Trading Up

Hated this book. My least favorite of hers.

One of the worst books I ever had the displeasure to have to read. Excruciatingly boring and trite.

Not as good as Sex and the City but okay. Good summer reading.

could not put it down- so many plots and twists.

Awful!!! Did not finish.

Ok. Not a favorite in this genre.

A beautiful woman uses and betrays her wealthy husband, and almost loses everything. An insiders view of the top of the food chain in New York City and Hollywood.

Fans of Sex and the City will enjoy anything written by Candace Bushnell.

Janey is a superficial supermodel only interested in herself. She uses everyone around her and is only interested in social gain. When scandal errupts and her perfect world crumbles, Janey is forced to reinvent herself.I found Janey to be a completely unlikable character. I found myself reading more to find out what happens to her sweet sister Patty. The writing style jumps around from past to present within a paragraph and can be pleasant. Certainly makes me happy I'm not part of the New York Social Scene.

Disappointing. Unfortunately Bushnell is missing that special "je ne sais quois" of S.J.Parker.

I found that while the book was technically well written, I did not empathize with the main character much. I disliked the author's cold assessment of women's motives for manipulating men, even though I couldn't quarrel with her conclusions. I felt that she did not show any compassion in her treatment of her characters and it detracted from the overall quality of the book. Not one I'd recommend.

Pretty trashy, I get the feeling Bushnell regards The Witches of Eastwick as the paramount of literature. She paints even her heroine as a fatally flawed awful component of society, its nearly impossible to root for her. Its woman on woman crime at its worst.

Great story plot, characters a little to superficial but a page turner

Terrible characters who I couldn’t bring myself to care about!

A little cheesey!! But ok!! Just ok! Cute book to listen to!

Fun book with good character development and unexpected twists and turns. I enjoyed listening to it.

excellent--gripping!!!

This was an amazing book. No wonder she had her books turned into movies-wow! I was stunned by how great this book was and would definitely recommend it!

This book had the worst ending ever. Horrible. If you're planning to read it, don't read this review because I'm going to give away the ending. Which, if you hadn't noticed, I hate. So, the book itself is a pretty entertaining read. It's about a beautiful, manipulative, bitchy, shallow, whorish, self-centered woman and her quest for fame and fortune. And on that quest, she has some very Sex and the City-esque adventures which are always good fluffy reading.However, over the course of the book this woman explicitly trades sex for money (ummm...), lies, cheats, and manipulates everyone she comes into contact with including her sister, husband and best friend. And in the end, just when you think she's finally going to crash and burn (which is exactly what you want, because by now you HATE her and she deserves it!) everything all magically works itself out for her. And la-di-dah, what do you know, suddenly she's on top of the world again. The moral of the story is that if you're beautiful and a good liar you can get away with anything. And if New Yorkers eventually realize you're a miserable excuse for a human being, just move to LA and they'll worship you there. Seriously, stupidest ending ever. Ever.

Although the writing isn't remarkable (and Bushnell abuses ellipses in addition to using conjunctions oddly), the plot is the (at least initially) fairly entertaining story of ambitious New York model Janey Wilcox. The reader sees her ups and downs and there are some good but tentative attempts at social commentary, perhaps even satire. But then the book seems to lose focus, becoming disorganized, meandering here and there, including into territory that contradicts the earlier message. Too long in general, it ends abruptly. Seems a bit of a good idea executed poorly (in both areas - entertaining story or theme). Bushnell uses several characters that are easily recognized as parodies of real life "celebrities" from their thinly veiled names, careers and stereotyped physical descriptions and actions. Laziness or some sort of genius? (Novel-tv-real life meshed together. If the reader receives a deep understanding of the character, does it matter by what means?

This was so deliciously entertaining. A 21st century take on Dominic Dunne territory - truly dreadfully shallow people with too much money and ego. An absolute delight. Loved the way Bushnell gives an insider glimpse of these people, gets inside their heads, and is totally bitchy and scathing about them at the same time. Clever.

Entertaining look into lives of the wealthy. More money just makes for more problems... it seems. No character is really likable, so it makes the story-telling less sentimental. I wasn't invested in seeing any one character's fate change for the better.