Author Feature: 10 Chick Lit Cliques NOT in My Book by Jill Knapp

10 Chick Lit Clique’s that you WON’T find in What Happens To Men When They Move To Manhattan?

1.  Absolutely no one gets a pregnancy scare. Nor does anyone get pregnant and not know who the father is.

These girls know their way around contraception.

2.  No one goes on a journey of self-discovery only to realize that they’re actually gay, but is too afraid to come out to the person they’re dating, but then their significant other finds out anyway by walking in on them kissing someone else.

Come on, how many times have we seen this?

3.  No one get an STD, blames it on their cheating boyfriend, only to later find out it was given to them by the guy they slept with prior to him. 

OOPS! Isn’t my face red? Sorry, bro. Please allow me to adjust your LuLu score and we can move forward?

4.  No one has a shy, yet devastatingly handsome male best friend that they’ve neglected to see as anything more than just a buddy for the last fifteen years until that one summer day when they accidentally walk in on him while he’s staying over at their place (because the water is out in his entire apartment bulding)  and they find him wearing nothing but a towel and a smile.

Oh, Dennis- if only I had known you had ripped abs, I never wouldn’t have taken Billy to the sorority formal instead of you. Let’s fall in love now! K.. thanks, bye!

5.  The main character doesn’t have a crush on ANY of their best friend’s family members, nor do they harbor secret feelings for a teacher, supervisor, or their friend’s significant other. 

“How could you fall in love with my great aunt? She’s 80 years old!” screamed Jenni, as the tears began to form behind her once lively brown eyes.

Porter scratched his head and let out a devastating sigh. “Even you should know that you can’t help who you fall in love with, darlin’.”

6.  No one, at any point in the story, whips out a guitar in front of a character to demonstrate that they’ve learned to play a song she mentioned she loved once, in passing, six months earlier- on their father’s vintage ’56 Gibson…. and then proposes with their dead grandmother’s ring.

“I can’t believe you remembered,” Amanda whispered, as she sat motionless on Craig’s futon.
Craig wiped away the warm tears that fell from her hazel eyes and muttered, “You still haven’t told me, Amanda,” he pulled out a small velvet box. “Why do you build me up, buttercup?”

7.  The main character is never asked out on a date as part of a bet, a game, a scheme, a double-dog dare, by punishment, or trickery - Nor are they asked out for the personal gain of another character such as for a promotion, a green-card, to get closer to the main characters much hotter best friend/older sister, to become more popular in school, or to win her trust in order to steal the secrets of the American government. 

I think this one is pretty self-explanatory.

8.  No one meets a guy who treats them like utter dog- poop, but swears there is just “something about him”, and then realizes behind that tough exterior lives a warm and fuzzy heart of gold….. and then they get together in the end.

Milly slapped Carter across the face after finding out he slept with yet another one of her friends.

Carter took a step back, stunned. His usual angry expression was replaced with one of remorse. One of guilt. “Don’t you understand?” he spat out. “I did this for you!”

Milly let out a sigh and shook her head. “I love you, Carter.”

9.  No character has a horrible jerk of a boss and conspires with a co-worker (who they didn’t like in the begging of the story but end up working together for the “greater good”), to have said boss fired - only to later realize their boss is a mom/ dad of four kids who is just trying to make ends meet and then feel utterly guilty for having exposed their illegal behavior.

“I don’t know if we should have reported Dr. Brown to the board of directors,” Marissa uttered.

“He was sexually harassing half a dozen members of his nursing staff.” I defended, confused by her compassion. “Plus he embezzled a million dollars of the hospital’s money.”

“I know, you’re right. But he’s a single dad. Maybe we should try to find a way to help him instead of judging him?” Marissa shrugged.

“You’re an idiot.”

10.  The main character’s biological father doesn’t show up 1 year after both of her adoptive parents are killed in a car crash, leaving her penniless and broken hearted, only to be handed a giant pile of money by her birth family just as she receives an eviction notice for over-due rent.
 Oh, and her boyfriend just broke up with her too.

“I haven’t seen you in twenty years,” Abigail spun around, standing face to face with her “father” for the first time. “What makes you think I want anything to do with you?”

“Watch your tone, young lady,” the well-dressed man ordered. “I have lots of money to give you to ease my guilt from abandoning you when you were a child. Now take it, and shut up.”

Abigail was in no way about to accept a hand out from some man she hardly knew. It would be a betrayal to her adoptive family- her REAL family. But then again, she had just seen some new Prada sling-backs at Bergdorf’s that morning.

She let out a loud, audible sigh. She was morally torn.

Recently signed by Harper Impulse/Harper Collins, Jill Knapp is a native New Yorker who is the author of the series What Happens To Men When They Move To Manhattan?. A former adjunct professor of Psychology at her Alma Mater, she received a Masters degree in Psychology from the New School For Social Research in Manhattan. A regular contributor to the Huffington Post, and The High Tea Cast, Jill writes about entertainment, dating, and the differences between city and suburban lifestyles.

Follow her on Twitter @JL_Knapp, or on Facebook.

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