Hot Property

July 15, 2011

Billed as a roman à clef, this first novel by the Kleier trio (who star in HGTV's reality show Selling New York) seems more of a recitation of trendy brand names, trendy shops and restaurants and the trendy New York City residential real estate coveted by Big Apple movers-and-shakers.

The lightweight narrative chronicles the adventures of the Chase family, Elizabeth, the mother, and Kate and Isabel, daughters who work with their parents at Chase Residential, "a wildly successful boutique agency." The authors (mother and daughters) are real-life Manhattan residential brokers. They know multimillion-dollar locations, and they know people willing to bid above asking price for the view: "After irritating Elizab­eth for months with his indecision and almost daily phone calls, the exasperating Bart Schneider finally opted to buy." They know co-op boards want to see financials and will demand dogs take the freight elevator. The Chases also recite every brand name coveted by those who earn seven figures, from Jimmy Choo to Badgley Mischka. The plot is minimal. Kate worries about an on-again/off-again relationship with a can't-find-himself boyfriend. Teddy Wingo, a womanizing, high-producing Chase broker, conspires to join a rival firm. Then there is Isabel's enigmatic client, Delphine, the trophy wife of a count, but any reader not bedazzled by Möet Chandon will decipher that mystery before the next power lunch at Balthazar. Much of the narrative moves via cell phones or chauffeur-driven Mercedes, or while shopping at Saks or Bergdorf or over a lunch of pollo patanato at Sette Mezzo. Countless names are dropped—everyone from Billy Joel to Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones—and doubt Page Six fans will be amused to see doppelgängers in cameo appearances.  

Ungaro, Chanel, Nina Ricci, Poggenpohl and Sub-Zero do not great storytelling make.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

April 15, 2011

Along with her daughters, Samantha Kleier-Forbes and Sabrina Kleier-Morgenstern, New York real estate mogul Kleier is seen weekly by 1.25 million viewers on HGTV's highly popular Selling New York. Now they've crafted a novel about--surprise!--three high-flying real estate women in New York balancing work, love, and marriage. With a 75,000-copy first printing; for fans of how-the-rich-live novels.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2011
Elizabeth Chase and her daughters, Kate and Isabel, lead charmed lives selling high-end real estate in Manhattan. A fellow broker starts to display some dodgy behavior with a competitor, but that's not important here. Nominal romantic drama from the sisters, a suspiciously generous countess, and the aforementioned dodgy broker are virtually beside the point. Hot Property is all about detailsrestored prewar fixtures, Jimmy Choos, Hermes scarves, even pedigreed candy. Every character looks like a movie star, literally. Kate is Natalie Wood, Isabel is Reese Witherspoon, and there's a Brad Pitt in there somewhere. Unsavory characters are easily identified by their clammy hands. The Kleiers, a mother and her two daughters, are real-estate agents in Manhattan featured on HGTV's Selling New York. Each chapter opens with a listing for a fabulous property, and each chapter ups the fabulousness ante. Devotees of Page Six who like beach reads unencumbered by plot and character development may devour this. Others may be better served by anything by Candace Bushnell or by Laura Weisberger's The Devil Wears Prada (2003).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)