Paula Morris — Trendy But Casual

Penguin Group New Zealand, Limited 2007 Paperback, 396pp. Jane Shore, flippant and world-weary heroine, lives in New York City, works in PR and is officially Ugly On The Inside. An unpromising encounter with a bitter stranger, who shouts at her, 'Did anyone ever tell you that you re ugly? Ugly on the inside,' sets the scene for the next few months of her life. As if Ugly On The Inside wasn't bad enough, Jane's being sidelined at work by the ambitious fashion-victim Lee Munroe; her West Village apartment's being sold; her cousin Frances is going out with her megalomaniac boss; and she s still single - the gorgeous Guy Weaver being taken already. Is it time for Jane to acknowledge that the Holy Trinity of job, house and man might not pan out quite how she expected? Is it time for her to accept Mr Not-quite-right, a Brooklyn postcode, and that she's reached the less-than-lofty ceiling of her PR career? . Trendy but Casual takes the reader on a madcap ride through the PR scene of hip-hoperas and porn entrepreneurs, and the bars and clubs of Manhattan in Jane s search for love and success. (ISBN: 9780143006398). Fair.