Party Girl

October 3, 2005
At the start of Brit Mason's amusing latest (after Society Girls
), Isabel "Izzy" Serranti is newly dumped, plumped and certain that her future as an event planner is in danger. Family connections net her the bash of a lifetime, but the big event—a swank charity ball—is set to take place at Pantiles, the ancestral estate of her childhood best friend turned tormentor, Simon Monkwell, England's hottest financier. Everything gets turned on its head, though, when Simon confesses that the estate is a financial disaster; he needs Izzy's help to spruce up Pantiles to reassure his American investors. Mason borrows from Helen Fielding: Izzy frets over her weight, her ill-conceived outfits and her clumsy shenanigans; much like Mark Darcy, Simon is disciplined, dangerously handsome and enamored with a clumsy, pudgy girl. Mason's creativity comes through in her winningly eccentric cast of secondary characters, but there are too many of them and their attendant complications: Izzy's parents fly in from Tokyo to explain an old family scandal, Pantile's housekeeper's estranged husband stops by for a pint and Izzy's best friend admits he's shagging her sister. Kiss Simon, Izzy, and get on with it! Eventually she does, in this fun if familiar story. Agent, Kathy Anderson.

November 1, 2005
Party planner Isabel Serranti has just been dumped (via voice mail, no less), and her boss has given her what could be the assignment of her career -a circus-themed charity ball for 500 guests at a palatial country estate, with only a month to prepare. The ball is being held near her beloved childhood home, and the host, Simon Monkwell, was a close childhood friend turned teenage bully. Simon has matured into a powerful (and very attractive) businessman whose exploits are chronicled in both the business pages and the tabloids. As Simon and Isabel work together, their childhood bond blossoms into attraction, then romance, and Isabel learns the secrets behind Simon's troubled past. Mason ("Society Girls") clearly has fun playing with chick-lit conventions; in one of many entertaining subplots, Isabel discovers that her roommate Dom, cast in the role of -gay best friend, - may not in fact be gay. A likable cast of characters, including Isabel's dotty aunt and an icy housekeeper, help round out the novel. Readers who enjoy authors like Wendy Holden will savor this charming, clever confection." -Nanette Wargo Donohue, Champaign P.L., IL"

Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2005
After a successful yet miserable career in finance, Isabel Serranti becomes a party planner. She loves going to work in her London office with her fellow quirky employees, and she even enjoys her tyrannical boss until she is asked to return to Pantiles, the estate where she spent her childhood being tormented by Simon Monkwell, who was her best friend until he turned mean. Isabel and her sister ended up living with their aunt Winnie, who is now returning to Pantiles to prepare for an emergency-themed charity event. Isabel is happy to help the Monkwell family, and to her surprise, Simon isn't as awful as she feared. But the family is hiding secrets that, as they unfurl, play havoc with Isabel's party--and heart. Forget the British stiff upper lip: Mason provides readers with a laugh-out-loud good time.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)