Dumping Billy

March 29, 2004
Kate Jameson has outgrown her Brooklyn gang: Bina, Bunny, Barbie and Bev, aka the Bitches of Bushwick. While the Bs still go for French manicures and (gasp) matching furniture, Kate has embraced the urbane life. She has a Chelsea apartment and a neat job as school psychologist at Andrew Country Day "in the best neighborhood in Manhattan." But when Kate meets bad boy bar owner Billy Nolan in her natal borough, she instantly wants to get Brooklyn back into the girl. He's hot for her, too, but fate intervenes in the form of Kate's best friend, Elliot Winston. Elliot and his boyfriend, Brice, are determined to keep Kate from committing romantic folly yet again. In a plot twist that the late Goldsmith (The First Wives Club
, etc.) might have called Queer Eye for the Straight Goy
, Elliot notices that every time Billy dumps a girl, she marries the next guy she dates. So instead of following heart and loins to Billy's bed, Kate helps Elliot engineer a match between Billy and Bina, whose putative fiancé, Jack, went to Hong Kong without giving her the anticipated diamond. Minor complications abound, as Bina dates Billy but falls for someone else, and Kate's burning jealousy blinds her to the truth long after the reader sees it. Goldsmith's fans will perhaps forgive the almost farcical absence of reality; others may resent not only the illogic but also the stereotyping of gays, Jews, working-class Catholics and nearly everybody else. If Goldsmith had affection for her characters, she hid it well. Agent, Tina Andreadis
.

April 15, 2004
Billy Nolan is a devastatingly handsome local bar owner with a reputation for dating and dumping women; the irony is that each woman he drops finds a new man and quickly marries. Kate Jameson is heading out to celebrate the engagement of her best friend, Bina, to Jack. Unfortunately, Jack has other ideas and breaks up with Bina before she can get him to the altar. Commiserating about the perils of dating and marriage, Kate hatches a scheme to have Bina meet and date Billy, sure that after he dumps her, a marriage proposal from Jack will be forthcoming. Got all that? It won't surprise anyone to discover that in spite of trying to do a good deed for a friend, Kate herself becomes completely smitten with Billy. Readers familiar with the contemporary wacky romance genre (e.g., Jane Heller, Jennifer Crusie, and Susan Elizabeth Philips) won't find anything new here; however, owing to the popularity of Goldsmith's previous best sellers (e.g., The First Wives Club) and news coverage of her unexpected death, there is sure to be demand. A necessary purchase for popular fiction collections. [Dumping Billy has been optioned by Universal Pictures.-Ed.]-Margaret Hanes, Sterling Heights P.L., MI

Copyright 2004 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2004
Katherine "Kate" Jameson is proud of how she made the break from her Brooklyn roots: she earned her Ph.D and now works in an exclusive Manhattan school. She has never introduced her old, tacky Brooklyn group to her new, sophisticated friends, especially Elliot, whose gay sensibilities would find the Brooklyn brood uncouth--or so she assumes. Her worlds collide, however, when her Brooklyn friend Bina gets dumped instead of engaged. Bina breaks down in front of Elliot and his classy partner, Brice, and to Kate's amazement, they prove very helpful. Bina, despite her provincial ways, has always been a wonderful friend, which is why Kate blanches at the plan Elliot and Brice hatch: Bina must date the gorgeous Billy Nolan, get dumped, and then marriage to her ex will surely follow. As the shenanigans unfold, Kate hopes Bina doesn't get hurt along the way and that her own feelings for Billy stay beneath the surface. This is Goldsmith's final novel, released only months after her untimely death this past January, and it contains all of the elements that have made her so famous and loved in the first place: wacky heroines exacting revenge on the male species. Fun, silly, and sure to please her fans.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)