The Whole Package

July 25, 2011
In Ellingsen's debut, three lifelong friendsâJackie, Cheryl and Dorisâreunite and start a business together. Cheryl, the high-powered marketing executive, is unceremoniously fired from her job because she has information against her boss. Jackie, the wealthy widow, finds her freewheeling Parisian life called to a halt when she runs out of funds. Doris' placid suburban existence ends when her husband confesses to an affair with his high school girlfriend and then leaves her. Out of money and options, the women treat themselves to a ladies' night out at a male strip club. The next morning, they resolve to start their own Hooters-style restaurant staffed by handsome men and catering to women, and name it "The Whole Package." When the opening goes awry, the women are convinced that their lives are ruined. Their friendship is in jeopardy until Doris has an ingenious plan to revamp the restaurant, which heals their friendship and saves their bank accounts. Ellingsen takes a trite concept and makes it inexplicably hysterical. While she relies on stock genre characters, the friendship between the women is realistic, the characters funny, and the premise well-executed. Readers will giggle and grin from start to finish, and will surely be eager for Ellingsen's next novel.