Rating: 
Summary: What a let down!!!!
Review: I was really looking forward to reading this book, I am a fan of Sex in the City and had heard Candace Bushnell on several radio stations promoting this book. Boy, what a let down. I could not find anything interesting about any of these women, it was more despressing that witty. These women had the most boring lives, if New York society if like this, than you can have it. I found the writing to be simplistic and flat. I know why I still like the series, Candance Bushnell is no longer involved with it.
Rating:
Summary: What a waste of time.
Review: Unfortunately, the acerbic wit that was so evident in the first of the four stories did not carry over to the other three stories. In fact, Janey in the first one was the only character that held my interest. Candace Bushnell failed to get the reader to care for any of the characters in the remaining three stories and I can only say that I am glad I checked the book out of the library and didn't waste my money on this book. I cannot believe that she thinks this book is much better than "Sex and the Single Girl." I think that I will probably watch the program on TV instead of reading the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Pleasure and pain and everything vain
Review: A reader of this book shouldn't (and wouldn't) look for deep, sharp observations or artsy, elevated style. It is expected to be naughty, catty, titillating and exploitive. Nothing wrong with it, such a book would have its place under the Sun (as in beach reading) as well as on bookshelf, and can be truly enjoyable and witty. Alas, "Four Blondes" delivers the goods only partially at best. It starts with the juiciest story, most profusely sprinkled with a sugar-and-spice combo of glamour and trash. Its heroine, Janie Wilcox, an aging model, is drifting in society circles without a family or a stable career. Seems like a poor pretty girl whose time is fast slipping by, reminding me of the lines from "Casanova" by "Nautilus Pompilius" (somewhat lost in translation): '...Where have you been when they've been building a raft / For you and all those who're drifting on ice-floe...' Not quite. She is actually "empowered", not in a classical feminist sense, but in judicious gold-digging ways, granting sexual favors to useful rich men seemingly at leisure and at her own discretion, and not looking too desperate at it. Still it seems contrived. There is nothing wrong with some choosy gold-digging, yet her case looks a little cheap. All this trouble just for summer free-ranging in Hampton, going to the same parties with the same people that, as admitted in the story, long ago bored to death with each other? She could be aiming higher, even in her own glittery/trashy ways. We are treated with fascinating revelations, such as "all rich men she'd been with turned out to be freaks and perverts". Of course they are, readers will appreciate this insight. It's a valuable piece of knowledge that makes the lives of many of us who don't own houses in Hampton bearable enough. Still these "rich men" are not complete waste, just enough to provide a few juicy sexual tidbits for the story. In one respect the author is slightly old-fashioned - the rich and predatory (and, of course, perverted and insecure) men in her stories are the "old money" of entertainment and media executives, publishers, producers, etc. A whole stratum of overnight dot-com millionaires is touched with a 10-foot pole: "Aren't those Internet guys boring?" - as the heroine refuses to attend one of those dot-com launch parties. Of course they are, but sorry, Ms. Bushnell, this is simply running away scared. Just imagine, what an opportunity for glorious trashing of snotty rags-to-riches (and by now satisfactorily back to rags) asocial geeks is missed! To the author's credit, however, the second chapter contains some really witty observations of the ...(dot).com (authors and reviewers) crowd. Candice Bushnell definitely has problem with endings. None of them in these four stories are great, or even passably good. They aren't lame enough to be either classical mushy happy endings, or stern morality tales where flighty sinners are punished for their empty lives. Nor they contain any good surprises. Each of them is fairly OK, in a small way, but so uninspiring and anticlimactic. The second story is probably the best written of the book - because it is so merciless in mocking its main characters. It introduces "very important people with very important jobs" - a power couple in NY media circles. They are so right and politically correct, from the first paragraph the edifice of polished blandness towers over a reader like a generic NY skyscraper. Author proceeds to wickedly deconstruct them as a couple for several pages, stripping both of any vitality, by itinerating things that they don't like or approve in other people. And then she continues to prune them separately, until only empty skeletons left, with things that they don't like about each other. They both engage in brief affairs that don't even have an aura of a furtive sin, desperation or even genuine boredom. Instead they feel like an episode of a job-training program, a corporate seminar "7 ways to exhibit your human side". Suits them well. The third story, about a young beauty that married a prince (not Dark or Charming, just his official title), is completely forgettable. She discovered that the nuptial package includes life in a fishbowl, nosy reporters, lack of friends and so on. Yeah, right. Haven't we heard this story about a poor bird in a gilded cage thousands times before? It would be more appropriately called "Platitude" instead of "Platinum". The last chapter, set in London, is the most catty of all. At first Candice Bushnell describes English sex appeal (male and female) in such wicked terms as to warrant bringing back Her Majesty expeditionary corps to hang all of New York's society and gossip columnists at every available lamppost. In the middle of the story the heroine meets some true British blue-blood noble, who surely must be the epitome and quintessence of all these unenviable qualities. Then Ms. Bushnell suddenly flips on her back, paws playfully up, and ends up purring something utterly tame (and lame) along the lines "... three days later they crawled out of a bed". I suspect Albion dwellers don't deserve the trashing the author gave them at the beginning of the story (at least not all of them). But even nastiness could be more consistent, presented with honor, perseverance and a stiff upper lip. Besides, exactly who gives a damn about rehabilitation of sexual reputation of some British heraldic fossil with a ridiculously long compound name? Alas, the end could be more interesting...
