Everyone Worth Knowing

The working title of The Doorman Wears Dolce makes this instantly recognisable as the follow-up to surely the most fabulously titled debut of 2003 The Devil Wears Prada. For her second novel Lauren Weisberger sticks with what she knows; New York City, but this time it's the achingly cool world of Manhattan's party people rather than the fashion pack. At the beginning of the novel Bette (Bettina) Robinson, 27 year old daughter of vegan hippie parents is working eighty-hour weeks as a corporate drone in the offices of investment bank CWK Hoffman. The highlight of her social calendar is a dinner date with her uncle and his boyfriend every Thursday night. Handily, said uncle is also a famous, highly syndicated columnist who manages to secure Bette a shiny new job as a party planner at top PR agency. Cue our heroine's descent into Manhattan's social whirl as she struggles with the outrageous demands of celebrity clients plus unwelcome exposure in a regular gossip column. It's a perfect escapist read, and fans of The Devil Wears Prada will love it but if you're missing your SATC fix then I'd recommend Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin and Midnight in Manhattan by Francesca Delbanco as altogether more satisfying slices of the Big Apple.

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A truely girlie read - Rated
Interspersed with more in depth novels, this is good fun. Nothing to cause you great upset etc, just good fun about a twenty something girl living in the city. I loved this book. Much better than many chick lit books out there - there are many I've not managed to pass the first chapter. Take it for what it is, a good fun beach read.

Well I thought it was great! - Rated
I've seen some bad reviews for this book and I really can't understand why?! I'm not very well read on chick-lit so maybe those that are will see whats coming from the end of the first page but i was completely hooked! And i love all things New York which just happens to be the setting.
it can only be classed as chick-lit but as long as you know what you're getting, you can't go wrong.
I thought it was great.

Trash but not even good trash - Rated
Exactly the same plot as her last book, The Devil Wears Prada, girl falls into new job, gets sucked into social scene or will lose job, cancels arrangements with friends/family at short notice etc etc. A slightly more polished version however than last time, possibly giving rise to a slight hope that with a change of plot the next book might be better

Not as good as "The Devil Wears Prada" - Rated
This is your standard unchallenging chick lit, not Austen or Dickens, but enough going on to get you to the end of the book...though you may be disappointed at the end of it. I picked it up because I'd liked the writer's previous book, but the central character seemed to me to be a pastiche of the central character of The Devil Wears Prada (perhaps a version of Lauren Weisberger herself?) and the story was basically the same.

The central character is Bette, who loves Harlequin Romances - the equivalent of Mills & Boon in the US I assume - has a very long-drawn-out non-relationship with one man and a very trashy-romance-novel relationship with another both of which are unbelievable and not very interesting. The book is also full of underdeveloped story lines and characters which remain the most unsatisfying thing about it.

Saying all of this, however, I did manage to finish the book despite its many faults, and it did have some entertaining moments. It's never going to win the Booker Prize (or any prize for that matter!) but as chick lit goes, it's OK...not good, not awful, just OK.

Fun but no Prada - Rated
I bought this after reading The Devil Wears Prada and it's a pretty similar book. Bettina's uncle gets her a new job planning parties and she's soon sucked into the unfamiliar world of the New York party set.
There's not really a lot of surprises - you could see most twists coming a mile off, but it's entertaining and enjoyable.