Customer Reviews

Party Girl: A Novel

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Isabel is a successful party coordinator. When she is asked by the Monkwell family patriarch (an old family friend) to put together the ultimate party, she finds herself working for the boy who broke her heart and tormented her as a young girl. But Simon has grown into a very sexy and successful businessman, and appears to have let bygones be bygones.

While she tries to keep her distance, she finds that she is suffering from a growing attraction to the one man she should steer clear of. When she inadvertently shares information with her former boyfriend regarding the Monkwell party, it has repercussions she could never have imagined, and threatens the acquisition that the Monkwell family is counting on. To make amends, she works closely with Simon to charm investors and win back his trust. Will Izzy be able to forgive Simon when she finds out the basis for his evil teen machinations?

Mason has created another quirky cast of characters that will capture your attention and keep you glued to the end of the story.

In England though several weeks have passed, event planner Isabel "Izzy" Serranti has not recovered from being dumped by her boyfriend. That coupled with feeling overweight has left Izzy lacking confidence in her abilities to hold the attention of a man. When she sees her childhood best friend, who inexplicably became her teenage tormentor, financier Simon Monkwell she babbles about food while he apparently fails to recognize her.

Simon hires Izzy to perform a planner's miracle as his family estate Pantiles is in financial trouble, but to save it he must fool potential American investors that all is well. She would like to refuse him, but he is so handsome and debonair while she is oafish, but the reason she agrees is because she inadvertently gave away some Pantiles' insider information to her lout of an ex. Thus she hosts a weekend in the English countryside where investors, their wacko families, a tarantula and others interfere with the attraction between Simon and Izzy; however it is what caused teenage Simon to turn into a bully that remains between them.

PARTY GIRL is a warm British chick lit romance starring a likable but unconfident lead female struggling to make a weekend right for the man she loves who she expects will mistreat her as he did when he turned thirteen. Izzy is an interesting protagonist coping with the families of her and Simon, other fractious souls like the help, the demands of the Americans, and SOCIETY GIRLS invited to the gala. Though the support cast at times overwhelms the tale with the baggage they bring to the weekend event, dizzy Izzy makes this a fun often amusing romantic romp.

Harriet Klausner

In Party Girl Sarah Mason has served up a light-hearted and fun British chick lit romance with an interesting cast of primary and secondary characters.

Isabel (Izzy) Serranti is an event planner who loves her job and is good at it. She's recovering from a failed relationship, her self-esteem has plummeted and she's feeling overweight and lacking confidence in the "man" arena.

Izzy is hired to plan a large party at the Monkwell estate, Pantiles. Pantiles is the childhood home of her former best friend turned tormentor, Simon Monkwell.

She's concerned about returning to the place of her childhood filled with memories of the rude and difficult Simon. But since Simon is not around, she's up for the challenge. After all, she's adept at handling the rude, the difficult and the eccentric rich. What she doesn't count on is handling all that and facing her childhood demons at the same time.

When Simon appears, he's not the young tormentor she remembered. He's dashing and unattached and seems genuinely happy to see Izzy. But Izzy inadvertently gives information to her ex-boyfriend that could topple Simon's current business deal.

Can Izzy pull off the impossible and execute the perfect party? Can she straighten out her life and relationship with Simon?

Party Girl is an inviting and fast read that will leave you chuckling. You'll enjoy it so much that you will overlook some of its minor flaws.

Armchair Interviews says: Party Girl is the perfect weekend read. When you're finished, you'll probably want to search out Playing James, Mason's first novel.

After reading and loving both Playing James and Society Girls (Sarah Mason's first 2 books), I just had to read Party Girl. I'm sorry to say that I was very disappointed.

The basic plot is the same as all the other reviewers have already hashed out: Izzy is a party planner and is hired to plan a ball for a family whom she was close to during her childhood, but later fell out with.

Overall, the novel was quite dull and boring. The plot really didn't develop, and the huge ball that consumed most of the book took place over about 2 very non-descriptive pages. I found myself saying, "This is so pointless!" over and over again during the time it took me to read this. There were so many unneeded subplots (like Dom's "relationship" and the whole "Nordic Ice Ball") that the important stuff just kind of got lost. I though the development between Izzy and Simon was horrible and the end where you actually find out what happened just seemed so random.

I must say, this is not Sarah Mason's best attempt to write chick-lit. If you have read this, don't take it as an indication of her other 2 books. Playing James was one of the best chick-lit books I've read. Society Girls, the sequel to Playing James, wasn't far behind (although not as good as its prequel).

Party Girl: A Novel

It was a fun book. Once i start reading it i couldn't put it down. The story is a little bit dragging in the middle. I will still buy books from this author.

It was British humor at its finest. I read a lot and not one has been as funny as this book!

Mason, who excells at writing British "Chick-lit", gets better and better. Don't worry about the plot; it is the characters that make this books so enjoyable. I have read to multiple folks the section where Izzy searches for Aunt Flo's escaped tarantula - we have all howled with laughter. Full of wonderful characters, true romance (and no overt sex)- this is a wonderful read.

Sarah Mason's "Party Girl" centered around Isabel, a party planner who was assigned to plan a charity ball at a family estate, Pantiles, owned by the Monkwell family. Isabel used to know the Monkwells as a kid and she was particularly close to their son, Simon. However, their friendship ended badly when Simon began to torment and bully Isabel. She never understood why Simon's friendship towards her changed. Regardless of that, Isabel was eager to make this party a successful one. Going back to the estate brought back memories for Isabel and she was reconnected to the family members and as for Simon, Isabel was prepared to keep her distance. The Simon that she met now was completely different from the Simon who bullied her and Isabel began to get attracted to him.

This was really an average chick lit as it was a bit long and the story was not able to hold my interests. The plot was rather thin and was quite predictable. It was somewhat interesting for the first half of the book but after that, the author seemed to be writing about the same thing (more or less) and the book became somewhat boring. This is definitely a below average book for this genre.

This is not stand-out chick lit ~ very formulaic. Ultimately I will have forgotten I ever read this book in a couple of weeks.