Slave to Fashion

January 7, 2002
Smarter and darker than your average Bridget Jones knockoff, Campbell's first novel is also more mean-spirited, though it adheres closely to the conventions of the Bright English Working Girl Looking for Love formula. Antiheroine Katie Castle suffers a cataclysmic fall from grace followed by scrappy attempts to get back on her feet, and miraculously redeems her professional and romantic life by novel's end. She works for successful designer Penny Moss, whose son, Ludo, she is set to marry. But when word of her fling with a handsome driver reaches Penny, Katie loses everything—her job, her flat and her fiancé. Katie's snobbishly mordant wit is what distinguishes this book from its many, many sisters, even though her wisecracks are often gratuitously cruel: "the news would spread faster than Ebola in a Congo village." She is, in fact, so utterly awful to everyone that it's difficult to enjoy her eventual victories. There are clever touches—Katie taking a job in a sweatshop, a gangster who quotes Nietzsche—and Campbell, who runs a clothing design firm with her mother, is most incisive about the bitchy evanescence of the fashion world. This is positioned as a lighthearted romp, but it may be too bitter and nasty to work with the Bridget crowd; still, fashionistas and trendy Anglophiles will love it. (Mar.)Forecast:Working under the assumption that this genre isn't exhausted yet, Villard plans a 75,000 first printing and a five-city author tour.

February 15, 2002
In this debut novel by the daughter of British fashion designer Paddy Campbell, readers are introduced to a meaner, greedier Bridget Jones. But instead of searching for true love, Katie Castle is busy clawing her way to the top of the London fashion world, and she'll stop at nothing to reach her goal. Her devious plans fall apart, however, when she gets caught cheating on her fiance, who also happens to be her boss' son. After losing her boyfriend, job, and apartment, Katie finds herself homeless and broke. She doesn't stay down for long, though, because as we have been finding out all along, she is pretty spunky and irrepressible, and so she inevitably propels herself back to the top. A dense but fairly clever book featuring unpleasant characters, catty personalities, and a somewhat predictable plot, this is nevertheless an entertaining read.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)