Book Review: "Is She Really Going Out With Him?" by Sophie Cousens

Those of you obsessed with 80s music like me might know what song I’ve had running through my head since I first saw this book!

I absolutely loved this book. It was funny, emotional, sweet, and steamy, and there were just so many moments that melted my heart. I’ve been a fan of Sophie Cousens for a while, but this may be my favorite book of hers.

Anna is a magazine columnist and a recently divorced mother of two. She likes her job and loves her children, and has no desire to date anyone. But when the magazine’s new owner feels her columns are lacking and her rival is trying to take her column away, she comes up with an idea: she’ll allow her children to pick the men she should date, and then she’ll write about them.

As she starts out on what she knows will be a misadventure, her rival, Will, proposes writing a complementary column where he goes on dates similar to those Anna goes on. His manipulation gets under her skin, but then she starts to enjoy their collaboration—perhaps a little too much?

Anna’s dates range from her grumpy next door neighbor to a much-younger waiter, her postman to her celebrity crush. The more she dates, the more she realizes where her true feelings lie. Will she be able to find the courage to take a second chance on love, no matter the risks?

“I know there are plenty of women on Instagram who got divorced and took up running or weight lifting or started their own aromatherapy candle business. They look and feel better than ever, phoenixes risen from the ashes, embracing their ‘new chapter.’ I am not a phoenix. I am a dazed pigeon, looking for crumbs. But I am fine with that; being a phoenix looks exhausting.”

Book Review: "A Hundred Other Girls" by Iman Hariri-Kia

How far would you go to keep the job a hundred other girls are ready to take?

Noora has dreamed of being a writer for as long as she can remember. Even though the only writing she seems to do is either on her blog or papers for her spoiled tutoring clients, she’s determined to land a job at a magazine. And when she learns about a job opening at Vinyl magazine, she can’t believe her luck.

“Vinyl became an older friend. It taught me how to properly insert a tampon, select which political philosophy I subscribed to, and differentiate between an orgasm and an organism.”

Amazingly, Noora lands a job as assistant to Vinyl’s legendary editor-in-chief, Loretta James. But this job won’t quite be the foot in the door she was hoping: Loretta is an immensely insecure, manipulative tyrant who is struggling to hold on to her domain while print publications are being put out to sea in favor of digital. She needs Noora to feed her information that will keep the print side of the magazine—and Loretta herself—relevant.

It’s not long before Noora finds herself in the middle of a turf war between print and digital, crushing on a colleague, and negotiating toxic office culture. How much will she be willing to sacrifice to make her dream a reality?

This book has been called an updated version of The Devil Wears Prada and there are definitely many similarities between the two. But this story didn’t grab me that much. I really wasn’t a fan of many of the characters and while I know there were places I probably should have been laughing, it just didn’t work for me.

Book Review: "Cover Story" by Susan Rigetti

When it seems too good to be true…it usually is.

Lora wants nothing more than to work at ELLE magazine. She dreams of being editor someday, but now she’ll settle for an internship. And although being assigned to the beauty closet isn’t quite the glamorous experience she had imagined, she’s still excited to be part of the magazine, and on her off days, is determined to write short stories worth publishing.

While interning, Lora meets Cat Wolff, a contributing editor to the magazine and the daughter of a clean-energy magnate. Cat is enigmatic, charismatic, and befriends Lora, seeking her help on some projects. And when her internship ends, Cat convinces Lora to drop out of NYU (she couldn’t afford to go anyway) and work full-time as her ghostwriter.

Lora spends nearly every day at Cat’s luxurious suite at The Plaza Hotel, where she’s been living for years. But Cat can’t pay Lora until they get an advance on a book deal, so she suggests Lora live with her in the hotel. It’s an exciting life yet Cat is mercurial, and there are secrets Lora can’t quite figure out. And little by little, she starts to discover that Cat isn’t quite who she said she was—but who is she, really?

This was a wild, twisty story about a young woman caught in the middle of a situation she doesn’t understand. The story is told in diary entries, emails, FBI correspondence, and news articles. I was totally hooked on this one!!