Certain Girls (Platinum Fiction Series)

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
Readers fell in love with Cannie Shapiro, the smart, sharp-tongued, bighearted heroine of Good in Bed who found her happy ending after her mother came out of the closet, her father fell out of her life, and her ex-boyfriend started chronicling their ex-sex life in the pages of a national magazine.

Now Cannie's back. After her debut novel -- a fictionalized (and highly sexualized) version of her life -- became an overnight bestseller, she dropped out of the public eye and turned to writing science fiction under a pseudonym. She's happily married to the tall, charming diet doctor Peter Krushelevansky and has settled into a life that she finds wonderfully predictable -- knitting in the front row of her daughter Joy's drama rehearsals, volunteering at the library, and taking over-forty yoga classes with her best friend Samantha.

As preparations for Joy's bat mitzvah begin, everything seems right in Cannie's world. Then Joy discovers the novel Cannie wrote years before and suddenly finds herself faced with what she thinks is the truth about her own conception -- the story her mother hid from her all her life. When Peter surprises his wife by saying he wants to have a baby, the family is forced to reconsider its history, its future, and what it means to be truly happy.

Radiantly funny and disarmingly tender, with Weiner's whip-smart dialogue and sharp observations of modern life, Certain Girls is an unforgettable story about love, loss, and the enduring bonds of family.

Customer Reviews: Read 155 more reviews...

3 out of 5 stars

This is NOT chick lit April 8, 2008
21 out of 38 found this review helpful

I absolutely loved Good In Bed (some of the best chick lit I have read) - and was delighted when I saw that this book would continue (at least partly) from there.

I don't know what happened, but somewhere along the line Weiner started getting boring for me. 'Certain Girls' felt more like your standard 'woman's fiction' to me and less like the 'chick lit' that was 'Good in Bed'. Yes, I know that this book is not advertised as chick lit and there is absolutely nothing wrong with the standard woman's fiction, but I wanted chick lit and I feel cheated.

The tone of this book is way too serious, the opening chapter is boring and way too descriptive and frankly, I could not get into any of the storyline.

If you want some chick lit, this is not the book for you.

3 out of 5 stars

Joyless sequel to the sublime "Good in Bed" April 22, 2008
20 out of 24 found this review helpful

It's been thirteen years since Cannie Shapiro survived the humiliation of her former lover's public wrath to write her own best selling fictionalized tell all. Now she is battling with her teenage daughter over her upcoming bat mitzvah and trying to decide if she and husband Peter should hire a surrogate to carry their child. Cannie is living down her notoriety choosing to write sci-fi fiction instead. But daughter Joy is teetering on the brink of becoming an adult and just about everything about her mom embarrasses her - especially a certain book she has just discovered. When she starts acting up, she crosses the line and learns that perhaps her mom does have her best intentions at heart.

Like many readers, I loved the wisecracking character of Cannie, who had her happily ever after with the hunky diet doctor, uh bariatric physician despite the odds. Unfortunately throughout the majority of this book, that Cannie is long absent. Daughter Joy was a pain in the butt, and I found those chapters told in her voice to be somewhat boring. Readers who didn't read "Good In Bed" might be a little lost due to all the references to characters and pets that appeared in the far more original first novel. This one is just an okay read, and unfortunately she incorporates a decidedly unhappy event at the end to preclude this reader from embarking on any further adventures with Cannie.

4 out of 5 stars

ENGAGING READINGS BY TWO GIFTED ACTRESSES April 10, 2008
18 out of 22 found this review helpful

Mother/daughter relationships are a labyrinth of complexities - loving, angry, close, distant, confiding, secretive. Even more confounding is the fact that all of these feelings may occur within a 24-hour period. We are reminded of this in Jennifer Weiner's witty, insightful novel Certain Girls.

Many fondly remember Cannie Shapiro first introduced to us in Good In Bed. She was then a handmaiden to fashion, and determined to make her mark in the world by writing. Her chosen oeuvre? A tell-all, racy but not real story of her life that flew off the shelves.

It is now thirteen years later. Cannie is out of the spotlight and happily relegated to a question on Jeopardy. She's up to her ears in domesticity, married and planning her daughter Joy's bat mitzvah.

Joy does not share her mother's contentment. After all, she is barely into her teens and navigating the shoals of junior high school. When she discovers her mother's long ago written novel it casts a new and surprising light on who she is.

At the same time Peter throws his husbandly ingredient into the mix by announcing that he'd like to have a baby.

