Take a Chance on Me

Not as good as some of her other books, but i still love her, im slowly getting through all of her books, my fav chick lit author ever :)

Delightful, feel good, must take to the beach on holiday, lovely read. Enjoy it. I did.

This book follows the lives of two sisters, Cleo and Abbie. Cleo believes she has found her Mister Right in the form of Will Newman, but is distracted by the charms of Johnny LaVenture (despite him being her personal childhood nemesis). Abbie is concerned about her husband Tom, who has become moody and sullen - when she finds out the reason her life is turned upside down... Jill Mansell is onto her 21st novel with Take a Chance on Me, and follows a tried and trusted formula in this book. There are no real shocks: in the end, the right people end up together and there is a happy ever after. The difference in Mansell's books from others in the genre is the way in which she reaches the destination - sure, the book is frothy and there are few deep messages, but it flows easily with lovely touches of humour. The sweetest storyline belonged to Fia and Ash. Mansell did sort of thrust the idea of not judging a book by its cover front and centre, but it was pleasant to read about a gent in one of these types of books who is not completely buff and gorgeous! I particularly enjoyed Abbie's story as well - Mansell got right to the heart of the way a woman might feel when told she is unable to have children. Abbie's panic and pain was well-written - although her solution to the problem was more far-fetched. In fact, that is the biggest issue with this book: you need to suspend your disbelief a fair bit! It isn't a huge problem, but you do find yourself thinking 'That would NEVER happen!' about some of the happenings. My summary is that this book, as with much of Jill Mansell's work, is perfect fodder for a lazy bath with lots of bubbles and a glass of wine. Enjoyable, but never memorable.

I love Jill Mansell books and have devoured them all with gusto, this latest one however left me with reader's indigestion. I wasn't captivated by the characters apart from Ash the bashful radio show host and he was a supporting role, so to speak. I usually start to read her books and then realise with horror that it's the wee small hours of the morning and I have to get up to go to work in a few hours. Luckily I lost no sleep over this one. It failed to keep my interest and frankly my dear I didn't give a damn how it ended, didn't bother to finish reading it.

I started this book with an open mind (I'm not Mansell's biggest fan). I really liked the cover, so it was a great start. There is no build up to the story, we are straight into the thick of it. I don't know if this is a good or bad thing. The chapters were far too short (although I am told this is typical of her books). I found many grammatical errors, which just really annoyed me and the speech...totally unrealistic. I could see things coming a mile off and I found Georgia to be one of the most annoying characters I have ever come across. Having said all that, I read it quickly and found myself quite enjoying it. It's a nice read, but there are authors who do this type of story much, much better.

This is my first Jill Mansell book and i really enjoyed it! I would definitely recommend it to my female friends especially with summer coming and with it the chance for some outdoors reading. I loved the different storylines all going through the novel and all being neatly organised at the end. Possibly they might be a little too organised but to be honest that's what we all want from a little bit of escapism reading. This was a hard to put down book that i felt i had to read during every spare moment over the weekend. This did mean i got through it very fast which was the only disappointment!

I have only recently discovered Jill Mansell and since that discovery have devoured everything she has written. I love her style of writing it is fast paced and never ever boring. Take a Chance on me can be equally described it is a fast easy read. The problem I had with this is that it was somewhat disjointed. The basic story was good but whilst all of the characters were likeable I never felt totally involved in their lives.To me it appeared that Jill had the story outline and she made it fit into the required word count. I didn't fall in love with Johnny and to be truthful wasn't entirely sure how Cleo did. He certainly had potential but the emotion wasn't in the writing. Will was eliminated from the story too soon in my opinion and if the story had concentrated more on Cleo and Johnny and less on the Abbie and Georgia theme it might have worked better. All of the strands of the story were appropriate but in view of the fact she left me, for one, feeling a little cheated perhaps concentrating on just a Cleo/Johnny/Will thread with perhaps Ash as the vignette it may have worked better. Overall I think the problem I had with Take a chance on me was that there was too much in too little time. I felt that the conclusion came because that was the end of the word count and not because anything had been worked through and resolved. Had this been the first Jill Mansell I had read I would probably buy another but would not be chasing up all her previous works and pre ordering on Amazon. I hope that anyone who buys this and feels as indifferent as I did is not prevented from buying her previous works because on form there is no Chic Lit writer who can beat Jill Mansell she really can be the best.

