Review: Mercury In Retrograde

Title: Mercury In Retrograde
Author: Paula Froelich
Publisher: Atria Books (2009)
Genre: Fiction
Book Source: Review copy from publisher

This fun story focuses on three young women who live in the same apartment building in New York city. There lives are in chaos of one form or another. Dana Gluck is a divorced workaholic lawyer who is having difficulty in getting on with her social life but is very successful professionally. Other than work, the only place she ever goes is to Weight Watchers meetings. Penelope Mercury is a newspaper reporter who starts a fire in her workplace, and unexpectedly quits her job. She is running out of money to pay her bills. Another character, Lena Lippencrass, (nicknamed Lipstick) is a wealthy socialite who has been cut off from her parents money and has to learn to make it on her meager fashion editor's wage. One of her main dilemmas is how to afford the designer dresses that she needs to wear to the society events that she has to cover for her magazine. These three become friends over yoga lessons in Dana's apartment and help each other through the time of transition.

This light chick lit was funny, quick and easy to read. The writing was clear and smooth in the transitions back and forth between the different characters. Paula Froelich has been very creative with some of the ludicrous situations that these characters find themselves in. She keeps her readers interested with lots going on in a short space of time. As a comic look at life's various problems, Mercury In Retrograde is a success. Reading about the characters bumbling mistakes makes an entertaining way to escape from your own. So long as you take it for what it is intended I don't see why anyone would be disappointed. The coincidental forces that seemed to ruin the characters happiness in the beginning of the novel end up granting them (and us) satisfyingly happy endings.