The Devil Wears Prada meets The Assistants in this compulsively readable debut following a young woman who takes a job working for an enigmatic influencer and quickly discovers there’s an ugly side to being a #GirlBoss.

After a series of go-nowhere jobs in the New York publishing world, Harper Cruz is broke, lonely, and desperate for a salary that won’t leave her scrambling to make rent each month. So when she stumbles across a job posting from an influencer offering triple her last paycheck, she automatically submits her résumé.

Harper may not be familiar with self-help guru Charlotte Green, but her relentless optimism and charismatic can-do spirit has created a cult-like following of women across the country. When she selects Harper among thousands of other applicants in less than twenty-four hours, it’s obvious she sees something she likes. Despite the pressure to accept the offer just as quickly as she’s been given it, Harper decides to take a leap of faith and become the newest member of The Greenhouse.

Accepting the job means a move to Nashville, and Harper is quickly dazzled by the glamourous world Charlotte has built in Music City. The Greenhouse is more than a workplace–it’s a family–and Harper soon finds herself swept into its inner circle. At first, she loves working in such an inspirational environment, where mandatory dance parties, daily intentions, and group bonding activities make up for long hours and Charlotte’s persistent demands for loyalty. But the deeper Harper is pulled into Charlotte’s world, the more she realizes that having it all and being it all comes with a price.

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Harper’s aunts were extra. Extra chatty, extra loud, extra judgmental, and often extra meddlesome.

And then there was the oldest sister, Bianca, a widow. Harper’s mom used to joke that her brother-in-law’s death was a choice, as it was the only to get away from his critical wife.

My Review:

Wryly written,  profoundly insightful, and wickedly perceptive.  This clever scribbler knows of what she writes as this felt real. I enjoyed the writing style which included generous sprinklings of humor and wit, as well as heady doses of alluring affirmations, encouragement, and empowerment. I would have loved the little powerhouse boss if she hadn’t been so vile beneath the skin.

When Izzy Astor gets on a plane to go home, she isn’t expecting much. It’s the usual holiday travel experience: busy, crowded, stressful.

Then she spots her seatmate, who is anything but ordinary. Nate Phelan sports dark hair, blue eyes, and a deliciously rugged charm that Izzy can’t resist. Their connection is undeniable. Izzy never believed in destiny before, but she does now.

Just ninety seconds after takeoff, their plane goes down in the Missouri River.

Their lives change. They change. Nate goes on to a career in the military while Izzy finds her way into politics. Despite a few chance encounters over the years, the timing never feels right.

Then comes a high-stakes reunion in Afghanistan, where Nate is tasked with protecting Izzy’s life.

He’ll do anything to keep her safe. And everything to win her heart.

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I just hate to watch you living your life like a first-time driver with a stick shift, jolting forward and stalling over and over again.

If he cheated, then my guess would be that it wasn’t because you weren’t enough— it was because he wasn’t.

My Review:

This was an absorbing and engaging tale written in my favorite dual point-of-view with multiple timelines, yet it was easy to follow as well as smartly plotted with lashings of clever wit and sly banter.

I adored these characters, they were lovable, honorable, and well-meaning despite being stubborn and often in their own way. They were victims of bad timing and circumstances, yet they valiantly struggled forward, but never the same for having met. I was cheering for them from beginning to end.

Catherine Sterling thinks she knows her mother. Ruth Sterling is quiet, hardworking, and lives for her daughter. All her life, it’s been just the two of them against the world. But now, Catherine is ready to spread her wings, move from home, and begin a new career. And Ruth Sterling will do anything to prevent that from happening.

Ruth Sterling thinks she knows her daughter. Catherine would never rebel, would never question anything about her mother’s past or background. But when Ruth’s desperate quest to keep her daughter by her side begins to reveal cracks in Ruth’s carefully-constructed world, both mother and daughter begin a dance of deception.

No one can know Ruth’s history. There is a reason why Ruth kept them moving every few years, and why she was ready–in a moment’s notice–to be gone in the night.

But danger is closing in. Is it coming from the outside, from Ruth’s past? Is Ruth reaching a breaking point? Or is the danger coming from the darkness that may live in Catherine, herself?

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Brittany and I were friends up until the ninth grade, when I grew boobs first and got asked to the Homecoming dance before she did. Brittany didn’t authorize that turn of events, and next thing I knew, I was uninvited to a group sleepover at her house. I didn’t mind all that much. Being Brittany’s friend was a lot of work. There were rules involved. You had to love Madonna but not Whitney Houston. You were required to sit at a certain table in the lunchroom. For some reason, wearing a sweatshirt inside out was a thing. Brittany did it one day, then the next day so did half the girls in our class.

