Tan Lines (edition 2008)

A decadent rock star, feminist commentator, and sugar daddy's mistress share a place in the Hamptons and... things happen. Unabashedly trashy, and I loved it. The author's next book was supposed to be "Bikini Wax" but he just came out with "The Strip," so I'm not sure if the title changed. ( )

A fast read about wealth, fame, sex, booze, drugs, and the pursuit of happiness. Three women, Billie (rock star), kellyanne (actress) and Liza (talk-show feminist) share a summer in the upscale Hamptons. It's a trashy read and moves interestingly enough through the story. Toward the end it began to lose my interest, or I should say, earn my scorn. The women never seemed to learn anything of value - - Billie continues on with her dangerous drug life, Kellyanne rather amazingly ends up with a nice man and his child even though she doesn't seem to get any smarter. The exception is perhaps Liza, and I would have liked a good ending for her. But no . . . ( )

Tan Lines enjoys name- and label-dropping in abundance. Designer clothing is described in detail; there are thinly-veiled references to some of today’s celebrities: “…a major movie star, an international sex god married to a world-famous actress and humanitarian. Together they had the devotion of the media and an exotic coterie of adopted children from faraway countries.” And “…the precipitous fall of the former morning show queen turned embattled evening news anchor.” Brad Pitt, Angela Jolie and Katie Couric, perhaps?

The epilogue is a clever faux out-take of the New York Post’s Page Six gossip sheet, with updates on each of the character’s lives after this fateful summer.

Full review at: http://www.sheistoofondofbooks.com/2008/08/04/book-review-tan-lines-by-j-j-salem...
She is Too Fond of Books ( )

review can be found on my blog
http://bethshobbies.blogspot.com/ ( )

In the interest of full disclosure and honesty I have to admit that “beach thrillers” aren’t my usual book of choice. I do live in California, so obviously beach reading is an essential summer activity, but I’ve never touched a Jackie Collins book and Sophie Kinsella does absolutely nothing for me. But there was a lot of buzz surrounding Tan Lines so I thought, why not? I’ll give it a shot.

There’s a lot going on in Tan Lines, a novel focusing on three friends vacationing in the Hamptons one steamy summer. First there’s Billie, a rock star struggling to keep her star on the rise. Her love of sex and drugs fits her bad girl image perfectly, but it’s also ruining her career. But at least she has a career. Poor little Kellyanne went to Hollywood to be a movie star but couldn’t get her career off the ground so she’s been reduced to playing mistress for a wealthy businessman and waiting tables. Liza is Kellyanne’s polar opposite; a media darling whose biting wit and fashionable feminism has made her millions. Her current crusade is against a movie called Watch Her Bleed, a slasher flick in which all the women are strong and successful - and by the end of the movie, all of them have been brutally murdered. Liza finds this anti-women message appalling, and she wants the world to know. The women rent a place in the Hamptons together, but things spiral out of control as fashion and passion collide in a miasma of sexy fun time. We know there was a murder – this is revealed in the prologue – but who gets killed?

Sigh. Like I said, this isn’t normally my genre, so my reaction may be a bit extreme and off the mark. Also, if you were planning to read this book the next few paragraphs may be pretty spoiler-riffic, so feel free to skip them. Just click on the cover of Tan Lines up there on the right and you’re good. Now that the warning is out of the way, this is definitely the WORST BOOK I’VE READ THIS YEAR. I’ll dissect why I thought it was awful for each of the three main characters:

(Continued in my blog because this review is full of spoilers) ( )