City Girl [Mass Market Paperback]

Patricia Scanlan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1992

Three women share their dreams and secrets and empower each other to see beyond limitations in order to survive, discover their talents, and reach their goals.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Though this epic soap tale touches down briefly in New York City, Saudi Arabia and London, its heart is really in Dublin, where beautiful and brainy Devlin Delaney is the co-owner and founder of City Girl, an oh-so-posh women's health club. The young entrepreneur's seeming insouciance is belied by a painful and complicated past, one that is nevertheless brightened by her enduring relationships with bosom buddies Caroline Stacey and Maggie Ryan. Sustained by their unfailing faith in the future and in each other, the three women weather such stormy periods as when unwed Devlin decides to keep her baby, Caroline turns to pills and alcohol to survive an abusive marriage, and Maggie plans to leave her philandering husband. Not all is tragic, however, in the lives of these three lusty and larger-than-life heroines: Devlin finds true love, Caroline pulls herself out of her drug-mired haze and Maggie writes a book that promises to tell all about the rarefied Saudi society she observes while overseas. Mildly entertaining, this first novel is spun as lightly as cotton candy and leaves just as sticky a residue. Major ad/promo.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 525 pages
• Publisher: Island Books (July 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440212758
• ISBN-13: 978-0440212751
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,096,827 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:

4.0 out of 5 stars city girl, January 31, 2000

By 

graziella sorrentino (Pisa, Italia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: City Girl (Mass Market Paperback)

City girl is a book written by Patricia Scanlan which dealswith ordinary problems of every day life. She analyses them tellingthe story of three girls. They are dissimilar for upbringing and personality: Devlin is a rich girl, the only child of an upper class Dubliner family, who has a bad relationship with her mother. Caroline, a fat, sensitive and insecure girl wins her battle with food thanks to Devlin's help. Maggie is a very determined person who believes in freedom and in good feelings. For this reason she has chosen to be a nurse. The setting of the book is Dublin, of which the author gives a detailed description, focusing on the streets, the shops and Dubliners. She also portrays New York when Maggie goes there to work. Patricia Scanlan uses a language that has a strong effect on the reader. Through her words we can imagine the emotions, fears, the happiness and dreams of the three girls. I liked the book because the bad and beautiful events of the protagonists involved and intrigued me very much. I also liked the fact that there are a lot of dialogues between the girls, so the narration is more dynamic. I think that this is a great book!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I Couldn't Put It Down, October 30, 2002

By 

Tracey A. Nettell (Houston, Texas, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: City Girl (Mass Market Paperback)

This was my first Patricia Scanlan novel and I am now hooked and have gone ahead and ordered several more - particularly the two novels which follow "City Girl".

"City Girl" is a wonderfully vivid and imaginative tale of the three different, but intertwining, lives of three young Irish women living in Dublin. They each have their ups, downs, good times, bad times, futures full of potential, obstacles in their way ... the type of book that is difficult to put down ... you just have to keep reading one more chapter to see what happens.

I'm off now to start "City Woman", the next in the series and I'm confident that I won't be disappointed.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars City Girl Is A Most Enjoyable Friends and Lovers Book, March 27, 2003

By 

Antoinette Klein (Hoover, Alabama USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: City Girl (Mass Market Paperback)

I've read many books in the "girlfriends" genre, but CITY GIRL take first place as the most enjoyable, most compelling, most totally captivating. This is due mainly to Patricia Scanlan's ability to create three distinctive women, each with serious contemporary problems and each with the inner strength and tenacity to face whatever comes, especially when she has true friends to stand by her.

The resourceful Devlin, the insecure Caroline, and the fun-loving Maggie are young Dublin women who confront out-of-wedlock pregnancy, a husband who strays, men who are not what they appear to be, alcohol addiction, and even the death of a beloved child. You will be totally engrossed in their lives and the people that move through it----from the compassionate Luke to the sophisticated Richard and the fun-loving Terry as well as the secondary characters who add intrigue, romance, and a lot of Irish charm.

If you're looking for a book you won't be able to put down, one that involves you so deeply in the lives of the characters you feel as if you know them, and one rich with the flavor of London and Dublin, I highly recommend this one. As a matter of fact, I had scarcely finished it when I picked up the sequel CITY WOMAN because even after nearly 500 pages, I wasn't ready to say goodbye to these wonderful characters.