Leslie Carroll

Overview

High school drama teacher Kathryn Lamb enrolls with Six in the City a Manhattan matchmaking service owned by a colorfully eccentric neighbor, Rushie Hart. Yet when she arrives at their offices to record her on-camera profile, she’s surprised to find someone else in charge of the agency. Her new matchmaker is the tall, blond, and hunky Walker “Bear” Hart, who is temporarily filling in because Rushie has fixed herself up with yet another of her own clients and jetted off on a honeymoon.

Kathryn’s seeking her own “happily-ever-after.” Having had so many stepfathers, the cynical Walker doesn’t believe in fairy tale endings; but after meeting his vivacious new client, he begins to change his mind, despite the fact that he’s contractually obligated to fix her up with Mr. Right. Although Kathryn becomes equally enchanted by Walker, she wants nothing to do with him romantically, aware that he suffers from a terminal fear of commitment. Not only that, she’s paid him to find her a husband; and mixing business with pleasure is an invariably lethal recipe.

When a leak in Rushie’s penthouse renders the apartment temporarily uninhabitable, Walker convinces Kathryn to take him in. She agrees-but only as a platonic roommate, while she continues to enjoy her dates from Six and the City’s roster of eligible bachelors. Although each of Kathryn’s hilarious match-ups begins with promise, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep her mind off her handsome, if klutzy, new roommate. And can Walker overcome his allergy to matrimony and allow himself to realize that happiness is right under his nose?

Overview

Copywriter Liz Pemberley is approaching burnout, so what has she got to lose by agreeing to air her romantic dirty linen on Bad Date, America’s hottest reality TV show, especially with a million dollar jackpot at stake? Her two roommates, Jem-a college professor; and Nell, a trust fund baby-decide to audition as well, figuring it’ll be a hoot if they all were to be cast on the show.

But Liz soon discovers that the competition may be too hot to handle -on several levels-when she meets co-contestant Jack Rafferty, a handsome Miami restaurateur. How can Jack and Liz play the mating game while appearing on Bad Date, when a no-fraternization clause in their TV contract means courting another contestant means courting catastrophic scandal?

Overview

Meet Alice Finnegan: thirty-something, single, and stuck in a cycle of horrific secretarial temp jobs, while struggling to fulfill her childhood ambitions of stardom and sharing an apartment with her ninety-something grandmother, a feisty, funny, former Ziegfeld showgirl.

Along the rocky road to independence Alice encounters a colorful cast of oddballs, nuts, and control freaks (including members of her immediate family), succumbing to the pitfalls of office romances and the perils of outshining her bosses as she endeavors to keep her sanity intact.

Often hilarious, yet also poignant and touching, Temporary Insanity is another madcap New York adventure by the author of Miss Match and Reality Check.

Overview

What do you do when you discover that your six-year-old daughter has a better social life than you do? That’s precisely the predicament of Claire Marsh, twenty-something, newly-divorced, and desperate to get out of the house. Lately, she’s felt like little more than the chef and chauffeur for her wildly popular, peripatetic (and insanely over-scheduled) daughter Zoë, shuttling her to ballet lessons, bikram yoga, birthday parties, and—of course—numerous play dates, but she can’t find a minute for a “play date” of her own!

Claire hasn’t been having much fun lately. First, her husband left her for an olderwoman; and now she’s compelled to face life’s little vicissitudes without a soft place to fall, learning how to manage her own money, juggle a job, unclog the toilet, and raise Zoë alone.

The slings and arrows of Claire’s outrageous fortune sting even more sharply when Zoë begins to prefer the company of her fun-loving Aunt Mia (“MiMi”), Claire’s older sister, a bohemian makeup artist who is about to turn thirty and thus far has managed to avoid needing to take responsibility for anything.

In an inventive narrative style that tells the story through the first-person POVs of each of the three related protagonists, PLAY DATES unfolds over the course of a single year in their lives, from Zoë’s entering the second grade in September through her “graduation” the following June. As the months progress, all three heroines experience their own kind of growing pains and, by the following summer, they’ve each taken an unforgettable journey.

