Total Waste of Makeup (Charlize Edwards, #1)

by Kim Gruenenfelder

[Leah]

Charlize “Charlie” Edwards certainly knows, in theory, what it takes to lead a successful and happy life. She owns a nice house in Silverlake, LA’s trendiest neighborhood. She has glamorous and loyal friends who accompany her to the hottest clubs in town. And she works as the personal assistant to Drew Stanton, Hollywood’s sexiest movie star. But she’s also turning 30, chronically single, and faced with serving as maid of honor at her younger sister’s wedding. Charlie finds herself struggling to juggle the chaos of wedding planning (while wondering if she’ll ever wear the white dress herself), her all-consuming job for lunatic boss Stanton, and a serious crush on Jordan, a photographer on the set of Drew’s latest feature–a man who might actually return her feelings.

At the back end of last year I got completely caught up in American Chick Lit, particularly since we’d started our own American feature focusing on American Chick Lit novels. After seeing Danielle post about a novel by Kim Gruenenfelder, I did my research and went to Amazon to find out about her books. Thankfully there was a ‘See Inside This Book’ meaning I could read the first couple of pages. I was hooked and promptly bought the novel, devouring it as soon as I received it. The plot of A Total Waste of Make-Up is fab. After a series of bad boyfriends, Charlie decides to write her great-niece a book filled with all the pearls of wisdom she wished she knew aged 16. It’s not entirely unique, but the pearls-of-wisdom add a certain sparkle to the book giving it a unique twist.

Charlie is one of my favourite Chick Lit characters ever. I’m not joking, she’s warm, witty and has her wise moments – despite the fact her parents are totally nuts. It says on the book she’s cooler than Stephanie Plum, the heroine of Janet Evanovich’s novels but I can’t really compare, I haven’t read any of Janet’s books. I can however tell you that Charlie is indeed super-cool. Everyone around her is enjoyable from her pot-smoking parents (yes, really, drug dealer and all) to her wedding-crazed sister and constantly fighting grandparents. I loved Charlie’s best friends Kate and Dawn and I swooned over Drew Stanton (yeah, he’s a bit of a diva, but it makes him better in my opinion).

The only drawback to the book is that I wanted Charlie to get with Drew. I mean, they’d be perfect together and it seemed set up to go that way. But it didn’t. Instead Doug and Jordan fight it out for Charlie’s affections and, unfortunately, I just didn’t feel anything for either of them due to how much I loved Drew. The book is told entirely from Charlie’s point-of-view allowing us insight into her world and I thought that was the best way to go. It’s a very easy going style and I flew through the novel. I’m so pleased that the novel fulfilled its early promise and I just thought the romantic pairings were a bit disappointing. All in all though I’d thoroughly recommend A Total Waste of Make-Up. It’s a fun book and one you can read in a matter of hours.