My top five most anticipated chick lit books of 2011

As regular readers will know I’m a huge fan of the ‘chick lit’ genre and a few weeks ago I put a ‘top five’ feature together for book site Libri Populus on chick lit books to look out for this year. Since then I’ve found a few of updates on the books I chose so so I thought I’d share my five most anticipated chick lit reads for this year with you over here too.

Sweet Valley Confidential by Francine Pascal (Arrow, 14th April)

A whole generation of teenage girls grew up reading about the loves and lives of twins Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield and their friends in Sweet Valley. I for one spent a large part of my teenage years wishing I attended Sweet Valley High. And this year they’re back. Sweet Valley Confidential moves us forward ten years to catch up with Jessica and Elizabeth at 27. I mentioned this one in a news feature when I first heard about it last year and I recently stumbled upon the Random House cataclogue for the first half of this year which includes a plot summary

Haven’t you ever wondered what happened to Jessica and Elizabeth?

It’s been ten years since we last caught up with the Wakefield twins, and a lot has happened. Jessica has married a millionaire, while Todd and Elizabeth have settled down to a life of quiet contentment in Sweet Valley. But when Jessica leaves her controlling and demanding husband and turns up on her sister’s doorstep, old passions are aroused, and the unthinkable happens. After all, didn’t Jessica go out with Todd first? Heartbroken, Elizabeth leaves Sweet Valley and tries to carve a name for herself as a theatre reviewer in New York. But she is burning with rage at what Jessica and Todd have done to her. For all of her life she’s been the good twin, the sweet twin, the play-by-the-rules twin. Now it’s time Elizabeth got her own back. But if she gives into the impulse for revenge, will she lose the second, unexpected chance at love that’s been waiting quietly for her in Sweet Valley for nearly ten years?

The Making of Us by Lisa Jewell (5th May, Century)

In a hospice in Bury St Edmunds, a man called Daniel is slowly fading away. His friend Maggie sits with him every day; she holds his hand and she listens to the story of his life, to his regrets and to his secrets. And then he tells her about the children he has never met and never will, conceived with women he has never slept with, never even touched. Four of them, apparently, two boys, two girls. He talks of them wistfully. His legacy, he calls them. Lydia, Robyn and Dean don’t know each other. Yet. And they are all facing difficult challenges. Lydia is still wearing the scars from her traumatic childhood and, although she is wealthy and successful, her life is lonely and disjointed. Until an unexpected letter from her long-lost uncle reveals a shocking truth about her childhood. Dean is a young man whose life is going nowhere. He is jobless and about to have a baby with a girl who hates him. But then one afternoon, life flips over and leaves him somewhere he never expected to be: a single dad to an ill daughter and he is forced to re-evaluate his whole life. Robyn is eighteen. She is training to be a doctor and is determined one day to be a paediatrician, just like her father. She has never met her father. Neither has her mother. He was an anonymous donor, and that’s exactly what she wants him to stay – a character in her own personal fairy tale. Until the day she meets the man of her dreams and falls in love. He looks like her, he thinks like her, he even has the same freckle in the same place on his left hand. It could be just a coincidence, but she needs to be sure before she can allow herself to be with him. It’s time for her to open the envelope her parents gave her on her eighteenth birthday. And Daniel’s children slowly find their way into each other’s lives…

No cover image for this one yet but it sounds just as gripping as my favourite Lisa Jewell novel, The Truth About Melody Browne and I can’t wait for it to be released!

The Single Girl’s To-Do List by Lindsey Kelk (Harper, 9th June)

Lindsey Kelk is a fast rising star in the wonderful world of chick lit. Her first three novels form the I Heart … series (insert New York, Hollywood and Paris for books one to three), the latest of which is on the Romantic Novelists’ Association long list for the ‘Pure Passion Romantic Novel of the Year’ award. This summer will see Ms Kelk release her first standalone novel which will focus on the newly single Rachel Summers; a London make-up artist in her twenties.

Rachel Summers lives every area of her life according to a to-do list and so far, she is ticking most things off. She has a job she loves (make-up artist to the stars), the perfect boyfriend, a cosy London flat and a fantastic circle of friends. All that remains on her life to-do list is to get married, have a baby and live happily ever after. Simple. Well, not quite…Suddenly, Rachel’s perfect boyfriend wants to take a break. She’s convinced it’s just cold feet but when the break turns into a split, her best friends Emelie and Matthew step in and come up with the ultimate heartbreak cure – the single girl’s to-do list, the top ten things Rachel must see and do to kick-start her fabulous, new single life.But nothing can prepare her for the adventures that unfold as the to-do list takes them all over town and even abroad, and proves to all three that love is out there if you’re willing to take a chance…

Baby Be Mine by Paige Toon (Pocket Books, 21st July)

To understand what all the fuss is about you’ll need to read, or have read Paige Toon’s second book Johnny Be Good which was published in 2008 and posed the question If your boss was the hottest rock star on the planet, would you mix business with pleasure? The book ended on the most excruciating cliff-hanger as pregnant Meg wondered over the identity of the father of her unborn child. Three long years later and we finally have a sequel – and hopefully some answers! Aside from wanting to know what happened to Meg and rock star Johnny, Paige Toon is one of my favourite chick lit authors and her books are always excellent summer page turners.

‘He’s not mine, is he?’ That’s the question I fear the most. You see, I have a secret. My son is not fathered by my boyfriend, but by one of the most famous people that ever lived. And he doesn’t even know it. One-time celebrity personal assistant to wild boy of rock Johnny Jefferson, Meg Stiles is now settled and living in the south of France with her doting boyfriend Christian and their son Phoenix. But they’re living a lie – a lie that will turn their lives upside down and inside out – because Meg’s son doesn’t look like Christian, he looks like his rock star father, and sooner or later, the world is going to realise…

It Started With A Kiss by Miranda Dickinson (Avon, 10th November)

Miranda’s recent novel Welcome To My World was one of my favourite books of last year and her debut, Fairytale of New York was a worldwide hit and Sunday Times Top Ten bestseller so I’m eagerly anticipating her next book. If you like your chick lit heart-warming and romantic then Miranda is the author for you. She excels at cosy winter reads and It Started With a Kiss looks set to continue the trend as Romily, a singer in a wedding band, searches for a handsome stranger who rescued her in her moment of need and then disappeared into the crowd.

So that’s my top five – I’d love to hear your views on my choices and get your recommendations for other books to look out for in the comments section below.