Chasing Harry Winston

By: Lauren Weisberger

Narrated by: Charlotte Parry

Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

Meet Tali, Schuyler, and Kim. Best friends since college, each 20-something (okay, almost 30) has seen her share of career foils and romantic foibles in the world's greatest city, New York. Having been friends for more than a decade, they know that they all need a change. On Valentine's Day, they are each alone for one reason or another. At dinner together, the trio makes a pact. Within one year, each woman will change the thing that most challenges her.

For Tali, good Tali, whose boyfriend of five years just left her for a personal trainer, it will be to find romance - or a fling - in every foreign country she visits (and given her job as a secret shopper for high-end resorts, she goes to a lot of foreign countries). For Schuyler, a book editor, her goal is to get on the other side of the typewriter and write her own book - much to the dismay of her boyfriend, who is a Very Public Figure. And for commitment-phobic, Daddy's little rich-girl, Kim (she can't hold a job, or a boyfriend, unless he's married and therefore erratic and unattainable) , her goal is to have an engagement ring and a house in Scarsdale.

Each woman starts the first day of the year of reckoning with the best of intentions - which is exactly why the pact goes immediately, and exceptionally, awry.

Filled with the delicious insider details (of a celebrity-level (or celebrity-wannabe) lifestyle), Chasing Harry Winston brings listeners once again into the heart of an elite world, where friendships will be tested to the point of breaking.

Let the games begin.

©2008 Harry Winston (P)2011 Simon & Schuster

Fantasy Chick Lit- Entertaining Enough (SPOILERS)

This book should actually be found under "fantasy" on audible. Three women fall completely backwards into fame, fortune, and amazing jobs. One woman actually breaks up with her celebrity fiance because another celebrity is pursuing her. Another woman has a famous movie director falling all over himself to date her. The story is basically three women who do absolutely nothing and find unbelievable success. It is disappointing because it really was well written and kept my interest so it had great potential. I will probably read other books from this author. But the story was just BAD.

Anyway perhaps one of the reasons it was so pleasant to listen to is that the narrator was AMAZING. She did a great Brazilian accent and hit the emotions of the women perfectly. I will probably look for other books with this narrator.

Cute, but little substance

I enjoyed this book, but at times found the 3 main characters incredibly immature for 29 year olds. There were plenty of sweet, recognisable and cute moments though, and I especially liked the last 2 or 3 chapters, which made up for all the annoying bits (mainly the self doubting inner monologues).
Also, is it me, or is it weird to still refer to yourself as a girl at 29? I get saying “girls night” or “come on girls ...”, etc, but it seemed like these 3 actually considered themselves girls still, and not grown up women... which come to think of it befits their immature behaviours. I get feeling not quite grown up, I felt that way for a long time, but I definitely moved from girlhood into womanhood somewhere between the age of 18 and 23.

The narration was decent, except for the accents. Everything sounded like different versions of bad french accents. Especially when Adriana says hello. I am no expert, but it sounded super fake to me.

All in all, not a bad book, but in my opinion not her best.

Eh

Kind of a trite and silly story. Not that original, and the gals were ridiculously exaggerated. But I listened to the whole thing, so it wasn't that bad.

Revision?

The book description and the book do not match. Did anyone else have this issue?

Just fun!

It's no Devil Wears Prada or Everyone Worth Knowing but still a fun listen. Took me a chapter or two to get over the funky Brazilian accent- I wanted something sexier for the character and I got what I felt her mom would sound like - but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

narrator swallows in your ear

not a BAD story, struggled to finish though. narrator loudly swallows on pauses. so irritating.

Good story...terrible narration

One of the characters in this novel suffers from "noise sensitivity." Something I am all too familiar with. While the story was quite adorable, and everything I love from Weisberger...the narration left a lot to be desired. If you are listening with earbuds, keep the volume down as the narrator can get quite shrill. Also, her accents are terrible. One of the characters is Brazilian, but she sounds Russian. Also, you can hear the pages turning and the spit in the narrator's mouth (not so much the narrator's fault and as sloppy editing). If this kind of stuff doesn't bother you, then I recommend this audiobook. If it does, I really, really wouldn't recommend.

If you like glamourous chick-lit, you'll like this

If you could sum up Chasing Harry Winston in three words, what would they be?

Glam, Ridiculous, Funny

What did you like best about this story?

the three different women kept the story interesting.

Which character – as performed by Charlotte Parry – was your favorite?

Audriana, in terms of performance. Charlotte's Brazilian accent is amazing.

Any additional comments?

Not as good as the Devil Wears Prada, but I did like this and I really liked the voices Charlotte Parry does. I'm a narration snob, so that's a lot coming from me.

Woof!

The narrator's giant audible gulps were beyond annoying and completely ruined any saving of this frivolous story!

I felt there wasn't any real storyline and the entire book was just three women going on and on. It's Much ado about nothing for the digital age.

I could hear the narrator swallow

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

No. It was average.

What didn’t you like about Charlotte Parry’s performance?

I could hear Charlotte Parry swallow, or moisten her mouth while narrating. This happens all through the narration of this book. The first few times I heard it I thought, "I can't believe they didn't dub that out." There are a few times that it's loud enough to be distracting.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

No

Any additional comments?

I thought that Charlotte Parry was a good narrator. Whomever was responsible for preparing this audiobook for market did the book and the narrator a disservice by not dubbing the unnecessary, distracting noise from the audio. For the amount I paid for this audio book, I expected better quality.