Looking for a Love Story

March 29, 2010
For a while, author Francesca Sewell was living her dream: her first novel was a hit, she married a handsome up-and-coming photographer, and she became the toast of her new Upper East Side neighborhood (where the happy couple bought and furnished their dream co-op). Three years on, however, she's struggling with her second book, her husband is distant, and her glamorous social life has grown uncomfortable (as has her wardrobe). When she's dumped by both her husband and her agent, Francesca is left with Annie, their rescue dog, to confront the downside of success. Desperate for work, she agrees to ghostwrite the family history of Chicky, the globe-trotting 90-year-old daughter of two 1920s vaudeville stars. Predictably but satisfactorily, Francesca comes to terms with her (and her parents') divorce by investigating the story of Chicky and her folks, in the process discovering the love story she'd been seeking all along. Shaffer (Serendipity
) is at her best telling Chicky's story, a throwback to potboilers of the 1920s, giving this single-gal redemption story unexpected depth.

May 1, 2010
Shaffer is at her best here, mixing the contemporary story of Francesca, a writer whose marriage unexpectedly crumbles, with the story of a Depression-era husband-and-wife vaudeville team. Francesca, stuck with writer's block on her second novel, is eager to work her way out of her sorrows. Spry 90-year-old Chicky wants her parents' story to be told and hires Francesca to ghostwrite their memoirs. The two collaborate on a delightful love story as Francesca works out her own love life and family history. VERDICT As with her previous novels weaving contemporary and historical family stories ("Family Acts"; "Serendipity"), Shaffer, an accomplished actress, gets the artistic details just right and writes lovely characters. [Ebook ISBN 978-0-345-52177-4.]

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2010
Written in the style of a memoir, this blend of chick lit and cute dog novel tells the story of thirtysomething Francesca, an author who followed a successful debut with three years of writers block. Now her husband has left her for someone who is more successful, and, desperate to pay the bills, she takes on a ghostwriting gig for Chicky, an elderly lady in a nursing home who wants Francesca to write the story of her parents, members of the vaudeville circuit in the early-twentieth century. Starting to write out of duty, Francesca soon becomes entranced with the couple: for the first time in years, shes writing something that she really loves. Accompanied always by her loyal dog, Annie, Francesca manages to pull herself together and move forward to a new life. Sweet and hopeful, Francescas story is just right for chick-lit readers looking for something with a little emotional heft but a happy ending (and a dog).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)