Sunday, January 04, 2004

By Kim Crow Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"Pushing 30" by Whitney Gaskell (Bantam Books, $11.95)

Whitney Gaskell takes a familiar "oh-no" chicklit theme and turns it sprightly on its ear. Ellie Winters, Gaskell's endearing heroine, is 29 and three-quarters and unhappy with her career and boring boyfriend. She despairs about being the prototypical "good girl": kind to strangers and animals, afraid of confrontation and doing more to make others happy than she does for herself.

The lead diva in her life is her adorably bossy pug, Sally, who provides much of the humor in the novel. Ellie resolves to change her life, dumps the boring boyfriend (who proposes, thinking that's why she is breaking up with him, in a particularly funny, squirm-inducing scene) and tries a new hairdo, with disastrous results.

It's Sally who leads her to meet Ted Langston, a much older, mucho-attractive cable television news hotshot, on the dog-friendly streets of Washington, D.C. They meet again, at a fund-raiser where junior litigator Ellie is sent to represent her firm. There's an instant attraction and a hot date, but when Ted pegs Ellie's age at about "37 or 38," it sends her into a tailspin of insecurity and straight to the Clarins counter.

For all the meet-cute, on-again and off-again moments, there's never any doubt that Ellie and Ted will end up together. But what sets "Pushing 30" apart from others in the genre is Gaskell's sharp writing and skillful handling of the many plot strands (Ellie's evil law office colleagues, a best friend in a bad relationship, Ted's nasty-yet-gorgeous ex, Ellie's own dysfunctional family) as it weaves into a cohesive, thoroughly satisfying read.

"As Seen on TV" by Sarah Mlynowski (Red Dress Ink, $12.95)

Sunny Langstein has the perfect boyfriend -- the only complication is that he lives in Manhattan, thousands of miles from her Florida home. She chucks a great job and a better apartment for true love and moves into Steve's cramped place. She begins a job search that goes nowhere, but does land a tryout for a reality TV show being produced by her father's girlfriend.

"Party Girls" follows four young women around the New York club scene, and Sunny is quickly cast as the "brainy" one (a rip-off of the "Miranda" character, for all you "Sex and the City" fans). After an extensive makeover, "Sunny Lang" joins Eric (the tramp), Brittany (the lush) and Michelle (the beauty) as they join the not-so-unscripted reality TV ranks.

The show requires Sunny to be single, so her loving relationship with Steve becomes her dirty little secret, much to his dismay. Sunny and Michelle hit it off, and the two new friends are soon being touted in Internet chat rooms as the "smart, cool" part of the cast, and quite quickly, what began as a lark for Sunny becomes a lesson in self-absorption as she buys into the hype of today's insta-celebrity.

Will "Party Girls" lead to a real career for Sunny? Will her relationship with Steve survive? Is Michelle the coolest friend ever or a back-stabbing witch? Mylnowski successfully resolves these questions and more in this funny, honest assessment on the lure of fame.

"My Three Husbands" by Swan Adamson (Strapless Kensington, $12.95)

Relentlessly silly and completely preposterous, "My Three Husbands" is still good for a giggle or two. Venus Gilroy is looking for herself in all the wrong places, and she has the divorce papers to prove it. Her first two marriages were brief disasters, yet we meet her preparing for her third wedding. Venus, a goth-girl punkette, splits her time with her divorced mother and her two dads, her biological father and his longtime companion (cheekily referred to as her "faux pa").

The Dads, as Venus calls them, provide the love and stability she can't seem to find in other areas of her life. She works in an adult video store and her engagement to the tree-loving militant activist Tremaynne is more fraught with lust than with love. Tremaynne sneers at the bourgeois lifestyle of the Dads (who are stereotypical gay men in that they love fashion, fine dining and their fabulous house) yet mysteriously agrees to an all-expenses-paid honeymoon, courtesy of the Dads, at the ritzy hotel designed by Venus' father in the wilds of Montana.

Venus is a capricious creature, so eager to love and be loved that the reader can almost forgive the saw-it-coming-for-a-mile plot twists. Adamson nicely sets up a scenario where Venus is mistaken for a hot pop star, but never takes it anywhere interesting, which characterizes much of the book. Initially promising, "My Three Husbands" never quite delivers.

Briefly noted:

"Losing It" by Lindsay Faith Rech (Red Dress Ink, $12.95): Diana Christopher is 50 pounds overweight and stuck in a dead-end job as a diner waitress. She's deeply unhappy since the early death of her father, and the only friendly faces in her life are her well-meaning but clueless mother and her 93-year-old neighbor and best friend, Mrs. Bartle. A health scare makes Diana determined to take control of her life, and with the touching advice and support of Mrs. Bartle, she sets upon doing just that. But then the setbacks start coming -- and coming. "Losing It" is a sweet, emotional read; the tenderly written Diana is an inspiration for anyone who's been dissatisfied with her life.

"What Goes Around" by Alexandra Carew (Strapless Kensington Books, $12.95): Cat Wellesley has it all -- until she doesn't. A rising television career in Hong Kong goes horribly awry, along with her love life, and she is forced to return to London, where the only work she can find is with a temp service. Flashbacks to Cat's former high-flying life contrast with her current hand-to-mouth existence, creating a nicely nuanced character study. And when a second chance for glory comes knocking, Cat learns that she can never totally leave the past behind.

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