Chick Lit Uncovered Book Awards 2014!

As 2014 is coming to an end in a matter of hours, we decided to look back on some of the many great chick-lit novels of the year and show appreciation to some great authors.

There were so many much-loved books to choose from throughout the past twelve months; books from well-established authors and first-time novelists alike, with some wonderfully funny, addictive, inspiring and heartwarming books. As you can probably imagine, selecting just eight winners was a hugely difficult task.

Here are the Chick Lit Uncovered Book Award winners of 2014. And here's to a brand new year full of brand new reads! Congratulations to not just the below winners, but to all those who released books this year. It's been wonderful to get the chance to read so many great titles.

Happy New Year!

Book Cover of the Year

The New Mrs D by Heather Hill

There were many beautiful book covers in the running this year, but we fell in love with the colourful and wonderfully-designed cover image from Heather Hill's debut novel The New Mrs D, in which forty-something Bernice decides to leave her relationship and heads off on the trip of a lifetime alone, four days into her honeymoon.

Festive Novel of the Year

The Christmas Party by Carole Matthews

There were plenty of festive novels to choose from this year, but we particularly loved The Christmas Party by Carole Matthews. The Christmas Party is Carole's second novel of 2014, following A Place to Call Home in January. This year's Christmassy tale focused on various characters, centred around a large oil company and its employee - mainly three women whose lives and secrets are at risk of colliding at the annual office Christmas party. The book had a great premise, very fun characters (and plenty of scandal!)

Series of the Year 

A Proper Family Holiday and A Proper Family Christmas by Chrissie Manby

Chrissie Manby's funny, loveable Bensons appeared in June in A Proper Family Holiday, as the family set off for a package holiday in Lanzarote, much to the dismay of daughter (and Society magazine writer) Chelsea. The end of the book implied an exciting sequel, and in November, A Proper Family Christmas arrived, introducing a few new (and rather unexpected!) new Bensons. The novels were a lot of fun and a treat to read.

Comedy of the Year

Mother of the Year by Karen Ross

Karen Ross's novel Mother of The Year was hilarious as well as heartwarming. Released in February, Karen's tale of Juliet, and  relationship with her overbearing celebrity mother who has a penchant for revealing all of life's details to her adoring public, was one of the best reads of 2014. Karen has a great, witty writing style that made this novel very hard to put down, along with the laugh-out-loud moments and great characters.

Most Inspiring Novel of the Year

Good Sam by Dete Meserve

Dete Meserve's Good Sam was published in June and every chapter was intriguing. What's more, it was Dete's debut, and it is now being developed into a film and TV series. A gripping, fast-paced romance, Good Sam is about Kate, an ambitious reporter for a TV news station who, though generally covering crime and tragedy in the area, is tasked with a story about random people who have each found $100,000 on their doorstep. Kate is determined to find out the identity of the mysterious 'Good Sam', even when the story is starting to interfere with her personal life. Dete Meserve's first book is an inspiring read and full of mystery.

Debut of the Year

The Anti-Ageing of Harmony Richards by Fiona Jane Collins

The Anti-Ageing of Harmony Richards was released in November, by new novelist Fiona Jane Collins, and after reading just a chapter it became clear that this book was going to be a great! The novel is about 40-something Harmony who, along with her dismay at her ageing face, discovers that her husband has a secret - in the form of a young, stunning former fiance who's back in town to reclaim him. Fiona has a brilliantly witty writing style similar to authors such as Fiona Gibson and Chrissie Manby, and her talent as a chick-lit writer is very clear in her debut.

Author of the Year

Sue Watson (Love, Lies and Lemon Cake and Snow Angels, Secrets and Christmas Cake)

Sue Watson is the author of Younger Thinner Blonder and Fat Girls and Fairy Cakes, and in 2014 released two more novels, both of which were fantastic reads. Love, Lies and Lemon Cake was published in June, and festive book Snow Angels, Secrets and Christmas Cake was released in October. Sue is highly talented, bringing us some wonderful stories that you can easily spend hours curled up reading, and her two new latest novels were both highly entertaining and rather hard to put down!

