THE ROCK STAR IN SEAT 3A

A just-30 video game junkie and marketing guru gets her world totally rocked when she starts an affair with her American idol.

Kargman's (Sometimes I Feel Like a Nut, 2011, etc.) latest confection is so frothy that even fans may have a hard time swallowing its Diablo Cody–esque hipster jive. In essence, if you liked Nick Hornby’s Juliet, Naked but wish it had more of the emotional intensity of Sex and the City, this is the book for you. Our heroine, such as she is, is one Hazel Lavery, a fast-talking, video game–addicted NYC hipster with a killer job working for Badass Games, a Brooklyn-based shop whose latest bestseller, Pimps N’ Ho’s Volume V, is about to hit the store shelves. She even has the romance side covered, with a so-cozy-it-hurts relationship with gorgeous chef Wylie, complete with multiple nicknames (a little Doodleby McClintock, ladies?). But it turns out the path of love turns a wee bit crooked when Hazel is chosen to fly to L.A. to set up the big opening bash for Pimps N’ Ho’s, and she’s seated next to her all-time-favorite-OMG-crush, rock god Finn Schiller, during the disarmingly bumpy flight. “I was lilting over each booming crest as if I might capsize, but the elation of my ride with Finn got me past the fact that I was emotionally cheating on Wylie by suppressing every desire to dive across the armrest and rape Finn like those shameless Midwestern teens shrieking for the Jonas Brothers to deflower them,” Hazel admits. Surprising no one, Hazel and Finn connect on a, like, deeply emotional level, you know? And the whole quivering scene unfolds with tedious predictability.

Finn’s gloomy lyrics and all the “Oh, god, Hazel” moments in the world can’t help float this lead zeppelin.