The Perfect Manhattan
A Novel
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
As sizzling as a see-and-be-seen night on the town, as lip-smacking as a flawless cosmo, The Perfect Manhattan serves up a dishy tale of bartending among the beautiful people—and provides the ultimate summer cocktail.
Meet Cassie Ellis—a young college graduate with the world on a string, a yen for screenwriting, and a need for fast cash to pay off her student loans. Eager to avoid the lucrative snooze-fest of a reliable consulting job, she shocks everyone she knows by opting for a sexier, more flexible job: mixing drinks. Never mind that she doesn’t know single-malt whiskey from Jack Daniel’s: she’s eager to learn. And under the tutelage of a sexy Soho bar owner, she’s soon cranking out three-olive martinis with the city’s glitterati fifteen-deep at the bar—all while angling for tips, fielding bad pick-up lines, and trying to keep up with the other bartenders who party as hard as their stylish clientele.
When Cassie accepts a summer gig bartending in the Hamptons, New York’s most elite summer destination, she finds herself catapulted into a whirlwind of dazzling celebrity and over-the-top wealth unlike anything she’s ever seen. Life behind the velvet rope is hard to resist, especially when she finds herself falling for a Hamptons hottie named James. But as the summer progresses, and she finds herself surrounded by playboys, moguls, spoiled rich kids, and Paris Hilton clones in strappy stilettos, she soon wonders if playing the ersatz socialite—while actually trying to make a living—is more than she bargained for.
Drawn from the authors’ own experiences as bartenders in the thick of New York’s party scene, The Perfect Manhattan is a perfect mix of sparkling social satire, romance, comedy, and scandal that provides a fast-paced, enormously entertaining look inside the life on the chichi side of the tracks.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In their attempt to titillate while criticizing the high life, bartender/writer Shear and bartender/actress Toomey shake an imperfect cocktail with this story of a sexy young mixologist's fabulous but sordid summer working in the Hamptons. After graduating from Columbia, aspiring writer Cassie tends bar at a posh SoHo watering hole, experience that lands her a summer spot at the front bar of Hamptons hot spot Spark. Cassie, who has blue collar roots, is quickly swept up in the scene: flirting for tips up to $1,000 and landing handsome trust-fund boyfriend James Richard Edmonton III. By Labor Day weekend, the frenetic socializing and spending hard-earned cash on designer dresses take a toll on the hopeful screenwriter. While the authors divulge interesting behind-the-bar secrets plus tidbits on how bartenders rip off bar owners, in fleshing out the Hamptons elite they resort to stale Lizzie Grubman and P. Diddy references and WASPy stereotypes. (Cassie dubs her romantic rivals, decked out in pastel cashmere sweater sets and pearls, the "Pearls Girls.") Add banal commentary on differences between old and nouveau riche to Cassie's ultimate disavowal of "selfish, shallow, boring people spending money," and this concoction's fizz goes flat.
Customer Reviews
The perfect manhattan
Thoroughly enjoyed this book. Home there will be more from these gals!