Book of the Year

Don't Tell the Boss by Anna Bell

There were so many fantastic releases throughout 2014 that it was hard to choose an overall winner. However, one read that specifically stood out this year was Anna Bell's latest book, Don't Tell The Boss. Following on from her 2013 novel Don't Tell The Groom, Don't Tell the Boss once again focuses on Penny; a former gambler who, after successfully planning her own low-cost wedding and writing a popular blog for brides on a budget, accidentally finds herself moonlighting as a wedding planner alongside her full-time job. Anna's first novel was brilliant, but Don't Tell The Boss even more so. It's such a well-written book, with relatable characters and a great story that I became lost in until I had finished it. Penny will be returning next year in the third book of the series, Don't Tell the Brides-to-Be.

UNCOVERED INTERVIEWS: Dete Meserve

This week we reviewed Good Sam by Dete Meserve, which we thoroughly enjoyed! So we're delighted to welcome Dete to the blog this week, to find out more about her inspiration behind Good Sam, her writing habits, and exciting future projects...

Tell us about your latest novel in 15 words or less.
TV reporter Kate Bradley searches for the anonymous Good Samaritan giving away  $1 million cash.

What inspired you to write Good Sam?
I enjoy reading mysteries but I grew tired of having to get inside the head of a killer or psychopath in order to sink myself into the latest mystery/suspense thriller. Plus it seemed to me in order to remain “current and edgy,” each mystery I read or watched on TV seemed to be increasing the grisly-factor. I wrote Good Sam because I wanted to give readers a compelling mystery without killers, dead bodies or criminals—yet with real stakes, a lot of twists, a romance at the center, and an inspiring story about the search for a mysterious person who is doing extraordinary good.

Where do you do most of your writing?
It’s very unsexy but I write in the basement near the washing machine.  It’s a relatively low-traffic area and since I write primarily after 9 at night and have three kids, it’s perhaps the only quiet place in the whole house.

What is your favourite book?
My favorite book is constantly changing.  Right now I’m obsessed with reading Harlan Coben’s Missing You.  I haven’t had time to dive into a new book these past few months because of the release of Good Sam and other demands on my time, so it’s great to escape into his book and let the mystery unfold for me, instead of working on writing a mystery myself.

Which part of  Good Sam  did you enjoy writing the most?
That’s tough to answer but I’d have to say it was the part where we find out who the real Good Sam is and why he was leaving $100,000 on strangers’ front porches.  It was a difficult set of scenes to write because the story had to be told in a way that would be believable, emotionally powerful and tie up the mystery in a satisfying way.  At the same time, the reveal of that surprising truth would change everything between the main characters and create a whole new set of complications for them to overcome.  Challenging, but fulfilling.

The week before Good Sam came out, a mysterious benefactor in San Francisco began giving away $100 bills causing a nationwide media frenzy.  How did that impact the book?  
This was a serendipitous case of reality imitating fiction! Many people thought the anonymous donor, @HiddenCash, was part of the marketing campaign for Good Sam but, of course, he wasn’t.  But his timing was uncanny as he came to Los Angeles, where Good Sam is set, the weekend before the novel was released.  That drew a lot of interest to the book and I was able to have a private email discussion with @HiddenCash.  There are many similarities between @HiddenCash and Good Sam, but in the end, Good Sam’s reason for giving away one million dollars are very different from what @HiddenCash is trying to do.

Now the book is being developed into a TV movie and series?  
Wind Dancer Films has optioned the book.  The plan is to produce the story in Good Sam as a two-hour movie which will launch a series following TV news reporter Kate Bradley as she solves crimes and mysteries, transforms futures, and often—but not always—uncovers good.

At your Book Launch event earlier in summer, you honored several real-life Good Sams.  How did that come about?

