Staying at Daisy's by Jill Mansell tackles an issue I'd like to share with the world...

Staying at Daisy's
~Jill Mansell

Paperback: 512 pages
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark; Reprint
Publish Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN-10: 1402243847
ISBN-13: 978-1402243844

From Goodreads:
If you're looking for a hotel where anything can happen, try staying at Daisy's...

Daisy MacLean runs the country house hotel owned by her flamboyant father, Hector. When she hears who's about to get married there, she isn't worried at all - her friend Tara absolutely promises there won't be any trouble between her and ex-boyfriend Dominic, whom she hasn't seen for years. But Daisy should be worried. Dominic has other ideas. And seeing Tara again sets in motion a chaotic train of events with far-reaching consequences for all concerned.

While Daisy spends the ensuing months doing battle with Dev Tyzack (Dominic's so-called best man), Tara battles with her conscience. Meanwhile, Hector's getting up to all sorts with...well, that's the village's best kept secret. And then Barney turns up, with a little something belonging to the husband Daisy's been doing her best to forget. That's the thing about hotels, you never know who you're going to meet. Or whether they're going to stay.

Daisy MacLean has just learned that her husband has been in a car accident...and his girlfriend was in the car with him. She also learns that he doesn't have cancer like he told her he did, and agrees to donate his organs for transplant.

A year later, Daisy's still managing her father's hotel, working a wedding. A guest catches the groom in a compromising position with Daisy's friend and employee, Tara. Tara says she didn't do anything, the groom came on to her. The best main blames Tara, but Daisy defends her.

Now Daisy's gotten a letter from the recipient of her ex husband's kidney, a young man named Barney, and he's come for a visit. While he's at the hotel, he sees an ad for a porter position and applies for the job.

Daisy keeps running into the best man, who also happens to be a famous former football star. Tara gets a call from the groom, miserable in his marriage and wanting to see her. Barney gets settled in, meets a nice girl, and they start dating. Tara's sister, Maggie, is secretly seeing someone in the village, and he's paying her for sex!

My thoughts: This book was fantastic. Staying at Daisy's is the second book I've read by Ms. Mansell, and I plan to glom her backlist soon, I really enjoy her writing.From my brief summary, it sounds like there's a lot going on - there is - but Ms. Mansell is a master at working the storylines until she neatly ties them together in a nice big bow. I really liked Daisy, she was a sympathetic character who'd had her heart trampled by her ex-husband and was reluctant to open herself to love again. Her father was a great character, absolutely adorable. Her friend Tara was a bit abrasive and I didn't like her very much; I had a hard time believing that after what she'd seen Daisy go through with a cheating husband that she would head down that path herself. Tara's sister Maggie turned out to be quite a surprising character :)

Dev is the hero of the story, and I didn't feel like we saw very much of him, but I liked him nevertheless. He was a bit of a playboy, which is why Daisy couldn't or wouldn't allow herself to fall for him. Lucky for her, Dev is persistent and patient.

I enjoyed the entire book, but here's what really struck me about this story - the organ donation storyline. Full disclosure: I worked for about 12 years as a secretary in a pediatric kidney transplant department, so I have some intense feelings on the subject of organ donation. I loved, loved, loved that Staying at Daisy's does a marvelous job of highlighting it in a positive way. I am a firm believer in organ donation, and Ms. Mansell wove the subject into a wonderful storyline. I'm not going to give out any spoilers, so to see why it was especially significant you'll have to read the book, lol.

My Rating:

This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Take a Chance on Me by Jill Mansel

From Amazon.com:
Even in a small town the drama is larger than life...

Cleo Quinn doesn't have the greatest track record when it comes to men, but now Will's come along. Handsome and attentive, he could be her Mr Right. Things are definitely looking up for Cleo... apart from one small problem with a rather large ego. Johnny LaVenture, sculptor extraordinaire and her personal childhood nemesis, is back in Channing's Hill and tormenting her as if he'd never been away.

Meanwhile Cleo's sister Abbie has a problem of her own-husband Tom has become distant and withdrawn, and she's determined to find out why. But will the shocking truth mean the end of their idyllically happy marriage?

The sisters are about to discover that the past can come back to haunt you, and that love can flourish in the unlikeliest of places...

______________________________

This was my first book by Jill Mansell and I must say I enjoyed it. It's not what I would call a "Romance Novel", it's more Chick Lit but it's British. Would that be Brit Lit? Is that a term?

Moving on.... This book was cute. Cleo is a young single woman who thinks she's found the perfect man, until she finds out he's not. That's okay, right? She's got a fun job, a wonderful best friend and a place of her own. Then HE comes back into town - Johnny LaVenure, her childhood nemesis. He's rich and famous and makes her feel like she's back in school again. But he's here to stay, and she keeps running into him...and really, he's so nice now....

I really enjoyed Cleo and Johnny's story. I rooted for them throughout the book. Not from the beginning of course, I thought he was such a smarmy guy, but, just like he did with Cleo, he won me over :)

Meanwhile, Cleo's sister Abbie is having her own crisis, and her best friend Ash is trying to sort out his love life, with the ex-wife of Cleo's ex-boyfriend! Tie that in with Abbie's husband's secret (it's not what you think!) and there's a whole lot going on... There were a lot of POVs in this book, which threw me a bit .

I haven't read many books by British authors, this was a bit different for me and I liked the bits of British slang and overall "feel" of the writing. I laughed a lot, Cleo is a spunky leading lady, sometimes even if she doesn't want to be. The tension between Cleo and Johnny was good. I didn't like the storyline about her sister so much, but it did tie in nicely with Cleo's story. Now I want to go visit the UK. In lieu of that, I will definitely be checking out Ms. Mansell's backlist.

My Rating:

As an aside, I was a bit frustrated that I couldn't figure out from the author's website if this book was part of a series or if all her books are stand-alones.

This book was provided to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.