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Every day, celebrity gossip mags race to be the first to report on the latest celebrity scandal: who’s seeing whom, who’s dumping whom, who’s heading to rehab, who’s heading to court. To do so, they often use methods that might even impress the CIA. But author (and Cosmo editor-in-chief) Kate White’s celebrity crime reporter, Bailey Weggins, is one of the lucky ones: the biggest scoops simply seem to fall at her feet—even when she’s on vacation.
In So Pretty It Hurts, Bailey joins her friend and Buzz colleague, Jessie, for a winter weekend getaway at music producer Scott Cohen’s house in the country. The weekend’s guest of honor is supermodel Devon Barr, who’s been working with Scott on her first album. She’s invited her entourage of bookers and agents—and even her rock star ex-boyfriend and his new girlfriend—to preview the album, so it sounds like it’ll be a fun and exciting weekend away.
But while the weekend is definitely exciting, it doesn’t turn out to be a whole lot of fun. The laid-back atmosphere soon gives way to bitterness and backstabbing as a blizzard threatens to trap the houseguests inside. So when Devon is found dead in her room, Bailey suspects foul play—and she sets out to discover which of her fellow houseguests hated Devon enough to kill her.
Like White’s other Bailey Weggins mysteries, So Pretty It Hurts has all the elements of a good celebrity gossip magazine: supermodels, rock stars, rumors of things like infidelity, pregnancy, and eating disorders—and, of course, murder. It’s spicy and scandalous, and it’s absolutely nothing like the real world that most of us live in—which, of course, is exactly what makes it such an entertaining escape.
Still, while the story may be loaded with fictional celebrity scandal, the setting is straight out of an Agatha Christie novel: a secluded country house in the middle of a snowstorm. With the snow falling outside—and a possible killer loose in the house—it has the perfect setting for a good, old-fashioned mystery. Even after the snow is cleared and the houseguests return home to their fabulous lives in the Big Apple, the limited pool of suspects allows Bailey to investigate the motives and private lives of each well-developed character in fascinating detail—which, in turn, allows readers to do some investigating and speculating of their own.
Deliciously juicy and written with a light and witty touch, So Pretty It Hurts sets out simply to entertain its readers—and it does the job well. Much like anyone who enjoys perusing the pages of the weekly tabloids, White’s readers will like taking a peek inside the lives of the fictional rich and famous. The lies, the rivalries, and the overall cattiness make it a gossipy guilty pleasure—and, when you finish reading, you’re sure to be thankful for the relative monotony of your own life.
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