Book Review-Prospect Park West by Amy Sohn

Title: Prospect Park West
Author: Amy Sohn
Publisher: Downtown Press, a division of Simon and Schuster
Published: May 2010
Pages: 379
Price: $15.00 US/$19.99 Canada

I received this book for free for an honest review.


Synopsis from the back book cover:
Brooklyn's famed Park Slope neighborhood has it all: majestic Prospect Park, acclaimed public schools, historic brownstones, and progressive values. Among bohemian bourgeois breeders, claiming a stake in Park Slope is a competitive sport.

In Amy Sohn's smart, sexy, satirical peek into the bedrooms and hearts of Prospect Park West, the lives of four women come together during one long, hot Brooklyn summer. Frustrated Oscar winning actress Melora Leigh, eager to relieve the pressures of raising her adopted toddler, feels the seductive pull of kleptomania; Rebecca Rose, missing her formerly robust sex life, begins a dangerous flirtation with a handsome neighborhood celebrity; Lizzie O'Donnell, a former lesbian (or hasbian), wonders what draws her to women despite her sexy husband and adorable baby; and Karen Bryan Shapiro consumes herself with a powerful obsession-snagging the ultimate three bedroom apartment in a well-maintained, P.S. 321 zoned co-op building. As the womens' paths intertwine (and sometimes collide), each must struggle to keep her man, her sanity...and her playdates.


About the Author:
Amy Sohn is the New York Times bestselling author of Run Catch Kiss, My Old Man, and Sex and the City: Kiss and Tell. She has been a columnist at New York magazine and has also written for The Nation, Harper's Bazaar, The New York Times, and Playboy. She lives in Brooklyn. Visit her website at www.AmySohn.com


My review:
I have to admit that I almost stopped reading after the first few chapters but I thought, let me keep going to see how this turns out. I did finish the book but it wasn't one that resonates with me after I closed the cover. The characters seemed flat and I wasn't really drawn to any of them. A quote on the front of the book from Lauren Weisberger says, "Makes Desperate Housewives look like amateur hour." As I was reading, I can picture this book as a weekly television show and see it working, it just didn't seem to work in book form. There were several short chapters that I wondered why they had been included, as the character for that short chapter had not appeared prior and did not appear afterwards. It seemed a bit disjointed and random and felt it could have been edited better to take those parts out. The writing was mediocre and I felt it and the story could have been more developed. I am not discouraging others from trying this book, it just wasn't my cup of tea.