Weiner's prose is as winning as ever and her humor delightfully barbed. Adding luster to the author's words are the engaging readings of two very gifted actresses Michele Pawk and Zoe Kazan.

Tony Award winner Michele Pawk is a seasoned Broadway actress who has also received Drama Desk and Outer Circle Award nominations for her work. Her teaming with Zoe Kazan for this reading is quite a coup as it brings together two major talents.

Daughter of screenwriter Nicholas Kazan and granddaughter of renowned stage and film director Elia Kazan, Zoe Kazan is a multi gifted actress with numerous television and film roles already to her credit. Her voice is aptly suited to the questing, questioning Joy.

Highly recommended.

- Gail Cooke

3 out of 5 stars

Follow up to _Good in Bed_ doesn't quite hit the mark May 18, 2008
18 out of 18 found this review helpful

Jennifer Weiner first appeared on the fiction market with her novel, Good In Bed, a funny, smart look at modern life as viewed by a woman who's coping with stuff that the majority of women live with -- treacherous boyfriends, the constant battle with our weight, and a refreshing attitude that most of us could sympathize with.

Now with Certain Girls, more than a dozen years have passed since the events in Good In Bed. Cannie Shapiro is happily married to Dr. Peter K, and the very proud mother of her daughter, Joy. After her novel -- a thinly disguised memoir of her life -- turned into a runaway best-seller, Cannie has settled into a routine of being a mom and wife, and writing science fiction novels for teenagers under a pseudonym. Everything is going good, and that?s when the problems start.

Joy, the darling of her parents, is hovering on the brink of puberty, and worse still, her bat mitzvah the dreaded rite of passage in every Jewish girl's life when she makes that transition between being a child and an adult at the age of thirteen. But she has other things to worry about - such as not being one of the 'popular girls' such as Amber, the perfect girl at her school. She?s also at that stage where her parents embarrass her mightily, especially her mother. Toss in the fact that she also hates wearing her hearing aids, and her grades are slipping, and Joy is heading for trouble.

Especially when her Aunt Lucy - now calling herself Elle - comes to visit, intending to find Joy the perfect dress, Joy starts finding herself in a conflicting time. Now that suddenly she's being noticed by Amber and her crowd, she's losing her best friends, the twins Todd and Tamsin, and she is also reading her mother's best selling novel on the sly. Unfortunately for Cannie, Joy takes the events in the story entirely wrong, and things are starting to spiral out of control.

If all of this isn't enough, Weiner throws in other plot conflicts, such as Peter and Cannie deciding to hire a surrogate mother to have another child (those who have read Good in Bed will understand why); Bruce, Joy's no-good-nik father is back; and there are a host of other problems, including the current overindulgence in party throwing as each parent tries to outdo the rest for the bar and bat mitzvah events.

Finally, Weiner throws in one last twist that had me howling and throwing the book at the wall. Seriously. It was one of the meanest tricks to lay on a reader, and it left the rest of the story a severe disappointment for me.

Too, there are several style problems with the story. One is the use of alternating first-person voices in each chapter, switching between Cannie and Joy. This tends to get very confusing, as it gets hard to follow as to just whom is speaking. While Weiner is able to keep the writing style frisky and full of verbal barbs and insights, her use of modern culture is going to make this a rather stale novel in about ten years or so.

Overall, I was left feeling that this was just so coincidence heavy, and contrived, that I could not really enjoy it. At best it is a three star read, and that?s rather unfortunate, as Weiner can certainly write much better than this drivel, and I have a hunch that she was being pushed into writing a sequel to her first novel. That's too bad, as with a bit more care, and some trimming could have saved this story and turned it into a truly interesting tale.

Unfortunately, this novel fits into that nebulous area that I reserve for books as a ?maybe? recommend. There is so much going on here, that when Weiner starts to wind up the story, the improbability factor starts to soar. It all comes down to how much you enjoy this author's work -- die-hard fans will read it anyway. But I would not recommend this for a first-time reader of Ms. Weiner's work.

Somewhat recommended.

1 out of 5 stars

definitely not a beach read April 30, 2008
17 out of 19 found this review helpful

I loved Good In Bed so I was really excited to find out what happened to Cannie and Joy. This book was a disaster. I am so disappointed to find out that the happily ever after that I'd pictured turned out to be so depressing.
Were these books really written by the same author? How could you turn such a smart and fun character as Cannie into a smothering, insecure, out of touch mother?
And I agree with previous reviewers who stated that the ending was completely unnecessary and ruined the whole story.

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