Froelich's debut follows the fortunes of three young women who reach crossroads in their lives while living in an old apartment building in SoHo. Penelope Mercury has been slaving away in a thankless job at the New York Telegraph for years, until the promotion she's been coveting is given to an undeserving rival and she quits in a fit of anger. Her friend Neal helps her find a position at a local television station, which leads Penelope to some unexpected on-camera work. Neal also comes to the aid of his socialite friend Lena after her rich parents toss her out of the posh condo they've been paying for, finding her an apartment in Penelope's building. Lena soon finds she'll have to look beyond her low-paying job at a stylish magazine for means to support herself. Penelope and Lena start taking yoga lessons alongside their reclusive upstairs neighbor, Dana, who is reeling from a devastating divorce. Froelich offers a glossy, entertaining tale about how three women manage to turn their lives around and become friends in the process.--Huntley, Kristine Copyright 2009 Booklist

Three down-on-their-luck Manhattan women form an unlikely fellowship in Page Six deputy editor Froelich's formulaic-though sometimes funny-debut. Anxious socialite Lena Lippencrass, smalltown transplant-cum-intrepid reporter Penelope Mercury and high-powered lawyer Dana Gluck end up in the same former SoHo tenement building at low points in their lives: Lena, cut off by her wealthy parents, is slumming it on Sullivan Street; Penelope is out of a job after accidentally damaging her office's property; and Dana lives on Weight Watchers while obsessing over her divorce. But once they band together, they right themselves while helping each other. After an initial barrage of New York names and places (and an abundance of parenthetical asides), the novel eventually finds a breezy groove as it traipses through TV newsrooms, high-stakes partnership meetings and a fashion gala at the Met, leading to comically fitting results-and new love interests-for each. Froelich takes a few light shots at socialite Web sites, politicians in prostitution scandals, fashion magazines and drug-addled young celebrities, and the book's message of rejecting gossip and hierarchy is sweetly unexpected, even if everything else is by the numbers. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved