When Life Gives You Lululemons review: Lauren Weisberger's pure escapism

When Life Gives You Lululemons

Lauren Weisberger

HarperCollins, $29.99

Along with Candace Bushnell's original novel Sex and the City, Lauren Weisberger's The Devil Wears Prada was a pioneer of chick lit. Fifteen years on, after a sequel in 2013, Weisberger has produced a second spinoff, featuring two of her original characters plus some new ones. Here the high life among female media professionals in the US is pretty much what it always was, awash with designer outfits and cocktails. Emily Charlton, now liberated from Runway magazine and its monstrous editor Miranda, is freelancing as a celebrity stylist but at 36 is feeling edged out by younger women. Then the supermodel wife of a presidential hopeful finds herself in trouble, and Emily is roped in to control the damage. Surprisingly topical and full of snappy patter and high-end consumables, this novel is escapism at its finest.