In autopsies, even Alzheimer’s brain tissue looks confused, like some monstrous hand reached in and swirled everything around.

Rotten genes are programming me. I inherited them from my mother and she from hers. Fury seems to be the legacy passed down to the women in our family.

They both laughed in that way only mean girls can— it’s an art, really. It combines superiority and malice with a dash of exclusivity.

I didn’t know it was possible to be so deeply angry with someone and simultaneously love them so much that you wanted to hug them until it hurt you both.

It’s hard to reconcile those tales with the image I have of my mother as a hard-working woman with a vanilla sort of life. I guess I’ve never really looked at my mother as an individual. She has always felt more like a planet that orbits around me.

My Review:

This was a consuming tale filled with flawed and troubled characters that were either vile, sketchy, untrustworthy, paranoid, or dangerous, and I couldn’t always make up my mind which was which. I felt on edge during perusal from start to finish and concluded the tale with my shoulders in my ears and in dire need of a spa day.

The main characters were tightly wound and their inner musings and interactions were tautly written and fraught with tension. The writing style and storylines were evocative and intriguing and I quickly tumbled into the characters’ dark vortex each time I picked up my Kindle. The narratives were painfully perceptive yet not entirely forthcoming until the final chapters which were full of unexpected surprises. Sarah Pekkanen is a clever minx and has mad skills.

About the Author

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Sarah Pekkanen is the #1 New York Times bestselling co-author of four novels of suspense including THE GOLDEN COUPLE and THE WIFE BETWEEN US, and the solo author of the thriller GONE TONIGHT,  published Aug. 1, 2023. Colleen Hoover says it is “Riveting, original and powerful. I’m a huge fan of Sarah Pekkanen’s books, and GONE TONIGHT is her best yet!”

Sarah is also the author of eight USA Today and internationally-bestselling solo novels: THE OPPOSITE OF ME, SKIPPING A BEAT, THESE GIRLS, THE BEST OF US, CATCHING AIR, THINGS YOU DON’T SAY, THE PERFECT NEIGHBORS, and THE EVER AFTER. Her books have been translated into dozens of languages.

In her free time, Sarah is a dedicated volunteer for rescue animals and serves as Ambassador for RRSA India, working hands-on to vaccinate and heal street dogs in Anand, India. She also volunteers weekly for a horse rescue group in Maryland, mucking stalls and helping mistreated horses heal.

Sarah lives just outside of Washington, D.C. with her family. Please follow Sarah on Facebook and Instagram @sarahpekkanen and visit www.sarahpekkanen.com

It seems lately that Poppy Lively is invisible to everyone but the IRS.

After her accountant absconded with her life savings, newly bankrupt Poppy is on the verge of losing her home when an old flame, now a hotshot producer, gives her a surprising way out: a job in costumes on a Hollywood film set. It’s a bold move to pack her bags, keep secrets from her daughter, and head to Los Angeles, but Poppy’s a capable person—how hard can a job in wardrobe be? It’s not like she has a choice; her life couldn’t get any worse. Even so, this midwesterner has a lot to learn about the fast and loose world of movie stars, iconic costumes, and back-lot intrigue.

As a single mom, she’s rarely had time for watching movies, she doesn’t sew, and she doesn’t know a thing about dressing the biggest names in the business. Floundering and overlooked, Poppy has one ally: Allen Carol, an ill-tempered movie star taken with Poppy’s unfiltered candor and general indifference to stardom.

When Poppy stumbles upon corruption, she relies on everyone underestimating her to discover who’s at the center of it, a revelation that shakes her belief in humanity. What she thought was a way to secure a future for her daughter becomes a spotlight illuminating the facts: Poppy is out of her league among the divas of Tinseltown.

Poppy must decide whether to keep her mouth shut, as she’s always done, or with the help of a scruffy dog, show the moviemakers that they need her unglamorous ways, whether the superstars like it or not.

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I dodged a drug-sniffing dog who lifted his head as I slid by. For all I knew, my nervous energy could be detected, and I’d be labeled as a threat to national security. If I was detained and strip-searched, my ungroomed body hair alone would trigger alarms. No one would be the same after that— and that was the last thing in the world I wanted.

Muriel wore a pair of light jeans and a T-shirt. I gauged her to be somewhere between forty and sixty, that ubiquitous age for a woman that teens considered ancient and homogenous.

If you were sleeping when a tornado hit your house, the people on Twitter would blame you for living in a place where tornados can hit your house. If your accountant stole your money, everyone in your book club would agree that you should have been paying better attention. The blame ball, in the game of life, rolled downhill and, as often as not, hit the victim.

I’m such a third-rate criminal. I’m like one of those people you see on YouTube who rip off a convenience store with a green water pistol because they’re color blind.