Rating: 
Summary: How Did I Ever Finish This Book
Review: I rarely put down a book once I have started it, and my reputation is intact with 4 Blondes, but how I ever got through it, I'll never know. The first segment, Nice N'Easy got me hooked, despite the trashy sex element (no, I'm not a prude, but this was a little over the top). The subsequent three segments went downhill, until I started skipping pages. Based on this reading experience, I will not be looking for Bushnell's next novel.
Rating:
Summary: Sorry, but this was awful!
Review: Oh, my! This was one of the worst books I have read. It was shallow and smarmy! I finished the book, but really am not aware how that could have happened. There has to be some redeeming factor with the women in the book, but it is difficult to surmise from reading the book. I was very disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Four boring blondes
Review: I found this book a chore to get through. In all fairness to the author, it was loaned to me by a friend who loved it, so there must be an audience out there she is reaching. But I'm not a part of it. The book comprises four stories, one about a model who spends her springs scouting out men who can give her a summer in the Hamptons (though as we're told several times throughout the book, the Hamptons are dead), one about a yuppie couple with marital difficulties, one about the American wife of a European prince, and one about a writer who goes to London to check out the men there. All four women are shallowly drawn; the only facets of their personalities that come across are their self-absorption and their fascination with sex. Since the character who is a writer is a sex columnist this last makes sense in her case, but otherwise it becomes both boring and annoying. None of the four are likable; none of them learn anything; and all of them are rescued -- if you can call it that -- in contrived endings. This book was advertised as a satire and as a social commentary, but it's a snooze.
Rating: 
Summary: whitty and refreshingly honest look at four women in NY
Review: I have been a fan of Sex and the City for quite a while, so I decided to give this book a try, hoping it would hold my interest for a bit... I was not dissappointed! Finding a good stopping point was rather difficult, as each page developed a new twist to the story. This book did not sugar coat any aspect of human, in particular female, nature: obsession with looking good, being successful and popular, and having money, lots of it! As much as we try to deny it, these thoughts circulate in our minds, but almost no one ever has the guts to say it all, exactly how it is...In this book Candace B. does exactly that, boldly and with an amazing sense of humor and sarcasm at all of this. If sex is not something you would prefer to read about, this is not for you. Otherwise, this book is time and money well-spent. Can't wait for the next book from this fabulous (and gorgeous) author!
Rating: 
Summary: 4 Stars for 4 Blondes who are at a crossroads.
Review: Candace Bushnell, creator and writer of SEX AND THE CITY, returns with 4 novellas in this collection. Each one follows a blonde who is at a crossroads in her life and must make decisions to change her life in a more meaningful way. "Nice N' Easy" is the best of the group with a sizzling portrayal of a woman who dates men only in the summer to get a good house in the Hamptons. What she yearns for is what she gets...realizing that it wasn't what she needed. "Highlights for Adults" is a downer of a tale describing in stark detail a woman's troubled marriage and the consequences of choices she and her husband makes. "Platinum" shows us what a woman will do to be accepted in high society while fighting her own demons. "Single Process" is the most SEX AND THE CITYish. It reads like a column. Dealing with a life without a husband, a writer travels to England to see if the wife's tale of "Englishman are bad in bed" is true. But she finds out a whole lot more. All in all a strong collection with a gossipy, whispered type of overtones. Very good stuff and fans of SEX AND THE CITY will not be disappointed
Rating:
Summary: 4-get 4 blondes
Review: Don't even bother with this book - a total waste of time and money. I quit half-way through. The writing is sophomoric: you know you are reading a bad book when 99% of the book is dialogue, and mindless dialogue at that. The storyline is boring. You'd get a better read from "Teen Beat" magazine. The characters are pathetic. As a huge Sex & the City fan, I was duped into believing this book would entertain me in the same or similar fashion. Bait and Switch!! I guess the flourescent pink cover and the breasty shot of the author should have clued me in.
Rating:
Summary: expecting more and got much less
Review: I bought this book because I enjoyed both Bushnell's previous book: Sex and the City and also the series that came out of it. Thinking I would be titillated by this novel I picked it up and was sadly disappointed. The writing style I adore, that's about the only think I adore. The characters are truly BLONDS of the stereotypes they have become associated with: self absorbed, annoying, pretentious, and living in a vacuum. I really would have loved to give this book five stars but my generosity already inflated it to three stars: that of a mediocre novel, which sadly it is AT BEST.
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