Cloudy with a Chance of Love by Fiona Collins - Tuesday Intros & Teaser Tuesday

Amazon Description

Every cloud has a silver lining when it comes to love…

Daryl Williams never minded the fact that she had a big bottom. It’s always been behind her. In fact, it was one of the things that her husband loved about her. Until he ran off with her best friend, Gabby.

Daryl knows that she needs to get back in the dating game, she just doesn’t know how. So when her friend suggests taking a fortune forecast, she reluctantly agrees. And it looks like Daryl’s luck is in, by Friday she has a 99% chance of falling in love!

Only, even when it’s written in the stars, finding the one after the one is never easy…

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In just a couple of days (on the 21st of July), Fiona Collins' Cloudy with a Chance of Love is being released and Carina UK was kind enough to let me read it early through NetGalley.

Daryl's my girl. 40-something (yep). Weather-girl for local radio (I have my degree in Communications from college, but mine's just collecting dust). Clueless about dating (always have been - Tom and I never actually dated. We just sort of happened.). Hates to diet (with a passion). Loves to eat (a bit too much - hence the hatred of diets). Has a big butt (even at my slimmest - my genes dictate wide-in-the-rear jeans).

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"First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros" is the first paragraph (or two) of a book
 being read now or in the future and is hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea.

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The story opens on a Sunday and she had just received notice that her divorce has been finalized. When out celebrating, her friend Sam does an online fortune teller reading for her and it comes up with a 99% chance of Daryl falling in love by Friday. She really has no intention of falling in love but still lets Sam talk her into going on dating events like Speed Dating and singles cooking. On top of that her mom (who's hilarious) calls every day and has been on her to move on ever since her now-ex-husband moved out; her daughter, Freya, has informed her that her ex-husband is bringing her ex-best friend with him to her college graduation festivities on Friday; she keeps trying to banish improper thoughts about Will, her hunky helpful neighbor, from her brain.

This could easily have been a complete downer of a book. Let's face it -- any book about starting over could be. It helped that the divorce was drawn out before the book even started and that Daryl's friends Sam and Peony had already seen her through most of the agony of it. We get to be delighted with the fun that could be had with it all. Sam and Daryl encounter some hilarious dating escapades that were even fun (for the readers, anyway) when they went horribly horribly wrong (such as the guy with "octopus arms and toilet-plunger lips"). Of course, the most delightful moments happen with her neighbor -- like when the two decide to hand out Halloween candy together.

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"Teaser Tuesday" from Books and a Beat asks for a random line or two
from anywhere in the book currently being read.

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Of course, it isn't all lighthearted. Daryl's lost her best friend and her faith in love and quite a lot of confidence, but the giggles far outweigh the sniffles and I didn't need a box of tissues at the ready. Sure, a sniffle or two but whole lots of laughs and a bunch of air-punching "you go, girl"s! After all, Daryl's my girl -- big butt and all.

Cloudy with a Chance of Love gave Daryl a 99% chance of falling in love by Friday ... and me a 100% chance of getting my hands on anything else Fiona Collins writes!