Emily Ever After
Anne Dayton, May Vanderbilt, . . Broadway, $11.95 (320pp) ISBN 978-0-385-51463-7
When smalltown California native Emily Hinton lands an editorial assistant position at a "world-famous" publishing house, she hangs a Bible verse in her cubicle, vows not to get drunk on weekends and begins her quest to build a glamorous and Christian life in the Big Apple. Her first day results in a meet-cute with one of the company's only other Christians, putative "total goody-goody" Bennett Edward Wyeth III, and pretty soon Emily and Bennett are an item. Enter, via e-mail, her elementary school crush, Jacob, who writes cleverly charming missives even as Bennett's stock is falling because his faith starts to seem insincere. But Emily's own faith is never explored: isn't there more to religion than prohibitions against heavy petting and Jell-O shots? The only convincingly devout Christian around is Emily's uncle, Matthew, who runs a mission in Times Square. Emily natters on, never seeming spiritual so much as prissy and pious, and by the time things come to a head—Emily's boss considers publishing an anti–traditional marriage screed, and she must decide whether to protest or to stay quiet—most readers will have had enough of her.
Reviewed on: 05/09/2005
Genre: Fiction
Paperback - 309 pages - 978-1-4000-7042-8
Peanut Press/Palm Reader - 205 pages - 978-0-7679-2153-4