Cynthia Langston

3.5 stars

Cynthia Langston's second novel, The Very First Bite, follows the main character, Lanie, as she prepares for her high school reunion by attempting to lose twenty pounds. Over ten weeks, we see Lanie try a different diet each week and also look into the past as the reunion forces her to face two losses in her life: her best friend, Candace and her high school boyfriend, Chad.

The story was sweet and I really enjoyed some of the interactions between Lanie and Mark. The story moved along at a good pace, although at times it felt like poor Lanie would take two steps back for each step forward.

As whole I liked the book but at the same time felt like I had a love/hate reading relationship with The Very First Bite. I had a hard time believing that an intelligent thirty-something year old from Los Angeles (not to mention a college sorority sister) would be so clueless about diets. There were a number of typos throughout the book including the fact that Lanie's boyfriend, Mark is described as a Fed Ex driver on page 34 and yet for the rest of the book he is a UPS driver.

Problems aside, I did think this was a cute story and can recommend it to fans of chic lit.

*I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.… (más)

Reviewed by: Angie
Book provided by: Publisher
Review originally posted at Romancing the Book

Bicoastal Babe is one humorous read. Poor Lindsay isn’t recovering from a recent breakup with the man she thought she’d marry. When he catches her stalking his house, and losing her job, Lindsay goes into a massive depression. She spends weeks without showering, ordering pizza, and lazing about her house smoking incessantly. Finally her friends have enough and decide to help Lindsay get back out there. She gets a job as a trend tracker, living in Los Angeles one week and then traveling to New York the next, in the hopes of finding out what the next biggest thing is going to be in fashion, food, etc.

Lindsay spends a lot of the book moping about nearly everything. She isn’t very confident in her job and nearly loses it several times; if it weren’t for her boss, Liz, bailing her out in the beginning, I’m pretty sure she would have ended up back on her Chicago couch eating pizza out of a box. I like how Liz was able to see more in Lindsey then Jen and even Lindsey herself could see. Once Liz boosted her confidence a bit, Lindsey was able to really concentrate on her work and realize she’s really good at tracking trends.

Of course she has a boyfriend in New York and one in California. Neither knows about the other; only her LA friend, Carmen, and coworker, Jen, know about the men. I did cringe when Lindsay decides which man she wants, mostly because I thought she went with who was safe to her; which surprisingly wasn’t whom anyone else would have found safe.

Overall I really liked the book, however, I disliked the ending…what a cliffhanger! I sure hope that Ms. Langston has another book in the works because that’s just not a good way to end a book otherwise. WHAT HAPPENS?!… (más)