Rating: 
Summary: The Ultimate Guilty Pleasure
Review: OK. I confess. I didn't just read this, I bought it. In hardcover. But I bought it used, admit that much in my defense.Reading this makes you feel like the ghosts of your college literature professors are standing over you shaking their bony fingers. But that's the point of it. It's like going to a family gathering and talking to your aunt who's been married five times and is eagerly looking to find number six. You feel your grandmother's eyes burning into the back of your head but you just can't stop listening. This book could have been called TWO WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL. Oh, don't worry, Neeley and Anne are still around at the end of the story, ready to go on bedding down and putting up with unworthy men in their neverending quest for Mr. Wrong. The reason this didn't get a fifth star is that I'd like to have seen more characters from the first book return. Helen Lawson is dead, and that wonderful old battleaxe was my favorite character in the first one. Miraculously, although decades have passed the characters haven't aged all that much. And, of course, nobody is wrinkled. Bartender, Botox for everybody. So put on your dark glasses and go get a copy of it. If you're reading it in public, put a dust jacket for SWANN'S WAY on it to fool your artsy friends. And enjoy.
Rating: 
Summary: Did she even read the first book
Review: Okay, I had some MAJOR problems with this book. It's over 20 years since the first book ended and Anne, Neely, and Lyon haven't aged a bit? They've regressed in age? Jennifer is now 7? And that's just the start of it. She may have been using a manuscript that Susann put together for a sequel but this falls WELL below the mark. It was a wholly unsatisfying read with an ending that made me go....WHAT? Some scenes were just not set up well enough and other scenes just fell flat on their face. Yes, it was nice to revisit these characters but when they aren't in the hands of a gifted storyteller like Susann then it's not worth the visit.
Rating: 
Summary: Great sequel to a classic novel
Review: Shadow defines Pool-side literature this summer! It has all the trashy fun of the original, but in a funny, intelligently written, modern package. I think that most of the reviewers on this page are simply interpreting Shadow incorrectly. ( I write that with the utmost respect.) After reading the book, I do not think that Ms. Lawrence intended this as a true sequel. The reviewer from Toronto writes that, "The characters have not been properly aged."--it's obvious that Lawrence did not intend them to be "properly aged"-and of course they use expressions from the sixties, they lived in that decade! Lawrence is not tring to rewrite Susann's classic, nor is she trying to copy it. Enjoy it for what it is, a smartly written book that enables all of us to venture back to a bygone era-that is worth the 15 dollars alone!
Rating:
Summary: Yummy!
Review: Shadow of the Dolls is a fitting sequel to Jacqueline Susann's "Valley of the Dolls". Rae Lawrence certainly did Jaqueline justice with this. Though it is not necessary to have read "Valley...", it does make this book that much better if you do. I couldn't put this book down. I was so interested in the lives of Anne and Neely and Lyon. The characters became part of me for the 3 days it took me to read this book. I wish there was another one. When I was finished reading it I was sad because it was over. I want to read it again.
Rating:
Summary: Neely and Anne are back and better than ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: Shadow Of The Dolls is a fitting sequel to one of the best show-Biz stories ever told! For Valley Of The Dolls fans,Neely playes Helen Lawson in a bio-pic and wins an oscar!!!! I promise you this book is worth every penny!!! I could not put it down!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Had its moments, but kind of empty
Review: The original Valley was one of my favorite all-time books, and I had my doubts that anyone could write a good sequel, but I remembered reading Rae Lawrence's "Satisfaction" years ago and enjoying it. I could even live with the critics' warnings that the characters were only ten years older in 1987 than they had been when the first story ended. That was grossly incorrect. The original Valley started in September 1945. Anne was 20, Neely 17. When it ended on New Years' Day 1965 Anne was 39 and Neely 36. Fast forward 22 years. Anne is 34 and Neely younger than that, so they weren't 10 years older, they were YOUNGER. A dozen lost years I could deal with, but this is just silly. Trying to cram the original story in a span of 3 or 4 years is impossible (and will someone tell Ms. Lawrence it was Kevin GILLMORE, not GILLIAN, who founded the Gillian cosmetics line.) Some snappy dialogue here and there, the same ridiculous fear of aging (I know some people age fast, but the average 35-year-old does NOT need to see a plastic surgeon to remove forehead lines,) and a few couple of good, unexpected plot turns, but at the end I was left with an empty feeling, i.e., "Is that all there is?"
Rating:
Summary: Naughty, delicious -- the perfect beach book
Review: The wait is over! Neely O'Hara is back with a vengeance in this sexy, sophisticated sequel to Jackie Susann's famous bestseller. Just like the original, the glamorous (and wanna-be glamorous) of New York and Hollywood will do almost anything to get to the top, making some hard bargains along the way. Both smart and trashy at the same time, this book will satisfy readers looking for a fun summer read. Grab the sunscreen, turn off your brain, the weather is hot and so is this book!
Rating:
Summary: Shadow of a Book
Review: This book is fun - in an eating-cotton-candy-is-fun sort of way. Having read the original, I was greedy for information on Anne and Neely and Lyon and I got plenty of that, but gosh, did no one in this book feel anything? They went through some tough times - with no tears, hardly a moist eye. Pages and pages of really shallow people. It was as though Ms. Lawrence ran a butter knife across the heads of her characters, then tried to pass them off as real people. Even Lyon, the cad, deserved a little depth.
Rating: 
Summary: Missed Opportunity
Review: This could have been a great follow on. Characters we all love, story already developed. So what happened? The best plot turns were glazed over and the characters were never shown with any emotion. The author should have re-read the first novel a few more times and gotten the cadence and the plot turns and characters reactions to the turns down. This just came out as a poor poor follow up that left me wondering, why bother... If you need a beach book, go for the new Jackie Collins...this just does not cut it!
Rating:
Summary: Better than nothing
Review: This was a fun book, which would never be considered great literature -- it was really a sequel to the 1967 camp movie, and more in the spirit of the movie, not the original novel. If you have been wondering, what would have Neely, Anne, and Lyon done over the next ten years, this is the book for you. The book is all plot, well-written, a page turner. Not erotic at all -- like the movie, it is at bottom moralistic. Neely has some great lines.
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