It was the oddest sensation, and not a good one, to be suddenly seen. It wasn’t as if people stopped and stared as they might have if, say, Julia Roberts strode between sets, with her stunning choppers and glorious nostrils.

I tried pot once in college and became frantically suspicious that the blue Ford Taurus in my apartment parking lot was an unmarked cop car. I had binoculars from a bird-watching elective and peered at the empty vehicle until my roommate came home and took them from me. After much hydration and time, my paranoia subsided, but I vowed to stay away from the devil’s lettuce forever.

My Review:

I smirked with delight while reading and may have giggle-snorted into my wine glass more than a few times as Ann Garvin’s clever writing quickly transported me into Poppy’s rueful and frenetic vortex with sharp visuals and vibrant descriptions full of humorous observations and witty inner musings. Ms. Garvin’s character development was flawless and her enticing and insightful storytelling kept me reading late into the night. Even her chapter titles were comical and brilliant.

I adored Poppy but I also wanted to give her a few nudges to the seat of her pants from my trusty crocs. Poppy was an authentic and unique character who was well-meaning, well-fleshed out, and completely knowable. She resided in my mind’s eye as a recognizable living entity. Poppy’s struggles were real and not of her own doing. She was increasingly endeared to me as she labored at a new position with a do-or-die attitude, frantic pace, and a steep learning curve as best she could with limited resources while walking a keen edge of discovery and humorously teetered on catastrophe. Yet she had a good heart and was up for a loosely planned caper to help right a wrong at her own peril. I was also totally enamored with Alan, with her assigned movie star.

This was my first exposure to the comedic genius of Ann Garvin and I plan to haunt her listings with regularity. Her word voodoo is strong and beckons me to add her clever scribblings to my Kindle.

Except the ‘wonderful man’ turns out to have a secret that ruins everything… Shocked and devastated, Jen doesn’t know what to do. So, she packs her bags and runs for the hills – away from her problems, all the way to her childhood home in Scotland and the safety of her dad.

But her dad is a changed man. Busy with his girlfriend, golf, and G&Ts, he doesn’t have time for Jen’s worries. And she can’t see her sister, Isla, who she fell out with years ago.

So, Jen rekindles friendships with her old school pals, Alison and Rory. They’re juggling work and young families, but still find time to take her out and set her up with some terrible dates. The more time she spends with Rory and his daughters, the more Jen thinks there could be something big missing from her life. But could she ever go back to small-town life? And can she forgive what happened in the past? Should a good friend become something more?

The biggest question for Jen is – will she try to solve her problems, or will she cut and run for the hills again?

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And by the way, Jen, if you’re going to start dating again and having a whole Exciting Sexy Life with Multiple New Men, don’t expect to turn up here and be able to go on about it. Staying married is hard enough without the single friends bragging about last night with Mr Musical Fingers they found on Tinder.

‘Alison, there is not going to be any dating yet, I can promise you that,’ I tell her truthfully. ‘Too soon?’ she asks. ‘Definitely too soon,’ I confirm. ‘I’m burned… it could be years before I play with those matches again.’

‘You need to take care of yourself, my girl…’ ‘Yes, thanks, Wattie, I’m trying to do that.’ ‘I’ve seen it so many times before with the sows…’ ‘The sows?!’ Alison says, astonished. ‘This is not the same! Wattie, please stop talking.’ ‘Well, no.’ Wattie rubs his chin, deep in thought. He hasn’t taken off his hat, which I suspect is not actually a hat but a knitted and very battered tea cosy. ‘But the sows,’ he goes on, ‘when their piglets go, they can get moody, even ferocious. I’ve even seen them attack other mothers and eat their young. Not nice. So you must be careful, Jennifer, you don’t want to let that happen to you.’ I nod solemnly. Maybe I should feel offended, but it’s too funny. ‘Wattie, I promise, I will not eat your children. OK?’

I’m already loving Elaine. She is beautifully dressed in 1950s vintage. Her orangey hair is even rolled up at the front into one of those 1950s dos. She looks like a wonderful mix of Doris Day, doll and alien space lady.

We kissed… and it was a bit weird,’ he says. ‘I mean the kissing itself wasn’t weird, that was really quite nice. It was the fact that we were kissing. It’s all been so long. I’ve forgotten how to do even snogging. I’m like a thirteen-year-old. I might need to practise on my hand. Like in primary school…

My Review:

I giggle-snorted, smirked, and hooted with glee while reading this delightfully witty tale. I have a new favorite author and her name is Carmen Reid. Her writing sparkled with clever and amusing inner musings as well as insightful revelations and observations. Her humorous descriptions pulled vivid visuals to my mind’s eye that had me barking a laugh more than once.