Balancing in High Heels [Paperback]

Eileen Rendahl (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 3, 2005

Just the fax, ma'am.

Alissa Lindley didn't mean to take it out on the fax machine. But when your not-yet-ex-husband knocks up his girlfriend and your divorce is going worse than the next World War -- well, something's got to give. Unfortunately, Alissa's employers at the L.A. Public Defender's office take a dim view of the destruction of office equipment. Funny how that anti-workplace violence policy used to seem like a good idea, before she got fired. And the networking thing just isn't happening at her Anger Management class.

He was arrestingly handsome.

San Jose is the place for a fresh start -- it's home, and family and friends are eagerly waiting to welcome her. But her first job as a lawyer there has Alissa walking a high wire of complicated emotions. Her client is from the Butterfly Brigade, a group of justice-seeking (and interestingly tattooed) ladies who right wrongs as they see fit even if that means bending the law. The arresting officer, Detective Rodriguez, is so hot he should be illegal. But can Alissa trust her instincts again when it comes to love? Or will one wrong step send her new life crashing down?

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

When Alissa Lindley's cheating husband tells her he's leaving her, she takes her anger out on an unsuspecting fax machine and soon finds herself in court-mandated anger management classes. After quitting her job as a public defender and moving back home to San Jose, she finds that life still isn't stress-free. Her widowed mother is depressed and stubborn. Her best friend is disillusioned with life as a stay-at-home mom. Alissa is feeling lonely and adrift. Taking on a few cases, she meets stripper Sheila and her dancer friends, who have taken to combating rudeness and greed. They tie up deadbeat dads and accost bad drivers, and soon the lingerie-clad bandits inspire copycat vigilantes. While trying to keep them out of jail, Alissa meets sexy detective E. J. Rodriguez. With hot action and hilarious antics, Rendahl crafts an enjoyable tale of starting over that will appeal to fans of both romance and crime fiction. Aleksandra Kostovski
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Eileen Rendahl is the author of the Downtown Press novels Balancing in High Heels and Do Me, Do My Roots, which was nominated for a RITA Award. Her short fiction appears in the New Year's story collection In One Year and Out the Other. She lives near her tight-knit family in California.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Pocket Books (May 3, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743471156
• ISBN-13: 978-0743471152
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 8.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,297,394 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Eileen Rendahl is the author of three Chick Lit books: DO ME, DO MY ROOTS (2004) which was a double Rita finalist and a National Readers Choice Finalist, BALANCING IN HIGH HEELS (2005) and most recently, UN-BRIDALED. As Downtown Press's Chick Lit with Heart girl, she strives in her novels to expose both the humor and pathos of life. Critics have said that her characters are "humorous, yet heartbreaking" as well as "funny and profound, endearing and absurd, outrageous and comforting, and very, very real" and that she puts them in "situations that at once make you laugh and make you a little sad".

Eileen grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska, although she wasn't born there. She was born in Dayton, Ohio, but moved when she was four and who remembers anything from before they were four? Except she does remember she was born at the Good Samaritan Hospital across the street from Baskin Robbins because they sent her a coupon for a free ice cream cone every year until she was twelve. Eileen makes a point of remembering anything that has to do with ice cream. Or chocolate. Or champagne.

After many moves (St. Louis, Boston, Chicago, Phoenix), many jobs (art gallery assistant, editorial assistant, copywriter, communications manager, graphic designer, ceramics studio slave) and a smattering of husbands (if you want the details on that, you will have to get her liquored up), she now writes and lives in Davis, California, with her two adorable children, her two annoying cats and one lovely man.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Butterfly Brigade, here I come!, April 3, 2006

By 

Book Junkie (Bay Area) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Balancing in High Heels (Paperback)

After "Do Me, Do My Roots," I couldn't wait for this one. What worked for me was that the author wrote great characters I could relate to, and it was hard for me to put down. Also, the author had me rooting for the Butterfly Brigade. What didn't work for me was that I had trouble believing Alissa's anger-management struggle past the first couple of chapters. I know she was put on Prozac, but I needed to feel that drug-induced numbness along with her. Other than that, it was a great read. Plus I liked how each chapter starts with a page from the Anger Management workbook.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun and suprisingly thoughtful, March 31, 2006

By 

Robin C. "perfectmotion" (Claremont, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Balancing in High Heels (Paperback)

When Defense lawyer Alissa Lindley loses her husband to another woman, and her job to a stress-related blowup triggered by the aforementioned (in which a fax machine is the somewhat comical victim), she moves from LA to San Jose to start her life anew. Through her first client, she meets the Butterfly Brigade - a group of women working just outside the law to make the world a better place - and it sets in motion a series of life-altering questions.

Although it's marketed like straight-up romantic chick-lit, Balancing in High Heels is actually more of a lighthearted look at the relationship between anger, frustration, powerlessness and the ability to change, with a little bit of romance and self-discovery along the way. In its pages Rendahl creates a funny and occasionally insightful narrator, who completes an interesting emotional journay, and the book is full of slightly archetypal, but still very relateable secondary characters.

The romance aspect was (in my opinion) a bit underdeveloped - the book bit off a little more than it could chew in terms of achieving that a romantic happy ending - but overall, as a thoughtful book that's fun rather than preachy, Heels will have you sometimes pausing, sometimes nodding, but always laughing and turning pages.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable from beginning to end, June 23, 2006

By 

Jill James (California, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Balancing in High Heels (Paperback)

Eileen Rendahl has taken some pretty serious situations; divorce, infidelity, crime, and self-worth, and put a bittersweet twist on them. The situations are sad, but the twist she puts on them has you shaking your head and saying, "been there, done that." Alissa seems like she could be your sister, or your friend. The 'this could be you' feeling of the story brings it close to home, and close to your heart. Can't wait to read the rest of Rendahl's books.