THE STYLIST TAKES MANHATTAN

Plucky British stylist Amber Green takes her talents to Manhattan, where her drive to gain Instagram followers lands her in hot water.

Fashionistas will delight in Nixon’s sophomore novel, a sequel to The Stylist (2018), picking up Amber’s story nine months later. Now rid of the eccentric, alcoholic Mona Armstrong, the stylist to the stars who set Amber on the map, Amber is happily dressing windows at the prestigious London department store Selfridges’ and snuggling up with her boyfriend, Rob, a documentary film director. When Rob gets a chance to work on Angel Wings, an American reality series charting the daily lives of lingerie supermodels, Amber is relieved to be asked to go with him—she understandably sees a flock of gorgeous, scantily clad women as a threat to their fledgling love affair. Once in Manhattan, however, Amber realizes she can't get a paying job without a visa, so she sets about retooling her social media presence. Within days she’s gained thousands of followers, but they may be following her for all the wrong reasons, since her first posts inadvertently shamed a prominent, balding fashion mogul and connected Amber to an alleged Nazi sympathizer. And when the stylist on Rob’s series walks out Amber finds herself in competition with an angry Mona for the gig. A master of slapstick comedy, Nixon keeps the pace fast and the tone bubbly. From celebrities who don’t actually like clothing to a clandestine fake-designer-bag scheme, the crises in each chapter ratchet up the tension between some disastrous, alcohol-fueled decisions and Amber’s talent in seizing the unlikeliest opportunities to advance her career. Nixon deftly crafts a Cinderella story for the millennial age in which our heroine finds not only her prince, but also her true friends.

Glossy and teeming with influencers and fashionistas, this is a charming novel.