Nancy Mitford

So I have decided after a visit to Chatsworth (which was incredible) last week, that I will read the five Nancy Mitford (1904-1973) books I have. She was the eldest of six sisters who lived some very interesting and fruitful lives. Her books all have some sort of reference to these six sisters... The connection Nancy has with Chatsworth is through her youngest sister, Deborah, who is now the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire... I took this picture whilst there - I love it!! (Deborah is top left; Nancy is bottom right).

I will post the first Nancy Mitford review at the end of Septemeber. Happy reading :)

I heart New York by Lindsey Kelk

Ok, I’m a few days late with this post (apologies) but here we go...

The story behind the purchase of this book wasn’t an actual intentional purchase but believe me if I saw this book/cover online or in a bookshop, I absolutely would have bought it. I attended an event last year, ‘Marie Claire – How to get Published’ (take a look at http://shewhoscrivens.wordpress.com to read about the event) and we were given a goody bag with A LOT of goodies including ‘I heart New York’. Lindsey Kelk, the author, was there speaking about her journey to publication and then she signed everyone’s copy of the book. As I’ve already said I think she is a very lovely lady (she complimented my dress – so I can say this even though I don’t actually know her).  

Anyway, on with the review of the book. ‘I heart New York’ was published in 2009 and has several other titles that followed it including ‘I heart Hollywood’ (2010), ‘I heart Paris’ (2010) and ‘I heart London’ which was published this year.

So we follow the life of Angela Clark, and I have to say the start was completely unexpected. As I started reading, I thought ‘Great here we go again another wedding... the main character is getting married, where exactly is this going’. I was caught completely off guard, Angela’s narration is hilarious as she is walking up the aisle, you think Angela is getting married, she isn’t - her best friend is. This is the wedding where Angela’s life comes crashing down as she manages to completely trash the wedding, make a slight scene, alongside breaking the grooms hand and the event that caused all the mayhem was Angela catching her fiancée in a compromising situation with another woman. Angela ups and leaves to New York (after committing a very embarrassing and quite shocking act of revenge!), not knowing anyone there and having never been there before she jets off... A lot to take in the first chapter but I was hooked.

We follow Angela on her, completely out of character, adventure and how by taking this brave, courageous, plain stupid no no, impulsive action the world quite literally opens up with all of these opportunities and experiences she would never have had, if all that happened to her within those 24hours hadn’t happened.  So we share Angela’s three weeks in the Big Apple, we see everything through her eyes and it really is amazing. So to sum up, because I don’t want to ruin this for any potential readers, she stays in a hotel one of the concierge staff befriends her and basically takes her under her wing. Through this friend she manages to get a major makeover and be fed everything her heart could content, the most I’ve been offered from a hotel is sandwiches and a safe journey home. She buys a brand new designer laden wardrobe (thank goodness for credit cards and ‘multinational banks as she says) and bags herself two men!! I know it all happens very fast. Oh, and she starts to write a dating diary blog for a sister website of ‘The Look’ magazine. Angela has these amazing three weeks where her life is ‘perfect’. But, as always when you run away from your problems new ones pop up such as to be dating two men at once and be writing about them on a website? To my relief she gets rid of the ‘rich one’, I never really liked him as he quite clearly was a slime ball but he did buy her a necklace from Tiffany’s, but still...  She has the minor problem of needing to figure out if she will go back to Britain or if she will set up permanent camp in NYC after she’s offered a job back home by the London branch of the magazine? We find out in the epilogue that she does take the job... but the rest is left on a bit of a cliffhanger.

‘I heart New York’ was a great read, full of one-liners (shoe-icide pg113 – it killed me) and it was really funny and I think I will carry on with the series because Angela is a great character! Also, I need to see what happens with ‘the one’ she might start dating again.     

‘I heart’ the very last part of the book which is an actual guide to NCY!! When, if I ever get there (which I most definitely intend to do) I will absolutely be making use of ‘Angela’s Guide to NYC’... One dollar in my back pocket...NCY here I come!

 

References

Kelk.L. (2009) I heart New York. Harpercollins: London