Etta

~ Goodreads TBR Cleanup #19 ~

To aid my efforts to clean up my endless TBR, I decided to go with the Goodreads TBR Cleanup (created by @ Mega Bunny Reads). This challenge can be done bi-weekly or weekly (or any other timeframe that suits you). If you’re interest in the other Down the TBR Hole meme, then you can check it out following the links. The meme was created by Lia @ Lost in a Story — she has a new blog though called Sunflowers and Wonder!

How It Works:

  • Go to your Goodreads want-to-read shelf.
  • Ask Siri (or any other generator) to pick a number between 1 and however many books are on the list.
  • Go to that book and look at it and the 4 after it, for a total of 5.
  • Read the synopses of the books.
  • Decide: keep it or should it go?

For the number selection, I used an online random number generator.

TODAY’S RANDOM NUMBER: 193


1. Charlie All Night

by Jennifer Cruise
[Published March 18th 1995]

Dumped by her boyfriend and demoted from WBBB’s prime-time spot, radio producer Allie McGuffey has nowhere to go but up. She plans to make her comeback by turning temporary DJ Charlie Tenniel into a household name. And if he’s willing to help cure her breakup blues with a rebound fling, that’s an added bonus.

Charlie just wants to kick back, play good tunes and eat Chinese food. He’s not interested in becoming famous. But he is interested in Allie. And after all, what harm is a little chemistry between friends?

But suddenly their one-night stand has become a four-week addiction. Night after night on the airwaves, his voice seduces her…and all the other women in town. He’s a hit. It looks as if Charlie’s solved all Allie’s problems…except one. What is she going to do when he leaves?

THOUGHTS:

I have heard mixed reviews about Jennifer Cruise’s earlier works, including this novel. Although I still want to give her books a try, this one does not quite resonate as much with me as it did when I first added it to my TBR.

2. Nadia Knows Best

by Jill Mansell
[Published August 18th 2003]

Love is always just around the corner in a Jill Mansell novel – with a few surprises and a lot of humour on the way to happiness

When Nadia Kinsella meets Jay Tiernan, she’s tempted, of course she is. Stranded together in a remote Cotswold pub while a snowstorm rages outside… let’s face it, who would ever know? But Nadia’s already met The One. She and Laurie have been together for years – they’re practically childhood sweethearts and she still gets butterflies in her stomach at the sight of him. Okay, so maybe she doesn’t see that much of him these days, but that’s not Laurie’s fault. She can’t betray him. Besides, when you belong to a family like the Kinsellas – bewitchingly glamorous grandmother Miriam, feckless mother Leonie, stop-at-nothing sister Clare – well, someone has to exercise a bit of self-control, don’t they? I mean, you wouldn’t want to do something that you might later regret…

THOUGHTS:

I’ve read a lot of mixed reviews for this novel with those that love it and those that almost DNF it. The points made by a lot of the negative reviews highlight a lot of elements that I do not like in books, so I figured this book would be a toss.

3. The Importance of Being Married (Jessica Wild #1)

by Gemma Townley
[Published June 10th 2008]

Jessica Wild isn’t big on commitment. But after inheriting millions from Grace, a sweet old lady she met in her grandmother’s nursing home, the situation seems to have changed. To put an end to the many questions about her nonexistent love life, Jess had led Grace to believe she had a boyfriend-turned-fiancé-turned-husband: her glamorous boss, Anthony Milton. But Jess’s fantasy to keep Grace happy has backfired–Grace has passed away and left her fortune not to Jessica Wild but to Mrs. Jessica Milton.

Having weighed all legal options, Jess realizes that there’s only one thing she can do: get Anthony to fall in love with her and pop the question for real. With help from her feisty best friend, Helen, Jess reluctantly learns the art of flirting, seduction, and playing hard to get. But just when it appears that Anthony is about to ask the (literal) million-dollar question, Jess finds herself wondering if it’s right to say “I do” for all the wrong reasons.

The first novel in Gemma Townley’s exciting new Wild trilogy, The Importance of Being Married introduces an irresistible heroine caught up in a scheme that could change her life forever.

THOUGHTS:

This author is compared to Sophie Kinsella, so I was intrigued. I actually tried reading the first few pages, but it was not quite enough to keep reading. Therefore, I decided to toss this novel from my TBR.

4. Welcome to my World

by Miranda Dickinson
[Published November 11th 2010]

A travel agent who longs to travel. An intrepid explorer who just wants to find a place to call home. And a Big Idea that changes everything!. Close your eyes and imagine the world is your oyster! And now imagine never seeing it. Welcome to Harriet Langton’s world. All her life she’s dreamt of travelling the globe – fate always got in the way. Working as a travel agent, the closest Harri comes to her dream destination of Venice is booking the trip for someone else. But everything changes when travel fanatic Alex drops in. With her boyfriend Rob tied up with work, Harri is persuaded to help Alex in his quest for love. But in her attempts to help, Harri soon discovers that she’s alienating those around her. Desperate to leave her life behind, will her dreams finally come true? Or will Harri’s leap of faith be her biggest mistake yet? A gorgeous love story for fans of Sophie Kinsella and Jill Mansell.

THOUGHTS:

This is another novel that ended up on my TBR as it was comparable to Sophie Kinsella. It is also another one with mixed reviews with issues with the characters. I might try this one maybe distantly in the future, but, for now, it is a toss.

5. Bridesmaids

by Jane Costello
[Published March 8th 2008]

Four weddings. Three disgruntled ex-boyfriends. Two very effective chicken fillet boob-enhancers. And one gorgeous man. It’s tough being a bridesmaid.

With less than an hour to go before her best friend, Grace, is to walk down the aisle, Evie is attempting to fulfil her most important bridesmaid role: to deposit the bride at the start-line at the appointed time. But with a bride famed for her chaotic sense of time, and the bride’s daughter busy mashing Molton Brown into the expensive hotel carpet, minus underwear, the odds are stacked against her . . .

At least she has her new ‘chicken fillet’ boob-enhancers to make her feel special. That is, until these are spotted poking over the top of her dress. So spotted by Jack – the most ruggedly attractive man Evie has ever laid eyes on.

Evie is twenty-seven; a sparkly, down-to-earth journalist. She has never been in love and has started to fret that she never will be. Small wonder, then, that the prospect of being bridesmaid at no less than three impending weddings is one that fills her with trepidation.

Things get worse when Evie learns that Jack is her friend Valentina’s date. Valentina is beautiful, shallow and self-obsessed. Her dates tend to be mirror-images. Which can mean only one thing: Jack can’t possibly be as good as he seems. But as they sit together talking late into the night, Evie finds herself yearning to believe he’s all real.

THOUGHTS:

I’ve heard good things about Jane Costello, but mixed reviews for this novel. The concept sounds like a lot of fun, but I do not think I would get a chance to read this novel any time soon. Therefore, it is mostly a timing issue that means this novel is tossed from my TBR.


Clean-up number 19 is now complete! This week’s random number included five “older” novels that have been on my TBR for a little while. Unfortunately, I ended up tossing all five either due to timing where I will not get a chance to read them or I made a decision based on reviews. For the ones that were tossed due to timing, mostly I am trying to get rid of novels on my TBR so they do not end up “collecting dust” on my list. Happy Clean-ups to those that are doing these every week and good luck to those who are giving it a shot!

One thought on “~ Goodreads TBR Cleanup #19 ~

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s