It's About Your Husband [Paperback]

Lauren Lipton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 19, 2006

32-year-old Iris Hedge isn't exactly on sure footing. She's left her husband in LA and moved to New York for her dream job as a marketing researcher at one of the world's most prestigious firms. But after only five weeks, she's laid off. Now Iris is in a new town with no job, has a divorce on the horizon and only one friend to speak of-a wild-child named Val. When Val's twin sister Vickie asks Iris to spy on her possibly-cheating husband, Iris is desperate (and poor) enough to agree. Soon she has a whole new business on her hands - spying on men for the doubting women in their lives. Things get complicated when Vickie's husband Steve catches on to the fact that their coincidental meetings aren't coincidental at all. Not to mention how Steve makes her heart race. A funny, heart-wrenching romantic comedy about starting over and coming to terms with the gray areas of falling in love, It's About Your Husband marks the sparkling debut of novelist Lauren Lipton.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Iris is trying to make a new life for herself, but her old life just isn't cooperating. In the middle of her divorce, she moves to New York to take a new job. After a few weeks, though, she is laid off and left single, broke, and lost in the city. When she reluctantly agrees to spy on the husband of her friend's sister, she finds herself in the middle of a madcap romantic comedy. Iris' miscommunications, the obvious plot "twists," and the gay best friend-stylist will seem familiar to any reader of chick lit. However, it's all done with such a light touch that even the predictable is enjoyable. Lipton has a day job as an editor for a fashion magazine, and sprinkled throughout the novel a careful reader will find great tips on hair and makeup. An author's note at the end adds even more helpful hints on how to fix the beauty dilemmas Iris faces throughout. Marta Segal
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

'Smart, sassy and impossible to put down. Readers will love Lauren Lipton' - Meg Cabot, author of The Princess Diaries.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: 5 Spot; Edition Unstated edition (October 19, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446697842
• ISBN-13: 978-0446697842
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.9 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,098,829 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A delightful mental bon-bon for a day you want a novel that is a treat!, January 12, 2007

By 

Mrs. C. Orio "LikeTheCookie" (Charlotte, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: It's About Your Husband (Paperback)

Once started--I could not put the book down. I read it--start to finish--in one day, and found myself laughing out loud 'watching' Iris, the well-meaning heroine deal with the foibles of life; the demise of her marriage, perhaps that of a quasi-friend, among the fellow citizens in New York and with a parent who embraces their own faults to the frustration of a distant daughter.

Each character was woven with threads of people that I feel I have known at some point or another in my life. Ms. Lipton writes with the authority of a journalist and the creativity of an artist. The delightful result is a well written story that is at once comfortable, spellbinding, fun and fresh.

LOVED the unexpected twist at the end and hope Ms. Lipton's next book is as enjoyable as her freshman novel.

I encourage you to buy this book!

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny, Touching ... and Great Shoe Tips all in One, November 1, 2006

By 

Carol Goodman (Long Island) - See all my reviews

This review is from: It's About Your Husband (Paperback)

Iris Hedge is one of the funniest, most engaging modern heroines I've met in ages. Her plight through divorce and joblessness in the big city will ring true to any young woman who's had to refashion her life and her presumptions. When she finds herself unemployed she takes on the job of spying on her friend's sister's husband. She makes a few wrong assumptions, but then, so do we--just when we think we know where the book is going, it surprises us and Iris, in the end, DOES get it right. Along the way, we learn how to wear heels without getting blisters and what shade of lipstick will really work (and how not to dye your hair!). I loved the picture of New York City that emerges--it's a real Valentine to the city and to the resourceful young people who come there every year to find a second chance. Beneath all the humor and fashion tips, this is a wise and mature book. I look forward to reading more of Ms. Lipton!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An enchanting tale that captures the flavor of New York, November 21, 2006

By 

Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: It's About Your Husband (Paperback)

Lauren Lipton has spent half of her life as a journalist, primarily as a newspaper reporter. In this, her first venture into fiction writing, she has shed the constraints that bind a journalist to accurately report news stories and has shown a real talent for creating her own. The result is an enchanting tale about the transformation of Iris Hedge, California Girl, into Iris Hedge, New Yorker.

At a time in her life when her marriage is falling apart, Iris is offered the chance of a lifetime --- to get a promotion and work for a marketing company in New York City. The move from the San Fernando Valley is a little scary but exciting in view of the opportunities it will provide. Unfortunately, she barely gets settled into her incredibly expensive studioette when she is "restructured" right out of her new job at Hayes Heeley Market Research. So instead of the glamorous job she envisioned, she is now attending "Job-Hunting Tools for the Twenty-first Century" classes sponsored by the New York State Department of Labor.

Fortunately, she was able to make some friends before she lost her job and looks forward to spending time with Val and Vickie, twins who have only their beautiful looks in common. Val is fun-loving, frivolous and flirtatious, while Vickie is married, meticulous and melancholy. Vickie suspects that her husband, Steve, is cheating on her. Therefore, she hires Iris to "get the goods on him" so that she can get the goods from him.

This results in a series of miscommunications and cover-ups that could have had disastrous repercussions if it were not written as a comedy of errors.

What makes IT'S ABOUT YOUR HUSBAND such an excellent read is not the plot so much as Lipton's ability to capture the flavor of New York, the foibles of her characters and the metamorphosis of a delightful heroine. Her use of the language and ability to make us smile and nod as we read about Iris's mother, the psychic New Age Nymph, are priceless. She describes this character as "Once a yoga-doing, herbal-tea-drinking, alfalfa-sprout-eating Southern California mom, she is now, fifteen years later, remarried and a cottage industry, a guru with a Web site and newsletter who dispenses nuggets of goddess wisdom to women she's never met from a six-thousand-square-foot Arizona hacienda."

Further, you are constantly drawn in as Iris vacillates, as she teeters between loneliness and hope, despair and exhilaration. Her New York moments will spark fond memories in anyone who has been there...or has ever watched "NYPD Blue"! Lipton provides a nostalgic romp for those who "heart" New York and an inspiring one for those who have always wanted to embrace the Big Apple.

We look forward to what Lauren Lipton has in store for us next.

--- Reviewed by Maggie Harding