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Best Enemies
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Plot Summary of Best Enemies
"

St. Martin's, Apr 2004, 24.95, 352 pp.
ISBN: 0312288492

Amy Sherman and Tara Messer were friends and rivals for a long time though the latter always triumphed.    The final contest between the two focused on Stuart Lasher. The odds favored Amy as she was engaged to Stuart. However, Amy found Tara and Stuart naked in bed together. The engagement ended. Tara and Stuart married.

Four years later, Amy works as publicity director at Manhattan's Lowry and Trammell. Her worse nightmare happens when she learns that her publishing company has picked up a lifestyle of the rich and famous book called Simply Beautiful written by Tara about Tara. Lowry and Trammell plan to make Tara the new Martha Stewart with Amy to lead the publicity beat.

Amusing absolutely as Jane Heller fan would expect from this author. However, the key to the tale is the BEST ENEMIES. Readers will commiserate with Amy even as she trumps up a lover just to save face with her rival. However, the surprise and what ultimately makes the tale superb is the audience will also feel empathy towards Tara who provides a different perspective than Amy does on the same event. Tara believes Amy owes her for absconding with the womanizing perfidious loser Stuart; surprisingly readers will ultimately agree. Ms. Heller takes a trite plot and turns it into a terrific character study that is part humor and part relationship drama.

Harriet Klausner
"

Harriet Klausner, Resident Scholar



Review Analysis of Best Enemies
Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Tone of book? - upbeat
Time/era of story - present (2000-2010)
Romance/Romance Problems Yes
Kind of romance: - love triangle/polygon
Other aspects: - best friends
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Ethnic/regional/gender life Yes
Woman's story? Yes

Main Character
Gender - Female
Profession/status: - writer
Age: - 40's-50's
Ethnicity/Nationality - White (American)
How sensitive is this character? - sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters
Physique - very athletic

Main Adversary
Identity: - none

Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings? - 3 ()
United States Yes
The US: - Northeast

Style
Person - mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death? - no torture/death
Unusual Style: - a lot of stream of consciousness
Amount of dialog - significantly more dialog than descript
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