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Uptown Girl
Emma Hastings has it all - a successful career as a fashion model, a flat in Kensington and now she may have even found her leading man, the wealthy and charming Jason Rothschild who ticks all the right boxes.
Her days are filled with photo shoots and shopping trips. Her evenings are spent at dinners and glamorous launch parties.
She is seemingly living the dream.
But dreams can so often turn into nightmares.
After a number of chance encounters with the car mechanic William Flynn, Emma starts to evaluate what it means to truly live and love.
'Uptown Girl' is a romantic comedy full of womanly wit and wisdom.
For fans of Jane Green, Jane Austen - and Billy Joel!
'A fast-paced, breezy, wittily romantic read that I couldn't put down. This sparkling, beautifully-written story follows heroine Emma's search for the perfect man, but, as usual, the course of true love does not run smoothly, and her true happiness comes from an unexpected source. Lots of lovely shopping details, too, and the descriptions of her exciting social life made me think I was there with her and made me feel rather envious! Definitely one I'd recommend to my friends.' Nicola Yeager, author of the best-selling 'Picture Imperfect.'
“A light-hearted, sharply observed tale of a spoilt London supermodel and her tangled love life” Emma Lee-Potter, author of School Ties.
"Holly Kinsella knows how to put both a sentence and outfit together... Uptown Girl is a wonderfully funny and wonderfully sweet novella." Robert Avon, The Seducer's Diary.
Holly Kinsella (no relation to Sophie) is a former fashion model. She now works in financial PR and lives in West London.
Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent digital publisher.
Her days are filled with photo shoots and shopping trips. Her evenings are spent at dinners and glamorous launch parties.
She is seemingly living the dream.
But dreams can so often turn into nightmares.
After a number of chance encounters with the car mechanic William Flynn, Emma starts to evaluate what it means to truly live and love.
'Uptown Girl' is a romantic comedy full of womanly wit and wisdom.
For fans of Jane Green, Jane Austen - and Billy Joel!
'A fast-paced, breezy, wittily romantic read that I couldn't put down. This sparkling, beautifully-written story follows heroine Emma's search for the perfect man, but, as usual, the course of true love does not run smoothly, and her true happiness comes from an unexpected source. Lots of lovely shopping details, too, and the descriptions of her exciting social life made me think I was there with her and made me feel rather envious! Definitely one I'd recommend to my friends.' Nicola Yeager, author of the best-selling 'Picture Imperfect.'
“A light-hearted, sharply observed tale of a spoilt London supermodel and her tangled love life” Emma Lee-Potter, author of School Ties.
"Holly Kinsella knows how to put both a sentence and outfit together... Uptown Girl is a wonderfully funny and wonderfully sweet novella." Robert Avon, The Seducer's Diary.
Holly Kinsella (no relation to Sophie) is a former fashion model. She now works in financial PR and lives in West London.
Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent digital publisher.
85 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 23, 2013
12 people are currently reading
80 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
June 24, 2013
I don't like to write a bad review, especially for one of my fellow indies. This novella -- Uptown Girl by Holly Kinsella -- got me going, though. Emma is rich. She's a fashion model. A gorgeous, rich guy has a crush on her. Everything is perfect, and she's also kind of a bitch.
The story is basically this: Emma's car breaks down, so she takes it to a mechanic her dad recommends. That SOB mechanic wouldn't do a rush job on her car because he'd given his word to fix other people's first. I mean, what an all-out selfish, oafish a*****e! Well, she told him off. After that, that f*****g mechanic shows up at a family party. Everyone else thinks he's charming and smart, not seeing what a villain he really is. Emma gave him a piece of her mind all night -- and then her dad called her out on it! Turns out, the mechanic had once saved her dad's life, so in an instant, Emma changes her whole outlook on life. Money isn't as important. Her shallow friends aren't interesting anymore. And (fanfare, please) she falls madly in love with the mechanic because of his sparkling personality!
The whole story was too transparent, too easy. I didn't feel sympathy for the main character and didn't trust her change. Also, this novella could have been a novel if the author had "shown" instead of "told" the whole thing. Sorry, Holly.
The story is basically this: Emma's car breaks down, so she takes it to a mechanic her dad recommends. That SOB mechanic wouldn't do a rush job on her car because he'd given his word to fix other people's first. I mean, what an all-out selfish, oafish a*****e! Well, she told him off. After that, that f*****g mechanic shows up at a family party. Everyone else thinks he's charming and smart, not seeing what a villain he really is. Emma gave him a piece of her mind all night -- and then her dad called her out on it! Turns out, the mechanic had once saved her dad's life, so in an instant, Emma changes her whole outlook on life. Money isn't as important. Her shallow friends aren't interesting anymore. And (fanfare, please) she falls madly in love with the mechanic because of his sparkling personality!
