Rumor Has It

March 15, 2010
Londoner Tilly Cole discovers the perils of smalltown life in Mansell's perfectly executed exemplar of fluff. After her live-in boyfriend “does a runner,” Tilly ditches London for Roxborough and a job as assistant to interior designer Max Dineen. Much of the town's gossip centers on handsome ladies' man Jack Lucas, and despite his almost irresistible charm, Tilly resolves not to be the latest notch on his bedpost. Meanwhile, gossip threatens to wreck Tilly's friend Erin when she's targeted by a jealous former friend and gets Max's ex-wife, Hollywood soap-opera star Kaye Dineen, hounded back to England. At the center, Tilly and Jack get into tangles, literally and figuratively, as they bounce toward their happy ending. While witty dialogue and wry observations keep the pace brisk, Mansell (Miranda's Big Mistake
) still manages to tug at the heart.

March 1, 2010
More relieved than upset when she returns home to find herself unceremoniously dumped by her live-in boyfriend, Tilly Cole is comforted by her best friend, Erin, who lives in a nearby town. By the end of her visit, Tilly has a new job and a home in Roxborough, but she soon discovers that gossip is practically a way of life there. Since most of that gossip swirls around Jack Lucas, the handsome bachelor who catches her eye, Tilly must decide whether to trust her head and what she hears through the gossip mill or her heart and what it tells her when she's with Jack. Mansell ("Perfect Timing") manages to infuse moments of hilarity into what is a fairly predictable plot. Some minor characters are entertaining, but the various story lines peter out and fall flat by the end. VERDICT A light read, the story suffers from Mansell's failure to go beyond the surface of some of the more serious issues presented. Those who like their chick lit sprinkled with British humor might find this mildly entertaining. Readers who want more substance should try Marian Keyes's "The Other Side of the Story". [Library marketing.]Natasha Grant, New York

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2010
Tilly Coles boyfriend has just moved out of their flat, with half their things. With nothing to tie her down, Tilly decides on a whim to move closer to her best friend, Erin, in a tiny village in the Cotswolds. There Tilly is immediately hired as a jack-of-all-trades in an interior-design business. Much to her surprise, the small town is a seething hotbed of scandal, sex, backstabbing, and gossipmongering, mostly focused on Jack Lucas, the good-looking man-about-town and her boss best friend. Everyone tells Tilly to ignore Jacks charm, that shell be just another notch in his bedpost if she succumbs; but Tilly, who works side by side with Jack, sees a softer, kinder side thats rarely revealed to the townspeople. He cant possibly be the Casanova everyone is making him out to be. Or can he? Tilly must separate fact from fiction and follow her gut in Mansells cheerful tale of modern love.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)