These Girls
A Novel
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
Internationally bestselling author Sarah Pekkanen examines the lives of three women working and living together in New York City and shows that family secrets may shape us all, but it’s the rich, complicated layers of friendship that can save us.
Family secrets may shape us all, but it’s the rich, complicated layers of friendship that can save us.
Cate, Renee, and Abby have come to New York for very different reasons, and in a bustling city of millions, they are linked together through circumstance and chance.
Cate has just been named the features editor of Gloss, a high-end lifestyle magazine. It’s a professional coup, but her new job comes with more complications than Cate ever anticipated.
Her roommate Renee will do anything to nab the plum job of beauty editor at Gloss. But snide comments about Renee’s weight send her into an emotional tailspin. Soon she is taking black market diet pills—despite the racing heartbeat and trembling hands that signal she’s heading for real danger.
Then there’s Abby, whom they take in as a third roommate. Once a joyful graduate student working as a nanny part time, she abruptly fled a seemingly happy life in the D.C. suburbs. No one knows what shattered Abby—or why she left everything she once loved behind.
Pekkanen’s most compelling, true-to-life novel yet tells the story of three very different women as they navigate the complications of careers and love—and find the lifeline they need in each other.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Pekkanen (Skipping a Beat) follows three girlfriends in her pedestrian third novel. Though they've been co-workers at Gloss magazine for several years and roommates for six months, Cate and Renee are only casual friends, until a new roommate cements their friendship. Cate, recently promoted to features editor, is struggling to assert her new authority amid office gossip about just how she got her promotion. She's also harboring a secret: she left college without graduating because of an embarrassing indiscretion. Renee's up for a promotion herself, and she's willing to take extreme measures to lose weight in order to fit into fashion-magazine acceptable. When Renee and Cate's dashingly handsome colleague, Trey, "a six-foot-three, single, straight, employed man... more coveted and rare in New York City than a rent-controlled one-bedroom," needs a place for his younger sister, Abby, the girls are happy to let her use their spare room. They're both nursing crushes on Trey, but they also take an instant liking to Abby and the solid friendships they form help Abby move past her own dark secrets. Pekkanen's got wit and an ear for dialogue, but missed opportunities for conflict keep the story flat and the characters from evolving.
Customer Reviews
Great read
Was sad when it ended, wanted to keep reading