Booklist
It's not hard to figure out why Irish author Keyes's books (most recently, Last Chance Saloon) are best-sellers: she imbues her charming stories about flawed yet feisty women with incredible warmth and wit. This is her first novel to be set in America, and she does a wicked turn on L.A. - the land of complicated martinis and trendy restaurants ("long, hot looks were being exchanged over blueberry pancakes, and that was just the waiters"). Dubliner Margaret Walsh is devastated over the breakup of her marriage ("It's sadder than the hungry babies in Angela's Ashes. It's sadder than Mary going blind on Little House on the Prairie"). She decides to visit her best friend, Emily, a struggling screenwriter living in L.A. Although she fears that mending her heart will invovle going out with a gang of girls and dancing to "I Will Survive", she is soon accompanying Emily to pitches at studios around town, beautifying herself (for a small fortune) at various salons, and engaging in romantic dalliances. Wacky and wonderful.