Take 5: chick-lit authors

According to the literary trade website Bookseller, chick-lit authors are seeing sales of their latest syrupy works plummet by more than 20 per cent this year, compared with last.

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According to the literary trade website Bookseller, chick-lit authors are seeing sales of their latest syrupy works plummet by more than 20 per cent this year, compared with last. With that, here are five novels that may represent the peak of the genre:

Take 5... PS I Love You by Cecelia Ahern

An Irish widow must learn to move on after her husband dies of a brain tumour. It was not the author's already high profile of being the daughter of the former Irish prime minister that put her on the literary map, but a 2004 novel deemed witty and engaging by critics and the public.

Take 4... The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks (2004)

Another 2004 tale, but this one focuses on the age old romantic dilemma: should the heroine Allie settle for the stable lawyer Lon or risk it all for the loveable rogue Noah? The book may have won Sparks a new legion of fans, but few may forgive him for the overbearingly trite film it spawned.

Take 3... The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger

Weisberger drew upon her former harrowing experience as the assistant to Vogue magazine editor Anna Wintour in this 2003 story of a young impressionable writer working for the editor from hell.

Take 2... Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella

Twenty-five-year-old Rebecca Bloomwood is a journalist living in a stylish flat with a wardrobe bulging with designer labels. But in this Kinsella novel from 2000, will her love for shopping allow her to share her heart with the handsome rich bachelor Luke Brandon?

Take 1... Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding

Viewed as the novel that spawned the genre, Fielding weaves humour with painful observations in this 1996 story about a single 30-something female in search of love and happiness.