You'd think a novel set in the world of high-end NYC real estate would be up my alley. While there was plenty of real estate porn with sumptuous locations, there wasn't much plot and there was a faint air of privilege that turned me off. The authors have an actual real estate firm, and maybe I'd enjoy their HGTV show Selling New York more than the fictionalized version. ( )

Hot Property by Michele, Samantha and Sabrina Kleier

This could have been an interesting, gossipy book about the real estate market in New York City and the lives of the real women behind "Selling New York" and I was very much looking forward to just such a book. However, this book quickly devolves into a mess of disjointed stories, brief encounters, and little to no plot. The characters of Kate, Elizabeth and Isabel are interchangeable; egocentric at best, annoyingly naïve at the worst. The male characters (husband, son, boyfriends) seemed to have been added as an afterthought. I can appreciate that the world of high end real estate is not something that I can totally grasp, but I have read books of this ilk before and have enjoyed them immensely, but there is generally some sort of story in those other books. This book tried to have a story; one that dealt with dirty dealings within the company and another dealing with a client that was not all she was leading everyone to believe, but these plot devices didn't work...at all.

The fact that the family was so close that they could not go five minutes without speaking to each other, that they all believed that their family was the center of their universe at ALL times, was a warm hearted one. However, I have to wonder just how these people could ever have any kind of relationship outside of the family and have them work.

Sadly, I had really looked forward to this book and the hours of fun I could have had putting myself into their Jimmy Choo's but it (the whole book) just didn't work...at all. ( )