One of those reads that could easily become a movie. Popsugar - 2022

successful chicks are h.o.t.t!

Don't understand the vicious reviews on here. It wasn't that bad. If it had been about a hundred pages shorter, I would've given it another star.

I usually don't read stuff like this, and I've never been a fan of the Sex and the City TV show, which was based on a column by Candace Bushnell--but I thought I'd give her writing a try. I found this book pretty witty and readable. Just too long. I really didn't like how it wrapped up, and I'll probably completely forget I read this by tomorrow. But I doubt Bushnell has any pretensions that she's a white lady James Baldwin or Dostoevsky or something. I do agree with one reviewer on here who noted that the three main characters are basically the same character just put in different situations. There's not much to differentiate between them other than their jobs and names.

I'm not sure if I want to give anything else by Bushnell a try, but I enjoyed this enough to never say never.

The TV series of Lipstick Jungle has been a favourite for a long time and so I read the book off the back of that and it did not disappoint! The characters; Nico, Wendy and Victory are all so funny and the backdrop of New York City makes it a perfect read!

I was very happy to find that this novel is not your typical chick-lit book (and not at all like the Sex and the City novel which I found jarring and strange). Bushnell basically tries to answer the following questions: What happens when women act like stereotypical men? Can they be respected and treated the same way in the workplace? How do high-powered careers affect a woman's relationship with her husband and family?

I am a big fan of the Lipstick Jungle TV series and was interested to see what choices were made in the creation of the series. While the same familiar characters are there (harried Wendy, cool calm Nico, and cute Victory) , they seem a lot more career-focused and more ruthless than their TV show counterparts. The struggles they have with office politics and family duties are shown in more detail and in a much less frivolous way. For example, in the novel Wendy is very overwhelmed with her responsibilities at work and struggles a lot more with achieving a perfect work-family balance than she does in the TV show. Victory, a very successful fashion designer, is older and only a little bit flighty; she shows the scars of a woman who has had to fight for her place in the world. Nico is a lot more cut-throat than in the TV show, necessarily so for her job I think.

The book is not perfect. I am not sure that Candace Bushnell achieves three distinct voices for her three main characters. Occasionally it just seemed like she had one ambitious character who was thrust into three different situations. Also, the ending felt very rushed, as though she realized that her word count was getting out of hand and decided to throw a happy ending together. But all in all, this was definitely a good read, and would probably be better received by those less interested in a fun, romantic romp and more interested in a serious-minded read.

Book follows the lives of 3 with successful careers, and the complications that come from having a career and family. She also shows the bias against women in business, how hard it is to succeed, and what you have to compromise.

3.5 stars.

I found it quite hard to get into this book. It didn't really grab me and pull me in.
It flicks between each character and just as I was enjoying the goings on with one, it would change to another and I'd lose interest.
I would have liked to have read more about wendy and selden and how there romance developed. Also victory and Lyne. However I didn't really enjoy Nico's story as much.

Re-lecture d’il y a environ 10 ans

Blah blah blah women blah blah blah power blah blah blah relationships suffer blah blah blah money blah blah BLAH! The "feminism" in this book gets really heavy-handed and then just ends up being tiresome.

I love a little light reading from time to time (just as I love a little romcom here and there). But this was just so... Shallow, trying to be "empowering" (but not succeeding), filled with cliches, etc. The characters were unlikeable, privileged, the relationships were so weird and seemed unrealistic... There are a lot of books you can read "just for fun", this was really not it for me.

I barely had expectations but this book made me feel like I was reading sci-fi. It was just.. too unreal. On the other hand, I did enjoy Bushnell's storytelling and the concept. I picked this book because I was really curious about how Candace Bushnell writes. Although I hoped first to read the Sex and the city this wasn't too bad after all. I guess it was a light read to distract me from my daily routine and just keep me occupied. It was very easy to read. Yet, I somehow didn't get invested in the story, nor could I empathize with any of the characters as much as I would have liked to.

Found that this kinda dragged for me, I didn't really warm to any of the characters except Victory but what lost this a star was the final line of the book "it's a lipstick jungle out there" which felt way to cliche!