cover image The Dallas Women's Guide to Gold-Digging with Pride

The Dallas Women's Guide to Gold-Digging with Pride

J. C. Conklin, . . Ballantine, $22.95 (293pp) ISBN 978-0-345-49294-4

Conklin's acidic debut takes on "master class husband-hunter[s]" prowling the Big D. Ex–New Yorker Jenny Barton, 29, works halfheartedly for the Wall Street Journal 's Dallas bureau, recovering from her recent split from also-journo Rafe. Rafe has taken up with Meg, an aging, very wealthy, very nasty, very married Dallas woman—prompting Jenny to go native and catch a rich Texan. Lessons from relentlessly blonde paralegal and divorcée extraordinaire Aimee and friends follow, including an injunction for Jenny to hide her Jewish background from Baylor Jones, heir to a ranching dynasty. Tepid Texas quips ("That's a Texas girl, always thinking about appearances") mix uneasily with "geek chic" Jenny's sharper observations. (May)