Rating: 
Summary: Can't get through it!
Review: I have read Miss Bushnell's other books and bought this one for a trip I went on. While starting out ok it just kept getting worse and I finally put it down without finishing it. Books should not be this painful to get through. The characters have no redeeming qualities and there are parts that drag on forever. Skip this book and read Sex in the City a second time.
Rating: 
Summary: Not worth your time or money
Review: I just finished this book, and needless to say, I was EXTREMLY dissapointed. The story just dragged at some points. The ending was terrible. Lots of loose ends weren't tied up, it as if the author just got tired of writing. After all the hours I spent on this book I was left feeling ripped off. Don't waste your time!
Rating: 
Summary: Great read!
Review: I loved this book and I was rooting for Janey even though I know that I knew that I should hate her. I was glad that I had read 4 Blondes before Trading up because it starts pretty much where Janey's story left off in 4 Blondes. So I recommend that readers first read 4 Blondes and then read Trading Up. Yet another great book by Candace Bushnell.
Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your money
Review: I picked this book because I thought it would be a good beach read, despite having not read any of her previous work. In retrospect, I can't believe that she is considered an accomplished writer. First, her obsessive use of italics in every single line of dialogue is annoying and condescending. Apparently, she doesn't think her readers are intellegent enough to figure out for themselves which words should be emphasized in normal dialogue. And how about this: "Janey's eyes were shining but blank, as if the high beams were on but no one was driving." WHO WRITES LIKE THAT??? The end was soooo weak. It all hinged on some kind of closure with a minor character from early on in the book. So minor, I didn't even remember who he was. Don't waste your money. There's much better stuff out there, even for light beach reading.
Rating:
Summary: THIS BOOK IS TERRIBLE!!!
Review: I tried so hard to finish this book, just so I could say I finished it. I think I have like 20 pages to go, but I can go no further. This book has NO redeeming qualities. It is poorly written: with 20 pages or so to go, I can detect no sign of an actual plot. Is the "heroine" Janey Wilcox going to change from a shallow, vapid model into a shallow, vapid movie producer? Will she leave her rich husband for a richer one? Who knows? And who cares. This book features a main character I could care less about. In fact, NONE of the characters with the possible exception of Seldon (Janey's husband) is even LIKEABLE. I kept hoping Janey would get hit by a bus crossing 5th avenue, or maybe trip on a heel and break her neck. I couldn't STAND her. And the characters around her, obviously crafted to make her seem sympathetic, only made her seem worse by comparison, because they are all such hideous people. After 400 pages, this book has gone nowhere, and quite frankly, I'm not even convinced that Candance Bushnell knows what she's talking about. This is nothing like "Sex and the City" -- it's snooze in the city, and it just doesn't get better with time. Zero stars for a zero-caliber book. Thank God I only paid three bucks for it at a used sale. No wonder the previous owner wanted to get rid of it! This is one of the worse books I've ever read.
Rating:
Summary: I LOVED IT!!!!
Review: I was reading some reviews of this book, i hate to write my own. I really enjoyed reading this book. I think the main character Janey is fun to read about. Sometimes you hate her and sometimes you feel sorry for her, mixed emotions, but she made the book interesting.
This is a fun book to read, if your one of those people who look for some kind of deep philosophical meaning, not gonna find it. That's why they call it fiction. I enjoyed it because I was able to escape from reality into the life of Janey. I didn't want to put the book down and I wish it wasn't over, I just want to keep reading about her.
This was in continuation from the first story in 4 Blondes, the previous book by Candace Bushnell, I hope she writes more books about the other characters that were in that book as she did with Janey Wilcox. Left me hanging and wanting more.
Rating:
Summary: loved it! loved it!
Review: I've read this one twice and I hardly ever do that. Janie is such a fighter. This book is so beautifully done. I with this author whould hurry and write another.
Rating:
Summary: The social satirist of our time
Review: Janey Wilcox is a modern-day Lily Bart: beautiful, slightly connected and determined to emerge as a scion of society. With updated strategies and a refusal to be beaten down, Janey uses everything within her powers to defeat the powerful men, women and social structure that threaten to pull her back into her middle class roots (or at least into obscurity). Candace Bushnell understands human drama and New York society better than any mainstream writer in the current publishing world. Creating characters and situations that make the reader eagerly turn pages while cringing with shock, Bushnell successfully delivers the hierarchical world that is New York - with none of the pretentious, apologetic or hack "insider" views currently popular in today's "literary circles". This isn't for the "chick-lit" culture: Leave Prada and the Nannies on the shelf. "Trading Up" delivers in the style of "The House of Mirth" (and will create in the reader a desire to read the older classics of New York society fiction).
Rating:
Summary: Disgustingly Delicious!
Review: That is the only way to discribe this fun, and twistedly sad novel. Janey Wilcox is the character you love to hate, and hopelessly feel sorry for at the same time. You, like Selden (her husband), Patti (sister) and Mimi (a friend she betrayed like so many others), strive to see the good within Janey, try to give her the benefit of the doubt each time. But, Janey is relentlessly and sometimes unsubconciously, self-destructive and selfish.
She was given beauty, which without a compassionate heart and a fully functional brain to accompany it, can be trecherous to anyone. Janey's problem is that she is told beauty is the answer to everything, and it actually is.
The reason why people are not "getting" this book, is because it is so close to real life, it's laughable! There are MANY Janey's filling up the park avenue penthouses of Newyork, and spilling out of Beverly Hills mansions. When you are rich, young, beautiful, and you get everything handed to you just because of these things, you do not think nor act like a "normal" person, indeed you will be abnormal (i.e. Paris Hilton, Nichole Ritchie). Bushnell just sheds a little light on the actual happenings of New York Society.
While we like to believe that the Tyra Banks', Kate Moss's, and Giseles of our world are simply beautiful humanitarians, and the CEOS and movie producer's that help create the media we devour are kind jolly Santa's, Trading Up just tells a little TOO much of the truth, and the everyday idealistic American shys away from too much truth (especially when it is about how rich people REALLY behave)
This book has MUCH more literary purpose and fufillment than the chick-lit that is spewing from every corner today. You won't find the cliched "Angry Woman Boss of The fashion Magazine", no cowaring assistants, or over-done synopsis of every outfit ever worn by each character. This book actually develops characters, not clothing, and I love it!
I can't wait for Janey to take over LA! I LOVE it when the bad guy wins, because THAT is Real Life folks ; )
Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your money.
Review: The characters and writing were equally horrid. I'm not exactly sure which is worse. The main character in this book is as deep as a puddle. She is so unenjoyable and poorly written that you feel nothing for her. You can't like or loathe her.
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