The whole story was too transparent, too easy. I didn't feel sympathy for the main character and didn't trust her change. Also, this novella could have been a novel if the author had "shown" instead of "told" the whole thing. Sorry, Holly.
December 11, 2014
Read One: 08/09/2013.
you ever read a book where you feel someone thought "hey I know what'll make a good story" but they have no idea what actually makes a story a story? That is the feel I got from this.
You have all the elements of a typical chick-lit, girl likes the wrong guy, dislikes the right guy, you have the steadfast friend and the knife-in-the-back friend - you have the requisite fashion comments and snide remarks. But in this book you only really recognise them because they are the elements found in pretty much every other chick-lit book. Everything is just very superficial... even the comments about the war in Iraq seemed half-baked and without conviction.
I loathed the main character - imagine any of the preppy 'popular' girls in any US TV show about high school and you have our lead. I never felt like she learnt from her 'mistakes' she only apologies to the right guy because her father guilts her into it, her revelations come out of nowhere but at no point do I really feel she realises how rude and arrogant she is. I will admit to calling people 'plebians' but when I do it is either when I am driving and that is my version of shouting abuse, or it is when talking about myself and my colleagues in comparison to management, it isn't something that I commonly say . Within this book anyone who is working class (or to be honest lower middle class) is lumped together as a plebian - the author puts a couple of phrases in about how it is wrong to think like that but it feels like an afterthought like "hey some working class people might read this and be insulted" but it doesn't feel sincere.
I'm guessing this is the authors first work, so any other efforts are bound to improve on this. But based off this I wouldn't spend any money on this authors work.
Rating = 1 star
Read Two: 11/12/2014
I honestly didn't intend to read this again. However I just picked a random Kindle book, started reading thought - I think I have read this before and it wasn't until I came to Goodreads upon finishing that I realised I had read this before.
My first review stands, I still cannot stand our female lead. If I was the mechanic I'd not want to be within 10 metres of her. But I think my rating was a tad harsh - or perhaps the 1 star books I have read this year are worse than this and this book deserves a better rating... either way I'm bumping it to 2 stars.
I did notice re-reading this the amount of film and book drop-ins - Jerry Maguire and Notting Hill were the stand out films whilst I swear there are elements of Pride and Prejudice and Emma in here too.
Would I read this again... if I can remember not to then I won't, I mean there are worse ways to kill an hour but... there are better books to read in that time too. I like books that are memorable, even if you cannot recall every facet of them but being able to read the entire thing again and only think you have read it before, in my opinion that is not a good sign (though I guess it has high re-read value if you cannot remember anything about it!)
Rating = 2 stars (just)
you ever read a book where you feel someone thought "hey I know what'll make a good story" but they have no idea what actually makes a story a story? That is the feel I got from this.
You have all the elements of a typical chick-lit, girl likes the wrong guy, dislikes the right guy, you have the steadfast friend and the knife-in-the-back friend - you have the requisite fashion comments and snide remarks. But in this book you only really recognise them because they are the elements found in pretty much every other chick-lit book. Everything is just very superficial... even the comments about the war in Iraq seemed half-baked and without conviction.
I loathed the main character - imagine any of the preppy 'popular' girls in any US TV show about high school and you have our lead. I never felt like she learnt from her 'mistakes' she only apologies to the right guy because her father guilts her into it, her revelations come out of nowhere but at no point do I really feel she realises how rude and arrogant she is. I will admit to calling people 'plebians' but when I do it is either when I am driving and that is my version of shouting abuse, or it is when talking about myself and my colleagues in comparison to management, it isn't something that I commonly say . Within this book anyone who is working class (or to be honest lower middle class) is lumped together as a plebian - the author puts a couple of phrases in about how it is wrong to think like that but it feels like an afterthought like "hey some working class people might read this and be insulted" but it doesn't feel sincere.
I'm guessing this is the authors first work, so any other efforts are bound to improve on this. But based off this I wouldn't spend any money on this authors work.
Rating = 1 star
Read Two: 11/12/2014
I honestly didn't intend to read this again. However I just picked a random Kindle book, started reading thought - I think I have read this before and it wasn't until I came to Goodreads upon finishing that I realised I had read this before.
