Rating: 
Summary: she's a chick with bite and brains ---- love it!!!
Review: Carol Wolper is a screenwriter living in LA and so is her protagonist 28-year-old Elizabeth West. Elizabeth writes testosterone-heavy action flicks (she can't even stand to watch romantic comedies) and is in love with her boss, tough-guy Jake. Jake on the other hand is always with some starlet-wannabe. Elizabeth grew up in Hollywood where everyone is so airbrushed and stylized in glossy magazines that they invariably disappoint in real life. As she points out at a party, "Julia Roberts is no Julia Roberts."Elizabeth has two best friends, Mimi and Julie, but fear not -- they have lives of their own, they're not just there to comfort Elizabeth when she screws up her lovelife/career/parents' marriage with goofy annoying antics a la Bridget Jones. Which is fine because Elizabeth does none of that. She has wit and brains even if she sometimes lacks self-esteem, and watching her negotiate her way around the trappings of the movie industry as well as various ill-fated relationships makes you feel like you are talking to a true insider of a woman in a man's world (writing action flicks) as well as a really smart, good friend.
Rating: 
Summary: Chick lit with an attitude!
Review: Do not mistake The Cigarette Girl with the typical chick lit. This is one of the boldest, edgiest and sexiest chick novels out there. And the best part is that the Hollywood film scene is the backdrop of this novel! The Cigarette Girl centers on twenty-eight-year-old freelance screenwriter Elizabeth West and her quest to find Mr. Maybe. The problem is that she has an unapologetic penchant for Hollywood bad boys. With the help of her friends, she sets out to find a relationship that's perfect for her. Is it possible to have a steamy and caring relationship with a bad boy? Could she have her cake and eat it too? There are some fun twists in the novel. Carol Wolper takes a rather dark approach to romantic comedy. The protagonist is a straight shooter and a perfect example of how an intelligent woman consciously makes foolish choices. But the best part about Elizabeth is that she tells the truth without apology. Thus, she is a great modern heroine. I also love the author's insights on L.A. life. Her take on the aforementioned city is realistic and clever. Are you in the bargain for chick lit with a dose of attitude? Pick up The Cigarette Girl. A perfect summer read...
Rating: 
Summary: Bridget Jones gets smart - and dumb
Review: Elizabeth West - a film name if there ever was one - is 28 and single, a Hollywood screenwriter who has decided now is the time to get a man. Being "in the Zone", she feels she must no longer succumb to one-night-stands with unsuitable men, instead relentlessly seeking Mr. Right - or Mr. Maybe. Along the way she must battle the usual obstacles - other women (in this case, hordes of Hollywood models and bimbettes) and a world full of Mr. Wrongs. "The Cigarette Girl" tries to be smart, and it succeeds. Elizabeth's first-person voice is funny and sassy. She brings her screenwriting to the book, writing some scenes as if in a script. Even better, the book's form mirrors elements of movie plots, which the narrator discusses in a quasi-self-referential way. And the narrator is smart. Where Bridget Jones and her girl-in-the-city cohorts are incompetent and confused, Elizabeth is accomplished and assured. But a lot less likeable. Elizabeth West is not a likeable character. She's shallow and rigid and a little bit dense - she'll go on a weekend getaway with an ex-lover who's always been unavailable, but she won't go dancing with a nice guy because he's a little bit younger than her. Her fixation with finding a husband now that she's "in the Zone" comes across as artificial and comic in the wrong way. And her shenanigans - the relentless search for a man as well as the hijinks along the way - are often just plain dumb. Worst, she never learns. The book's "unpredictable" and "liberating" ending is actually worse - for the protagonist, and for what remains of feminism - than the "convinces man of her dreams to stop his tail-chasing ways and marry her" finale one expects. But the book is a fast, smooth, entertaining read, and with the proper suspension of analysis (what does it say about our culture that self-declared intelligent women define a seven-year period of their lives by the search for a husband?) can be quite enjoyable. This book is not a Mr. Right, or a Mr. Maybe. But if you're looking for something light and funny, it could be a Mr. Right Now.
Rating:
Summary: A ton of fun...nothing serious...just FUN
Review: I have to admit I enjoyed this book a great deal. It is not great literature. Some reviews seem to have taken this Ms. Wolper's debut too seriously. It is not supposed to be James Joyce. I love stories about Hollywood and Elizabeth West is a great character. She is so different than most women I've seen in print. She is a guy's gal. The character's are nicely drawn, you care about them. You really pull for Elizabeth. I think some of the plot twists are easy to predict, but that doesn't detract from the story. It is like Jake's Porsche--fast, fun, and worth the trip. My only complaint is that I'm still not sure what made the character of Jake such a bad boy (it seems he was modeled on Don Simpson)--West tells you he is and that he sleeps with many women, but no other details are offered. I think some more Jake stories would have been fun. Still, it is a fun and hilarious read.
