Simply the Best

By: Karin Kallmaker

Narrated by: Abby Craden

Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

Simply the Worst.... Alice Cabot's only great love is science, but a lapse in judgment has exiled the New York journalist to the glitzy Gallerias and vapid bubble-babble of Beverly Hills. The assignment to do a flattering feature series on Simply the Best and the superficial nonsense it sells threatens to crush what little is left of her spirit.

Simply the Best.... Pepper Addington can't believe she's moved up from grunt intern to personal assistant for Helene Jolie, the celebrity socialite founder of SimplytheBest.com. Succeeding at the job she worked so hard to get is her only priority. Keep a cynical know-it-all reporter in check? She promises Helene that she can.

Simply Irresistible.... Expecting nothing but games from the beach-blond surfer girl that Helene Jolie has assigned to keep an eye on her, Alice is fully prepared to resist any and all of California's charms. Or so she thinks.

©2021 Karin Kallmaker (P)2021 Tantor

Clever dialogue

The writing reminds me of Amy Sherman – Palladino (Gilmore girls, Bunheads, the marvelous miss Maisel)

I love the dialogue around they/them pronouns that took place in the restaurant. I have a hard time embracing that one.

The story was a little choppy at times, but also had a very nuanced message about harassment and other cultural triggers. Overall, I liked it, and would highly recommend it.

Highly recommend this book

I loved how multi-layered this book was. The story is fuller than just the MC relationship. There is a fullness to Alice’s life, background and pain. But a wonderful and engaging relationship with her mother. I loved her nerdy, socially aware personality.

Pepper is a driven and committed personality that you can immediately feel for because she believes in the straight line between hard work and reward. Of course, that is no guarantee.

The chaos and negativity created for women at the company in the center of the story is very well presented by Karin. And hats off to how Pepper was written to take control of her story.

For 2-3 years I have been submitting requests to Audible for more KK Audible options. I am so happy to see that happening and this is a wonderful new addition.

best of KK

I have a few books by K.K. but this is my favorite. The work to build such complete characters is appreciated and applauded. The subject matter is hard only for its realism. It had me invested and cheering both MC"s on. Solid storytelling and narration. Both author and narrator are such professionals, they made this audiobook a great experience. Highly recommended.

I expected more from this story…

I expected more from the story. I was a little let down because the storyline was one dimensional almost formulaic. Ironically, I’m a big fan of Karin Kallmaker. I was excited about this new book, but it didn’t meet my expectations. The narrator was OK, but some of her characters sounded the same. overall the book was fine but I wanted more plot, character building, and better narration of the story.

New Fan

1st time listen from this Arthur and won’t be the last. As always Abby Craden was outstanding. Looking forward to more from both.

Well Done

Well written book. Karin Kallmaker is never a let down for me. And paired with Abby Craden is a bonus.
This book went by so fast. I was very invested in it. Karin Kallmaker really develops characters in realistic ways. So good. Even the ones I hate I hate deeply!
There’s so much to this book. I appreciated it all.
Abby Craden is flawless as always.

OMG

This was an excellent book:
1. It described what many of us are going through with the pandemic
2. It talk about the fact that even women when in power might be harassing other women

The MC all three of them were excellent I could not let it go as the story was unfolded.
Abby Craden was wonderful, and she even improved her French accent :)
Loved it. .

It’s definitely worth a listen.

Karin had me from almost the very beginning with her nod to “kind but firm” academic librarians, then later referring to “The Long Kiss Goodnight as a Christmas movie clenched it. ;) Plus, Abby Craden narrates, so anything I now say about the audiobook is biased. That said… the author does a great job of blending humor with the realities of life like smeared makeup when you want to be sexy and limbs that fall asleep that make the fairy tale of romance impractical. Despite reality, our protagonists find love and a way forward to a HEA.

Kallmaker's best

Is both a love letter to California (the climate, the sun, the beaches, the surfers, the spicy cuisine, the gorgeous High Modern aesthetic--in its rustic and urban variants) and a clear-eyed critique of its "enlightened" brand of consumer culture. The MCs are both comfortably middle-class, with the special twist that Alice Cabot--disillusioned 40-YO New York science journalist exiled to the Style section due to a viral faux pas--is both a woman of color and a moneyed blueblood (father a Jamaican scientist, mother an accomplished liberal journalist from an old NY family). Pepper Addington, an authentic blond California surfer-girl, is the super-competent underpaid 20-something intern tasked with handling Alice when the journalist is strong-armed into writing a series on the phenomenal success ("recession proof") of the fashion/self-care Hollywood-based brand Simply the Best, masterminded by Helene Jolie, 50ish former NY society girl and a real dragon lady. Helene, who affects an over-the-top French accent consonant with her family name, immediately raises Alice's suspicions about the brand's "socially responsible all-natural" message. Though Alice dutifully researches and writes an "in-depth" puff piece for the company, she has demons that drive her to numb herself with alcohol: she's in furious mourning for friends and colleagues lost to covid, for the collapse of science reportage, for the rise of a pseudo-individualist culture of moneyed selfishness. But she finds herself with no shields against Pepper, who is disarmingly sunny, deeply intelligent, humane, and totally smitten by Alice. The sexy vibe, the psychological accord between these two seemingly so different women is totally believable, and their love-making--when it finally overcomes the many many obstacles in its way--feels to this reader wholly transformative, for both Alice (who is jolted into facing her demons) and Pepper (who fully grows into the adult she's yearned to become). The velvet-voiced Abby Craden's Audible narration makes us fall head over heels for both Pepper (Kallmaker created in her an irresistible figure of all that's good and gay about CA) and Alice, but she also has a lot of fun with Heh-le'hh-ne's subtly villainous French "ax-ce'n." I think this is one of Kallmaker's best titles given the audio treatment, though I did slow it down to .9 speed: the text is wordy in a good way (Kallmaker went all out in fleshing out the idyllic Simply the Best "campus," the Santa Monica environs, Alice's mom's splendid Hamptons home, the gritty NYC settings and the glittering STB store whose NYC opening marks the climax of the story), but I think Craden sped up her reading just enough that the multi-tasking listener might have some trouble keeping track of the narrative thread from time to time.

Wonderful

I loved this book/listen. I felt a connection with the characters. The research that must have been done was happily displayed. Oh and the narration was spectacular. It draws you in.