From Publishers Weekly
Fredericka Mercedes Hildebrand Ware ("Frede" to her friends) is a 28-year-old extremely moneyed member of the "très exclusive" Junior League of Willow Creek, Tex., and lives her life according to unwritten club rules about fashion and etiquette. So when her husband, Gordon, has an affair, steals her family money and flees the country, Frede wants to keep the disaster quiet to maintain her elite status. The only person in town she can turn to is her tactless neighbor, Howard Grout, who agrees to be her lawyer if Frede gets his wife, Nikki, who is far from a charming Southern belle, into the Junior League. As Frede sands down Nikki's gaudy edges, she learns a few simple lessons about life (paramount among them is that money doesn't buy love and happiness). Howard, meanwhile, proves to be a formidable attorney and follows Gordon's money trail all the way to a satisfyingly vengeful ending. Lee (
Simply Sexy;
Sinfully Sexy), a former debutante, certainly knows her material, though it's hard to muster much sympathy for an airy narrator who lives and dies by the shallow strictures of Texas society, maddeningly refers to herself as "moi" and prefers to spell, but not say, m-o-n-e-y.
100,000 announced first printing.(Sept.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Fredericka Mercedes Hildebrand Ware understands that revenge is a dish best served cold--on a fine lace tablecloth with crustless cucumber sandwiches and sweetened tea. Known as "Frede" to her fellow socialites, she is the quintessential Junior Leaguer in Willow Creek, Texas. She has, however, made a fatal mistake by trusting her husband, who has disappeared with her money and another woman. Frede's neighbor, attorney Howard Grout, is loud and crass, but he is also one of the most aggressive lawyers in the state, and he makes Frede an offer she can't afford to refuse. He'll hunt down her lowlife husband if Frede gets his good-hearted but gaudy wife into the Junior League. The snobbish Frede begins as Professor Henry Higgins in this Pygmalion tale; then she also undergoes a transformation. The delightful realism of this wickedly funny tale and its viciously witty but oh-so-refined dialogue may stem from the fact that talented Lee is also a "seriously seasoned Junior Leaguer."
Shelley MosleyCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
