You It's Me was pretty formulaic but this is back up there with allmenarebastards.com.

Will mail to catsalive today Friday (yay!) 11 March.

Received this tonight. Thanks kirst040, seems like we did a bit of a swap today. Will get to it ASAP.

I had trouble getting into this one. I think Liv is just a neurotic cow who didn't really deserve that 2nd chance. There were some funny bits & Drew sounds a dream. What's wrong with a Snickers & coke for breakfast anyway?

I'll pass this on to Funkybamboozle.

Posted to funky today.

Just what I need, some chicklit to get me through the day. Im currently home sick, so I can get stuck into this today!

The book could have potential as a contemporary re-write of the classic if everything was not overly explained abd repeated. Rushby obviously woke up one day and thought "We all know someone who is a Valentine's day Scrooge - so why not write a parody- set within the genre of Chicklit". Unfourtantly, I didnt really like this part of the book. Im not into Dickens and I felt that Rushby continually expained her jokes, just in case we didnt get it, and repeatedly went over the same parts of the plot, so much so that I was bored senseless.

I have no real sympathy for Liv. Im a firm believer (like Drew) in self fullfilling prophesy - she really brought it all on herself. I think she should start focusing on the positives. She seems to go over and over the same thing all the time which is quite frustrating.

Received today in the mail.
2 ahead of it.

I didn't enjoy this book as much as the previous Alison Rushby books I have read.
Easy enough to read but I didn't like the 'ghost' sections. I found them boring and skipped sections after the 1st one. No great revelation came from those parts of the story for me.

We all can change 'our future', we don't need 'ghosts' to drum it into us. Liv who had been resisting and resenting the manipulations of family and friends over Valentine's Day still ended up being manipulated by the 'ghosts'.

And why does changing your future or direction mean having sex at the first opportunity for long-term happiness?

RELEASE NOTES:

Posted to senna1

Received today. Have another book to finish and then I will dive into this one.

I really enjoyed this book. Ofcourse it's no great literary genius but chicklit is not meant to be. It was good to read something light after all the heavy books I've been reading lately. Of course I got annoyed at the main character but I tend to with all chick lit. I'm a fan of Dickens too so I was worried that the references to A Christmas Carol would annoy me but they didn't. I enjoyed it and look forward to reading more by Allison Rushby.
Will pm the next on the list.

Umm... yeah, senna1 dropped this off at my place a while ago, caught me in my jammies! I think the embarassment from that slowed down the journalling!!! LOL NOT!

ok now to the good stuff....My thoughts etc....

I love Mrs Batty-Smith! A think Liz could get a life and she probably wouldn't miss her old one! Drew needs a back bone, I couldn't get my head around his just tagging along for the ride and then just taking it all in his stride after everything that just happpened. But haveing said that I like the idea that there is such a person that is just so relaxed and happy to be with you that they will sit in a hotel room waiting all day for a quick, pick-me-up shag when you need it!

All in all, an interesting read and I have enjoyed her previous works too!

Off to the next on list....Tramgirl