With Jill's last couple of books, I have felt that there was something lacking. Nothing actually *wrong* with them, per se - perfectly pleasant and engaging. For a new/debut author, brilliant. But with Jill we've come to expect more. One startling thing that popped up for me after reading Take A Chance On Me was the lack of memorability. If you asked me, at a moment's notice, to talk about Nadia Knows Best, or Staying At Daisy's, or even The One You Really Want, I could practically recite dialogue verbatim, or remember exact scenes or laugh out loud (without even going back to the text) at a particular situation. Literally one day after reading Take A Chance On Me (and Rumour Has It, for that matter), I could not remember a single thing...aside from the two main characters' names! Not a scene, not a dialogue, not a sparky bit of writing! I actually had to go back and reread it through once more, and even then it was a struggle to recall. This is not what should be happening with Jill Mansell! I *love* her books, so much so that each one is on pre-order and I wait desperately for the next. After Rumour Has It, I was willing to think it a fluke...but this latest too seems rushed and phoned it. If her name wasn't on the cover, I wouldn't believe it was hers. Now, to stress, there is nothing actually wrong with it. Like previously stated, it is a perfectly nice - if bland - novel, with a few cute scenes and situations. But as much as I love Jill's clever interweaving of many different threads and multiple love stories, I have started to feel as if the novels become increasingly overcrowded. There are myriad threads explored here, at the expense of the two main characters, Johnny and Cleo, who barely get any build up (though a little back story and a few sparky situations) before their happy-ever-after. Not like Jay-Nadia or Daisy-Dev, who bounce off the page almost into real life. I don't know what it is, but I really hope that Jill shakes it off and comes back to her natural style. The writing hasn't changed, but it does seem as if her heart isn't in it.

I am a bit puzzled by some of the earlier reviews. Once I started reading I felt so involved with the characters I could not stop. I liked Ash particularly, as I once saw someone who was quite familiar on TV as a large presence. He was driving by and it surprised me to find he was really quite small This made me wonder what these people are really like. Ash gives one possibility. Two very different but close sisters make two firm strands to the story and strangely I found i could like them both but for different reasons. My main thought was that I was in the middle of a lively party and did not want to leave. Just the thing for reading on holiday or any other time to get relaxed .

I am a HUGE Jill Mansell fan. Every February/March I anxiously await for my pre-ordered copy of her latest offering to be delivered. Not being British, many of my girlfriends had never heard of her, but I have converted many of them into fans as well after I passed around 'Rumor Has It' last year. I've loved all of her other ones too (too many to list, but 'An offer you cant refuse', 'Staying at Daisy's', 'Open House' and 'Nadia Know's best' stick out in my mind). After plugging through 'Take a Chance on Me', I was left feeling really disappointed because I really wanted to and really tried to like it! As usual, the characters were charming, the male lead dashing, and there was lots of snappy conversation. However, the writing style made for a really messy, jumbling read! I don't know if its Jill's doing or her editors, but the style was incredibly distracting. There were barely any dialogue tags, so it wasn't a relaxing read because you had to figure out in other ways who was speaking. I don't recall any of her other books being like that, but that jumped out at me on the very first page. Also, I usually don't mind when a book is written from multiple viewpoints because it gives a reader insight into situations that aren't possible with one viewpoint. However, in this book, viewpoint would just switch halfway through a paragraph with no warning and it was SO confusing and abrupt! You had to stop reading and say 'wait a second...oh, ok' and then get back into the story which took some time. Finally, while the plot had the potential to be very interesting, it just wasn't that polished and fluid. Anyways, being such a big fan, I will definitely still read her next book and just keep my fingers crossed that this was a one time fluke! If this is your first Jill Mansell book, please go back and read a couple of her other ones before forming your conclusion about her books and writing. Unfortunately, this one isn't a good example!!