The film version of McLaughlin and Kraus's first novel, The Nanny Diaries, opens April 20; now comes their well-timed third novel. So far, the duo has exposed the underground world of New York nannies and satirized corporate America. What's left? How about a statement on celebrity culture and obsession? Enter 30-year-old Kate Hollis, a successful career woman who can't seem to shake her high school boyfriend. Why? The ex-boyfriend is Jake Sharpe, America's hottest musician, and his every no. 1 hit is a commentary on Kate and their relationship. When Jake shows up in their hometown after having abruptly left 13 years ago, right before the senior prom, Kate, too, comes home, finally confronting her ex and moving on with her life. Alternating between the present showdown and Kate and Jake's junior high and high school years (complete with an exhausting amount of early Nineties trivia), the story is implausible, and Jake never seems worth all the fuss. However, if the Nanny Diaries movie is as successful as the book was, every public library should have this new work on the shelf. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 2/15/07.]--Andrea Y. Griffith, Loma Linda Univ. Libs., CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

The team behind The Nanny Diaries and Citizen Girl returns with another breezy chick lit portrayal of a woman wronged and, eventually, empowered. When Kate Hollis's childhood chum Laura calls from their Vermont hometown and announces the arrival of Jake Sharpe, a mega rock star and Kate's high school sweetheart, Kate jumps on a plane from Charleston, S.C. (where she's a sustainable development consultant) and makes for idyllic Croton Falls. Through it's been 13 years, Kate still has a primal need to confront not only the boy who abandoned her before the senior prom, but the musical pirate who used her personal life as fodder for his most celebrated songs and cheated his high school bandmates out of deserved recognition and royalties. Chapters switch back and forth between the present and the pivotal middle and high school years where Kate (then Katie) and Jake did the first-love thing: readers get to see Jake's growing he's-just-not-that-into-you-ness and how (surprise!) their Zima-fueled love (it was the '90s) was idealized. While one spends much of the book wanting to shout at Kate to give it up, go back to Charleston and get on with it, McLaughlin and Kraus do get the nagging need for closure in even the shallowest relationships comically right. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

McLaughlin and Kraus, authors of the popular novel The Nanny Diaries(2002), venture back to the 1980s in their third novel. Kate Hollis fell in love with Jake Sharpe in grade school, dated him in high school, and at 30, has yet to get over him. How can she when Jake, now a rock star with several hit singles to his name, has spent the last 10 years singing about her and about their relationship? When Kate hears that Jake has returned to their hometown with his new fiancee in tow, she jumps on a plane, ready to confront him for exploiting their personal memories in his quest for superstardom. But when Kate sees him again, all her old feelings churn to the surface, and her resolve weakens further when she learns he feels the same. But just as the novel barrels toward what appears to be the most cliched of endings, the authors pull out a surprise and give the reader, and Kate, a completely unexpected and wholly satisfying conclusion. With the movie version of The Nanny Diaries due out this spring, expect considerable interest in the authors' latest outing. --Kristine Huntley Copyright 2007 Booklist

A young woman gets the chance to confront the now world-famous rock star who broke her heart 13 years ago, and who went on to write a series of deeply personal songs about her. Back in Croton Falls, Vt., Jake Sharpe was a teen dream: beautiful, talented, with an aching vulnerability and an unhappy home life. After adoring him for much of high school, Kate Hollis finally gets her man, and the two are inseparable until Jake takes off for L.A. shortly before graduation--without saying goodbye. A devastated Kate tries to get over her loss, but finds it exceedingly difficult as Jake's music career takes off, with his songs about their young love becoming modern classics. So when her childhood best friend Laura calls to alert her that Jake has come home to do a TV special, Kate puts her grown-up life in Charleston on hold and heads to Croton Falls, in an effort to make Jake "regret his entire existence." At her parent's house, Kate revisits all the memories, good and bad, that led her to this moment, including her dad's mental breakdown and her mom's subsequent affair, which brought Kate and Jake even closer. And, yep, he wrote about that, too. She then schemes her way onto Jake's shoot, and catches his eye, setting the stage for the apology--and sexy reunion--that Kate has long been waiting for. Turns out that Jake has never gotten over her either, and the rekindling of their romance feels like fate, with Jake trying to make up for lost time. He whisks his muse to his New York penthouse, and the two share some blissful moments until the mayhem of his celebrity existence intrudes, causing Kate to question whether Jake has changed too much--or too little. This third effort from McLaughlin and Kraus (Citizen Girl, 2004, etc.) is spot-on in its depiction of Kate and Laura's early girlish hysteria, and quickly overcomes a certain cleverness for its own sake to tell a moving story of teenage passion. Bittersweet coming-of-age tale with flashes of wit and an especially sympathetic heroine. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.