My first review stands, I still cannot stand our female lead. If I was the mechanic I'd not want to be within 10 metres of her. But I think my rating was a tad harsh - or perhaps the 1 star books I have read this year are worse than this and this book deserves a better rating... either way I'm bumping it to 2 stars.
I did notice re-reading this the amount of film and book drop-ins - Jerry Maguire and Notting Hill were the stand out films whilst I swear there are elements of Pride and Prejudice and Emma in here too.
Would I read this again... if I can remember not to then I won't, I mean there are worse ways to kill an hour but... there are better books to read in that time too. I like books that are memorable, even if you cannot recall every facet of them but being able to read the entire thing again and only think you have read it before, in my opinion that is not a good sign (though I guess it has high re-read value if you cannot remember anything about it!)
Rating = 2 stars (just)
June 10, 2013
So, you know me well enough by now to understand my way of reviewing and thinking with books. I will always, always give a book the benefit of the doubt if it starts off bad. This is what I did with Uptown Girl. Will I ever get the hour or so back it took me to read this pretentious ghastly book? no I won't.
I was more than appalled at references throughout and to be fair it put me right off and I couldn't dismiss that. I'm extremely sorry darling readers, but I have actually found a book I seriously disliked. Very distasteful. I do understand some people live their lives like many in the novella and my heart goes out to them dearly. Money can buy riches, but love, honesty and respect give much more than anything money can buy. Yes that is what the author is trying to get across in her story, but it's done in the worst way possible.
I recommend you read this book to make up your own mind. Who knows you may like it.
I was more than appalled at references throughout and to be fair it put me right off and I couldn't dismiss that. I'm extremely sorry darling readers, but I have actually found a book I seriously disliked. Very distasteful. I do understand some people live their lives like many in the novella and my heart goes out to them dearly. Money can buy riches, but love, honesty and respect give much more than anything money can buy. Yes that is what the author is trying to get across in her story, but it's done in the worst way possible.
I recommend you read this book to make up your own mind. Who knows you may like it.
February 26, 2024
Contemporary spin on Austen's Emma
This is a contemporary retelling of a great classic, and while the story has the bones of something really cute, the editing on this book was really tough, and the story isn't very full. The bones are there, but this is missing a lot of the in-between. I almost quit reading because I kept getting frustrated.
Content: Clean read. Some innuendo about sleeping together but never happens. Trigger with loss of a mom and cheating
Language: A handful of f-bombs
Religious: No
Happy reading!
This is a contemporary retelling of a great classic, and while the story has the bones of something really cute, the editing on this book was really tough, and the story isn't very full. The bones are there, but this is missing a lot of the in-between. I almost quit reading because I kept getting frustrated.
Content: Clean read. Some innuendo about sleeping together but never happens. Trigger with loss of a mom and cheating
Language: A handful of f-bombs
Religious: No
Happy reading!
July 12, 2020
Not sure how this one reached my virtual bookshelf but if it's there I have to read it! So if you are looking for the lightest of short stories to read this could be the one for you. It reminded me of a women's magazine feature, takes about an hour and doesn't require a lot of thought.
October 24, 2014
When I received an email a few days ago offering me the chance to review Uptown Girl by Holly Kinsella, I took a look at the synopsis, took a look at the title and decided, yeah, why not? I love Billy Joel’s song of the same name, I loved the idea of Emma being a bit of a rich snob who learns that when it comes to falling in love you’re not necessarily going to fall for your same class, and that you may find love with a lowly mechanic! That is pretty much the novel in a nutshell and it’s a good plot, but I didn’t think it was as well executed as it may have been.
For starters, the novel was uber-posh. Everyone in the novel sounds like they’ve just walked off the set of Made In Chelsea, and the novel is very much modelled around that set, the posh set. The set who are snobs, perhaps, and think lowly of normal working-class people, and it shows. Emma wasn’t a particularly nice character; it’d have worked better if she didn’t just automatically judge someone because they were a grease monkey, if she didn’t refer to him as ‘the mechanic’ all of the time, she was a bit up herself if I’m being honest, and the way in which the novel was written often referred to her being fawned over by other men, as if she was utterly irresistible, something that always rubs me up the wrong way.
For a quick novella, it was an alright read. I’d have preferred less metaphors, more real talking than something being this or that; for example, Holly in one sentence loses herself when she laughs, but Kinsella then adds that maybe she finds herself instead and that sort of continues throughout the novel with many feelings being likened to its exact opposite meaning no-one seems to have any real feelings, it’s always this or that. But it was a quick, harmless read, perhaps a bit too posh for me, it’s definitely one for the Made In Chelsea fans who may appreciate the way the book is written a bit more than I did!
