This book correctly represents the privilege and societal norms one will find on the Upper East Side and the private schools that one attends. It is certainly an insular society where one is expected to look and act a certainly way which is why Max felt out of place. The pressure to perform and to perform well starts early and is enormously felt. Peyton and in varying degrees Isaac knew it and felt it and albeit wrong and morally corrupt, the reader can understand why they did what they did with respect to.college admissions. The ending certainly took me by surprise!

I haven't loved the last few Lauren Weinberger books I've read, but this one far exceeded my expectations. I loved how all of the characters seemed to be out of place in what they thought was "their place". I also really appreciated the characters and how easy it was to see their stories from all directions. There clearly wasn't a right or wrong side, and trying to figure it out would drive some readers crazy, but I found it refreshing to not know how I wanted the book to finish. It really shows how complex issues can be and how you have to see everything from all the angles before picking which one was "right".

Definitely a must read for Summer 2021

I have read every book by this author, and I do mean Every. Single. Book..... and this one ranks pretty high on the list. I just adore her writing style and storytelling skills. I also liked the moral of this story-- when life is falling apart, we learn what's really important and who we really are. I liked how incredibly timely this book was, as all Lauren Weisberger's books typically are. I'll be recommending this one to all readers.

Peyton has it all - a career she loves as an anchor on a popular morning show, a husband who loves her, and an amazing daughter who is headed to Princeton in the fall. Everything is perfect until the day a story about a college admissions scandal breaks, and she sees her husband being led out of their apartment building in handcuffs. Peyton's sister Skye also seems to have it all - an adoring husband, a beautiful adoped daughter, and she is working on a special project to help girls from low-income families. The only problem is, Skye is hiding a secret that just keeps building, and she doesn't know what to do about it. Then, when Peyton's life implodes, the repercusions affect not only Peyton and her family, but Skye and her family as well.
I loved this book. I didn't want to put it down. I kept rooting for Skye and for Peyton's daughter Max, who was just an innocent victim in all of this. This is a very timely novel. It did have a lot of humor, though, despite the serious subject matter. I highly recommend this one!

Best selling author Lauren Weisberger delivers a surefire hit with Where the Grass is Green and the Girls are Pretty. This straight from the headlines, laugh aloud funny novel skewers both suburban and city life as realistic characters deal with the problems they create.

Peyton Marcus, New York morning show anchor (think Savannah Guthrie), sees her carefully curated life begin to fall apart when she reports on the newest college admission bribery scandal. Within hours, her husband Isaac is led away in handcuffs, and she is part of the biggest story on all channels.

Her sister Skye has moved her family to Paradise, a suburb full of Lululemoned yoga moms and their tequila importing investment banker husbands. Skye, a veteran of charity work in Uganda, tries to reinvent herself as a helicopter mom but fails. A new project has reenergized her but may be affected by Isaac’s decisions.

Also caught up in the whirlwind news story in Max, Peyton’s teenage daughter who didn’t want to attend Princeton until she couldn’t. Free from the Ivy League, she has to discover what she really wants to do instead of rebelling against her parents’ choices for her.

The destructive secrets Peyton and Skye are keeping from their husbands and each other will eventually be revealed in a satisfying conclusion. Where the Grass is Green and the Girls are Pretty sparkles with humor and satire. You’ll love it as much as I did! 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House and Lauren Weisberger for this ARC.

This was a timely and relevant topic due to all of the college admissions scandals as of late. Well-written and witty, Weisberger does a great job of switching between characters for their point of view. I really enjoyed the ending and the steps in which each character takes to grow as a person.

Kindly received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I am obsessed with all of Weisberger’s books and this one was no different. In a classic case of rich people behaving badly, too much money has ended in tragedy. Throughout the book you see family coming together, personal development, and a lot of laughing and crying. The characters were the perfect amount of lovable and hatable. Will 100% be recommending this one!

In what might have been an ordinary novel about siblings and mother/daughter issues, Weisberger has managed to create a very readable and engaging book. Taking a crisis from the news and.bringing it into the lives of an extraordinary family, I found myself enjoying the book and loving all the characters.

Mistakes were made, paying money to a college advisor to help young Max get into an Ivy League school became the catalyst for the events that soon spiraled out of control. The book centers around 3 women and how the crisis affected them. Peyton and Skye are sisters with different value systems, but with tremendous underlying love. The reader joins them as they change during a summer of extreme stress.

I really enjoyed this story (as I have enjoyed the author’s earlier books). Yes, it is certainly a book that book groups will love, especially women. As entertaining as it is, there are lots of underlying issues women will enjoy discussing.

Thank you Netgalley for such a lovely book to read and review.

Lauren Weisberger is an incredible creator of unforgettable powerful female main characters (The Devil Wears Prada’s Miranda Priestly will go down in history) and in her new novel, Weisberger gifts her readers with Peyton Marcus.

Peyton is a bubbly “America’s sweetheart” morning news reporter whose personal life is suddenly thrust into the spotlight when she is live on air covering a story of a college admissions scandal and then her husband is promptly arrested for bribery charges relating to their daughter’s admission to Princeton University, and this sets up the plot of the novel, with what happens the Marcus family and their daughter’s reaction, and there’s a complete b-plot in the novel with Peyton’s relationship with her sister and the charity project that her sister is working on. I will be honest that the b-plot really bored me. I didn’t care much for the sister’s character or her story and found myself skimming those chapters. I got a little bored.

But the novel is ridiculously funny at times, (the chapter titles alone made me laugh out loud multiple times), and I loved everything about Peyton Marcus and the chapters involving her work life. Weisberger’s writing is so fun and witty, some of her pop culture insight just cracks me up. The first 20-25% was SO good, I couldn’t put it down, and then I think the novel fell flat in the middle, but it had a very redeeming end. I think it will be a popular read in people’s beach bags this summer.

3.5 stars.

Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for an advance copy.

Another gem from the Devil Wears Prada writer. This book centers around two sisters who have taken very different paths but are both very much lost. I highly recommend this read. I enjoyed it immensely.