Rating:
Summary: a decent debut
Review: I have to admit, I like that it wasn't typical of chick lit. The main character, Elizabeth, definitely has a brain in her head and knows how to use it. I like the premise of a non-bimbo existing and surviving in a bimbo's world, and I also like the way she captures the general shallowness of Hollywood types. Sure, her characters may be a little stereotypical, but it's all in good fun. Her jaded wit and her observations about models and bimbos is classic (especially when talking about bimbo Blaze putting on her "intellectual" glasses). Now for what didn't work: Being that the author was a screenwriter, the only details she really gives the reader are purely visual; she fails to evoke the other senses. That didn't bother me too much, though because L.A. is preoccupied with the visual anyway. With her platonic male friend (I forget his name), his past seems tacked on to me, and I really didn't get a chance to care about him enough for it to really ring true. I like how she can work a plot, and work dialog, and that's where her skills as a screen writer really shine through. My biggest gripe though was the cop-out ending. I won't spoil it for anyone, but that was enough to make me take two stars off it. A bad ending is hard for me to shake, but I give her three stars for making this a little grittier than your usual chick fare.
Rating:
Summary: a decent debut
Review: I have to admit, I like that it wasn't typical of chick lit. The main character, Elizabeth, definitely has a brain in her head and knows how to use it. I like the premise of a non-bimbo existing and surviving in a bimbo's world, and I also like the way she captures the general shallowness of Hollywood types. Sure, her characters may be a little stereotypical, but it's all in good fun. Her jaded wit and her observations about models and bimbos is classic (especially when talking about bimbo Blaze putting on her "intellectual" glasses). Now for what didn't work: Being that the author was a screenwriter, the only details she really gives the reader are purely visual; she fails to evoke the other senses. That didn't bother me too much, though because L.A. is preoccupied with the visual anyway. With her platonic male friend (I forget his name), his past seems tacked on to me, and I really didn't get a chance to care about him enough for it to really ring true. I like how she can work a plot, and work dialog, and that's where her skills as a screen writer really shine through. My biggest gripe though was the cop-out ending. I won't spoil it for anyone, but that was enough to make me take two stars off it. A bad ending is hard for me to shake, but I give her three stars for making this a little grittier than your usual chick fare.
Rating: 
Summary: Now I know why it was in the back of the library.
Review: I often have a thing that I do at the library let the book pick you and not the other way around. Well 9 times out of 10 the books that I read I enjoy but this was not one of those occasions. The author has great writing skills but the character she chose to portray in her first book was a mistake. I thought that it would be interesting to read sort of similar to Candace Bushnall Sex in the City, but I was wrong. This book starts off great but leaves you
disappointed in the end. Elizabeth West is a girl who thinks of herself as not being shallow, boring, or cares what others think of her. But she is shallow, boring and she does care of what people think of her. She tries to desperately to get off from her so called zone that she ends up at the end worse off then when she started. The only thing good in the book was the funny one liners the character says once in a while but her smugness often sours the moment. I had to force myself to finish this book and the ending was exactly what I expected typical coming from a one dimensional character.
I would not recommend this book to any of my friends and I hope that the librarians put this book back where I found it at the back of the library shelf. I give it two stars for the author writing skills but nothing more fore the lack less and love less character in this book. Happy I didn't buy it.
Rating:
Summary: Good read
Review: I really enjoyed this book from beginning to end. Some of the other reviewers disagreed with me, but I guess it all depends on what you're looking for in a book. I would definitely recommend it as a good read. The first thing I did was look to see if she had written anything else because I liked her style of writing.
Rating:
Summary: Hollywood chick-lit story with a slight edge...
Review: I've had this book on my book shelf for quite sometime; I finally decided it was time to read it. And while it did not offer anything new to the chick-lit genre, it had a nice Hollywood touch to it and provided entertainment for a few days. Cigarette Girl tells the story of 28-year-old Elizabeth West and her quest for Mr. Maybe. Elizabeth is an action-movie screenwriter who is currently writing for her long-time crush, Jake. Problem is, Jake is a bad-boy, with a Blonde-of-the-Month in tow at all times. Mostly, Elizabeth yearns to be free of The Zone, the area in life where singeltons worry about settling down, getting married and having babies before it's too late. But every date on which she goes doesn't hold much promise. Will Elizabeth EVER find true love -- with a bad-boy or anyone else? This book was pretty typical in its presentation. I wasn't really expecting anything different. I did enjoy the book, and the Hollywood setting the most because I think that is what gave this book its edge. Plus all the premiere parties and screenings were just plain fun to read. I would read another book by Carol Wolper -- she did a pretty decent job and for chick-lit fans, I think Cigarette Girl will provide a good time.
Rating:
Summary: Not your average girlie book
Review: There are a lot of "chick lit" books out there. Too many of them are fluff--plain and simple. Perhaps okay for a "beach read," but for the most part, readable and forgettable. This book, however, I consider to be one of the best of the genre. I found the book refreshingly honest (and that's not always pretty) when it comes to the subject of relationships and sex. The heroine, Elizabeth West, a screenwriter living in Los Angeles, is a career woman first. Relationships--such as they are--come second. Her relationships with men are problematic--"use or be used" seems to be the motto. But, after all, we are talking about LA, and it is the 22nd century. This was a very-well written book, I particularly enjoyed the insights on the world of screenwriting. The scene in which Elizabeth pitches a script to an unpleasant female executive is hilarious. I have thought about this book often since I turned the last page, and I look forward to hearing from this author again.
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