Reviews

That was really good. It's not the type of book I typically read, but it was a nice change of pace. Great characters and a very entertaining story. I may have to read more of her books. This was much better than the guilty pleasure I was expecting.

We got in to this author in our Pride Month special over on Howe's Things:
https://soundcloud.com/allthebooks/pride-month-book-club-red-white-and-royal-blue

staceydz's review against another edition

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4.0

It's what you expect. I probably would have enjoyed the book more if I hadn't seen part of the series.

funfetti7's review against another edition

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5.0

I was very happy to find that this novel is not your typical chick-lit book (and not at all like the Sex and the City novel which I found jarring and strange). Bushnell basically tries to answer the following questions: What happens when women act like stereotypical men? Can they be respected and treated the same way in the workplace? How do high-powered careers affect a woman's relationship with her husband and family?

I am a big fan of the Lipstick Jungle TV series and was interested to see what choices were made in the creation of the series. While the same familiar characters are there (harried Wendy, cool calm Nico, and cute Victory) , they seem a lot more career-focused and more ruthless than their TV show counterparts. The struggles they have with office politics and family duties are shown in more detail and in a much less frivolous way. For example, in the novel Wendy is very overwhelmed with her responsibilities at work and struggles a lot more with achieving a perfect work-family balance than she does in the TV show. Victory, a very successful fashion designer, is older and only a little bit flighty; she shows the scars of a woman who has had to fight for her place in the world. Nico is a lot more cut-throat than in the TV show, necessarily so for her job I think.

The book is not perfect. I am not sure that Candace Bushnell achieves three distinct voices for her three main characters. Occasionally it just seemed like she had one ambitious character who was thrust into three different situations. Also, the ending felt very rushed, as though she realized that her word count was getting out of hand and decided to throw a happy ending together. But all in all, this was definitely a good read, and would probably be better received by those less interested in a fun, romantic romp and more interested in a serious-minded read.

essentiallymeagan's review against another edition

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3.0

I saw Kim Raver on Martha today, and she is in the tv version of the show. So I thought I would give it a try. I hope it's better than Trading Up.

So this book was surprisingly good. The characters were actually likable and I cared about what happened to them. Some of the characters (thankfully yet again the likable ones) from Trading Up were featured in this book. I think I could actually see myself watching the show that is based on this book when it finally airs.

accovino's review against another edition

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2.0

entertaining, but morally bankrupt. a mother who wants her kids never to see their father again not because he's a bad father, but because he doesn't love her, a woman who cheats on her perfectly nice husband because she's bored and feels no more remorse than if she'd cheated at scrabble, and a woman who throws temper-tantrums but suffers no ill consequences because she's rich so she can do whatever she wants. if it had ended differently i might have given it a higher rating because, as i said, it was entertaining, but it ended abruptly and disappointingly. wouldn't recommend unless you want 532 pages of okay.

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