Azur Like It

by Wendy Holden

Dreaming of turning her dead-end job at the local paper into fame and fortune at one of London's famed newspapers, reporter Kate Clegg suddenly finds herself unemployed, thanks to shady billionaire Peter Hardstone, until Hardstone's handsome son, Nat, offers her a chance to cover the glamorous Cannes Film Festival. By the author of Gossip Hound. Original.

Genres: Chick Lit, Fiction, Romance, Contemporary Romance, Humor, France, British Literature

368 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Wendy Holden grew up in Yorkshire, and studied English at Girton College, Cambridge. She worked in magazines for many years before joining Tatler's in 1997 as deputy editor, and later moved to the Mail on Sunday’s You magazine, which she left in 2000 to concentrate on writing. She regularly writes features for newspapers and magazines on a range of social, topical and lifestyle subjects and is also a television and radio contributor.

She has now published ten novels, Gallery Girl, Beautiful People, Bad Heir Day, Pastures Nouveaux, Fame Fatale, Azur Like It, The Wives of Bath, The School for Husbands, Filthy Rich, Farm Fatale, Gossip Hound, Simply Divine, all top 10 bestsellers.

Holden is married, and lives in England with her family.

Reviews

[Elizabeth (Miss Eliza) · Rating 1 out of 5]

*Special Content only on my blog, Strange and Random Happenstance during An Excess of Chicks: Chick Lit Month (April 2014)

Kate Clegg dreams of no longer being trapped in a job whose prospects are ever dwindling in her small hometown of Slackmucklethwaite. The local newspaper she works for, The Mercury, has been nicknamed "The Mockery" since it was bought out by a dubious businessman and now concentrates it's energies on advertising and flattering puff pieces. But Kate's horrid new boss has a sexy son, Nat, who is to work alongside her and before long she's lying between the sheets with Nat and spilling her dreams of being a world class journalist covering the Cannes Film Festival while also writing racy romances on the side. Nat claims that he can get his dad to agree to Cannes if she will only pay for the two of them to go, he of course in first class and she in cattle class. Wiping out her savings they head to Cannes where she looses Nat and realizes that he didn't arrange anything and it was all a ruse for her to cough up the money for the plane ticket. Without a job to go back to or any savings or even hope, Kate finds that she's relying on the new people she's met in the small town of Ste. Jeanne, from the displaced wife of a tabloid columnist, to the taciturn staff at her hotel, to the elegant octogenarian Odile, to the dipsomaniac reporter Crichton, to the talented and sexy artist Fabien, she might have more then she thought she had.

I remember back when I first started picking up Chick Lit books at Barnes and Noble that Wendy Holden's books seemed to saturate the shelves with her mildly witty titles like Farm Fatale and Azure Like It. Looking at the shelves nowadays she is noticeably absent and after reading Azur Like It after it languished on my shelves for almost ten years I can say I am not in the least surprised that this and many of her other books are out of print, that's if this one is anything to go by. It wasn't just that the book goes for the cheap laugh or that I had no way to connect to any of the characters, it's mainly that Wendy Holden doesn't grasp that a book needs to be definable not such a mish mash of genres that you want to shake it to see if it can somehow be knocked into shape. But predominately the lead was so unlikable that I wouldn't have minded if she had had an accident on those lovely hairpin turns that litter the south of France.

Let me start with Kate's stupid and hateful nature. There's stupid and then there's stupid. Kate just might actually be so stupid that she is beyond this scale and in her own "special" category. How can someone be so naive and dumb, she's a gorram idiot! Firstly, the fact that she is in bed with her boss's unlikable son within five minutes of meeting him and then, despite the fact that he's supposedly rich, is gladly giving him money for him to head to Cannes... how, just how!?! Angry, rage, building in me. If she was someone I knew I'd drown her out of the goodness of my heart. How does she not see through Nat. No seriously, how!?! He says he can't call her because his father took his phone and then he's always texting in front of her? Say what? That lie right there should have triggered all her warning bells, which she obviously doesn't have. Then there's the whole, she lost her job because of him, because she blindly trusted someone for no reason other then he's hot. WTF! Then there's her dream of wanting to go to the Cannes Film Festival but once there her complete ignorance of anything to do with the festival. Seriously, what was the author thinking?

At first I might have felt a little, tiny, gnat sized iota of sympathy for Kate, because attraction and sex make us do stupid things, but then I realized she's just a hateful person. She blindly trusted Nat and I don't know if this made her hate everyone or if Nat was some aberration, but she is downright cruel to nice people. She thinks Odile is crazy and deluded and could never have been a beauty, whereas Odile has had a stroke so therefore her appearance has changed. The there's Ken, she treats him like garbage despite his always being nice and taking care of her friend. Also the cruel nicknames she gives people make me want to punch her. Kate is a hateful little bitch who just distrusts and dislikes everyone and I just want her to die. I'm not sure I've actually wanted to harm someone so much who is the heroine of a book in all my years of reading. Needless to say this book is quickly being sold, it would be burned in a ceremonial pyre, but I don't believe in book burning.

