Last week amid the chaos of boxes I found some time to read a new book Mercury in Retrograde by Paula Froelich. It was a good break.
Here’s the synopsis: Three women brought together at 148 Sullivan (the author’s actual address) by a series of unfortunate events. Penelope Mercury is a resident in the building who quits her job as a door-stepping reporter at a tabloid called the New York Telegraph. Lena “Lipstick” Lippencrass, a socialite, moves into the building after getting cut off by her father. And Dana Gluck, a corporate lawyer, takes the penthouse after her investment banker husband leaves her for a Russian model.
When fate conspires to have these three very different women move into the same SoHo apartment building, they soon discover that having their carefully planned lives fall to pieces might be the best thing that could have ever happened to them.
I love the premise the author lays out in the introduction, “When Mercury spins directly between the Earth and Sun–a condition that astrologers call “Mercury in Retrograde”–it appears to the untrained eye looking through a telescope to be hurtling backward. But, in fact, it’s moving at the same pace it always does, approximately three times faster than Earth. It’s your perspective that shifts…”
Honestly, it was a relief to read about how others lives are spinning out of control when mine feels a little chaotic right now. It brought a needed comedic relief. It fits in the chic lit genre, but wasn’t as predictable as most chic lit novels are. Of course, you know everything it going to end up all right in the end…because it always does.
Each of the characters makes her own journey in the story. All of them have been living up to the expectations of others and seeking approval in some way or another. For Penelope she’ll stand in a blizzard knocking on doors to get a story for the newspaper she works at all in an effort to get a promotion. Dana, although recently divorced, still feels the pressure her ex-husband put on her to skinny, to be pregnant from her family, and her own striving to be the youngest partner at the law firm she works at. As for Lipstick her world is ordered by what high society deems presentable, appropriate, and necessary…her goal to be #1 on SocialStatus.com.
Overall, I enjoyed the story. It was quite comical at times especially since Froelich masked some real-life characters. There’s the mayor who gets caught in a prostitute ring and a teen diva who makes a fool of herself at a gala ball (she sounds like a mix between Miley Cyrus and Lindsay Lohan). There were a few more obvious references but I can’t remember them right now, but you could definitely figure out who’s who.
A fun read. And I love the cover art on this one!
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