Once early buzz about the novel traveled around social media, I began hearing about Real-Life Good Sams.  By that I mean, people who are doing extraordinary good on a regular basis without expectation of reward and sometimes at great personal sacrifice.  I so admired what they were doing that I honored three of them at my Book Launch event:

Cathy O'Grady of Boston performed 318 Acts of Kindness in memory of a friend's husband who passed away after 318 days fighting cancer. Cathy left anonymous gifts for the homeless on park benches, gave away care packages at facilities for adults with cancer, baked cookies for anxious families waiting for news in the hospital, and much more.

Daniel Smith from Provo, Utah had lost his job last winter and decided to dedicate 30 days to Acts of Kindness.  He spent the next month giving away gift cards in the Walmart parking lot, secretly paid for lunches at a steakhouse, paid for an elderly woman’s groceries, and more.

Larry Collins is Battalion Chief of the Los Angeles County Fire Department. What makes Larry a compelling Good Sam is his inability to see the extraordinary courage of what he does every day – putting his life on the line for strangers.  If you ask him how he managed to pull a young boy from swift water while suspended from a line below a helicopter during blinding rain, he’s very likely to say quietly, “It’s what we train for” in the same tone most of us would use to describe crossing the street.

It’s been a profound experience getting to know these Real-Life Good Sams and now I’m hearing again and again their stories are inspiring many people to do beautiful Acts of Kindness.  Now people regularly send me emails and posts about other real-life Good Sams and I post their stories on www.Facebook.com/GoodSamBook.

Who is your favourite literary heroine?
It might not be surprising when I say Jo March from Little Women.  I read that book several times when I was growing up and I admired Jo, not only because she wrote stories and plays and had a vivid imagination, but also because she was smart, sometimes impulsive, outspoken, and unwilling to let others dictate who she was going to be.

Do you have any tips for readers who are looking to become published writers?
Write, rewrite and repeat.  Be careful about showing your work too early in the process.  I recently found an early outline of Good Sam and I’m very glad I never showed it to anyone.  So much changes as you continue to work on a project that you have to give the idea and the characters time to breathe and expand before asking others to review and comment.

Are you working on anything else at the moment and if so, can you tell us? 
In the book writing part of my life, I’m working on a sequel to Good Sam where we follow the main character, TV reporter Kate Bradley, as she covers another nationwide story that has viewers and police mystified.  I’m also working on developing the adaptation of Good Sam into a television movie and series.

Thanks, Dete!

You can find out more about Dete Meserve and Good Sam by visiting Twitter, Facebook and Dete's website.

BOOK REVIEW: Good Sam by Dete Meserve

What would you do if you found $100,000 in cash on your doorstep? And what if you had no idea where it came from? Dete Meserve explores this concept in her novel Good Sam, in which a Los Angeles TV reporter becomes involved in a story which is about to change her life in an unexpected way...

When an anonymous donor dubbed 'Good Sam' by the media starts leaving bags of banknotes on the doorsteps of needy people, the city is desperate to find out who is behind the good deeds. One person in particular is TV news reporter Kate Bradley. After covering local murders and police stories for most of her career, Kate is sure that unmasking Good Sam will get her the story of her career.

However, discovering the identity of Good Sam proves tough for Kate. With so many people claiming to be Good Sam just to get a taste of the spotlight, locating the person who is truly behind the bout of donations is going to take a lot of digging. Digging that's made slightly more difficult with Kate's ex-fiance Jack intent on getting back together, and handsome Eric, who Kate meets whilst reporting on the Good Sam story. Ambitious reporter Kate won't stop until Good Sam is found, even if it begins to take over her personal life as well...

Good Sam is a wonderfully-written novel. It's intriguing and full of suspense, with great characters (Kate especially) and numerous twists throughout the book which will keep you guessing until the very end. I had no idea who Good Sam could be until I reached the final chapters, which made the novel even more fantastic. Admittedly it's quite hard to fully review the novel without dropping spoilers, so if you have a penchant for mystery and romance, I highly suggest that you check out Good Sam for yourselves! Dete Meserve is a very promising author and I look forward to reading any future novels.

Rating: 5/5