Ripped at the Seams (The Romantic Comedies)
Grade 9 Up–In this improbable, but charming, hip fairy tale, Sami Granger, 18 and fresh off the bus, sets out to conquer the world of high fashion in New York City. Clutching her portfolio, she survives rejection from the showrooms of 7th Avenue and a murder in her dive of a hotel. Then her so-called boyfriend, who is also her new boss, steals her designs, and poor Sami is reduced to the embarrassment of working in a naughty lingerie shop in the East Village. Nothing in tiny Elk Lake, MN, prepared her for this. Teen girls will enjoy the vicarious thrills of this ultra-chic journey through NYC: the clothes, the boyfriends, the models, the photo ops, and the clubs. Krulik imbues her tale with spirit, good characterizations, and a few genuine New York gems. When she's not name-dropping fashion designers, celebs, and hot night spots, she gives glimpses of the enduring wonders of the Big Apple: the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the artsy funkiness of SoHo and the East Village, and the true kindheartedness of New Yorkers. Ultimately, Sami succeeds as a fashion designer, with a lot of help from her small-town values, devoted friends, the benevolent if eccentric owner of Between the Sheets, and some other surprising sources. The young woman eventually recognizes her true prince and lives happily ever after, albeit in an expensive, tiny, East Village walk-up.–Roxanne Myers Spencer, Western Kentucky University, Bowling GreenCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.