When Life Gives You Lululemons

June 1, 2018
Weisberger (The Singles Game, 2016, etc.) gives rich-lit fans a second spinoff of her best-known novel, The Devil Wears Prada, shifting her lens from long-suffering Andrea Sachs to Emily Charlton, the snippy fashionista who worked as top assistant to Runway magazine's hellish editor, Miranda Priestly.A decade after leaving Runway, Emily has successfully reinvented herself as a celebrity stylist and image consultant specializing in crisis management. But it's her own career that's in jeopardy when a hotshot rival starts luring away Emily's Hollywood clients with millennial social media superpowers. Emily needs a big win or she may as well pack it up and head back to Runway. Thankfully, her childhood friend Miriam Kagan has just the gig for her. Miriam recently moved to tony Greenwich, Connecticut, where former supermodel and current senator's wife Karolina Hartwell is hiding out after a brush with the law. Something about Karolina's DUI arrest just doesn't add up, though. Miriam dusts off her Harvard law degree and Emily kicks into high gear, discovering their friend Karolina has been set up by her husband, an ambitious politician with his eye on the White House. Now the three friends must take him down. Having a kick-ass girl posse is not only great fun, but essential for survival in this town filled with moms obsessed with SoulCycle, trophy kids, and plastic surgery--including having their vaginas "custom fit" for their husbands. In one scene, a designer-clad mom hosts a sex-toy party where the constant drumbeat is fear that husbands will abandon wives who aren't smokin' hot and sexually available at all times. (Every sex toy is discussed in terms of how much pleasure it will bring the men.) Emily, Miriam, and Karolina pose a refreshing contrast to the Greenwich moms who all seem to be swimming in the extremely shallow end of the pool.With rich people behaving scandalously on every page, this lemon is juicy and delicious.

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July 9, 2018
Weisberger casts a gimlet eye on affluent suburbia in her latest A Devil Wears Prada novel, featuring former Runway magazine assistant Emily Charlton, now an image consultant whose career is on a downslide. Thanks to her summer camp friend Miriam (a high-powered Manhattan lawyer turned stay-at-home mom in Greenwich, Conn.), Emily is connected to a new neighbor, former fashion model Karolina Hartwell, whose husband is a senator entertaining a presidential bid. Karolina has been all over the tabloids for a DUI while her stepson and some of his friends were in her car. The charge is suspect because she wasn’t drunk and even begged for a Breathalyzer test she was never given. Weisberger spotlights marital fidelity as Karolina’s husband is all over the society pages accompanied by the president’s glamorous daughter, who could further his career; Miriam likewise suspects her own husband is cheating. Throughout, Weisberger gleefully lampoons a world where buff moms decked out in athleisure wear obsess over child birthday party one-upmanship and “vaginal rejuvenation” surgery. A cameo from the imperious and memorable Runway fashion mag boss Miranda Priestly adds extra spice to this page-turning beach read. It’s a treat for Weisberger’s fans.

June 1, 2018
Scandal is Emily Charlton's stock-in-trade. As a former assistant to cutthroat fashion editor Miranda Priestly (both last seen in The Devil Wears Prada, 2003), Emily has had her own feet to the fire more than once, so she is singularly qualified to help A-listers such as J Lo, Jen, Ben, and Brad wiggle out of an awkward situation. Lately, though, she has been losing clients to a rival upstart and may be facing a career working with those a lot farther down the alphabet. Having traveled to Manhattan from her home in L.A. only to be fired yet again, Emily calls on her old friend Miriam, now ensconced in tony Greenwich, Connecticut, for some TLC. A onetime lawyer turned stay-at-home mom, Miriam may not be well suited to give career advice, but when another gal pal, Karolina Hartwell, gets unceremoniously dumped by her husband, a powerful senator with his eye on the White House, Miriam presses Emily into service to salvage Karolina's reputation. As always, Weisberger's timely social satire packs some bite along with the pop-culture froth. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The return of characters from Weisberger's most popular book will propel her latest to the top.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

May 1, 2018

After The Singles Game, Weisberger's back with another outstanding Prada companion novel. This one follows Emily Charlton, but Miranda Priestly plays an important role in the last quarter. Emily, former assistant to L.A.-based Miranda of Runway fashion magazine, is working as an independent image consultant and stylist to the stars. With top clients starting to drop her services and her husband traveling more frequently, Emily accepts her best friend Miriam's invitation to Greenwich, CT, to help her friend Karolina weather a political scandal. From the Lululemon-wearing ladies who lunch to the glorified sales pitches that masquerade as parties, the suburbs quickly grate on Emily's nerves; the scandal is the tip of the iceberg. With chapters alternating among the three women and pithy section titles, this will have readers laughing at the over-the-top (and one hopes, embellished) ways of life in the suburbs. From a Sip 'n' See, where the newborn isn't even present, to blue glitter condoms and sex toy parties, no place or person is safe. VERDICT The coveted book of summer, this is sure to be in high demand. [See Prepub Alert, 12/11/17.]--Erin Holt, Williamson Cty. P.L., Franklin, TN

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