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Glamour

by Louise Bagshawe

     

Jane Morgan, Sally Lassiter and Helen Yanna meet at an exclusive girl’s high school in Los Angeles in the 1980’s.  Although they are from very different backgrounds, and have dissimilar personalities, they fit right in as best friends, three sides of a triangle.   Each young woman brings her own strength and united they are a formidable front.

As they are at the top of their game, showing the catty cliques that they are the top dogs of the school, each of them suffers a dramatic life-altering event.  Not only are their individual lives changed, but they are ripped apart and forced to deal with life on their own.  No longer the Three Musketeers, Jane, Sally and Helen each step up to the plate, cope with hardships unforeseen and emerge as stronger young adults.

A bit of time has passed, but not too long, and fate conspires to bring the ladies back together. They find that their dreams serve a common purpose and they unite their skills and circumstances to forge a new business.  "Glamour" is a wildly successful store, featuring clothing and cosmetics by Sally, and unique Middle Eastern items hand-selected by Helen, now known as Haya, her Jordanian birth name.  Helen’s goal is to make sure the items are made by women in dire situations and that they receive fair and ethical pay. Jane is the financial genius who gets the backing they need from one of the top financiers in America.   The speed with which "Glamour" grows is phenomenal and would be mindboggling to many.  Yet these three remain levelheaded and true to themselves and to each other.  That is until life deals them yet another hand of cards that threatens to take down the business as it is, and rip their friendship to shreds.

Louise Bagshawe has written a perfect escapist novel with Glamour.  It requires a high level of willing suspension of disbelief, and that is just perfect for these trying times we live in.  The book is a fun romp through fashion, red hot sex, world travel and deeply divisive true life stories that can ruin a life or a friendship so fast your head will spin. This would be a great vacation read—even if it is only a mental vacation from the hectic world we live in.  The book is thoroughly enjoyable; in fact, I would even read it again just because it’s so much fun.

The Book

Plume
February 2009
Paperback
978-0452289420
Fiction / Contemporary
More at Amazon.com
Excerpt
NOTE:

The Reviewer

Laura Hinds
Reviewed 2009
NOTE: Reviewer Laura Hinds is an experienced freelance writer whose first novel, Are You Gonna Eat That Banana, just came out in 2009.
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