Enjoyable quick-paced read!

I read this book after seeing the TV series. A friend gave me this book as a gift and then I realized I had see the TV series made from it. I loved this book. Great writing, great plot, and great characters. I highly recommend this book.

Many recognise this author’s name as the one behind Sex and the City. If that is the vibe one is looking for, this book scratches the itch. The novel is about three best friends in their forties – Nico O’Nielly, magazine editor, Wendy Healy, movie executive and head of Paradour Pictures, and Victory Ford, fashion designer/darling.

It’s set in the noughties of New York City, it’s glitz and glam and power women with more interest in their careers than in their marriages and families. There’s trouble in paradise for all of our heroines, sure, but nothing that can’t be solved with a lunch with the besties, or hiring the best lawyer in the city.

Lipstick Jungle is forgettable at best, but one thing I will carry with me is when Victory Ford thinks to herself how naive and sweet she was at 33. Oh, how it soothes a 27 year old to read exactly that.

Unapologetically what it makes itself out to be, this novel is one I will bring with me on holidays as often as Chasing Harry Winston (every time). A perfectly nonsensical novel – and second hand outfit – to end the summer season.

I found this book very interesting. I found myself pausing several times to absorb the subtle messages peppered throughout this book. I don't live in NYC, I am not a woman with power, but I've experienced enough to relate to the issues in this book. Trying to juggle motherhood (must we always feel guilty for not being enough?), men being threatened by women, crazy head trips that we put ourselves through, the need to pour your all into your career, and the difference between men and women and retirement. Not true for all but enough to be a bit of a lightbulb moment. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. And even though this book was copywritten in 2005, it sure hit a nerve as I read it during the overturning of ROE vs Wade.
Lipstick Jungle

Because what self-respecting 27-year-old doesn't devour this book in like 72 hours. (Can't believe I'm admitting this on Goodreads...)

This book is horrible. Terrible writing, cliched, vapid, and over the top. The three women blend into one- halfway through I still can't remember what one of them actually does. And why anyone would want to date or marry any if them is beyond me. Don't waste your time reading this. And please don't think that being a feminist means you can be an asshole, "just like the men". That's not what it means.

Really good book

Lipstick Jungle had a good message and a decent story. The problem was that is was always obscured by some problem. Everything felt scattered, from an all over the place time line to almost interchangeable, and therefore easily confusable, main characters.

Lipstick Jungle follows three strong, professional women who found that they could be vulnerable, but only among their female friends. The story showcased the idea that highly successful women have the same problems as average women, only on a somewhat larger scale. While managing work, family, and romantic relationships, the women predictably learn that friendship is the most important thing.

I found it difficult to always be able to decipher which woman we were focusing on at each point in time, especially when the main women interacted with minor characters usually related to another story line. This was compounded by the fact that each of the three women were basically the same. They had different careers and families, but they all had the same basic voice.

The timeline was equally hard to follow. Often we would be shown the outcome of an event and then immediately be told about the things that lead up to that outcome as if the character was thinking back on it. As the book was written in third person, that these mini-flashbacks left me wondering not only which character was which, but also where in the story we actually were. There was a lot of going back and re-reading with this book.

The problems mentioned above ultimately make this book average. Lipstick Jungle is chick lit with a clear female empowerment message. Being a strong women isn't as easy as everyone assumes. The story is entertaining, but what should be a fun indulgence becomes harder than it should be. I would only recommend this to Candace Bushnell fans and huge chick lit fans.

Oddly different from the show - but a good read.

"But in person, those flaws were erased by an intangible quality that made it impossible to stop looking at her. It was as if she possessed her own energy source that caused her to be lit from within"

"Something insider he sank at the sight of all that sameness, and she suddenly felt defeated...In the past year she'd started experiencing these moments of desperate emptiness, as if nothing really mattered, nothing was ever going to change, there was nothing new; and she could see her life stretching before her -- one endless long day after the next, in which every day was essentially the same... All her life she'd been striving and striving to become this thing that was herself.... And then one morning time had caught up with her and she had woken up and realized she was there. She had arrived at her destination, and she had everything she worked so hard for.... She should have been thrilled but instead she felt tired. Like all those things belonged to someone else."

"In the beginning, when she was rising up and it was all new, life was nothing less than a blast. Every day was filled with delicious little thrills, and [they] had ridden high on the glorious feeling that they were achieving and conquering. The problem was, no one ever told you that you had to keep on conquering. You could never stop."

"She felt the sweet, creamy sensation of power....God it was a heady feeling. She'd never experienced anything like it in her life. It was oddly centering."

"Every day was like this now -- it jangled with the irritations of the unknown. She was frightened. She had, she realized, spent a good portion of her life being secretly afraid. Afraid of being along, of not having a man. Of appearing not good enough to have a man. Was that one of the reasons why she worked so hard to be successful? So she could buy a man?"

"What if she got Mike's job and it didn't matter? What if nothing mattered?"

This is the 2nd book I have read written by Candace Bushnell. It is different from One Fifth Avenue. But overall I enjoyed reading this story. It is funny and keeps my eyes rolling. Quite an easy read and I would say a page turner....the characters are funny and very down to earth. I am considering watching the series online.

For me this story tells women that doesn't matter how rich and successful they are, they'll always be doomed to have bad husbands and boring sexual life, and don't forget doomed to be unhappy only to make their children have what they want(even if its seeing their mothers stuck in an unhappy marriage). Should the main character were men, certainly it would be rather different. I'm truly disappointed with the message in the book. I was wanting to see successful and happy women, owners of their own lives for a change.

Great read

With a 21st century edit this book would be really great. I loved the story, the reality of life, the rawness and how friendships come before anything, but it is rather dated in some ways. To read that, to be a successful woman is, to be like a man. As if success was defined by gender.