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Overview
Anna David turns her reporter's eye for detail toward Tinseltown's seedy underbelly yet again and "eloquently and humorously unveil[s] what could be a new subgenre: Chick Lit with a Message" (New York Post).
Tired of gathering banal quotes from the B-list on the sidelines of the red carpet, Emma Swanson publicly yearns for a more substantial career but privately dreams of a hotshot boyfriend to transport her into the beating heart of the Hollywood scene. Instead, she meets Jessica—beautiful, cavalier, manipulative—who shamelessly trades sex for the gifts it can bring. Convinced that writing a story about Jessica and her ilk would seriously boost her journalistic cred, Emma soon finds herself sucked into a world where the luxuries of prettied-up prostitution may cost more than she ever expected.
Synopsis
Anna David turns her reporter's eye for detail toward Tinseltown's seedy underbelly yet again and "eloquently and humorously unveil[s] what could be a new subgenre: Chick Lit with a Message" (New York Post).
Tired of gathering banal quotes from the B-list on the sidelines of the red carpet, Emma Swanson publicly yearns for a more substantial career but privately dreams of a hotshot boyfriend to transport her into the beating heart of the Hollywood scene. Instead, she meets Jessica—beautiful, cavalier, manipulative—who shamelessly trades sex for the gifts it can bring. Convinced that writing a story about Jessica and her ilk would seriously boost her journalistic cred, Emma soon finds herself sucked into a world where the luxuries of prettied-up prostitution may cost more than she ever expected.
Publishers Weekly
A struggling journalist covering the L.A. party circuit ponders her price while writing a feature about a high-class hooker in David's misfired follow-up to Party Girl. Emma Swanson, hungry for a promotion at Substance-a local glam rag-is young, ambitious and frustrated with her lowly beat. While researching a potential cover story on yuppie hooking, she meets gorgeous if bitchy call girl Jessica Davis, who introduces Emma to her contemporary version of the world's oldest profession. As Emma's story looks like it might come together (and Jessica showers Emma with expensive gifts), one of Jessica's friends offers Emma the editor-in-chief spot at a magazine he's about to launch. The catch: she's got to give him the hooker story. What follows is a moralizing journey of self-discovery, replete with a Michael Toms-assisted epiphany. David sets up some interesting parallels between selling your soul and selling your body, but the narrative comes off too lightweight and hokily insidery (Ron Burkle is name-checked) to really deliver on them. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Editorials
Ian Kerner
"[David] Simultaneously channel[s] Charles Bukowski and Anaïs Nin…with a truly authentic voice that makes Sex and the City look like Disneyland."Nerve.com
"Trying to pick sides is all part of the fun, as is asking yourself: What would you do to get what you want?…I practically devoured this."New York Post
"[David] eloquently and humorously unveil[s] what could be a new subgenre: Chick Lit with a Message."Booklist
"David presents a glitzy, glamorous, gossipy novel."Publishers Weekly
A struggling journalist covering the L.A. party circuit ponders her price while writing a feature about a high-class hooker in David's misfired follow-up to Party Girl. Emma Swanson, hungry for a promotion at Substance-a local glam rag-is young, ambitious and frustrated with her lowly beat. While researching a potential cover story on yuppie hooking, she meets gorgeous if bitchy call girl Jessica Davis, who introduces Emma to her contemporary version of the world's oldest profession. As Emma's story looks like it might come together (and Jessica showers Emma with expensive gifts), one of Jessica's friends offers Emma the editor-in-chief spot at a magazine he's about to launch. The catch: she's got to give him the hooker story. What follows is a moralizing journey of self-discovery, replete with a Michael Toms-assisted epiphany. David sets up some interesting parallels between selling your soul and selling your body, but the narrative comes off too lightweight and hokily insidery (Ron Burkle is name-checked) to really deliver on them. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.