Four Blondes

Bushnell tells the stories of these women in the form of four individual novellas.

Janey Wilcox, former 'it-girl' model and heroine of 'Nice 'n Easy,' is beautiful, with long blonde hair and long sculpted legs. She lives in an overpriced apartment in Manhattan and her yearly mission is to find a rich man with a house in the Hamptons, so that she can spend her summers basking in the sun. At age 30, she has already spent every summer for the last ten years in the Hamptons and hasn't veered off her mission for this summer. She seduces and sleeps with rich men in exchange for a luxury car to drive and a huge mansion to live in. While her taste in clothing and cars is impeccable, her taste in men is based on one thing: their wallet and their house in the Hamptons.

As the novella progresses, we learn that Janey first got the idea to spend summers in the Hamptons by seducing rich men when she started out as a model and overheard a popular, accomplished model brag about going to the Hamptons for the summer. We see how needy she is and how desperate she is to have a relationship with a rich man. Her stories about each man start to seem more sad than funny as they progress.

Janey is a tough woman who seems to lack values and consideration for others. She rarely bonds with women because they somehow sense she will seduce their husbands. She hooks up with some of the worst men and goes on with her life as if nothing happened, all to spend her summer in the Hamptons.

The next blonde is Winnie Dieke in 'Highlights (for adults).' Winnie seems to be an ambitious woman who is afraid to let go of her control and lose her husband. Her husband, James, seems too perfect, until we discover the scandal lurking behind his upper-class, Harvard educated, writer's mind. It seems as though any sparks between the couple are gone, and they bore each other. Insecurity leads to trouble. Both journalists, they gain adventures sooner than they think and with the most unlikely accomplices. Will they lose their normal and boring lives?

'Platinum' Cecelia is a desperate woman. Addiction and love hinder her as she tries to climb out of the shambles she has made of her life. Her sympathy for a famous woman turns to friendship and she starts her climb back to the top with ritzy men and fast rides. Desperation and paranoia dwelled behind the facade that Cecelia struggled to maintain. However, her character seemed to be shallow and there wasn't a real rich plot for her.

The unnamed writer in 'Single Process' is 40 and given an assignment many women may dream of: to research sex in London. She has ridiculously boring conversations in gloomy places, with no interest in anything other than having sex. She finally manages to hook up with a guy at a bar who looks pretty decent and that's where her part of the novella ends.

I had really high hopes when I started reading this book. Janey's novella was interesting and very well developed. After that, each novella became less and less developed and they were hard to get into.