This 3 star rating is based on my much younger self who loved these kinds of books. Me, as a reader today, would probably not even give it 1 star because I don't think I'd be able to finish it.
However, if you're into this genre, it's one of the better kind, in my opinion, if you like girly chick-lit kinda girl who likes a bit more substance and not entirely appalling writing, such as I find Cecelia Ahern and Sophia Kinsella, this might be your thing.

Sei que este livro passou para uma série de televisão e que não durou muitas temporadas, mas gostei mais de ler o livro do que a série.
Fala sobre uma amizade entre três mulheres, e na sua luta diária para vence num mundo que é de homens, fantástica leitura posso vos garantir ;)

http://aviciadadoslivros.blogspot.pt/...

If there is an award for the most ridiculous and unrealistic book ever, I would award it to Lipstick Jungle, written by Candace Bushnell. The one and the same author who wrote the widely-known "Sex and the City".

I have always been suspicious of her writing talent though. No offense, I do love Sex and the City series, like many other single and fabulous women in the world *coughs* but that's only the TV series, not the real book. When I finally had the chance to pick up the book and read it, my disappointment was so big I was practically devastated.

"This is not the Sex and the City that I know. This is just bunch of crappy short stories which have no meaning and hard to relate to", so I said to myself after I finished reading it. And let me tell you a secret *whispers* It's not only me who thinks that way. A lot of my friends were in the same emotional wreck as I was after reading the book. All of them who idolise the four tough women in the series.

But after awhile, the disappointment healed and I decided to give Ms. Bushnell another chance by picking up another novel of hers. A similar one, I must say where it portrays four women (all above 40s - way more mature than the characters in Sex and the City) who were equally successful and with men in their lives.

I guessed that Ms. Bushnell was so obssessed in the characters of Sex and the City and somehow regretted at making their lives rather unsuccessful as described by their inability to find the right men and their struggle to make their ends meet after the last shopping spree at Manolo Blahnik or Chanel boutique. She tried to fix the characters in Lipstick Jungle where the women - who are mostly CEOs or at least directors of companies - never have problem in buying a diamond set let alone a pair of Jimmy Choos.

Victory Ford, a famous designer, Nico O'Neilly, a famous magazine editor (eventually CEO), Wendy Healy (director of a film production company) and an unimportant blonde babe actress whose name I have already forgotten.

As much as Ms. Bushnell was trying to stress the importance of girl power these days, she couldn't just drop the subject that women couldn't live without men, no matter how powerful they are - which actually contradicts the whole theme. Now I begin to wonder why dildo was created in the first place, eh?

Wendy, whose family is rather dysfunctional with a spoiled staying home-dad/husband with equally two spoiled kids, feels her world is crumbling apart when her no-good of a husband Shane decides to divorce her just to punish her as she was always busy with her work and hardly home and never take care of the kids.

I can't help to wonder that the same theme, only reversed, has existed for centuries but regarded as the most natural thing on earth as portrayed by the dumbest TV series I have ever seen called "Desperate Housewives". Whatever happened to equality? How come a staying home dad now suddenly makes a big deal out of the fact that his wife works so hard that hasn't have time to take care of the kids? Aren't their roles reversed in the very first place? Similar to a normal family in the mid 1950s only that now the husband is the wife and the wife is the husband?

.....and what's up with Nico anyway? She has a perfectly good family with uptight husband who does care about her and a good daughter only that she finds it's rather frustrating that the husband is so reliable and boring. Where does she run to when she's bored? An underwear male model, of course - what else that is more effective in getting rid of boredom than having a steamy hot sex with an underwear male model? How come this is all so predictable?

The only character that is somewhat normal in this book is probably Victory Ford, the single designer who is trying to make a fortune with her clothing and her brand name. She's probably the only character in the book that is worth reading about although every single of her personality aspects scream the word "cliche". So what's left? What's so original about the book that is worth reading? Nothing.

I read it and I got disappointed. Another zero for Ms. Bushnell, unfortunately.

DNF, abandoned on page 462 with 70 pages to go. The story focuses on three main protagonists, all women in their early forties who are finding success in New York. Nico is editor in chief of a fashion magazine. Married with one child, she is engaged in an affair with an underwear model half her age because she and her husband have nothing happening in the bedroom. She is also shoving aside people on the way to the top; it's just business. Victory is a fashion designer. When she isn't hanging around waiting for a boorish, old (but rich man), she is judging her other friends or whole cultures (the French). Side note, the author should refrain from ever attempting to insert French into her dialogue. Like Steve Martin says, it's like the French have a different word for Everything. Yes, yes they do; so "Vous êtes une movie star?" Is just wrong wrong wrong. Wendy, the head of a movie production company, is even worse than the other two. She bribes her kids with money to get dressed, bribes her husband with blowjobs and then wonders why she has spoiled kids and a husband who just wants to leave. She's a workaholic who immediately entertains the idea of an affair with a previously abhorred work colleague when her immature husband first leaves. She apparently has all this money and power yet everyone treats her like crap, from her bratty kids to her snarky nanny. At one point she is pathetically tracking her family down at a horse show, dragging a suitcase full of junk she brought back for her kids from a movie shoot in Romania. Bushnell tries to portray these women as able to compete equally in a man's world and then makes them all weak and incompetent. And unlikeable. Highly unlikeable. Throw in characters whose motivation and traits change with the wind and voila! (As the French would say)you have this hot garbage of a book.

Suka deh novel ini..

apalagi sekarang ada serial tivinya.. seru banget..

bongkar2 lagi ah nyari bukunya..

Really good book

What a fun read. I’m always drawn to heavy or emotional books and this was such a fun pallet cleanser. I got it from a book sale for a dollar and I loved it! This isn’t the greatest literature of our time but I was pleasantly surprised by the feminist plot line and the sharp strong women it portrayed.

Enjoyable quick-paced read!

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.

successful chicks are h.o.t.t!

Ok, so sassy New York ladies all dressed up and going to work is my jam (thanks, Ryan!). Quick read, fun but a little repetitive and hit you over the head with its "themes". Still, it would be perfect to take on a beach trip with the ladies and read while sipping daquiris that some handsome younger man brought you.

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this one. Well written, not full of male bashing, and fascinating characters. Would love a sequel to this to see where the three protagonists are in 5 years time.