Party Girl by Rachel Hollis

Party Girl (The Girls, #1)

by Rachel Hollis

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Girl, Wash Your Face comes the story of a small-town girl finding her way in Hollywood one misstep at a time—now paired with the novella Party Girl’s First Date.

Landon Brinkley’s dreams are all coming true. She’s landed an internship with a fabulous event planner for the Hollywood elite, taking her from small-town Texas to the bright lights of LA. Landon finds herself in a world in which spending a million dollars on an event—even a child’s birthday party—is de rigueur, and the whims of celebrity clients are life-and-death matters. At first, the thrill of working on A-list parties and celebrity weddings is enough to survive the seventy-five-hour workweeks and her mercurial boss. But when the reality of the business reveals itself, she’s forced to make a choice: do whatever it takes to get ahead, or stay true to herself.

Drawing on the author’s real-life experiences as an event planner to the stars, Party Girl takes readers on an adventure among Hollywood’s most beautiful—and most outrageous—people, revealing the ugly side of Hollywood’s prettiest parties.

Revised edition: This edition of Party Girl includes editorial revisions and additional content.

Reviewed by Leah on

5 of 5 stars

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When I heard about Rachel Hollis’ debut novel Party Girl, it sounded right up my street. Rachel is an event planner in her day job, and event planning is something I always love to read about. It sounds like such a rewarding job, even if a lot of people think it’s just an excuse to throw parties (it isn’t). So I was really intrigued! After so long reading poor Chick Lit novels that just haven’t been up my standard, I’m quite happy to report I’ve had two good ones in a row!

Party Girl reminded me a lot of The Devil Wears Prada (the movie, because I haven’t read the book) – Landon is a newbie to LA, and has that hopeless optimism Andy has at the beginning of The Devil Wears Prada, the type of optimism I love, but doesn’t really last in party planning or journalist, apparently; they both work for devils (really, really mean ones) and the rest of the staff are just as bad (I could have stabbed McKenna in Party Girl, he was a tool and a half). I don’t know how similar the two really are, but it was just how I saw it personally. I loved The Devil Wears Prada movie and I most certainly loved Party Girl.

What surprised me most is how much I loved the characters! Yes, the plot was amazing and I loved seeing the staff of SSE in action (because Selah didn’t do much except waft here and there and be a cow) but the characters themselves were really brought to life. I adored Landon Brinkley. Yes, she’s a tad naive, but I admire anyone who goes for their dream and won’t let anything stand in their way, even when bad things happen. She makes a lot of mistakes, but she’s a 24 year old girl, I would be surprised if she didn’t make mistakes and it made me love her all the more. I just got her, immediately (though not her fake lashes, I confess, that weirds me out) and I wanted to be her BFF along with Max and Miko. Initially I wasn’t sure where the romance was going to come from, I was rooting for Taylor for ageeeees until Brody came along. I’ve now got Taylor paired with someone else, so we’ll see how that one goes!

Party Girl was a fabulous insight in to the party planning world, and just how cruel people can be for no real reason whatsoever, other than they like to lord their power over people (I’m looking at you Selah Smith). I loved how Landon sort of rose above it, and the way she stood up for herself had me giving her a standing ovation in my head. A girl like that is after my own heart indeed! I am so excited that this is the first book in the series and even more excited that Max gets her own book. I adore her snark and I’m so hoping Miko will get herself a book too. I adore Miko, if only because she was the only one nice to Landon at SSE, and I like that in a girl. Party Girl is a wonderful read, and a great way to spend a few hours, you will not regret reading it, trust me.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 1 February, 2015: Finished reading
  • 1 February, 2015: Reviewed