Category Archives: Stand Alone Books

Publisher’s WeeklyTrue Tales of Love, Lust, and Friendship Between Straight Women and Gay Men

A celebration of the most important relationship in a straight girl’s life—her gay best friend.

Thanks to iconic duos such as Sex and the City’s Carrie and Stanford and the title characters of Will & Grace, the love affair between straight women and gay men has moved into the mainstream. Never before, though, has a book looked at these friendships in the real world.

The editors, themselves best friends, have put together this collection of hilarious and poignant never-before-published essays that explore this unique relationship. In addition to stories about single girls and gay guys bonding over shopping sprees and brunch, these stories chronicle love and lust, infatuation and heartbreak, growing up and coming out, and family and children.

Straight women and gay men alike will relate to these tales from a diverse array of contributors, ranging from literary novelists to Emmy Award winners, single girls about town to mothers of four, downtown performance artists to Hollywood scenesters. This definitive anthology, the first of its kind, proves that more durable than diamonds, straight women and gay men are each other’s true best friends.

A share of the proceeds from this book will benefit The Trevor Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping gay teens.

Pay to get in,
Pray to get out.

Johnny Silver is the world’s soon-to-be biggest rock star, but on the eve of his debut concert in Los Angeles, he mysteriously disappears, causing global pandemonium. His friend Taj tries to discover the truth about his disappearance, which leads her to TAP.com and its shadowy founder, Sutton Werner, who throws the wildest parties in Bel-Air.

TAP started out innocently enough, as a website that dishes the dirt on the kids of Sunset Boulevard and beyond. But it has become something more. Membership is a privilege with responsibilities and consequences.

At Sutton’s parties, anything goes, especially in the legendary backroom rituals nicknamed The Angels Practice. Rumors abound of a special drink handed out at the parties that tap into otherworldly sensations.

One night Taj meets Nick, a Westside preppie who doesn’t buy into the TAP mayhem, especially since his kid sister never came home from attending one of its blow-out bashes. Slowly the two of them are drawn to TAP and to each other. But Taj just might know more than she’s letting on….

Are you ready for the darker side of Tinsel-town’s brightest lights?

Some Proms Go Well. Some Don’t.

Authors include: Libba Bray, Jacqueline Woodson, Ned Vizzini, John Green, Sarah Mylnowski, Melissa de la Cruz, Holly Black, Brent Hartinger, Lisa Sandell, Will Leitch, Leslie Margolis, Cecily von Ziegessar, E. Lockhart, Jodi Anderson, David Levithan, Dan Ehrenhaft, Liz Craft, Aimee Friedman, and Adrienne Vrettos

Four hot Holiday Romance stories from your favorite writers! Melissa de la Cruz, Hailey Abbot, Aimee Friedman and Nina Malkin.

Melissa’s story “The Christmas Choos” is about a girl, a boy, a pair of fabulous Jimmy Choo sandals, and a kickass Harley-Davidson motorcycle.

Adventures in Four-Inch Heels and Faux Pas

A fashionista is a girl who always looks current and cutting edge, even when her clothes are vintage 1975. A fashionista can tell her Pucci from her Gucci and her Blahniks from her Choos, but she’s as comfortable in Kmart as she is in Chanel. She wears what she likes and always looks fantastic. She’s a clothing chameleon: a sharp tweed suit and ladylike driving gloves one moment, a punk rock T-shirt and studded belt the next. She’s a gypsy, a princess, and a diva. She’s fashion-forward, shopping-addicted, and full of fun. And you can be her, no matter your size, style, or budget.

Authors Melissa de la Cruz and Karen Robinovitz are fashionistas who share a love for impractical shoes, small dogs that fit in designer handbags, and wearing white after Labor Day. They eat, sleep, and breathe fashion. And they’ll teach you how to

• Make a whole new wardrobe out of the awful duds that lurk in the back of your closet
• Use the words “postmodern” and “ironic” to fake your way through pseudo-intellectual cocktail conversation (really—it’s easy, and so postmodern and ironic!)
• Score big with chic and cheap finds at thrift stores, consignment shops, and discount designer outlets
• Live like a socialite on a shoestring budget

In two weeks or less, you’ll be living the lush life, from the brim of your Eugenia Kim fedora to the tip of your pointy Christian Louboutin pumps!

Dear Peaches,

America is perfect! I love it here. I wish you could come visit—we could go shopping on Market Street and you could meet all my new friends. And my new boyfriend. He looks exactly like Tobey Maguire (from Spider-Man, not Seabiscuit). We’ll be the hottest couple at the Soiré!

I miss you!! xxxooo,
V.

Okay, so Vicenza isn’t being totally honest with Peaches, her best friend back in Manila. But what fun is it being the new girl at snooty Grosvernor High? Or rooting through the Salvation Army for unholey cashmere sweaters? Or having culture-shocked, embarrassingly clueless parents? Maybe being Claude Caligari’s ignored geometry partner is sort of fun, but Vicenza would rather be his girlfriend … or at least his date to the annual fancy-schmancy Soiré d’Hiver. Instead, she’s stuck going with scrawny family friend Freddie in an outlet-purchased, coupon-reduced dress that is nothing short of disaster!

But Vicenza won’t be friendless, fashionless, or “fresh off the boat” for long—it’s only a matter of time before she sees what’s right before her eyes, and her luck begins to change.

2 Women, 14 Days. The goal? Achieve bold face status.

SIGHTINGS: Spotted last night at a giant bash at Nobu: fashionista cuties Karen Robinovitz and Melissa De La Cruz. Karen was heard saying she’s “still exhausted” from her recent Bungalow 8 birthday party that would have made P. Diddy jealous. Apparently, she was wearing two million dollars’ worth of Harry Winston diamonds (including the 22-carat ring Whoopie Goldberg wore to the Oscars) and was constantly shadowed by a bodyguard named Lou who was straight out of a Scorsese film. Melissa, also fatigued from the fast track, just hosted an intimate dinner party at a swanky Upper East Side restaurant attended by trend-setting journos from New York magazine, The Observer, Allure, “Page Six” as well as the indefatigable Michael Musto—and as part of the gift bag giveaway, the whole crew is being flown to Miami to stay at a five-star resort favored by the likes of Will Smith.

Asked how they managed to go from barely-known freelance writers to A-list celebrities in just fourteen days, they coyly spilled the beans: Marie Claire called with the assignment, and they simply begged, clawed, cried, borrowed, cheated, lied, stole, and bribed their way to fame. Their how-to tips to stardom include “Pick an M&M color to hate, and stick to it.” And they’re writing a book, daaahlings, so whether you live in New York or Nebraska, you too can have the goods to claim your own fame and become legendary.

Cat McAllister is just about to celebrate her 25th birthday for the fourth time. A child-actress turned fading It-girl, she’s well aware that her fame is starting to lose its shine. She really should have tragically overdosed by now. Or else succumbed to some harrowing disease brought on by a steady diet of vodka-tonics and TicTacs. Currently she’s in danger of being consigned to that seventh circle of celebrity hell where she’s just recognizable enough for people to think she’s someone else. Worse still, her trust fund is running dry…

What’s a girl to do? With few assets (aside from a temperature-controlled closet) and fewer talents (shopping and an encyclopedic knowledge of Best-Dressed Lists) there’s only one way out of B-list obscurity: to marry and marry well. Her quarry: not just Mr. Right but Prince Right — New York’s most eligible bachelor, Stefan of Westonia. Let the games begin…