Where the Grass Is Green and the Girls Are Pretty: A Novel
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • GOOD MORNING AMERICA BUZZ PICK • From the bestselling author of The Devil Wears Prada and When Life Gives You Lululemons comes a highly entertaining, sharply observed novel about sisters, their perfect lives . . . and their perfect lies.
“Goes down like an ice-cold guilty pleasure on a hot beach-reading day.”—USA Today
A seat at the anchor desk of the most-watched morning show. Recognized by millions across the country, thanks in part to her flawless blond highlights and Botox-smoothed skin. An adoring husband and a Princeton-bound daughter. Peyton is that woman. She has it all.
Until . . .
Skye, her sister, is a stay-at-home mom living in a glitzy suburb of New York. She has degrees from all the right schools and can helicopter-parent with the best of them. But Skye is different from the rest. She’s looking for something real and dreams of a life beyond the PTA and pickup.
Until . . .
Max, Peyton’s bright and quirky seventeen-year-old daughter, is poised to kiss her fancy private school goodbye and head off to pursue her dreams in film. She’s waited her entire life for this opportunity.
Until . . .
One little lie. That’s all it takes. For the illusions to crack. For resentments to surface. Suddenly the grass doesn’t look so green. And they’re left wondering: will they have what it takes to survive the truth?
“Goes down like an ice-cold guilty pleasure on a hot beach-reading day.”—USA Today
A seat at the anchor desk of the most-watched morning show. Recognized by millions across the country, thanks in part to her flawless blond highlights and Botox-smoothed skin. An adoring husband and a Princeton-bound daughter. Peyton is that woman. She has it all.
Until . . .
Skye, her sister, is a stay-at-home mom living in a glitzy suburb of New York. She has degrees from all the right schools and can helicopter-parent with the best of them. But Skye is different from the rest. She’s looking for something real and dreams of a life beyond the PTA and pickup.
Until . . .
Max, Peyton’s bright and quirky seventeen-year-old daughter, is poised to kiss her fancy private school goodbye and head off to pursue her dreams in film. She’s waited her entire life for this opportunity.
Until . . .
One little lie. That’s all it takes. For the illusions to crack. For resentments to surface. Suddenly the grass doesn’t look so green. And they’re left wondering: will they have what it takes to survive the truth?
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Community Reviews
The book kept my interest and was an easy read. I wanted more from the ending. I wanted to know if Peyton's decision at the end changed the narrative. Did everyone else get their happy ever after?
I found it hard to believe he could go to jail for this. Not one person in the prosecutors office would discover she signed the check? Especially with how famous she was? Other than that it was a good story with a relevant plot. The side story was almost as good as the first and tied in nicely. I would read more from this author.
I have been in this with Lauren Weisberger since the beginning. "Devil Wears Prada," "Everyone Worth Knowing," "When Life Gives You Lululemons" - we've grown up together, Lauren!
And in that growing up, the characters are aging along with us - particularly in Weisberger's latest book, "Where the Grass is Green and the Girls are Pretty." I've said this in a couple other reviews recently, but I'll say it again and again if it will keep these books coming...I love that we are finally seeing stories which feature women in middle age. And it's interesting! And they have lives! And they have sex lives! They're people, too! What a crazy concept for the entertainment world to finally start figuring out...
Okay, off my soapbox...
While I'm just at the beginning of my middle-life and have small children nowhere near ready for college, I can still fully understand wanting to do what we, as parents, think is best for our children - just as Peyton, our main character, does when she makes the massive mistake of paying to get her only child, Max, into *Peyton's* ideal college. However, the true lesson that Weisberger so beautifully taught us can be completely summed up in this quote from Peyton's mother:
"Sweetheart, I know it can be easy to miss when it's your own child - I think I might have missed it with you - but eventually you need to stand back and admire the person they've become. It's almost never the person you wanted, or expected, them to be, but once you can see them as separate from you, it's pretty incredible how much you can respect them for the path they've chosen."
Oof. Gut Punch. But very wise words, none-the-less.
"Where the Grass is Green and the Girls are Pretty" still has that late '90s/early aughts high heels, pink cover feel...a genre I devoured in my 20s. But instead of trying to snag a job and a boyfriend, our characters are now trying to *keep* those jobs, their families, and their youth. So, if you've loved Lauren Weisberger since her start, you're going to continue to love her as she enters mid-life along with the rest of us - her ChickLit readers.
And in that growing up, the characters are aging along with us - particularly in Weisberger's latest book, "Where the Grass is Green and the Girls are Pretty." I've said this in a couple other reviews recently, but I'll say it again and again if it will keep these books coming...I love that we are finally seeing stories which feature women in middle age. And it's interesting! And they have lives! And they have sex lives! They're people, too! What a crazy concept for the entertainment world to finally start figuring out...
Okay, off my soapbox...
While I'm just at the beginning of my middle-life and have small children nowhere near ready for college, I can still fully understand wanting to do what we, as parents, think is best for our children - just as Peyton, our main character, does when she makes the massive mistake of paying to get her only child, Max, into *Peyton's* ideal college. However, the true lesson that Weisberger so beautifully taught us can be completely summed up in this quote from Peyton's mother:
"Sweetheart, I know it can be easy to miss when it's your own child - I think I might have missed it with you - but eventually you need to stand back and admire the person they've become. It's almost never the person you wanted, or expected, them to be, but once you can see them as separate from you, it's pretty incredible how much you can respect them for the path they've chosen."
Oof. Gut Punch. But very wise words, none-the-less.
"Where the Grass is Green and the Girls are Pretty" still has that late '90s/early aughts high heels, pink cover feel...a genre I devoured in my 20s. But instead of trying to snag a job and a boyfriend, our characters are now trying to *keep* those jobs, their families, and their youth. So, if you've loved Lauren Weisberger since her start, you're going to continue to love her as she enters mid-life along with the rest of us - her ChickLit readers.
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