Queen of New Beginnings

Almost infamous fortyish Clayton Miller flees London after causing a public humiliation involving his former girlfriend Stacey and his former writing partner Barry “Lucky Bazza” Osbourne. His heart is shattered and his career as a scriptwriter recently in the stratosphere has crashed to earth as he is out of work and out of ideas except for writing his obit

His agent Glen told Clayton to relocate temporarily in the countryside at the Cuckoo House. There he and Alice Shoemaker meet when she arrives as the housekeeper. The house is actually her family abode and though she suffered broken hearts here, she relishes being able to come home. The pair dislikes one another from the onset yet also feels a fascination. They forge a friendship as each tells the other why he and she rusticate in the country. As they start to trust and rely on one another for emotional relief, they begin to fall in love; but both fears that feeling will lead to a fresh heartbreak with no one around to help them weather the storm.

Although the story line is linear as the plot goes as expected, the cast (London and the villagers) is superb. The support characters enhance the look at the lead pair while Clayton and Alice are nice people who each fears love having recent heartbreaks. The strong characterizations make for a tender second chance at love tale if the lead duet can take that leap of faith and trust in their respective hearts.



Take a voice-over artist and a television writer who is in hiding, place them in a house together and watch them keep trying to hide things from each other. Alice and Clayton are this such pair and from the beginning of the story, the reader knows that something is going to happen between the two of them.

Alice’s story is very intriguing and quite sad at times. She reveals her dysfunctional childhood and the relationships she shared with her father and step-family. She pours out her heart and soul to Clayton and it’s quite dastardly of him to use her feelings and emotions to benefit him. Of course he doesn’t come across as a monster because for the most part he really is a nice guy. He’s just been jaded and down in the dumps and is trying to crawl back out of the whole again. The best part of the story for me is at the end when Clatyon finally gets back revenge on those who had wronged him. Normally revenge is not thee best way to settle things but what happens here is hilarious and I will say, they had it coming for them especially when we find out the whole truth.

The story takes this familiar scenario: one party goes behind person’s back but then falls in love with them, they think that they can still do the deed without the other finding out but of course it backfires. The couple splits angrily but then reunites later in the story and all is well. While this plot has been told many times, James puts an entirely different spin on it and makes it into a compelling story. She makes the characters believable and puts heart and soul into them. The reader sees both their flaws as well as the good that is in them. Supporting characters help to flesh out the main characters as well as we see how past events have shaped them to who they are today.

Part of the story’s charm is the fact that it takes place in England. I don’t know what it is about British authors but I find British chick lit to be far superior to American chick lit in many cases. This is one of them. James has an extensive backlist and I look forward to discovering more of her works.





Alice likes to reinvent herself with voice changes and persona make overs. Clayton just wants to reinvent his life. The two, after a bit of a rough start, become friends until a huge betrayal happens. At first I thought this book would be fluffy chick lit but it is much more than that. James writes decent characters and weaves a tale around them. This book seemed to be a mix of chick lit, southern fiction and romance all rolled into one. I was sent this book by Sourcebooks to review.

Clayton Miller is a comedy script writer who has hit an all-time low when his girlfriend leaves him for his best friend and writing partner, Bazza, and the media has a field day after Clayton publicly acts impulsively and irrationally. Alice Barrett is a voiceover artist (she’s the voice for audio books, TV commercials, etc.) who can impersonate others but is stuck in her own life and lives with guilt over the past. When she meets Clayton who is temporarily hiding at Cuckoo House in the English countryside where Alice grew up, they form a friendship and become involved. She opens up to him and tells him about her childhood. Her stories break through his 3-year writer’s block, eventually rekindling his career. But another impulsive act on Clayton’s part shatters their relationship.

This is the first time I read a novel by British author Erica James, and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I was pulled into the story. Although nearly 500 pages, I didn’t feel it dragged and I finished it in a few days. James has a way of building complex characters such as Clayton, and sometimes quirky characters such as George (Georgina), the elderly neighbour who was a little spitfire, full of life and vigour. The characters weren’t typical but they were familiar. They were likable, flawed, vulnerable, sometimes weak and sometimes strong.

The strength in this novel, however, is the dialogue. It is simply fantastic—witty, funny, honest. It divulged appropriately who the characters were. James does not burden us with too much description (it was the right amount for me to picture everything) so that it was the dialogue and action that propelled the story. There were funny moments and there were sad moments.

Having said all this, I had to roll my eyes at how quickly the characters switched from one relationship to another. There is a fair amount of adultery and backstabbing, and some mildly explicit sex scenes. At the end of the story, there is one new relationship formed between secondary characters that I did not find realistic. I didn’t think the two should have gotten together. Finally, the scene where Alice finds out what Clayton has been doing without her consent was anti-climactic for me.

However, this is a fun and light read. I’m sure that fans of British chick lit will definitely like this one.

Format: Paperback

Dimensions
Length: 8 in
Width: 5.25 in
Weight: 18.00 oz
Page Count: 512 pages