V. C. Chickering

Nookietown/V. C. Chickering Recently divorced, 40-something single-mom, Lucy, is lonely, bored and craving physical connection. So, when her trusted long-time married friend, Nancy, begs Lucy to sleep with her husband to save her marriage, Lucy goes for it. It's such a success, the two friends invent a town-wide underground barter system whereby Nancy's married girlfriends sub-contract Lucy's divorcee friends to sleep with their husbands so they don't have to as often. It's a win, win, win- for a while. Then it all goes to hell in a hand-basket.Laugh-out-loud funny, emotionally provocative and at times racy, V. C. Chickering's Nookietown is a story of risk-taking, marriage, honesty and desire, and what one woman rationalizes in order to get what she wants.
 
This was a hilarious chick flick that I enjoyed every page of reading.
 
I'd categorise this more as women's fiction than as a rom-com, but it could fit under both, and the hilarity and writing style made it hard to put down and a really fun read. There were some subtle messages that provoked thought also, and I was thinking about the scenarios in the book even when I wasn't reading it.
 
Lucy was my absolute favourite. A third-grade teacher, she was fantastic with people in general, very straight forward, and was a lot of fun to read about. She also had a great set of friends and I loved how her life felt so real. There were some absolutely hilarious scenes that I could really envision, such as her going through disdained online dating profiles drunk.
 
There were a few too many sex scenes for my liking, but I was able to skim over them with no problems.
 
Nonetheless, I really loved the sex positivity of this book, and how it had a subtle message that was very pro-independence and encourages women to enjoy themselves and make responsible choices. So many books have subtle sexism, but this did very well at portraying a realistic society and how a woman operates in this society. The underplay of roles in society was intriguing.
 
The unique plot of this book and the fun characters made this well worth reading and I recommend it for anyone who enjoys chick flicks or women's fiction.
 
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.… (altro)

V.C. Chickering, Author of "Twisted Family Values" has written an entertaining, unique, sexy, witty, dysfunctional family novel. This has almost the feel of a satire and dark humor. The title says it all. In this novel are deep family secrets, scandals, and is quite unpredictable. The Genres for this novel are Fiction, Contemporary Fiction, and Women's Fiction. The author describes her dysfunctional characters as quirky, complicated, complex and dramatic. This certainly would make a good soap opera or series. The timeline for this story is a period of about 50 years. Larkspur, New Jersey is where the story takes place.

The Thornden family in an affluent part of New Jersey have many social parties and have priorities and expectations about the proper way to act. The two daughters Cat and Claire are as different as night and day. One sister is all about what is the proper thing to do and only cares what others think. The other sister is kind and compassionate. The two younger cousins Bizzy and Choo are brought up to be close friends. BUT, not everything is as it seems to be. Is it? You have no idea!!!

I recommend this novel for those readers who enjoy reading an unusual, quirky story.… (altro)

Okay, I'll be honest here...as a guy, I was curious about the premise of this book. A group of women in a community decided to collaborate and form a informal business to farm-out the sexual "duties" of uninspired wives, and to meet the needs of divorcees and others in their group. An intriguing idea, and the book describes in detail the formation, and frankly the success of the business model. The characters are well-developed and sympathetic...the writer does a nice job.

It wasn't until the last third of this book when I realized that it was actually a wonderful feminist novel. The wonderful, initially painful denouement was the treasure of the book. The heart-breaking pain and resolution, showing the great awakening and empowerment of the main character is worth reading the book for in itself. I am very thankful for the nice job the author did with this...not sappy, not contrived...real, including all of the messiness.

I strongly recommend you read this book.… (altro)

The cover was the greatest thing about this book; the story line was just too implausible, even Hollywood would have a hard time making this believable. Basically this super-over-the-top-horny-divorced-mom is dying to get laid. She has decided that there are no men in their forties that are safe, std free, and unwilling to be in a relationship so she jokingly tells her married friends that she needs to start boning her married friend's husbands. One of her friends decides to take her up on her joke offer to jump start her and her spouses sex life, next thing you know a business is born. This is essentially 50 Shades of Gray for mom in their thirties and forties. There are lots of sex scenes, masturbation, and bitter diatribes about marriage; a win for everyone! Personally not my cup of tea, I could not suspend belief long enough to make this story work.… (altro)