Wendy Holden, unlike most of her chick-lit contemporaries, whose books tend to rely on stereotypes, manages to avoid ridiculing her leading ladies. Beautiful People does have some pretty awful characters: eating-disorder-ridden actresses and neurotic yummy-mummies. But in following the lives of four glamorous girls, Holden skilfully exposes women’s inane concerns without mocking them, too much. As a result, you actually end up liking some of them.

The girls’ stories begin concurrently in middle-class London and filthy rich LA. It’s not immediately obvious how they will come together. The first three hundred pages jump about between the girls’ respective stories of career crises and romantic failures. Belle is a young star with a Britney Spearsesque