Overview
Playing “Winter Wonderland” for last-minute Christmas shoppers has got to be the all-time low point of Stephanie Glassman’s career. The aspiring jazz soloist and single mother has no singing prospects, no man in her life since her hot fling with a movie stuntman, and a social life that consists of having her two best friends over for high-calorie Sunday brunches. Even her grandmother’s having more sex than she is. That is, until toddler Jake’s irresistible father hurtles back into her life.
Albert promises fidelity, plus married life filled with the best sex Stephanie’s ever had. But there’s a tantalizing new wrinkle: Frank Waterman, rising star and Stephanie’s old crush, is suddenly semi-available and interested. And her stalled career seems to be heating up. But when her big break erupts in a scandal that puts her on the front page instead, Stephanie’s in a whole new league. Now, with fame at her door and two hot guys fighting over her, Stephanie’s got some big decisions to make…and they may surprise everyone—including her.
Synopsis
Playing “Winter Wonderland” for last-minute Christmas shoppers has got to be the all-time low point of Stephanie Glassman’s career. The aspiring jazz soloist and single mother has no singing prospects, no man in her life since her hot fling with a movie stuntman, and a social life that consists of having her two best friends over for high-calorie Sunday brunches. Even her grandmother’s having more sex than she is. That is, until toddler Jake’s irresistible father hurtles back into her life.
Albert promises fidelity, plus married life filled with the best sex Stephanie’s ever had. But there’s a tantalizing new wrinkle: Frank Waterman, rising star and Stephanie’s old crush, is suddenly semi-available and interested. And her stalled career seems to be heating up. But when her big break erupts in a scandal that puts her on the front page instead, Stephanie’s in a whole new league. Now, with fame at her door and two hot guys fighting over her, Stephanie’s got some big decisions to make…and they may surprise everyone—including her.
Publishers Weekly
As an almost destitute single mother who hasn't had sex in years, Stephanie Glassman knows how to sing the blues really sing the blues, despite her being British, and Jewish to boot. In fact, her meddlesome but loving parents aren't the only ones who think Stephanie has a magnificent voice, so why hasn't she landed the lucky break she deserves? When two-year-old Jake's father, a stunt man named Albert, appears back on the scene with earnest intentions to settle down, and London's hottest agent, the "fun size" midget Ossie Da Costa, gives her a call, her luck appears to be changing. But Ossie offers her a questionable assignment to provide the behind-the-scenes voice for one of the theater's biggest prima donnas, and then Stephanie runs into an old crush, the rising star Frank Waterman. Now Stephanie must make some tough decisions about shaping not only her own life but her son's as well. With Stephanie, Margolis (Apocalipstick; Spin Cycle; etc.) has produced yet another jazzy cousin to Bridget Jones. Writing with a British sensibility sure to tickle the American fancy, Margolis packs Stephanie's world full of lovable eccentrics like 79-year-old grandmother Lilly, who worries that her pacemaker might keep her from having multiple moments of ecstasy with her matzo ball tycoon boyfriend, and, of course, the inevitable posse of gossipy mates who share Sunday "fry up" with Stephanie. All these colorful extras leave little room for Frank's development, however. He remains benevolently in the shadows, as if his presence were a necessary evil in a novel that knows it is a romantic comedy but has its heart elsewhere. Agent, Deborah Schneider at Gelfman Schneider. (June 1) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.