Chasing Harry Winston: A Novel
by Lauren Weisberger
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Book Reviews of Chasing Harry Winston: A Novel
Book Review: Lauren Weisberger needs to stop writing books...
Summary: 1 Stars
Lauren Wiesberger, go away. Stop writing books. Please. CHASING HARRY WINSTON is hands down one of the worst books I have ever had the misfortune of reading. The first 50 pages are decent. (Not great, but decent. Mindless. But entertaining.) But then page 51 rolled around and then it was like L.W. just squatted over the paper and took a big #2, smeared it around for, like, 200 more pages, then published it. I'm not kidding you, folks, this book is bad. So bad. Basically because nothing happens! NOTHING! These three annoying girls (who aren't very likable to begin with) just run around literally doing nothing (making them even less likable then they were to begin with, which wasn't very likable) for 200-some pages before nothing happens again and the book FINALLY ends. I just don't understand why Lauren Weisberger felt the need to write all this down. Or why her publisher felt the need to mass produce it. Or why I bought it. IN HARDCOVER! Everything about this situation is wrong. I want my money back! But, more importantly, I want the hours I wasted reading this book back! BARF! This book is like BARF! I'm not kidding you DON'T BOTHER! NOT EVEN IN PAPERBACK! DON'T DO IT!Book Review: A Rushed Effort!
Summary: 1 Stars
I was really excited to pick up this novel after Weisberger's great success with "The Devil Wears Prada." Unfortunately, it was very disappointing on many levels.
The three main characters, Leah, Emmy and Adriana, are supposed to be best friends, but their friendship is contrived and hardly realistic. It is easy to get confused between Leah and Emmy because the way they talk and their personalities are exactly the same. Brazilian Adriana, on the other hand, is an extreme stereotype and seems a very unlikely friend for Leah and Emmy.
The dialogue between the main characters and their love interests also reveals a lack of consistency. It seemed like Weisberger was trying to make her characters seem overly witty. Some of the exchanges made me cringe.
Although it is an easy summer read, it is annoying to read about three young and successful characters who moan and complain because they're going to be 30 and their life is over without a man and a ring on their finger. We need stronger female role models.
This novel seemed like a rushed effort. To top it off, there are several typos.
Book Review: Lack of Originality
Summary: 2 Stars
Okay, so when someone states that this is a "Backdrop to Sex and the City", that's an understatement. Although the book was entertaining, I was not so pleased with the lack of originality. Too many things were not just close to Sex and the City, but the SAME. So 3 ladies are in NY, so what. Problem is, the book just switched around the characters a bit, and didn't add a 4th. Adi gets around quite a bit with the men (Samantha), starts her own dating advice column (Carrie), is produced into a movie (Carrie), and she moves to LA (Samantha). Her fiends Emmy and Leigh visit her in LA and run into a man Emmy met in Paris. All the cities that were used, were already used in SATC. It's a Harry Winston ring they're after, rather than a Tiffany's. Then you have the pent house appartment in NY from Adi, just like Charlotte had. Emmy had the tiny apartment the she didn't own just like Carrie.
It was just a little too close too SATC for me. Not because I don't adore SATC, but because I love it so much that I'm a bit territorial of it and don't like it to be copied because there is the one and only SATC.
Book Review: Should Have Quit While She Was Ahead
Summary: 1 Stars
Without the cachet of Vogue or Anna Wintour attached to the work, the author is not all that interesting. The success of her first effort had nothing to do with her writing or storytelling. People just wanted to get behind the doors of the most glamourous magazine ever and get an inside glimpse of its famous editor-in-chief.
I will say that Chasing Harry Winston is better than the author's second book, which is said to have been on the NYT bestsellers list. Not many read it or even knew about it because it really wasn't publicized. Even the publisher knew it was not good. I guess that's why they are advertising it on the back cover of CHW. Better late than never for getting it out of their warehouse.
I have read this three (sometimes it's four) friends in the city before, and I have read better. I really didn't like any of the characters. They were all spoiled and had a sense of entitlement that is off putting.
The author should have taken her cue from the two who wrote The Nanny Diaries, followed by two failed novels, and quit while she was ahead.
Book Review: A good summer read
Summary: 3 Stars
Lauren Weisberger's "Chasing Harry Winston" centered around three thirty-something women living in New York City who were single and who made a pact to change something significant in their dating lives. Emmy was recently dumped by her long-time boyfriend for a twenty-two year old personal trainer, decided that she will no longer be involved in monogamous relationship but will sleep with as many men as she could with no commitments. Adriana, a stunning Brazilian whose life involved just seducing men, will commit herself to just one man. Leigh, an editor working in a publishing powerhouse, did not make any commitment in the pact. However, she was in a relationship with the perfect man, and yet she did not feel that she was in love with him.
Having read the negative reviews of this book, I was pleasantly surprised that the novel was better than I expected. The pace of the book was fast, characters somewhat likeable, and the plot (even though it was predictable) was interesting enough to keep reading. This was no "The Devil Wears Prada" but was still a good summer read.