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Rating: 
Summary: Not for readers looking for "fluff": 4 1/2 stars
Review: A guest review by Mary K. Bryson
Heroine: Average
By day, Ellie Levine is a middle-level designer's assistant on Seventh Avenue. By night, Ellie is a single mother living with her Grandfather in Queens, still neighbors with the people she's known her whole life. Independent in her vintage fashion and career determination, Ellie is stylish, educated, and witty. She is also resigned to staying in Richmond Hill, since she can't afford to move her family to the city, and really, deep down, home is where all her childhood friends and neighbors are.
Themes of motherhood, fatherhood, truth and honesty, friendship and romantic love, and a whopping dose of city chic add up to a second-chance romance, difficult relationship choices, and a surprising career path. Despite an edgy and sarcastic voice, Ellie is sincere and shows integrity of
character-although it doesn't spare her from getting caught in a web of well-intended deception with her two best friends. Karen Templeton writes about single motherhood, a young woman's creative ambitions, and romantic confusion while balancing the everyday ordinary reality of Queens with the fantastic flash of New York City. Ellie's life drastically changes, and change certainly isn't always easy.
What worked for me:
Ellie's voice and her relationship with her daughter are endearing, as is her satisfying tendency to fight back when pushed. Compassionate and normal, she is the perfect heroine to root for as she faces the issues of both the big city and the close-knit community.
What didn't work for me:
My only real beef with this book is that Red Dress Ink opted for a stick-insect cartoon heroine on the cover, when Ellie describes herself on the first page, in the first paragraph, as "short, pudgy," not able to fit into a size 8 by a long shot and short enough to eschew flats forever. As she puts it, "without heels, I look like I'm standing in a hole."
Overall:
Red Dress Ink has published another great addition to the Chick Lit genre.
Warning: Readers should be aware that this is not a cotton candy coated romance. Characters deal with hard issues from dealing with affairs and unwanted pregnancy to sexual molestation between five-year-olds. The situations are not clean cut and the characters face difficult decisions, which add to quality and reality of this novel, but may not meet all Chick Lit fans' expectations.
If you liked "Hanging by a Thread" you might also enjoy "Lucia, Lucia", "Separation Anxiety", "Love at Large", "Inappropriate Men", "Coffee and Kung Fu", "What a Girl Wants", "Blushing Pink", "Getting Over It", "Bridget Jones's Diary", "Good in Bed", "Last Chance Saloon", "Jemima J." and "Having It and Eating It".
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