The Regulars

By Georgia Clark

GIRLS meets BRIDGET JONES' DIARY (with a magical twist) in this fierce and hilarious women's fiction debut, as three average girls become extraordinarily beautiful and have all their fantasies come true ... or do they?

Best friends Evie, Krista and Willow are just trying to make it through their mid-twenties in New York. They're regular girls with typical quarter life crises: making it up the corporate ladder, making sense of online dating, and making rent.

Until they come across Pretty, a magic tincture that makes them, well ...gorgeous. Like, supermodelgorgeous. With a single drop, each young woman gets the gift of jaw-dropping beauty for one week, presenting them with unimaginable opportunities to make their biggest fantasies come true.

But there's a dark side to Pretty, too, and as the gloss fades for these modern-day Cinderellas, there's just one question left: What would you sacrifice to be Pretty?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
• Release date: Aug 2, 2016
• ISBN: 9781471154577

Georgia Clark

Georgia Clark wrote the novels It Had to Be You, The Regulars, The Bucket List, and others. She is the host and founder of the popular storytelling night, Generation Women. A native Australian, she lives in Brooklyn with her hot wife and a fridge full of cheese. Want more? GeorgiaClark.com. 

Reviews for The Regulars

[lmjenkins · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

This book wants to be a feminist statement, but it is actually the opposite. Hated it.

[liscarey · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Krista Kumar, Evie Selby, and Willow Hendriksen are best friends, young women living in New York City. Krista's an aspiring actress after dropping out of law school, Willow a photographer who has just had her first gallery show, and Evie is a writer. Evie anonymously writes the blog, Something Snarky. Her paying job, though, is as a lowly copy editor for a women's magazine called Salty.

Krista is not getting a lot of jobs, not even trivial ones. Willow's gallery show was a failure. Salty publishes mostly the superficial, sexualized, "buy this to be beautiful enough to matter" stories that Evie, an intelligent, aware, passionate feminist, most hates.

And they are all depressingly aware that they don't meet the societal beauty standards pushed in, among all the media outlets, Salty.

One day, Krista meets someone she took a class with, her gives her a little bottle of something called, simply, "Pretty." One drop each will make them beautiful. The effect will only last a week.

Krista unhesitatingly uses it--and discovers that the transformation process is really painful. On the other hand, the results are impressive.

Willow thinks it over for a day, and despite knowing how painful it will be, also uses it.

Evie angrily tells each of them they are succumbing to society's false and destructively sexist standards, and that they don't need Pretty to be worthwhile.

The next day, though, her boss announces that Salty is starting a video series called Extra Salt, that will do exiting and interesting stories for contemporary women. Evie wants the roll of host, and knows that she has no shot at it. She winds up taking the Pretty, and making up a name and a cover story.

Krista gets a role in a movie with an actor she has had a long-distance crush on.

Willow finds out her boyfriend is willing to cheat on her. She also takes heartbreaking, moving pictures of her "Pretty" self.

Evie gets the hosting role, and collides with the reality of trying to bring genuinely interesting and intelligent stories to a video broadcast that's all about the advertising dollars.

They all spend the next several weeks having adventures both romantic and professional. In the process, they learn a lot about themselves, each other, and the world.

The question is, will this make any of them happier or better off? And how long will the supply of Pretty last them?

It's sometimes funny, sometimes heartbreaking, and overall interesting. Not great literature, but I really enjoyed it. In a seemingly silly story, there's a lot of serious thought and character development going on here.

Recommended.

I received a free electronic galley of this book and am reviewing it voluntarily.

[lesindy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book reminded me of the movie "Death Becomes Her", only the Pretty lasts a week. Three roommates are in a dead-end. They want to be an actor, journalist, and photographer respectively, but they think their problem is that they are too plain-looking. A mysterious woman gives Krista a bottle marked "Pretty" and they think all their problems are solved when they get smoking hot! Only, mo hotness, mo problems.This book has surprisingly graphic sex scenes, and a lot of hilarity. This is a humorous book, but not for pearl-clutchers.

[lauriehere · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

What truly FAST and FUN reading! I think the BEST part about this book is when each of these three women end up drinking a tincture they come across and end up on their own, individual journey! Every woman wants to turn out to be a beautiful, gorgeous woman who is successful, who have men who just drop at their feet for them, and have it ALL! When they find this tincture, this IS what they get! They are DROP DEAD GORGEOUS, and they each end up having some pretty wild things happen to each of them while they go on these journeys they end up on! There is one thing you will be surprised about, and that is they are not themselves at ALL when they are these other people. They look completely different, act different, everything is different. It’s a lot of fun to see how each of these women go through each change and how they act on the tincture and then off of it, back to themselves, again. After their journey is over, can they bring back some of what happened and live some of that life without that tincture? Did they grow from it? I did think it was odd these women did not discuss finding this tincture they were going to drink to talk more about it before drinking it, though. However, then I’m not letting go of reality when I think about that, and you really have to let it go to enjoy this book! Remember that as you are reading it! It’s worth the fun and just enjoy the ride! You could really enjoy this book! It is very humorous in places, and I’m glad I read it! Warning to those of you who are squeamish about sex in books, this one does contain it, but one of the scenes I thought was hilarious! I think you’ll enjoy this if you keep an open mind! I would like to thank the Publisher, Atria Books, and NetGalley for giving me a free copy of this book in exchange to read and write a review of my own opinion about this book! Thanks!

[cinacio-2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Georgia Clark’s recently released “The Regulars” is a riveting story of three best friends – each with their own insecurities, particularly about their looks. Evie, Krista, and Willow allow their lack of confidence to hold them back from success, but this isn’t just a superficial, frivolous novel. Clark delves into the essence of each of her characters, creating relevant and relatable alter-egos finding themselves in this crazy, often overwhelming city.Evie, Krista, and Willow are entirely different people overcoming very unique situations. Writing such distinct characters, allows each reader to relate to one more personally. Evie Selby, an aspiring journalist copy-editing flippant sex and makeup pieces for a magazine becomes Chloe Fontaine, a gorgeous on-screen correspondent for a new web-series dating the author she admired most. Krista Kumar was a law school dropout trying to become an actress, and known as the all-around “hot mess,” while Willow Hendriksen was an artist coming from behind her film director father’s shadow and unable to commit to her boyfriend attributed to her father’s consistent infidelity.Each of the girls had a personal journey completely unlike the other, and I particularly liked that Clark set each character up with very different sexual preferences and relationship status so that regardless of a reader’s status, we can all relate to wanting a life make-over.Each chapter bounced from one character to the next, making “The Regulars” a fun, fast-paced read. The short chapters and sexy content kept me hooked, even sneaking in a few short chapters at the office. More important than just being another entertaining book is how Georgia Clark perceptively and intelligently tackled a range of social issues on feminism that often go ignored as we strive to look like the next airbrushed supermodel.

[susan.macura · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I almost did not start this book because the premise sounded absurd. Three young women in New York City take a potion that makes them “pretty.” They then take on the new personas of these beautiful women and proceed for a month to live other, supposedly better lives. While I was prepared to put this down and hate the story, I found it compelling and fun to read! It was well done with lots of wonderful insights into how our culture values and rewards physical beauty in women. I can’t wait to read what she writes next!