Lauren Henderson (1)Rezensionen

The cover is so sparkling yet made me want to open up the pages quickly to find out exactly what was going on.

What can I say but WOW!! This is such a well written book of revenge, jealousy, sex, betrayal, laughter, it has it all and I could imagine laying on a beach reading this book.

I did think that some of the characters in the book reminded me of certain celebrities so while I read I saw their faces. This is one of those books you really cannot put down, so ideal to takeaway with you.

Thank you to the Publisher for posting me a copy of this book xxx

The cover is so sparkling yet made me want to open up the pages quickly to find out exactly what was going on.

What can I say but WOW!! This is such a well written book of revenge, jealousy, sex, betrayal, laughter, it has it all and I could imagine laying on a beach reading this book.

I did think that some of the characters in the book reminded me of certain celebrities so while I read I saw their faces. This is one of those books you really cannot put down, so ideal to takeaway with you.

Thank you to the Publisher for posting me a copy of this book xxx

This was such a good book! Great ending. All the pieces came together and all the loose ends were tied up nicely. I really loved seeing Scarlett and Jase end up happy together.

I loved this book! It was totally a page turner. I absolutely couldn't put it down. Also the twists and turns were awesome. I can't wait for the next one to come out.

This mystery story is a wonder. Sam Jones is an artist in London who has had some opportunities to solve mysteries before (this is third in the series). This time she has gotten roped into the high-flying world of corporate greed when she sells a sculpture to decorate the lobby of the bankf Mowbray Steiner. The cocktail party celebrating its unveiling is interrupted when one of the business executives is found dead with the sculpture fallen on top of him.

Sam is not accustomed to this upper crust of society, but she is a good observer, and soon is attempting to find out what happened. In the course of this search, she meets the twin daughters of the chairman of the bank, Suki and Belinda, the top executives, including the very attractive Sebastian Shaw, and the security men on the front desk, one of whom dies unexpectedly, hinting at blackmail.

Sam herself is the epitome of a free woman, independent, sexually secure, dazzling in the black rubber dress of the title, quick-witted and curious. I am determined to find the beginning of the series, and follow her wherever she goes.

Best I can tell, this has not been published in the U.S. yet. I ordered it over the web from the UK. I ordered it because of one sentence on the back of the book (my friend, Jeanie Gamble told me about it) - "Sexy, funny and sharp enough to cut herself..." I had to read this. And I am so glad I went to the trouble! Sam Jones leads a hard, fun life. Her life is her friends and hard drinking and hard partying. At one such party her one time mentor, Lee, 'accidentally dies when she apparently stumbles and falls and hits her head. Sam crawls over Lee's former life in a dark, funny, very different mystery story.

This is the second in Henderson's Sam Jones series of mysteries set in the art scene in London. Sam is something of a free soul, as she is in the first book, but this story suffers a little from second-book-itis. I liked the third one a lot more, although I read it first, so novelty might have had something to do with that.½

This debut of the Sam Jones series is pretty good, setting up Sam as a hard-living artist capable of drinking, snorting and dancing her way through the fringes of London and still smart enough to figure out the circumstances of the death of a mentor. She shows all the stubbornness and curiosity of the best amateur detectives, along with a fierce sexuality and persistent recklessness. I was more impressed with the third installment, which I came across first, but this would have been a great start by itself.

This was not a good book. I'm not sure if it was the incongruity of using principles from Jane Austen to justify very modern sexual behaviors or if it was the fact that a good amount of information about Austen's books was wrong (the Crawfords came to the neighborhood of Mansfield Park to visit their half-sister NOT their aunt. And Henderson repeatedly accuses Willoughby's wife of being "bitchy" which is unfairly harsh).

I'm also 90% positive that the majority of the "real life" examples were made up or heavily edited to fit the principle it was meant to illustrate. Not that it mattered since most of the examples didn't really make sense anyways.


I would not recommend this book at all.

