Recommend-A-Book-Wednesday: Anything by Jennifer Belle

Jennifer Belle has just released a new novel titled The Seven Year Bitch and I am positively giddy with excitement.  There aren't too many authors who can make me giddy just by announcing they've written something but she is definitely one of them.  The first book of hers that I ever read was High Maintenance.  Her characters are quirky, completely original, deeply flawed and totally engaging.  In High Maintenance we watch Liv move on while going through a divorce.  In the first few pages of the book she explains how she met her husband:


I met Jack in an elevator at the Supreme Court at 60 Centre Street.  I was looking into changing my name after the New York Post ran a blind item about my father on Page Six (“What famous clothing designer was caught with a transvestite prostitute in Riverside Park and punched out a police officer?”) and we got married two years later.

It's little throw away lines like that that make Belle's books so enjoyable to read.  Her characters have all these odd and outrageous experiences but because they're used to odd and outrageous experiences they take it in stride.  And despite the various levels of debauchery that takes place her characters retain a certain...well, innocence that is just irresistible.  The blind judge that Liv briefly works for is whiny and humorously pathetic for reasons that have nothing to do with his disability but you find yourself feeling for him anyway.  And when Liv discovers her calling as a real estate agent Belle describes the places she shows so vividly it's like you're there. And that's another thing, the city and the apartments are almost characters in and of themselves.  They have so much personality and depth that you get completely wrapped up in them.

After reading High Maintenance I found Going Down  (awful cover, GREAT BOOK).  Then came Little Stalker which was yet another Belle book that stays with you for long after you've read it.  If the world was fair Jennifer Belle would consistently be on the New York Times Bestsellers list.  But of course the world is most definitely not fair.  So for Belle's most recent release she decided to try a different kind of publicity campaign.  She hired a bunch of actors for $8 an hour to "read" her book in public places all over New York and laugh their heads off.  The hope of course is to get people to ask, "Hey, what are you reading?" Or to at the very least pick the book up at their local bookstores.  Belle says it's like in India where people hire professionals to cry at their loved ones' funerals.

I have no idea if the scheme will work but it's totally outrageous, charming, quirky and unique.

Just like her books.


Kyra Davis
Bestselling Author of:
The Sophie Katz Mystery Series
and
So Much For My Happy Ending
Order Vows, Vendettas & A Little Black Dress today!