Who doesn’t love good chick-lit? It makes us feel better that against all the odds the heroine always finds her happy ending despite the rollercoaster plots, romantic twists and the odd repulsive married man. There is a certain comfort in predictable endings especially when we don’t have the foggiest idea when we’re getting this well deserved happily ever after. Saying that, these girly books really raise the bar on our expectations and when we compare our own life to them it sometimes makes us blue. Sometimes we wish we could jump into the pages and bring those clichés to life! Here are some of our favourite chick-lit regulars we wish were real.
The hot guy always waits around
When chick-lit heroines cruelly dump a one-night stand/blind date because they are too poor or immature to be boyfriend material, the hottie always sticks around while she figures out what she wants. In our experience, the men we’ve dumped are bitter that we’ve pointed out their flaws and after we’ve had a rendezvous with a wealthy business guru with deep-seated personality flaws we don’t think he’d be willing to get back together with us. Also, guys with six-packs don’t stay on the shelf for long and in chick-lit they can be mysteriously single for up to two years. What’s that about?
Everyone works in PR or the media
Okay, we admit that we at Her.ie do fit into this cliché but according to the chick-lit bible, only PR and media girls deserve true love. When has an accountant ever graced a love triangle in a romantic novel? Of course we think this is a terrible injustice and there is definitely a story in a sexy accountant having a fling with her repulsive boss before realizing her true love was her roommate all along. Also, PR chick-lit heroines spend their whole lives attending celebrity parties, which is not realistic.
Location: City!
Chick-lit heroines always live in central London, LA. or New York and mysteriously can pay huge rents despite holding entry level PR jobs. We want a novel set in Kerry because great romances are born in rural Ireland too you know.
Flaws are always charming
Whether the heroine is a shopaholic, an adulteress, perpetually late or crap at her job everyone is always charmed by everything she does. Her best friend forgives her for clumsily knocking over the horrendously expensive wedding cake, the hottie forgives her sleeping with another man and her boss is okay with the blunder that cost the company thousands of euro. If we did any of these things we’d be excommunicated from the world.
Sex is always amazing
Chick-lit heroines always manage to find gorgeous men who blow their minds in bed even when both parties are drunk on the way home from an amazing celebrity party! The man always has a perfect body even if he doesn’t work out and is always well equipped to show a girl a good time! Real life sex is not always this perfect and chick-lit is raising our expectations unachievably high!
