BUY or PASS? Will #chicklit provide a #FridayFiveChallenge winner?

 

Welcome to the ‘Friday Five Challenge.’

Would you BUY or PASS if you had only a thumbnail image and five minutes to decide?

Welcome to the #FridayFiveChallenge. The original idea comes from Rosie Amber, and you can join up at https://rosieamber.wordpress.com

The rules are laid out at the end of this post if you fancy having a go.

Here is my contribution for this week:

It is a well-known fact that I am a huge fantasy fan. Stories with vampires, shifters and witches make me happy. So, for this week I am stepping well and truly out of my comfort zone and going for chick-lit. As the kids have broken up for the school holidays, I decided to theme my search, and I typed ‘summer’ into the Amazon search bar. I scrolled down the pastel coloured cover art until this caught my eye:

From Italy with Love by Jules Wake

BLURB:

Such a summery escape you won’t need a holiday!

‘This epic road-trip is full of glamour, romance and sizzling sexual tension, but at its heart is a truly heart-warming tale of self-discovery – you’ll not want to miss a moment of it.’ – Chick Lit Love

Home-loving Laurie thinks she’s happy – she has a safe, reliable boyfriend and working in her local library is what she thought she always wanted. That is until she inherits a vintage Ferrari from her eccentric Uncle Miles and the conditions of the inheritance are far from simple. To keep the car Laurie will have to drive across Europe with the gorgeous but unreliable Cameron Matthews as her guide… and Cam’s motives for helping are not all that altruistic.

Cam isn’t particularly thrilled about escorting his late pal Miles’ dull mouse of a niece on this wild goose chase but all he has to do is get Laurie safely to Italy and he’s sure the Ferrari is his.

But Uncle Miles had a few tricks up his sleeve and the route he’s planned takes Cam and Laurie on a road trip they’ll never forget. From sampling the delights of the Loire Valley to the breathtaking beauty of Lake Garda, this is one journey that has more twists and turns than either of them could ever have imagined…

My Analysis:

I do like the cover, it’s simple and clean, and what I would expect from this genre, it stood out against the sea of pastel pink and swirly calligraphy. It was the title that pulled me in as I am heading to Italy this summer with my family. The cover image is perfect and compliments the blurb, confirming to the reader that this is a road-trip story. I also have a thing about panoramic views!

The storyline is clearly a developing romance. The added quirk of eccentric Uncle Miles, a tour of my favourite part of the world, and tales of self-discovery may just sway this fantasy fan over to the light and fluffy side.

The Kindle price is 99p. There are 51 reviews, all of them between three and five stars. I read over a couple of the reviews, and the comments were promising. Charming, humorous and a fun ride, with more than one Bridget Jones moment. The only three-star review did mention editing glitches that may annoy some readers. This would annoy me but with so many positive reviews is it worth the risk?

At 99p I believe it would be, so it’s a BUY from me.

From Italy with Love – buy your copy from Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00SS459DS

Take a look at who else is getting involved in the #FridayFiveChallenge:

Rosie Amber chooses YA – https://rosieamber.wordpress.com/2015/07/24/would-you-buy-or-pass-fridayfivechallenge-runes-by-ednahwalters-ya-fantasy/comment-page-1/#comment-14622

Cathy chooses a summer theme too – https://betweenthelinesbookblog.wordpress.com/2015/07/24/friday-five-challenge-4/comment-page-1/#comment-2232

Terry goes for a ‘roaring’ read – http://terrytyler59.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/would-you-buy-or-pass-9.html

What is the Friday Five Challenge?

In today’s online shopping age, readers often base their buying decisions on small postage stamp size book covers (thumb-nails), a quick glance at the book description and the review. How much time do they spend making that buying decision?

AUTHORS – You often only have seconds to get a reader to buy your book, is your book cover and book bio up to it?

The Challenge is this… IN ONLY FIVE MINUTES…

1) Go to any online book supplier,

2) Randomly choose a category,

3) Speed through the book covers, choose one which has instantly appealed to your eye,

4) Read the book Bio/ Description of this book,

5) If there are reviews, check out a couple,

6) Make an instant decision, would you BUY or PASS?

(then write a little analysis about your decision)