Gemma Crisp

After finishing Be Careful What You Wish For, I was very, very glad that I had the second book about Nina Morey, Don’t Know What You’ve Got Till It’s Gone in my possession for immediate commencement. The first book ended on such an unexpected fate for editor Nina Morey that I just had to know what happened to her. Did she manage to pick herself up and get back into things, or was she still self-medicating with vodka as she lost control? Happily, I can tell you that the Nina we meet some time later is happily back in the magazine industry and in control as the editor of the celebrity weekly, Juice. She’s got away from the bully Lizzie and seems to be more grounded in reality than the first book. Although she’s split with Jeremy, her boyfriend, she’s happy and has a team of friends who help her to see that life is not all about cover shoots, product launches and deadlines.

Everything appears to be going swimmingly for Nina – she’s planning a New York girls’ trip with her friend Heidi and work is sweet. But then two curveballs hit her – all her friends are getting pregnant and going baby ga-ga while her magazine is being turned into a reality television programme. Both these things cause Nina to lose the plot as she’s no longer in control. Will she lose her friends as her celebrity status goes upwards? Will she be able to handle fame? Who is intent on bringing Nina down?

Crisp once again puts Nina in a number of very awkward positions and sometimes her reactions are childish and cringe worthy (but completely honest – somewhat of a redeeming feature). Nina’s reactions to her friends getting pregnant in quick succession is somewhat like a toddler temper tantrum, yet the things she says show how scared she is of change. If you’ve been through a similar situation (or even the ‘all my friends are getting married and turning into complete Bridezillas’), it’s easier to empathise with Nina – even though you wouldn’t have said that yourself. While Nina comes across as immature at times, there’s the theme of female competitiveness and having your friends move through life at a different pace to you. Nina’s scared she won’t be able to relate to her pregnant friends and will lose the camaraderie of the big night out, which I think is true for many stages of life for young women – can you still maintain a friendship when your priorities and commitments are completely different? Is Nina behind because she’s boyfriend-less? Was she wrong to choose career? This book relates a lot of the issues affecting young women today in a humorous fashion.

The other main issue affecting Nina in this novel is her accession to fame. Once only a photo on an editor’s letter, she’s now the star of Freshly Squeezed Juice, magazine reality show. She’s recognised in the street, had pictures taken with strangers for Instagram and gets quite a few perks and freebies. While it’s fun at first, Nina soon gets sick of it as it’s interfering with her job and lifestyle. She whinges to the wrong person, which is taken completely out of proportion and suddenly her creditability is on the life. I found this interesting, the way a comment or two is taken out of context and spread over the media until it’s a storm across the media. It’s another reflection of how women can be really cruel to each other.

In between these serious issues, there’s a big fun story to be had. Nina’s still a clueless innocent at times (an incident with self-harm has Nina thinking her friend has a rare dermatological disorder) but she’s loveable and learning. I’d love to see Nina return just to check she gets her happy ever after.

Thank you to The Reading Room and Allen and Unwin for the copy of this book.

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I am a total sucker for books set in ‘glamorous’ industries – Hollywood, television and magazines. Why magazines? It’s not just a The Devil Wears Prada thing, but following the Instagram accounts of several magazines gives me the impression of beautiful lunches, stunning product launches, reveals of new products months before us plebs and zillions of flowers. I know there’s work too, but it always seems a life away from my usual day to day. Be Careful What You Wish For not only tracks Nina Morey’s career up the ladder in magazines, but has the benefit of being set mainly in Australia. How could I resist? There might be some gossip hidden amongst the pages, particularly as the author has been editor of Cleo (the magazine you read at uni) and Dolly (the magazine you read in high school).

The story opens up as Nina Morey, an Aussie expat in London is dreading another shift at one of the city’s plushest hotels. Princess Cupcake needs a legion of fans to wish her well as she drives down the street and there’s clients to be extra sweet to for extra sweet (above board) tips. It’s not what Nina wants to do with her life. Her only escape is buying and trawling through a newsstand’s worth of magazines at every opportunity. So when her best friend suggests going for an internship at fashion bible Marie Claude, Nina jumps for it – then promptly thinks she’s not worthy. Despite her misgivings, she does get the position and a surprising promotion to the editor’s PA temporarily. It’s a move into the spotlight that propels her onto the editor’s radar and sets Nina up. On returning to Australia, Nina uses her contact to get a new job at the most dreary magazine ever. But never mind, she’s got a hot new boyfriend and there’s a great job coming up on the radar. Suddenly Nina’s got everything she ever wanted – and more. But with the good side comes several not-so-good things to hit Nina…

This book was a fun read. I enjoyed reading Nina’s climb up the ladder – most of it was predictable until towards the end and then it just spiralled. Kudos to Gemma Crisp for really knocking the socks off her heroine and then some! The ending was a bit abrupt, but knowing there is a sequel (Don’t Know What You’ve Got Till It’s Gone) and knowing it was on my bookshelf for immediate access helped. There are some things towards the end that I would have liked to read more of (Johan’s problems for example) but I think it would have reduced the ‘fun’ tone of the book.

Nina’s an interesting character. You’ll probably love her or hate her. She’s outwardly confident but quite insecure and immature in her thoughts. Also, she thinks to herself in full, proper sentences which seemed a little clunky, but hey, at least we knew what she was thinking. Some of the dialogue was also a little awkward at times, but us Aussies tend to speak in slang shorthand quite a lot which doesn’t work on the page too well. Once I got into the rhythm of the book, it worked really well. I would have liked to see some chapters start with say, ‘six months later’ as occasionally there are times when the narrative jumps ahead quite quickly. However, Nina’s ascent in the magazine ranks brought out new aspects of her personality – not all of them pretty, but she had the strength of character to admit when something was really wrong. For that, I’ll stick with her into the sequel.

This is a great book for a flight, a lazy weekend or one on the beach. It’s light and interesting, as well as capturing the Aussie lifestyle.

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