Manhattan On The Rocks

by Janice Harayda

When twenty-five-year-old Laura Smart moves from Cleveland to Manhattan to take a job at a magazine, she hopes the world will become her oyster-her Fendi Oyster (this year's must-have handbag) to be exact.

Instead, Laura has to deal with the demands of her self-absorbed and quirky boss-the talk-show host turned magazine editor, Cassandra Lovelace. Laura, a Holly Golightly-type character, finds her own romantic and professional redemption in a novel that hilariously sends up the sex-and-celebrity-obsessed world of contemporary women's magazines.

Written from the insider's perspective of a former senior editor of Glamour, Manhattan on the Rocks is a sharply observed comedy of manners with a take-no-prisoners spirit. This is a novel for every woman who has ever known in her heart that-even as her world is collapsing all around her-she needs only a Glamour makeover to save her life from ruin.

Genres: Chick Lit, Romance, Fiction

297 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2004

About the author

Janice Harayda is an American author, newspaper writer, and book reviewer. She has worked for multiple magazines and has taught in colleges. Her writing includes five books and a blog with book reviews.

Reviews

[Amy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Seriously, I don't know why I even bothered to finish this book. So bad.

[Keri · Rating 3 out of 5]

This isn't a bad book as far as plot goes. Of course the storyline of Midwestern-girl-ventures-to-NYC-and-transforms-into-sensational-magazine-writer is completely overdone, but I found this book to be enjoyable nonetheless. It is a great, light summer read. However, I think this book's problems revolve around the fact that 150+ pages could have been cut and the overall arch of the story would not have changed. There was just so much extraneous information the author incorporates into her writing that makes the prose so lengthy and dense that it is actually hard to read. Dozens of pop culture references intermingled with unnecessary background info about things such as the main character's random experiences playing basketball in high school just weigh the story down. It is clear from the author bio that much of this novel is inspired by the author's own life. It is as if the author is attempting to squeeze into the novel every experience she has ever had in her personal life as well as her professional publishing life, but not everything fits nor even pertains to the story she is trying to tell about a woman discovering herself in New York.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not the greatest book I've read, but definately not the worst. I had a difficult time getting past the insane number of grammatical and spelling errors. With this book being written by an editor, I expected some actual editing. There are (2) parts that have characters with the wrong names and too many sentences that start with the word 'but'. I would strongly recommend the writer/editor redo the book. Otherwise, decent story.

[Lisa]

I can't seem to get rid of this book, mostly because its terrible, and it reminds me that anyone can get published. Well, the physical construction of the book is so bad, calling it "published" is a stretch. Grammatical errors are just part of the problem, some pages the text is shifted, so that not all of it fits on the page. So um, don't bother reading this one!

[Kelly Watson · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was an ok book, I've read better! It would've been a quicker if it'd had a little more spark to it. The female leads just seemed like a pretty boring person. Not a book I'd want to read again later.

[Carolyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Small town girl moves to big city. Well from Cleveland to New York. This book is sort of a typical story of that.

[Kristie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh. Entertaining, but nothing to write home about. I think I expected a little more than a mediocre storyline and a flat ending.

[Annice22 · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a good book, the only thing that detracted from the book were the spelling errors.