The Little Lady Agency by Hester Browne

"Gentlemen! No Little Lady in Your Life? Call the Little Lady Agency: everything organised, from your home to your wardrobe, your social life to you. No funny business or laundry.

review by Maryom

Melissa has made such a good job of organizing the estate agents office she works in, and making sure everything there runs smoothly, that they no longer have any need for her, and, when it merges with a big American firm, she's the first to be made redundant. After a close call with the 'wrong' sort of agency, she decides to set up her own, sorting out the lives and wardrobes of London's clueless, but rich, young men. Ditching her dull 'hockey-sticks' persona, she becomes glamorous Honey, the 'little lady' who'll make sure they know which knife and fork to use, provide a 'plus one' to weddings and family events, and help with your present buying problems - there are a million and one ways she can help a lazy, unorganised bachelor.
Then she meets Jonathan, part of the team who took over her former employers. He's new to London, caught in a messy divorce, wanting someone to organize his social schedule and provide a hostess for his parties -  and suddenly Melissa's not sure where to draw the line between business and pleasure ... 

Sometimes all we want from a book is something light-hearted and fun - and The Little Lady Agency is exactly that.

Don't look for deep character analysis, this is rom-com land. Melissa seems awfully naive for the public-schooled daughter of an MP who's had his share of sex scandals, and a lot of the characters seem so incredibly posh that they could have stepped straight out of a modern day Downton Abbey, but don't worry, take them at their face value, and enjoy the fun.

Maryom's review - 4 stars 
Publisher - Quercus 
Genre - adult chick lit/romcom

The Vintage Girl by Hester Browne

review by Maryom

Evie Nicholson has a passion for antiques - not the quick turn-round high profit items that her boss would like her to find but the intimate little things that have stories to tell - old jewellery or a ragged teddy bear. So being asked to value the  family heirlooms at Kettlesheer Castle in the Scottish Borders, is almost a dream come true. The castle lives up to all her romantic expectations with history stretching back hundreds of years, turrets on every corner and a gala ball, complete with piper, at the weekend - if only Evie didn't have two left feet when it comes to dancing! She soon finds that castle-life isn't all fun - most of the time it's desperately cold and the McAndrews need to turn their antiques into hard cash to meet running costs while their son and heir, Robert, would happily just sell up totally. So while he tries to convince Evie to join in the dancing at the ball, she works on changing his attitude too - and in the process stumbles on a family secret that would be better not aired in public.

Just like Kettlesheer Castle itself, The Vintage Girl has all the romantic features you could want - a sympathetic heroine, a choice of handsome bachelors, an inconvenient girlfriend or two, a magical setting and, of course, a happy ending. The plot has a little more bite than the average rom-com with as much emphasis on Evie's 'treasure-seeking' as on any romantic entanglements, and although you expect all will end well, it isn't too predictable exactly HOW this will come about. While many romcom novels are fine to while away a few hours in a cosy armchair or sunning on a beach, few have enough plot to entice me back for a second or third reading - this one will. I've loved Hester Browne's style of chick lit since my daughter discovered The Little Lady Agency accidentally in an airport bookstore -and I'm glad to say I thoroughly enjoyed this too.

Maryom's review -  5 stars
Publisher - Quercus 
Genre - rom-com/chick lit, 

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