BOOKS

“Only an insider like Gigi Levangie could have so much wicked fun with the intricacies of Hollywood’s power couples.”

-Lauren Weisberger,

New York Times bestselling author of Devils Wears Prada and When Life Gives You Lululemons

The Starter Wife

there are starter jobs. starter cars. starter houses. and then there are starter wives.From the bestselling author of "Maneater" comes "The Starter Wife," a sexy, savvy, and wickedly funny novel about life after divorce and one woman redefining herself after years of marriage to a Hollywood studio head.

The Starter Wife is a 2007 USA Network television miniseries, nominated for 10 Emmy Awards

Queen Takes King

Jackson Power. A name like the man himself: aggressive, ambitious, bullish. The prodigal son, heir to millions, built his own Manhattan real estate empire and revels in seeing his moniker -- Power! -- on glittering skyscrapers around the city that never sleeps. Beneath his desk in the towering Power headquarters, Jacks has a stack of newspapers and photographs of himself, shaking hands with the most famous men and women of his generation. Here's a man who's always loved to see his name in ink. Until now. Cynthia Hunsaker Power. She is the epitome of elegance and society. The perfect foil for a man of Jacks's stature -- his first and only wife, he'd proudly tell any of his Master of the Universe (read: Gargoyle) friends. The former prima ballerina arrived in New York at eighteen, off the bus from Missouri, brimming with talent, beauty, and drive. She met a struggling painter, fell in love, and only later learned she'd won the Power lottery. Now she sits on the New York Ballet Theater board, effortlessly outdoing herself with one gala after another. But the press coverage of the Power silver anniversary party at the Waldorf takes the cake.

Jacks Power appears twice in the "New York Post" the next morning -- once gallantly dancing with his wife of twenty-five years, Cynthia; and once hand in hand with Lara Sizemore, morning television star, exiting her Upper West Side apartment building that very same night.

To Jackson Power, Lara is ever ything his wife Cynthia is not -- wild, voluptuous, mysterious, and selfsustaining. A new passion has swept Jacks off his well-shod feet -- and she is Lara Sizemore. He is ready for the divorce, ready to marry his mistress, America's Sweetheart. But Cynthia isn't ready to be swept out of the picture quite so easily.

Let the Divorce Games begin.

“[Gigi Grazer] displays a ruthless flair for detail and dialogue”

-Janet Maslin, TheNew York Times

The After Wife

Gigi Levangie Grazer, the New York Times bestselling author of The Starter Wife, returns with a hilarious and spirited tale of love—both lost and found.

L.A. is no place for widows. This is what forty-four-year-old Hannah Bernal quickly discovers after the tragic death of her handsome and loving husband, John. Misery and red-rimmed eyes are little tolerated in the land of the beautiful. But life stumbles on: Hannah’s sweet three-year-old daughter, Ellie, needs to be dropped off at her overpriced preschool, while Hannah herself must get back to work in order to pay the bills on “Casa Sugar,” the charming Spanish-styled bungalow they call home.

Fortunately, Hannah has her “Grief Team” for emotional support: earth mother and fanatical animal lover Chloe, who finds a potential blog post in every moment; aspiring actress Aimee, who has her cosmetic surgeon on speed dial; and Jay, Hannah’s TV producing partner, who has a penchant for Mr. Wrong. But after a series of mishaps and bizarre occurrences, one of which finds Hannah in a posh Santa Monica jail cell, her friends start to fear for her sanity. To make matters worse, John left their financial affairs in a disastrous state. And when Hannah is dramatically fired from her latest producing gig, she finds herself in danger of losing her house, her daughter, and her mind.

One night, standing in her backyard under a majestic avocado tree, in the throes of grief, Hannah breaks down and asks, “Why?” The answer that comes back—Why not?—begins an astounding journey of discovery and transformation that leads Hannah to her own truly extraordinary life after death.

“Hilariously funny and profoundly wise, The After Wife is for anyone who’s ever been married or widowed, in debt or in love. I could not put it down: a fabulous read!”

-Nancy Thayer,

author of Summer Breeze

Maneater

Feast your eyes on Clarissa.
At twenty-eight (thirty-one), Clarissa Alpert is blessed with a designer wardrobe, a daddy-subsidized apartment, and an A-list speed-dial. Gorgeous and wildly uninhibited, she has amassed a list of exes that amounts to a Who's Who of Hollywood power players. But with her twenty-ninth (thirty-second) birthday looming, she starts to panic. Who on earth could possibly make her an honest woman?

She's reserved a table for two.
Enter Aaron Mason, the latest, hottest new producer in town, who Clarissa decides is the future "Mr. Alpert." With the help of her vivacious friends, her aerobicized Latina mother, her ex-con father, and the most divine gay waiter in Hollywood, Clarissa plans the biggest wedding L.A. has seen in years -- all before the couple's first date. Catching Aaron's eye is not the problem. He just seems to have his own agenda. Could Clarissa have finally bitten off more than she can chew?

“Naughty but nice… A transcendental study of post Prada/Prozac existential despair.”

-Helen Fielding,

author of Bridget Jones’s Diary

Seven Deadlies

Dear Bennington College Admissions Officer:
I’m probably not your average applicant from Beverly Hills, CA. And I’m not one to brag, but I’m pretty much the smartest girl in my class at Mark Frost Academy. My grades are excellent. My motivation is high. I don’t drink or do drugs or hang out with the bad kids. I’m pretty much all business. My life is not going to end here, in this part of Los Angeles.
I’m going places.
Which brings me to my latest venture: babysitting teenagers.
A few of the moms talked to my mother. You should see them. They gather around her like Bieber fans. She’s barely five feet tall, beautiful and regal, a Latina queen.
Their diamond bracelets shimmer. I look at those bracelets and want to eat them.
Where did they go wrong?
Can Perry help out this weekend? I have to go to New York for fashion week. I have to go to a premiere. My daughter needs help with biology . . . and staying out of my medicine cabinet.
I get paid forty an hour. I have business cards.
My name is Perry Gonzales. The stories you are about to read are true. The names have been changed to protect the not-so-innocent. By the time you’re finished, I think you’ll appreciate how desperately I need to get out of here

“A sinfully delicious romp through the dazzling devil’s playground that is Beverly Hills. Sassy, witty, and full of heart, Seven Deadlies is Gigi Levangie at her wicked and hilarious best.”

-Maria Semple,

author of Where’d you go, Bernadette

Rescue Me

It was the year she fell in love...

Fresh out of college, hungry for a shot in the entertainment industry, Amanda McHenry takes a gig as a secretary in the L.A. offices of a sleazy television talk show. Saddled with looking after her drug-dealing brother, Amanda is intent on making good things happen while her boyfriend finishes his law degree. She has no intention of cheating on him—James is clear across the country at Harvard—until she falls for Gabe, her brother's passionate friend.

She had no idea her world would come apart.

Swept up in a whirlwind romance, Amanda realizes that she must choose between following her heart and clinging to the familiar, and when her brother's "career" threatens to destroy everything she holds dear, that choice becomes a matter of life and death. But then fate intervenes to tear Gabe and Amanda apart and years begin to pass. All the while Amanda never gives up hope that someday Gabe will return to rescue her.

Acclaimed screenwriter Gigi Levangie Grazer's stirring love story is set against the indelible backdrop of Los Angeles in the 1980s and captures its lyrical beauty and stark realism. Hilarious and devastating, Rescue Me is a uniquely suspenseful novel about the price of happiness...and the rewards of love.