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Real Life New York Gossip Girl Gets Thumbs Up and Endorsements From Sex & City and Gossip Girl Authors for New Book That Serves as a Survival Guide for Women Living in New York

Posted on: Tuesday, 5 May 2009, 13:31 CDT

"Paula Froelich writes with humor, charm, and heart. Readers will love the hilarious misadventures of Penelope Mercury." - Candace Bushnell, author of Sex & The City and One Fifth Avenue

"A very funny New York story, MERCURY IN RETROGRADE reads like a late night cab ride with friends. The tales of Penelope, Lipstick, and Dana are at once fabulous, tragic, and hysterically funny." - Cecily von Ziegesar, author of the #1 bestselling Gossip Girl novels

MERCURY IN RETROGRADE By Paula Froelich

NEW YORK, May 5 /PRNewswire/ -- SCORPIO: With Mercury falling into a particularly difficult retrograde, the best advice for you is to JUST STAY HOME. Know that Mercury in retrograde means one thing: If something can go wrong, it will.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090505/NY10462 )

As a New York Post Page Six gossip columnist, Paula Froelich has seen the best and worst New York City has to offer, from the daily grind of the average working stiff to the public scandals and shakeups of the city's glitterati. In her debut novel, MERCURY IN RETROGRADE (Atria Books; $24.00; on-sale: June 2009; ISBN: 978-1-4165-9893-0), Froelich brings her sharp wit and insider's perspective to a story about three very different women who-in classic New York style-just happen to share the same SoHo address.

Penelope Mercury (Apartment 4-A, 148 Sullivan St.) hadn't intended to quit her job without a backup plan. Or upchuck all over her boss. Or burn down the photo studio at her (former) place of employment. But after a disastrous day ending in being passed over for a much-deserved promotion, things just sort of happened . . . and now, after five years as a pavement-pounding reporter at the New York Telegraph, Penelope needs a Plan B.

Dana Gluck (5th-Floor Penthouse) is already on Plan B-and it sucks. She's a successful lawyer, but the devastating end of her marriage a year before left her depressed and insecure. Since then, she's barely left the building except to go to the office. While she's on the verge of becoming the youngest-ever partner at her demanding firm, Dana is beginning to wonder if she'll ever be able to face the "real" world again.

And Lena "Lipstick" Lippencrass, socialite and fashion editor extraordinaire, is facing some problems of her own. Not only has her ex, Thad Newton III, started dating Bitsy.

Farmdale, her biggest social rival, but her parents have decided to kick her out of her fabulous brownstone and cut off access to her trust fund. When an affordable but tiny apartment opens up at a "scruffy" apartment block in SoHo, Lipstick jumps at the opportunity and moves into 4-B.

In the melting pot of 148 Sullivan Street, these three incredibly different but equally dynamic women somehow become friends. Over shared yoga, wardrobe malfunctions, spray-on hair disasters, and work and relationship crises, Penelope, Lipstick, and Dana discover that life in the city is sometimes about rolling with the punches-and that having Plan A fall through might be the best thing that could ever happen to you.

Funny, clever, and quirky, readers will find MERCURY IN RETROGRADE as irresistible as the heroines who inhabit it. Honed by years at one of the city's premiere gossip pages, Froelich deftly captures the sights, sounds, and scenes of New York life. Like the city in which it is set, MERCURY IN RETROGRADE is sly and engaging, unpredictable and disarming, humorous and ultimately heart-warming.

"Funny, clever, and engaging. The ultimate insider's view into the looking-glass world of a working girl's Manhattan." - Gigi Levangie Grazer, author of The Starter Wife

About the Author: Paula Froelich is a gossip reporter for the New York Post's famed Page Six, and has worked with some of New York media's most outsized and outrageous personalities. Froelich lives in Manhattan.

MERCURY IN RETROGRADE By Paula Froelich Published by Atria Books ISBN: 978-1-4165-9893-0 Pages: 272 pp Price: $24.00/$32.00 CAN. On Sale: June 2009

Atria Books is an imprint of Simon & Schuster, part of the CBS Corporation, a global leader in the field of general interest publishing, dedicated to providing the best in fiction and nonfiction for consumers of all ages, across all printed, electronic, and audio formats. Its divisions include Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing, Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, Simon & Schuster Audio, Simon & Schuster Online, and international companies in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. For more information, visit our website at www.simonandschuster.com.

SOURCE Paula Froelich

Source: PR Newswire

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