It took me a few chapters to really get into this one. I had a hard time getting past the typical, " I hate my life, wish I was prettier, richer, had more popular friends" cliche of most YA books. But once we got into the story I was good.
We meet Scarlett; the main character in the first chapter as she is recounting her "wishes" from New Year's. Her wishes may be typical of a teen, 1: Wishes to kiss Dan McAndrew, and 2: She wishes to have breasts.
I suppose Scarlett is your typical teen, she isn't popular, she is a semi jock; gymnastics is her thing; and she has two best friends, although she would love to be part of the popular crowd at her posh London prep school, St. Tabby's.
When Scarlett is offered the opportunity to be part of the "in-crowd" she jumps at it leaving her two friends Luce and Alison in the dust. Now to me, it seems awful fishy that after all this time the "popular" kids are wanting to welcome Scarlett into their folds. And really, Scarlett is feeling this too.
Plum, the leader of the group; and you know there had to be one; isn't nice at all. She will say something and you gotta wonder if it is a compliment or a total put down, and truthfully they are mostly put downs! I really disliked girls like that in school and trust me my feelings on Plum were no different. Scarlett is then invited to a party where her crush Dan is going to be, after going out and buying a whole new outfit and pretty much transforming herself into a Plum-bot she goes to the party. The party is in full swing when she arrives and Nadia ( party Host) drops her off at the bar where Dan just happens to be. Long story short, Dan and Scarlett kinda hit it off and they go out onto the terrace for some quiet. Scarlett shows off doing some gymnastics and then Dan kisses her. All of a sudden Dan is gasping and frantically searching his pockets.
Scarlett is now known around St. Tabby's as the Kiss of Death girl and she is moved to her grandmother's boarding school. There Scarlett doesn't seem to really fit in; but then again how could she being the Headmistress' granddaughter? Scarlett meets Jase the gardener and Taylor the all around tom-boy. Scarlett instantly starts crushing on Jase, but after all the trama with Dan dying she is scared to even talk to him. Scarlett becomes a loner really and then one day she stumbles upon Taylor out in the woods, they argue a little and then Scarlett leaves. She finds a note in her desk that sends her on the hunt for who left it. Her and Taylor form a friendship and hunt down the truth behind the note.
Scarlett soon discovers who left the note and when she confronts the girl, she learns something she never expected.
Without giving away anymore, know that Scarlett is now onto the truth about what really killed Dan and what exactly happened at that fateful party.
I am anxious to read the second book Kisses and Lies, thankfully I already have it so I don't have to wait!!

Average 3 ⭐️ More violence and gore than in the other titles of the series. Mostly for shock violence most of it is not plot driven but fills in holes in the narrative. The culprit wasn't obvious but not an out of nowhere villain. So so.

Not gender neutral, alas – full of advice for picking up Mr. Darcy but nothing about finding Ms. Bennett. Any of them. Author Lauren Henderson is English and found herself mystified by American dating advice, which she feels is much more complicated than the European version and lacking in common sense. Well and good, but Jane Austen’s Guide to Dating has a lot in common with any number of other dating guides: there are sections on Dos and Don’ts, Men to Avoid (with short little lists on how to identify them), capsule questionnaires for finding the Man You Like (for example, is his Ideal Move Star Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, Katie Holmes, Cameron Diaz, Catherine Zeta-Jones, or Pamela Anderson?), and so forth. A redeeming feature is Ms. Henderson, like Jane Austen, spends a lot of time pointing out that character flaws do not all reside on the Y-chromosome and (for example) Pride and Prejudice is as much about Elizabeth Bennett’s prejudice as FitzWilliam Darcy’s pride (the episode in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies where Elizabeth discovers her error and gives herself The Seven Cuts of Shame across the abdomen shortly after high-kicking Darcy so hard that his head shatters a marble mantelpiece comes to mind for some reason). Nevertheless, not really useful unless you know the object of your affections has read a copy or you are addicted to All Things Jane.½

I thought the premise of this book was really neat, and that's why I picked it up as it had the kind of adventure I craved. However the shift of focus from the painting mystery to the love story (which do overlap I get it) was a bit disheartening, especially since I didn't like the love interest at all.

