So Pretty It Hurts

January 23, 2012
Cosmo editor-in-chief White’s entertaining sixth Bailey Weggins mystery (after 2007’s Lethally Blonde) finds whip-smart reporter Bailey working hard at the New York gossip rag Buzz while dating elusive documentary filmmaker Beau Regan. When Beau suddenly takes off for Arizona to work on a new film, Bailey accepts a weekend invitation to a record producer’s upstate country house, where the demise of a celebrity guest soon causes consternation. Not satisfied that supermodel Devon Barr died of a drug overdose or committed suicide, Bailey embarks on a relentless quest to figure out who and what killed Devon in the prime of her career. But the more dark secrets Bailey uncovers, the more she has to watch her own back. While the prose can be more kitsch than clever in this fast-paced, insider look at the seedy underworld of fame, series fans and readers who love tabloid drama will be enthralled. Agent: Sandra Dijkstra, Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency.

May 28, 2012
Renee Raudman delivers a winning performance in this audio edition of White’s sixth whodunit featuring New York City reporter Bailey Weggins. Whenever the investigator in a mystery (especially one set in the present day) isn’t a professional, listeners have to suspend even more disbelief—and that’s where the right narrator (like Raudman) can make all the difference. Crime—with a specialization in celebrity misdeeds—is Bailey’s beat, but her work becomes hands-on when an invitation to a country house lands her in “a big fat mess that involved all sorts of nasty things,” including murder and kinky sex, as well as a threat to her continued employment. While Raudman shines in her portrayal of Weggins, she is less convincing in her rendition of male voices. However, this is a minor fault as the bulk of the narrator’s performance is devoted to Weggins. A Harper hardcover.

February 1, 2012

Sexy true crime journalist Bailey Weggins (Lethally Blond) gets tangled up in a supermodel's death in her breezy sixth outing. [See Prepub Alert, 9/19/11.]

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2012
Celebrity-crime writer Bailey Weggins (Over Her Dead Body, 2005, etc.) returns for another round of crime in which she gets a mite too close to the celebrities. When her current Mr. Right, Beau Regan, announces that maybe he'll be back from his documentary shoot by Saturday night and maybe he won't, Bailey's miffed enough for some gentle retaliation: She'll accept her best bud Jessie Pendergrass' invitation to join her at record producer Scott Cohen's bucolic upstate place for the weekend. Bad move. A combination of winter weather and a power outage strands the B-list guests in the converted barn; Scott whispers to Jessie that he'd love to try a threesome with Bailey; and, oh yeah, the headline guest, veteran model Devon Barr, dies of an unexplained heart attack. Since it's Bailey's job to explain the inexplicable for Buzz, she's quizzing Devon's agent Cap Darby, his wife Whitney, Devon's booker Christian Hayes, Devon's model friend Tory Hart and Tory's rocker boyfriend Tommy Quinn about what they saw and heard and know even before the lights come back on and the party can return to the Big Apple, where secrets will be disclosed and tension will fizzle--or rather be recalled to its roots. Instead of asking which bland celebrity fed anorexic Devon the diuretic that killed her, fans can noodle over the larger questions of whether a blackmail accusation will get Bailey sacked from Buzz and whether she and her Beau really have what it takes for the long haul. Half And Then There Were None, and half relationship primer.

COPYRIGHT(2012) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

February 1, 2012
Bailey Weggins, true-crime reporter for the gossipy tabloid Buzz, continues to be in the right place at the right time. Invited to join her office BFF, Jessie Pendergrass, for a weekend at a record producer's country home, along with supermodel Devon Barr and her entourage, Bailey is at hand when Devon is found dead in bed. While the coroner detects signs of heart failure, presumably brought on by anorexia, Bailey suspects that someone hastened Devon's death, and a little snooping turns up multiple motives among the other weekend guests, who include Devon's agent, agency rep, assistant, and ex-boyfriend (with his current squeeze). Then someone gets Bailey pulled off the story with a bogus extortion charge and engineers threats on her life. Meanwhile, her relationship with current love interest, Beau Regan, hits a rocky spell, forcing her to face commitment issues. After two stand-alones from White, it's good to have Bailey back in her sixth outing (after Lethally Blond, 2007). She's a smart, sexy sleuth with a growing fan base.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)