For starters, the novel was uber-posh. Everyone in the novel sounds like they’ve just walked off the set of Made In Chelsea, and the novel is very much modelled around that set, the posh set. The set who are snobs, perhaps, and think lowly of normal working-class people, and it shows. Emma wasn’t a particularly nice character; it’d have worked better if she didn’t just automatically judge someone because they were a grease monkey, if she didn’t refer to him as ‘the mechanic’ all of the time, she was a bit up herself if I’m being honest, and the way in which the novel was written often referred to her being fawned over by other men, as if she was utterly irresistible, something that always rubs me up the wrong way.
For a quick novella, it was an alright read. I’d have preferred less metaphors, more real talking than something being this or that; for example, Holly in one sentence loses herself when she laughs, but Kinsella then adds that maybe she finds herself instead and that sort of continues throughout the novel with many feelings being likened to its exact opposite meaning no-one seems to have any real feelings, it’s always this or that. But it was a quick, harmless read, perhaps a bit too posh for me, it’s definitely one for the Made In Chelsea fans who may appreciate the way the book is written a bit more than I did!
July 26, 2013
I felt this book was written very formally. The expression "whilst" was quite over used to the point that I started to cringe whenever I read it.
Emily is beautiful with legs to heaven and blonde hair. She works as a model and dates wealthy, good looking and self-centered men. With too much money and time she fuddles through life worrying about frivolous matters that I was not able to relate to at all. It was a shallow book and then tried to twist it around by a brief few encounters with one character and suddenly, after major decisions were made, the book was over with no epilogue or glimpse of the (much more interesting) future.
This book left me wanting more from the story and not caring too much about what I had read to that point.
Emily is beautiful with legs to heaven and blonde hair. She works as a model and dates wealthy, good looking and self-centered men. With too much money and time she fuddles through life worrying about frivolous matters that I was not able to relate to at all. It was a shallow book and then tried to twist it around by a brief few encounters with one character and suddenly, after major decisions were made, the book was over with no epilogue or glimpse of the (much more interesting) future.
This book left me wanting more from the story and not caring too much about what I had read to that point.
May 29, 2013
What has Emma Hastings got? What any girl would dream, beauty, a loving family, wealth, friends, men chasing after her. Yet, a chance encounter causes her world to slowly but surely change. Her life of fashion modelling, mulberry handbags, flash men and all things screaming money is hollow. Can Emma bring meaning back into her shallow life again and secure happiness? Sparky, witty and well written, I couldn’t put this smart read down. In terms of criticisms though novella could have used a sub-plot and would have liked to see some of the minor characters developed a bit more. But don't let criticisms put you off.
July 9, 2013
I only downloaded this because it was free at the time. It is not very long - only 85 pages, so it did not take long to read. If you are looking for a book to really get stuck into - then this is not the one! The storyline is sweet, but the grammar is terrible and the editing of the book is atrocious. It only took me half an hour to read and just as you are getting into it, it ends. I probably won't buy any more books by this author. I am sorry to say I did find it a bit "mindless".
February 27, 2014
This book was just plain Awful. I think I am going to take a break from short stories because I have not found one that I can get into in a while. This book was about a B**** who was rich who fell in love with her mechanic. That is it! Point taken. Nothing more. I want my hour back!
July 5, 2013
I have to say I was unsure of this book when I started reading it - Emma Hastings, the protagonist, is not someone you warm to immediately! But as the story progressed, and her character developed she grew on me. The love story was very sweet and it has a lovely romantic ending.
July 5, 2014
Found on my kindle, presumably I downloaded it because it was free. At least , I hope I didnt actually pay for it! Awful main character, badly written and predictable story, only kept reading because it was so short.
July 2, 2013
A nice and pleasant read, the ending was a bit predictable but it didn't detract from the story and I would look for other books by the same author.
June 27, 2013
Not everything evolves with money. Very lite story and I somewhat believe that this is what happy endings must be.
July 1, 2013
A quick easy to read light romance.
August 23, 2013
I just couldn't get into this book. I never warmed to the main character, I couldn't stand her love interest, and the plot was weak at best.
November 18, 2014
Mixed feelings about the characters. I liked the plot and how the story progressed but could not root for the main character. Overall, an okay read.
November 15, 2015
a bit too fluffy and plot was predictable.
March 22, 2016
Sorry. I stopped reading this book coz I'm not a fan of rich bitchy girls falling in love with humble guys. It's just not right.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews