title: Up For Renewal: What Magazines Taught Me About Love, Sex, and Starting Over
author:  Cathy Alter 
description: Realizing she needed to do serious work on her junk food/junk sexlittered lifestyle, Alter, a recently divorced thirty-seven-year old freelance writer, decided to spend each month of the coming year following the advice of a major women's magazine without question. She picked nine titles focusing on a how-to ethos more or less aligned with her own demographic: <i>Elle</i>, <i>Marie Claire</i>, <i>O</i>, <i>Allure</i>, <i>Self</i>, <i>Cosmopolitan</i>, <i>Glamour</i>, <i>InStyle</i> and <i>Real Simple</i>. Each month she'd work on a particular damage zonediet, social fears, clothes, relationship snafus, cooking, sex, etc.and follow the advice of her chosen magazine as earnestly as possible. Meanwhile, she'd also begun dating a new guy, which brought up relationship challenges her magazine mentors loved to addressspicing up the sex, learning to cook instead of eating out and deciding if his birthday present meant a marriage proposal was imminent. While she ends up feeling positive about the self-improvement her magazine experiment has brought, she knows if she hadn't been ready and willing to change, all the advice in the world wouldn't have helped. In the end, fans of Bridget Jones will also enjoy Altershe's funny and endearing. <i>(July)</i> <br />Copyright  Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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  He has an outrageous proposition...
  
  
  
  
  
  She’ll wear his diamond—temporarily!
  
  
  
  
  
  Personal assistant Abby’s newest assignment, as her sexy boss Gabriel’s fake
  fiancée, sends her heart rate rocketing. And that’s before Abby experiences
  the heady sensuality of his response! She cannot resist the temptation of a
  burning hot, short-term affair. But when the heat between them threatens to
  undo her, Abby must decide if she can share her body—and soul—with Gabriel...
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  CATHY WILLIAMS can remember reading Mills & Boon books as a teenager, and now
  that she is writing them she remains an avid fan. For her, there is nothing
  like creating romantic stories and engaging plots, and each and every book is
  a new adventure. Cathy lives in London. Her three daughters—Charlotte, Olivia
  and Emma—have always been, and continue to be, the greatest inspirations in
  her life.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Also by Cathy Williams](../Text/Contents.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
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