The ending was incredibly cliche and took way too long to get there. It was almost Princess Diaries in a way (as I assume it's supposed to be) where the girl gets whisked off to be a princess. And it's very clear to me that Luca and Violet shouldn't be together, and I think the liberties the author took to make sure they did end up together ruined it a little bit. I did enjoy the girls' character development better (although Violet was a little too cold to Kelly IMO, give the poor girl a break!) and I really enjoyed the addition of Evan. I think the dynamic between him and Violet would have worked out much better than Luca. But alas, why deny the readers their forbidden romance?

These are pure delicious crack. I read this series back in high school and loved them, and they stand up to a reread. Sam is a highly-sexed sculptor who has a tendency to get involved in murder investigations. I really like her, and I really like her stories, which are funny, sexy *and* filled with suspence.

Sam Jones, sculpter, free-spirit and hard-ass, is embroiled in yet another mystery. Meanwhile, her tempestuous relationship with her hot actor boyfriend is no longer as easy as she likes.

Sam Jones is a confident, independent, and highly skilled sculptress/engineer whose latest work (a huge metal monstrosity she calls simply "Thing III") has sold *very* well. She becomes embroiled in a murder mystery after her sculpture crushes someone to death. These are pure delicious crack.

After reading Jane Austen's whole work, much like a Nicholas Sparks fan, I wanted to read more books from her which as we all know is an impossibility. So while looking for some extended reading on her characters I came across this title. Most part of the critics that I read said the book was supposed to be a relationship guide with Jane Austen's characters as guides for real life relationships with funny and witty examples from Lauren. I picked it up because, like I said before, I wanted further reading on Jane's work and in fact, one can find in the book some pretty good insights on this matter, but overall I didn't find it one bit funny. And more, after many pages reading the author criticizing dating guides, I thought rather ironic that she had written one. So after fishing this book the conclusion I came to is that I should move to the USA in order to get a date, where guys play by the rules.

Some of the stories were great, some were ok, and a couple were pretty bad. But overall, a fine way to pass the day (stayed at home sick yesterday). This is definitely Chick-Lit or Rom-Com-in-Writing.½

Kiss Me, Kill Me is the first book in the Scarlett Wakefield Mystery Series. Scarlett has two close friends, a passion for gymnastics and a satisfying life at St. Tabbys an elite all girls school in London until her first kiss goes tragically awry. When asked to attend a party at Nadia Farouk's, Scarlett jumps at the chance and dumps her true friends in the process. However, the glamorous life isn't all it's cracked up to be and after her first kiss results in the death of popular Dan McAndrew she finds herself friendless and expelled from school. When she receives an anonymous letter at her new school saying Dan's death wasn't her fault she sets out to find the truth. Kiss Me, Kill Me was an enjoyable read with an intriguing plot and a likable main character. I didn't like Scarlett's decision to ditch her true friends for bright and shiny new ones but she ended paying dearly for her betrayal. I like the fact that she is a real teen, not all good or all bad, just somewhere in between. Sprinkled in among the suspense are some pretty humorous moments, particularly the one involving Scarlett and her friend, Taylor, going on a reconnaissance mission to Nadia's flat. I won't give away any details here but suffice it to say I laughed out loud while reading that chapter and am giggling now just thinking about it. If you enjoy the Prep School confidential or The Liar Society Series be sure to check out this book!

Sam Jones meets New York and New York meets Sam Jones. Light, anchored in the time it was written late 1990s, early 2000s.There are quite a bit of cultural and pop reference specific to that era. TV shows, music in particular and the contemporary Young British artists scene of up coming artists that are big names now (Damien Hirst). The murder plot is okay but the best part is Sam discovering New York. There are pages that are just like a very nice tall drink of something cool and tasty. I enjoy this series, the glitz, the cultural references and the milieu it is set in.

Un peu beaucoup trop plein de personnage et de dilettantisme... Mais un certain charme reste½

Dreadful rubbish - over-long, overwrought, over-egged, over-rated. I stopped reading half-way through, read the last chapter which was just as I had predicted it would be, and put it in the bin rather than submit some other poor soul to reading it.

A fun read; occasionally I found the advice inconsistent (for example, in one place she says follow your instincts rather than rules on when you should respond to a person’s advances; in another she lays out Rules You Should Follow), but overall she’s got some good basic common sense ideas, and I rarely thought she was stretching the point when using Austen characters as examples.