Product Description
When Mercury is in retrograde, the only guarantee is anything that can go wrong, will.Penelope Mercury, an intrepid reporter at the New York Telegraph, has pounded the pavement for five years from city borough to borough, carrying out her boss's eccentric orders to break stories that seem inconsequential to everyone but him. Finally, she is inches away from being promoted to her dream job -- covering courtroom drama for the paper -- but after one spectacularly disastrous day, she is fired instead.Lena "Lipstick Carcrash" Lipp encrass has a pretty fabulous life, even by a socialite's standards, as a top editor at the high fashion magazine Y. Long lunches with her girlfriends and afternoons spent shopping at Bergdorf's are all in a day's work. But when Lena's always indulgent parents abruptly cut off her cash flow and kick her out of her beloved West Village duplex for refusing to work for the family business, she is forced to confront the reality of what it takes to pay the bills.Dana Gluck, a workaholic lawyer, had been married for two years to a man who was perfect on paper but increasingly critical in reality. She hoped that her dreams of motherhood would be fulfilled soon, which surely would also fix their marriage problems. Instead, her husband leaves her for an exchange student/model who, to make matters worse, promptly gets pregnant.When fate conspires to have these three very different women move into the same SoHo apartment building, they soon discover that having their carefully planned lives fall to pieces might be the best thing that could have ever happened to them.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 3.5 based on 48 reviews)

Three Women Move into a Building... by L. D. Merkl (NYC)

3 Stars
November 20, 2009
I had higher hopes for this book. Even though I thought it was well structured, there wasn't enough character development; nor was the writing all that engaging. Penelope was the most interesting, but because she had to share space with Lipstick and Dana, we never get to fully enjoy her. Lipstick was interesting enough, but Dana is not developed at all. I thought with her Page Six background and her "I moved to New York and got semi-famous" attitude the writing would be more fun to read. I didn't find the ending satisfying at all. It was as though after the big scene at The Met Gala, the author got tired of writing the book, so she just wrapped it all up quickly. I read the whole thing, but have to admit I would not consider it a page turner. I kept trying to just get through it, because I wanted it to be over.

A summer surprise by Mary G. Longorio (Eagle Mountain, UT)

5 Stars
November 15, 2009
Anxious socialite Lena Lippencrass, small-town transplant-cum-intrepid reporter Penelope Mercury and high-powered lawyer Dana Gluck are down on their luck. The three move into the same SoHo apartment building and are thrown together as they try to rebuild their lives. Author Paula Froelich is a former Page Six editor who has managed to save her debut novel Mercury in Retrograde from dwelling in the formula chick lit basement. Her three main characters are funny and endearing and wittily written. Supporting characters are deftly intertwined and never overwhelm the story or present themselves as brittle or false. It is the sweetness that makes this book a winner, not sappily sweet, but tart and fresh. The situations the three manage to get into can a bit over the top, but isn't that what chick lit is all about? Penelope, Cana and Lena could very well have been way overblown, but Froelich has infused them with a decency and depth that propel this book from another chick lit entry to one of the most enjoyed books of the 2009 summer.

Like a Colorforms version of Sex & The City by Natasha (San Diego, CA)

2 Stars
September 19, 2009
I wanted to love this book because I devour books about single women in New York, but I never grew to care about any of the three characters. And nothing really happened in terms of advancing a story of any kind. It was as though the author felt that writing about chicks in the city (and her platform as Page Six editor) would be enough to satisfy readers (and sell books). It was truly a Coloforms version of Sex & The City. I don't need a plot-driven novel. In fact, I really enjoyed Candace Bushnell's ONE FIFTH, which was basically about people in this historic building in NYC...and the stuff they do. I couldn't tell you what the story was, but the characters were so fascinating, I turned the pages to find out what trouble they'd get themselves into next. There was none of that in this yawn of a book. (Even though it was about NYC women living in the same building...hmmmm...and a charcater is named Lipstick, kinda like Bushnell's bestseller LIPSTICK JUNGLE. Perhaps if I could make my way past page 150, I would have discovered four blondes walking by or someone reading Trading Up magazine.) The book was wrought with inconsistencies, logical errors and downright implausible scenarios and supporting characters. For example, when Mercury starts working for a TV station, her boss barks about his spray-on hair, and make-up application in such a ridiculously overdone way. No one talks like that. It's like the author felt, owww, here would be a good time to insert some outrageous boss behavior. That always goes over well. (Worked for THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA!) But it didn't because it was forced and completely unnatural. Little things bothered me, like the fact that Dana is referred to as a "permanent partner" at her law firm, then 50 pages later a "partner." Anyone who's worked at a law form for a day knows the two mean the exact opposite. This book has a ton of silly little mistakes like that that take a reader out of the story (if there were one!). I give this book two stars because the cover is quite attractive and well, she did complete a book and there's something to be said for that.

Great Summer Read! by Tina K (TX)

5 Stars
September 12, 2009
I am in a book club and this book was our August selection. It was very light and easy read. The characters are all different and it kept me wanting more. I would recommend as a book club selection.

Eh by Noneofyourbiz (Oak Park, IL)

2 Stars
September 11, 2009
Paula Froelich is a good writer. Many individual scenes in the book were entertaining. BUT the scenes don't really add up to much. The plot was a bit too fantastic to believe and I really wasn't crazy about two of the three main characters: Penelope and Lipstick were overshadowed by Neal, their mutual friend. So, while it's not without its moments, this is not a book I'd recommend.

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