Jane Heller
Author of Female Intelligence
About the Author
Image credit: Credit: Michael Forester
Works by Jane Heller
Confessions of a She-Fan: The Course of True Love with the New York Yankees (2009) 24 copies, 1 review
You'd Better Not Die or I'll Kill You: A Caregiver's Survival Guide to Keeping You in Good Health and Good Spirits (2012) 14 copies
All Together in One Place 1 copy
The Riverview Murders 1 copy
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Heller, Jane
- Legal name
- Heller, Jane
- Birthdate
- 20th century
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- New York, USA
- Places of residence
- Santa Barbara, California, USA
- Education
- University of Rochester (B.A. Classics), Annenberg School of Communications (U of PA)
- Occupations
- Former book publicist
- Relationships
- Michael Forester (husband)
- Agent
- Ellen Levine (Trident Media Group)
- Short biography
- After a decade promoting bestselling authors for New York publishing houses, Jane Heller became one herself. Her 13 novels of romantic comedy, nine of which have been optioned by Hollywood for film and television, are entertaining readers around the world - and are just out in ebook editions for the first time. Book #14, a nonfiction title, explored her passion for baseball and the NY Yankees. Her next book, also nonfiction, is due in November 2012 from Chronicle: "You'd Better Not Die or I'll Kill You: A Caregiver's Survival Guide to Keeping You in Good Health and Good Spirits." Visit her at http://www.janeheller.com.
Members
Reviews
The Secret Ingredient by Jane.Heller
This book grabbed my attention and never let go. I couldn't put the book down until I finished it. Every married woman has thought that the "magic" has gone out of their marriage at some time or other. I doubt many of us have gone to the extremes that these women do. Of course, that is what makes this book so delightful. I will definitely be looking for more books by this author.
Amy has to work professionally with her former best friend Tara, former because Tara ran off with Amy’s fiancé Stuart. Tara and Stuart are now living a seemingly blissful married life, and Tara wrote a book about it which Amy is assigned to publicize. To cope, Amy invents a fiancé of her own, a famous author who will make Tara jealous. Complications ensue.
half-way thru and just couldn't do it. Way too madcap and maddening. Like reading an I Love Lucy episode without the humor
I really enjoyed this. As with almost every book I read lately - did they pass a law or something? - this one is told from alternating perspectives.
Part 1 is devoted to Amy. She tells the story of how Tara, her former best friend, stole Amy's rich and successful fianc̩ and married him instead. This, unsurprisingly, results in the end of the friendship. Amy spends years in therapy trying to get over this double betrayal by Tara and Stuart.
The former friends run into each other four years later on the streets of Manhattan. Tara, looking beautiful, raves about her wonderful marriage to Stuart and their fabulous house in Long Island. She asks Amy condescendingly how she is doing and Amy invents a great fianc̩ of her own. They part company.
In a ridiculous coincidence, it turns out that Tara has written a lifestyle book called "Simply Beautiful" which has been purchased by L&T, the publishing house Amy works for. Guess who has to manage the publicity for the book? Amy. It is really a silly setup; but once you stop rolling your eyes about it, kind of fun.
Tara relentlessly presses Amy for more details about her fianc̩, and instead of 'fessing up, Amy schemes to come up with one. She quickly goes through various candidates among her male acquaintances, trying and failing to find someone remotely impressive. To her surprise she convinces L&T's star author Tony Stiles, to play along with her charade. Tony happens to be the favorite author of Tara and Stuart, and he agrees for reasons of his own to pose as Amy's besotted lover during various outings with the other couple.
By the time the focus switched perspective in Part 2, I thought Amy was a complete nitwit; so even though she was the villain of the piece up to this point, I was very sympathetic to Tara's point of view. Especially as we learn that Tara has not been completely honest about her "Simply Beautiful" life with Stuart.
The two women unravel each other's secrets, work through their past hurts, and ultimately join forces to solve a mystery and rediscover their friendship. It's all very unbelievable but fun.… (more)
Part 1 is devoted to Amy. She tells the story of how Tara, her former best friend, stole Amy's rich and successful fianc̩ and married him instead. This, unsurprisingly, results in the end of the friendship. Amy spends years in therapy trying to get over this double betrayal by Tara and Stuart.
The former friends run into each other four years later on the streets of Manhattan. Tara, looking beautiful, raves about her wonderful marriage to Stuart and their fabulous house in Long Island. She asks Amy condescendingly how she is doing and Amy invents a great fianc̩ of her own. They part company.
In a ridiculous coincidence, it turns out that Tara has written a lifestyle book called "Simply Beautiful" which has been purchased by L&T, the publishing house Amy works for. Guess who has to manage the publicity for the book? Amy. It is really a silly setup; but once you stop rolling your eyes about it, kind of fun.
Tara relentlessly presses Amy for more details about her fianc̩, and instead of 'fessing up, Amy schemes to come up with one. She quickly goes through various candidates among her male acquaintances, trying and failing to find someone remotely impressive. To her surprise she convinces L&T's star author Tony Stiles, to play along with her charade. Tony happens to be the favorite author of Tara and Stuart, and he agrees for reasons of his own to pose as Amy's besotted lover during various outings with the other couple.
By the time the focus switched perspective in Part 2, I thought Amy was a complete nitwit; so even though she was the villain of the piece up to this point, I was very sympathetic to Tara's point of view. Especially as we learn that Tara has not been completely honest about her "Simply Beautiful" life with Stuart.
The two women unravel each other's secrets, work through their past hurts, and ultimately join forces to solve a mystery and rediscover their friendship. It's all very unbelievable but fun.… (more)
Awards
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 27
- Also by
- 1
- Members
- 1,905
- Popularity
- #13,512
- Rating
- 3.3
- Reviews
- 24
- ISBNs
- 142
- Languages
- 7
- Favorited
- 2