Then there's the genre issue. Yes, books can mix and mash genres. Genres aren't a hard and fast rule, but when you start throwing in so many that it makes the book bloated and convoluted, well, you have a problem. The genres that I was able to pick out where: romance, expose, celebrity parody, roman à clef, thriller, Gothic horror, and espionage... in fact, Chick Lit seems to not even be in there. It tries to be everything and ends up being nothing. But the straw that broke the camels back was when it decided to go into Gothic horror. When Kate is in bed and sees a hooded monk with a skull head she seriously just hides under the covers? Firstly, this isn't scary or funny, secondly, why did she never connect the skull to the skull in pretty boy's studio upstairs? Well, that's just her stupidity again and I just realized she's pissing me off so much I'm making exasperated hand gestures while writing this review. And why wouldn't you tell anyone about seeing a scary skull monk? It doesn't fit with anything before or after and is just a stupid plot device, like everything else in this book.

In summarizing this book that is not surprisingly out of print I have to just touch on the plethora of stupidity that fills it's pages. Kate is obsessed with condoms. Any person in this day and age who doesn't practice safe sex is an idiot but the fact that the safe sex is laboriously pointed out... um, no, and ew, in fact ew to all the sex in this book. Next, Celia, she says she deserved being beaten by her husband? WHAT!?! Ok, there is a victim's mentality, but no one should ever say they deserved this, especially in a book I picked up to be a fun and light read, just dropping in the fact that domestic abuse is ok, well, that's par for the stupidity of this book. The Bond jokes, including the title of the book are just groan worthy. And finally the painting! Fabien had painted a portrait of Kate years before he met her. Say what? Did he see her somewhere, have a vision quest, have an old picture of Kate's grandmother from during the war? Anything would have been better then no explanation and it just emphasizes the laziness of the writing in this book. Just one more thing to chalk up against this book which I shall now stop talking or writing about because it's making me cranky. Where's my old person stick to wave a whippersnappers?

[Lisa Watson · Rating 1 out of 5]

DID NOT FINISH. THIS IS A 0 STAR FOR ME. HORRENDOUS.

[Rebecca · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted a big book because I went away the weekend I took this out of the library and usually when I go away I read a lot. But this weekend I didn’t stay in my normal hostel and stayed in an actual hotel room with cable tv and everything, plus had a rental car, so I ended up hardly reading at all. And then when I finally got to this book, I didn’t care at all about anything in it. The Girl was such a push over and retard about everything, it just annoyed the hell out of me. She lives in the same town her whole life and works for some local paper and blames that for never leaving or never travelling anywhere. It’s like, come on! Travelling in Europe is easy. She has the money because some guy comes along and cons her out of money to get them to the Cannes Film Festival. She pays if he gets all the passes and for some stupid reason, she falls for this. SO ANNOOYING! Chaos ensues, but I don’t comprehend any of it at all. I have read something else by this author and I remember liking it, which is why I picked up this book, but it didn’t live up to my expectations.

Grade: N/A

[Christina (A Reader of Fictions) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Attempted a reread of this book. I liked Holden a lot when I was in high school but I'm really not sure what the appeal was for me. Though ostensibly chick lit, the romance isn't going to start for a while. Plus, the whole plot hinges on the heroine making bad choices. It also just isn't succeeding at being funny though it's clearly trying.

Dropped rating to a two because I doubt it's quite hateful but pretty sure I wouldn't like finishing this one the second time.

[MsThomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

She's just not as good as Kinsella. The plot took ages to get going, her writing was only funny every now and then... even for a vacation read, it was pretty shallow.

[karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A breezy, entertaining read. I enjoyed it!

[Victoria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good British pop lit with a lady reporter in the cold north flees to the south of France to cover the film festival. High jinks throughout. Very light easy reading

[Chelsea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious! Loved the many plot twists and the characters, I could almost HEAR their various accents and voices.
Can wait to get my hands on other Holden novels.

[Amy Mair]

.

[Mark Stangroome · Rating 3 out of 5]

When an author admits that her books are 'supermarket novels' then it would be churlish to expect a book to have deep meaning with well developed characters and it was with this mindset that I took on this book. It quickly became apparent that the book was close to being a farce, it is not meant to be taken seriously, with stereotypical Northern characters coming from a stereo-typically named Northern town.

The book struggles through the first quarter when I felt that the author struggled to identify with her main character and the life that she led and so it does not surprise me that some readers quit reading during the early phases. The main character, Kate Clegg, does get ridiculously ripped off by her supposed 'boyfriend', the son of the owner of the newspaper that she works for but once past this point the book somewhat improves, even if this is within the confines of it being a 'supermarket novel'. The characters that she meets while on a supposed work trip to the South of France fit the notion of the book being a farce but that does not stop the book being enjoyable at times.

The ending is a bit too contrived and lacking in imagination, almost as if the author had written herself into a corner but desperately wanted a 'happy ending'.

Overall this book is what it is, a fairly good rendition of a book that does not wish to be taken seriously.

[Neli · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is good for an escape novel. The author did a good job of transporting me to coastal France, I could feel the heat and the bright sun whilst physically tucked under a duvet in the rainy UK. I genuinely liked most of the characters, especially the Brits. Although the protagonist was a bit too hapless and naive at times I still felt connecting to her since I am also stuck in a job that I dislike but lack the courage to do something about it and thus keep hoping that someone would come and save me from the misery. In this context, the book could be viewed as a warning for people like me, sort of an anti-cinderella story. But I acknowledge that for someone more emotionally mature this thread may be frustrating. Overall, I enjoyed myself which is what these kinds of books are for. It made me chuckle a few times, I felt the suspense and curiosity about the mystery and I was annoyed with the 'villains' and the unkind side-characters.

[Denise Hale · Rating 2 out of 5]

My friend is moving house and came across a bag of books she claims I lent her. In all honesty, I didn't recognise the books but after a discussion it seems I may have brought them (probably from PTA sale) and not read them before lending. Thus I'm reading this nearly two decades later!

Life has moved; David Beckham no longer plays football, Kate Winslett and Sam Meades are no longer together, and Dale Winton is no longer with us. But maybe the biggest change has been the emergence of MeToo, making references to casting couch, parties with producers and even Page 3 no longer suitable material for humour.

All of the characters are caricatures and although they have a backstory they do not 'step out of the page'. I didn't find it particularly funny or enjoyable. I'm not even sure why I kept reading except to say the plot wasn't boring.

[Kristen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really expected to like this. I didn't. Fortunately, I got this for ten cents at a used book sale at my library, so I don't have to feel bad about turfing it as a DNF.

I totally understand that the intent of this was for it to be a fun, fluffy irreverent and unserious bit of literary cotton candy, and to be fair, it was that. Unfortunately, for me, the tone of this came across as smarmy and the characters were all extremely unlikable for me. I didn't want to spend more time with anyone in this book.

I realize that I am in the minority here, as this was a #1 best seller, so I am happy to call myself an anomaly where this book is considered. It didn't work for me, but it obviously worked for lots of other readers.

[Jasmine · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5-3ish stars?

This book had some redeeming qualities; it did make me laugh, and the accents in it were brilliant! I enjoyed some of the side stories and characters.

Down sides; the shallow and daft main character, the topsy-turvy plot, and some of it just didn't make sense. The time line seemed squiffy, and some of this story just did not read well.
Also, I felt like I had read this book before....the things that made it different to similar books weren't really expanded on. Kate is a journalist, but has no interest in exciting happenings? No urge to investigate or 'get the scoop'? She judges everyone on how they look (very very shallow) and seems to lack any real drive.
Dissapointed, really. I feel it could have been great, but fell quite flat.

[Kerrie Tosh · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this when I was in secondary school and because I have become a bit of a Francophile recently and seen it sitting on my bookshelf, I decided to read it again. I shouldn’t have bothered.

Usually chick-lit is a very predictable, easy genre for me to read, but this was just tedious. The story didn’t flow very well and was longer than necessary and the characters weren’t really developed much.

The thing that annoyed me most of all though is that the girl depicted on the cover is nothing like the girl described in the book!

Overall, this was just a very basic book that didn’t have anything going for it.

[Gemma Harris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmmm this is a tough one for me. The first half of the book was really good and I was looking forward to Kate’s adventures. But then, for me at least, it just started to drag a little and I found myself wanting to flick through the pages just to get on with the plot. Again this is just my opinion but I really just wasn’t feeling it.

[Kristin Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some books just hit a chord with you. I can’t explain it, but whenever I feel blue or nostalgic I read this book and it has a meditative healing quality. Yes, it’s a bit nonsense-y, but don’t take it too seriously. My pages are browned, I’ve lost the front cover and it’s in bad shape - but it’s an annual source of comfort. Thank god this book exists.

[Nicola · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. I needed something light hearted and a page turner as my previous two books had been pretty dreadful. Whilst I enjoyed it, the final third of the book was a bit silly, but light hearted fun.

[Mom · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mindless plot with an equally insipid main character who makes one bad decision after another. Found it hard to even give it two stars. Have liked other books by this author but read this them a long time ago. Should have skipped this one.

[Rory · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good light book. Kate is a good character and her overseas adventures are interesting.

[Gillian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some nice moment and lovely phraseology but a it too nicely wrapped up for me.

[Flying Snow · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible!

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good and fun light read.

[Bracha Simcha · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was terrible in the beginning, it took it almost 200 pages to be readable. Very predictable and sappy.

[Lisa Seter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as enjoyable as the author's other books but I still read it fairly quickly.

[Katie Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun easy read

[Charlotte · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible. Didn’t like the main character at all, the humour was clichèd This is the first book l’ve ever not finished.

[Terry · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is exactly what it should be, fun. It’s a jaunty romp great for a relaxing read.

[Jill · Rating 1 out of 5]

Far too many stereo-typres, kept expecting someone to say 'Eee by gum' any minute.
Sorry it began to grate, no need

[Laurie Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, I got through it. But it was silly.