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Suzanne Harrison

New York Valentine  
by Carmen Reid  
Corgi Books  HK$91         
The writer of the Secrets at St Jude's books for teens, Scottish-based Carmen Reid is now hailed a best-selling author with more books on the way. This book - the latest in her Personal Shopper series starring Annie Valentine - is aimed at the adult chick-lit market. It would be far  more appropriate for teenage girls with a fashion fetish. 
Annie Valentine is a 30-something mother of one-year-old twins, cruelly called Minnie and Mickey, and a teenage daughter and son from a previous marriage. She is also on TV as a kind of 'what-not-to-wear' presenter, but the show is axed and Annie finds herself out of work, slightly overweight and with a mighty credit card debt.
Her music teacher husband is, of course, patient, kind, loving and understanding, but Annie needs to do something to get back in the career saddle or lose her ability to shop, shop and shop some more.
Enter her good friend Svetlana, a Ukrainian woman with a string of rich ex-husbands. Svetlana's daughter in New York is struggling with her fashion business and needs a savvy adviser, which is where Annie and her school-leaver teenage daughter Lana come in. 
Off to New York they go, where Annie's descriptions of the city are juvenile to the point of hilarity: 'It was wide, wide, wide' is her not-so-vivid description of Fifth Avenue. 
In the big smoke, they are overcome with excitement at the fashions, good-looking men, handbags and food. Unfortunately, they also have to deal with Elena, Svetlana's sulky daughter, who is worried the business will go under.
There is no money left in the kitty and they need to make dresses, a task Annie sets for herself, dragging Elena along as they scour the streets of New York to find the right materials and get the job done.
Apart from Lana's brief romance with a smooth talker and one vaguely entertaining event whereby Annie dives into a skip to retrieve cotton jersey at an abandoned warehouse, not much else happens. 
When it comes to chick-lit, Bridget Jones's Diary is funny, entertaining and unique. This kind of chick-lit is dim, ditzy and dull.  If you can't resist the lolly-pink book cover, please pass on to a female under the age of 16.




New York Valentine