Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Toon in TODAY!

Photo from Paige Toon's Twitter profile
To celebrate International Chick Lit Month right here, we're all doing tributes to some of our favorite authors. Here is what Becky Gulc had to say about Paige Toon.

When I was asked to produce an author tribute as part of Chick Lit Central’s contribution to International Chick Lit Month, a handful of authors whose work I really love came to mind. For each of these authors, I’d made a point of reading each and every one of their books over a number of years. In the end though I decided to pay tribute to a relatively new author compared to many of the other ones we’ve paid tribute to on the blog or the authors that have been inducted into the International Chick Lit Month Hall of Fame. This author is the fabulous Paige Toon.

Paige Toon has now written six novels, beginning with "Lucy in The Sky" back in 2007. She has most recently released "One Perfect Summer," which seems to be going down a storm with her fans. At the moment, "One Perfect Summer" is rated as 5 stars on amazon.co.uk and all Paige’s previous novels are rated as 4.5...pretty impressive stuff!

So why did I decide to pay tribute to Paige? Well, when I decided on this I’d only actually read two of her novels, "Pictures of Lily" and "Lucy in the Sky." I read both of these novels at the start of last year. When there are so many great authors out there, it takes someone really special to make you enjoy their writing so much that you will take the time to actively go and seek out their other books, previous or upcoming, which I immediately did with Paige. Whilst I have my staple favourites (Marian Keyes, Lisa Jewell, Adele Parks, Freya North, Sophie Kinsella), it had been a while since anyone new had come along and make me instantly love their work like Paige did. When I read "Pictures of Lily," I couldn’t put it down, and I loved "Lucy in the Sky" even more, if that’s even possible. I’ve since read "Johnny Be Good" and "Baby Me Mine," and I can’t wait to read the remaining two! They never disappoint. The only reason I didn’t read them all instantly is that I started doing reviews for the blog last summer, so personal choice has taken a bit of a back seat.

What I love most about Paige’s books is that you instantly bond with the central character, they’re very likeable and you enjoy spending time with them. In "Lucy in the Sky," Lucy is on a plane bound for Australia from London when she receives a text from a stranger claiming to have slept with her boyfriend – when you can’t touch your phone for 24 hours to see what’s going on how can you not feel for the poor woman?! The books also flow really well and you could easily gobble up a whole book in one sitting as you’ll be that keen to read on; they’re not easy to put down.

Paige has spent time living in Australia and America, and now lives in the UK – this has helped her really transport her readers to different countries, I loved "Pictures of Lily," over a year later I can still vividly picture the images of the Australian setting I’d created in my mind.

Another thing that is great about her books is that you’ll see the characters reappear in different books. I wasn’t aware of this until after I’d read my first two as they don’t always reappear in major roles, so I had to go back and see where the different characters were in their lives! This is a nice touch, it’s always good to see how the characters you grow to care about are getting on. There are also some very lovely male characters in the books I’ve read so far...

I’ve found that Paige is one of those authors who will be mentioned in conversations with friends you’ve not seen for a while when you’re discussing books you’ve enjoyed recently. I didn’t want to just base my tribute on my thoughts, so I asked for some feedback via Twitter, on why others love Paige’s books. Here are some of the responses:

‘her characters are well developed and relatable, her stories are exciting but believable and her writing is gripping’

‘there’s a lot of exciting events & the best part is I can never guess what will happen next! It’s the ultimate escape!

[her] ‘work simply pulls me out of this world & throws me into the world of Daisy or Meg etc’

‘really witty and engaging, fun chick lit that I really enjoy’

‘she makes you feel like you know the characters and you immediately feel part of their world. Warm and funny’


If you haven’t read any of Paige’s novels yet, what are you waiting for?!? You won’t be disappointed. Paige, your follow up to "One Perfect Summer" appears to be eagerly anticipated, so write quickly on behalf of all your fans please!

Visit Paige Toon on Facebook and Twitter.

No comments: