In Sipos’ sequel to Horrible Women, Wonderful Girls (2025), a former Hollywood executive lands in legal trouble in rural Wisconsin.

Jaycee Grayson is an Angelena who finds herself adrift in the rural town of Littleburgh, Wisconsin. Following the events of the previous book, Jaycee is still reeling from the collapse of the global doll empire she once worked for. Always an opportunist, she pivots to a new industry, joining forces with young Mennonite charcutier Naomi Petersheim. Their exploits in artisanal sausage-making catapult them to the center of the meat scene of the Midwest. Jaycee is determined to make her new business venture a success, whether she’s joining forces with a Hutterite brewmaster or badgering a counter girl at the restaurant Teddywedgers. However, she runs into serious trouble when Naomi is accused of murdering her new husband. In addition, the former owners of the Wonderful Girls doll factory are suing Jaycee for exposing their corrupt business practices. Jaycee must navigate civil and criminal law, burgeoning romances, and the finer points of making meat in this roller coaster of a read. Sipos is a punchy writer who can’t resist an appealingly convoluted simile or twisty sentence structure: “Spurning the niceties of suburbia, Naomi dressed like a pine forest pixie lost in the city while keeping the word of the Lord so near she spurned the lyrics of Taylor Swift on the car radio.” Indeed, the author stuffs each sentence like a sausage, serving bite after bite of clever quips and saucy scrutiny. Jaycee is a difficult protagonist to pin down, moving like a whirlwind through the pages, and none of the other characters are nearly as vibrant in comparison, but Sipos manages to find some fun personalities here and there. Jaycee is certainly flawed and not always likable, but she possesses a stubborn determination that a reader can’t help but cheer on.

A snappy and beguiling tale of canny entrepreneurship.

A down-on-her-luck developer of products for the film and gaming industry leaves Los Angeles for a job in Wisconsin in Sipos’ spirited satire.

Forty-year-old Jaycee Grayson, fresh from a stint in the Betty Ford rehab center after having been fired from her job at a big-name Hollywood studio, is about to embark on a new adventure. Her older sister Meredith Grayson-O’Cochlain, a high-powered attorney, has negotiated a contract for Jaycee to be the new executive producer and vice president of global entertainment at Wonderful Girls, a successful manufacturer of lifelike dolls that reflect individual personalities and aspirations. The company, run primarily by women, was founded by the now semi-retired Happy Lindstrom. It has recently been sold for a fortune to a Japanese company but still maintains its headquarters in Littleburgh, Wisconsin. “Pulled by this strange and wonderful concept of female unity,” Jaycee heads to Wisconsin, where she discovers a workplace brimming with an intoxicating sweetness that belies the back-stabbing manipulations of Wonderful Girls’ venomous staff. Amply funded by a new termination agreement with the Hollywood studio hammered out by Meredith, Jaycee buys a house in Littleburgh reportedly built by the late architect Frank Lloyd Wright for his mistress. Once she settles in, it does not take long for her to discover that duplicity runs rampant below Wonderful Girls’ saccharine surface; bad-mouthing and sabotage lurk around every corner. Sipos writes with wit, introducing a large cast of quirky characters hiding a trove of backstories and deceptions. The dialogue is filled with sharply focused sarcasm, and Jaycee, who narrates the tale, is a feisty protagonist relentlessly trudging through a chaotic swamp of miscreants. Abel Dreaux, the village police chief, adds a bit of offbeat romance, and the aging Happy Lindstrom proves to be a delightful, surprising powerhouse. The relationship between Jaycee and Meredith provides some needed poignancy, as does the developing friendship between Jaycee and the gently rebellious Mennonite couple that tends to her culinary and gardening needs. Even so, acerbic humor is never more than a paragraph or two away.

A clever and entertaining read, with amusing, unexpected twists and a sturdy female protagonist.