Wolves in Chic Clothing

Sounding wickedly bitchy, Susan Denaker reads us a hilariously trashy Cinderella saga. Julia, a clerk in the chic jewelry store Pelham's, is "adopted" by Pelham heiress Lell and her dilettante friends, and exchanges her East Village lifestyle for Park Avenue. Denaker imbibes Julia with innocence yet captures the sharp tongues of the super rich. When Julia makes the mistake of tapping Lell's husband as her Prince Charming, her dream life collapses. Denaker drives home the life lesson learned: Never sleep with the boss's husband. She keeps the hot-and-heavy action going at a lively and lilting pace, and gives each of Lell's look-alike cronies a distinct personality. M.T.B. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine

February 21, 2005
Riding on the designer coattails of their The Right Address
, this duo—best friends since first grade—lampoon the elite they know and love/loathe with a story that's as buoyantly vapid as their stock characters. This time, the plot involves the junior jet set: a few preening Manhattan princesses decide to remake a fresh-faced girl in their own airbrushed image, Henry Higgins–style. Julia Pearce, a downtown hipster with vintage-chic style and natural beauty, works as a salesgirl in Pelham's Department Store, where she's caught the eye of the Pelham heiress, Lell. Out of winter ennui, Lell and her gaggle of girlfriends decide to take on this "charity case"—who bemusedly welcomes the attention—bestowing upon Julia a promotion, a fake pedigree and an uptown makeover. As she forsakes burgers for salads, thrift stores for Ralph Lauren and joie de vivre for too-cool cattiness, Julia's ascension from day laborer to Pelham power player affords her the chance to pursue her dream of jewelry design. But it also estranges her from longtime friends, puts off her love interest and attracts the advances of Lell's sleazy new husband, Will—predictably wreaking havoc for everyone. The authors intend to mine humor from tossing Julia to the snarks—er, sharks. But this fish-out-of-water story gasps for air, and even the authors' swipes against society feel familiar and bloodless.