This book had a very interesting premise - what if you were suddenly very, very good looking? While there were lots of fun observations about how life is different for attractive people, the friendships gave this story its heart. Would definitely recommend for a fun read.

I could not finish this! It started off being quite funny with a certain "Valley of the Dolls" vibe! But I'm simply not interested in these superficial and simple girls any longer. And definitely not interested in the huge reveal of the "moral of the story". Dissapointing.

Thank you to Simon and Schuster and Netgalley for this ARC which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

This book is not what I was expecting at all! Evie, Krista and Willow are 3 friends, average looking, trying to get on in a tough New York City. Evie is a copywriter for Salty magazine, Krista dropped out of law school - much to her Father's disgust - to follow her dream of becoming an actor and Willow is a photographer, desperately trying to step out of her famous film directors Father's shadow.
Evie is currently single and is bi-sexual. She can't seem to meet the right person, male or female. Krista is single and Willow is in a relationship with Mark, although nine months into their relationship Willow has only just begun to call herself his girlfriend.
All 3 women are convinced if they were a little more beautiful, a little more successful and had bubbly personalities all their problems will be solved. Then one evening in a bar Krista has a drink with the stunning Penny - although Krista doesn't remember her being stunning when she knew her years ago. Penny hands her a tiny bottle of liquid called 'Pretty'. This small, innocuous looking bottle has far reaching consequences for all 3 women.
Is being 'Pretty' or just a 'Regular' the best way to be?

I had been given an exclusive chapter sampler at a Blogger evening with Simon and Schuster/Books and the City and I was desperate to read more. The book like I said is not at all what I was expecting. I found some of the language difficult to understand when the characters were talking about feminism and sexual preference, but it didn't really detract from the story.
The story reminded me a little of the film 'Death Becomes Her' in the way that people can never be happy with their lot.

A good read all in all.

I was declined for this initially, but then received a copy in exchange for my review. It promised a lot, and there was some humour to it, but it felt like reading Inbetweeners for women and I couldn't really work out why the girls didn't do more to find out more about what was going on.

I won a beautiful hardback copy of this book in a Twitter giveaway run by the publisher. I was immediately intrigued by the plot which is effectively that of an adult fairytale, albeit quite sinister, where three women are given the chance to change themselves so that new opportunities to progress their careers and love lives come easily to them. Part of what intrigued me most about this book is how relevant it is to women today facing some of the same issues as the characters and how far they are driven to succeed.



There are three main characters - Evie, Krista and Willow, three friends who are all facing similar challenges in their relatively young lives. Each of the girls try "Pretty" and while the transformations are violent the ultimate result is that of incredible beauty which opens many of the previously closed doors for each character.

Willow has low self esteem and Pretty gives her the boost of confidence she needs but soon discovers darker traits within herself when it comes to her relationship. Krista's experience seems to give her everything she's ever dreamed of however she's outrageous in her alter-ego and everything swiftly backfires. Evie, held back at work - I kind of thought of her character in the same vein as the character Kate Hudson played in How To Lose A Guy in 10 Days - finds her new beautiful self out-going and her ideas are willingly accepted, however on the flip side the fact that she's lying eventually becomes something she struggles with.

Pretty made each of the girls beautiful, no doubt about that, however it also seemed to heighten some of their personality traits - the good and the bad - and while it seemed like the perfect solution to their unhappiness the alternative life that Pretty shows them is tainted from the beginning.


The underlying, and important, message is obviously that of embracing who you are and learning to find happiness within yourself and that life isn't easy but it can be worth the effort.

Very easy reading, but a little too meandering and mean-spirited for my tastes. I'm not sure it really went anywhere it was heading for.

An interesting take on the modern woman's seeming obsession with beauty, perfection and adhering to the unrealistic standards set by the beauty industry, 'The Regulars' centres around three female inhabitants of New York, who are gifted a potion called "Pretty" by their very own fairy godmother. Just one drop of the potion turns them into perfect specimens - long and lithe of limb, glossy and bouncy of hair, big and perky of chest, captivating of gaze and utterly irresistible to both men and women alike.
Evie, previously a struggling blogger / copyeditor, soon becomes an online show presenter, with an amazing famous girlfriend, Willow, previously a struggling photographer, soon has people queuing up for her exhibitions and Krista goes from being a struggling actress to a leading lady. However, perfection comes with a price and it soon turns out that living the life of their dreams can be a nightmare....
It's an interesting premise, and obviously one that requires the reader to suspend their disbelief and embrace the fairy tale. That said, the happy ever after ending really jarred with me. As the tale is all about perceptions of perfection, beauty from within, etc etc. the happy ending seemed a cop out. Life doesn't always have a happy ending, even if you are a really lovely person!
That said, there was still plenty to enjoy in this book. It reminded me in parts of the Witches of Eastwick, with the terrifying trio taking over Manhattan with a sultry shake of their glossy manes. There's also a good moral centre about self-acceptance and loving your flaws. But there is still the depressing side that the Pretties do get more opportunities and do get treated better by other people as they glide through life.
Definitely worth a read, it just sends out some slightly confused mixed messages from time to time.

A frothy feminist-y fairytale

Like Cinderella updated, this follows three young women in NY who swallow a beauty potion and are transformed from 'regulars' to looking like supermodels. With their new faces and bodies they try to get ahead in their lives: winning a film role (Krista), getting a web-video gig (Evie), checking out her boyfriend's fidelity (Willow). Unsurprisingly, being beautiful doesn't solve all their problems, even brings some of its own...

This is a fun and frothy read with a light politicised injection but it could have been sharper than it is. Evie's story has the most potential (I found Krista just irritating, and Willow's tale feels like it belongs to a different book altogether) and she has some great speeches about women's media & capitalism, about everyday sexism and so on... so it's a bit disconcerting to find her forgetting all this for large chunks of the story.

All the same, this is a good choice when you want to read something light and unchallenging that is also a step up from conventional romantic chick-lit.

I'm really unsure how I felt about this book. The storyline follows three twenty-something females who are living in New York, trying to get by in day to day life. They come across this magic potion which transforms you into someone beautiful for a week if you take a drop. They take this magic potion and transform into beautiful women and suddenly end up falling into Hollywood roles and landing celebrity partners and dream jobs. etc etc

To say that throughout reading, I wasn't intrigued by the storyline would be unfair - I read this book in just one sitting and although it frustrated me 90% of the time, it never really felt like a chore to finish it. Georgia Clark's writing style made it a fairly easy read, and I wouldn't be opposed to trying another of her books out.

That said, I felt the storyline was a bit ridiculous. The characters were extremely unlikeable and I hated how most of the story revolved around people pretending to be people they weren't and using their looks to get places they wouldn't otherwise. It felt like the story was promoting the idea that good looks mean more in life than hard work and good morals. Although it feels like there was supposed to be some sort of end message to the story which is meant to make us appreciate that looks aren't everything, I think that message is completely lost in the fact that the rest of the book is promoting the view that if you're hot you'll get more out of life.

The humour was pretty horrendous too (the micropenis part was particularly bad...)