Amid laughter and tears, Claire-terrified of being a single parent-learns to lighten up and loosen up, and finds the special kind of “happily ever after” that comes from true self-fulfillment. She even has the opportunity to grab a second chance at love. The free-spirited Mia discovers that, contrary to Kander and Ebb, life is not, actually, a cabaret. Turning thirty, she embraces a series of newfound responsibilities and deliciously surprising discoveries with her unique brand of zaniness and charm . . . and, well, through all the ballet recitals, book reports, yoga classes, birthday parties for classmates whose parents have more money than God, a teacher who seems to have it in for her, a mom who seems to be undergoing some sort of life crisis, and ugh-the horror of being the only girl your age who still wears an Ariel swimsuit, Zoë survives second grade and develops an unforgettable bond with her mother.

A US Weekly magazine “hot book pick”; also featured in the February 2005 issue ofChild magazine. Fans of The Nanny Diaries and Le Divorce will want to make a play date with Play Dates right away!

Overview

Through her unconventional psychotherapy sessions, Susan Lederer is probably the only woman in New York who can put a positive spin on the concept of shrinking in a laundry room. Amid the washers and dryers, she counsels her fellow tenants through numerous emotional crises, successfully helping them take the steps toward realizing their greatest potential, and even finding romance.

Among her clients are the crusty but elegant widow Faith; the aloof ballerina Talia; Meriel, the West Indian housekeeper for the building’s most obnoxious yuppie couple; Amy, a totally frazzled new mom; chic club owners Claude and Naomi, who more than anything else want to get married and adopt a Chinese baby; Gia, the gypsy superintendent’s tarot-reading wife; and spunky, loveable Alice Finnegan (the heroine of Carroll’s TEMPORARY INSANITY), who, thanks to Susan, is getting on with her life after a major emotional upheaval.

But like Austen’s Emma, Susan can’t seem to apply her do-gooder advice to herself. Beneath the upbeat veneer, her own life is a total mess. Her troublesome teenage daughter becomes even more so by the day; and her perfect husband may be far less fabulous than he appears. She could really use a good therapist!

When her comfortable world collapses and her own dirty linen is exposed, Susan’s loyal clients rally around to supply the sympathy and support she’s offered them for so long. By the final spin, when every one of the women is about to embark on a new life cycle, Susan learns that while it may not take a whole village, sometimes it does take a laundry room!

Overview

The author of Play Dates tackles the classic conversational taboos-sex, politics, religion, and the merits of Star Trek-in a delicious new novel full of New York wit and Irish charm.

Who says forty isn’t fabulous?

Tessa Craig thinks she’s finally got it all-or most of it, anyway: a glamorous job as a political speechwriter, a glamorous Manhattan duplex, and a glamorous boyfriend, Congressman David Weyburn, whose populist views, integrity, charisma-and looks-have made him his party’s rising star. But when scandal strikes, her seemingly happy love life and her successful career collapse like a house of cards. Tessa’s subsequent search for self-discovery and renewed fulfillment takes her on a magical journey, leading her into unimagined directions. She makes new friends, unexpectedly adopts a new family, discovers unanticipated love . . . and most importantly . . . makes that uphill climb over the rainbow to find the ultimate pot of gold: HERSELF.

Overview

In the game of life, sometimes you get a “do-over.”

Former Vegas dancer Venus deMarley has just been hit with a wild pitch. She’s forty years old and has finally found the perfect fiancé, when Sophie, the daughter she gave up for adoption twenty years ago, suddenly reappears.

Venus has another crisis on her hands as well: her eccentric millionaire dad just died and willed her his pet project-a rag-tag minor league baseball team called the Bronx Cheers-if Venus and Sophie can “close the circle” by reconciling. Venus knows diddly about sports. Unlike her glamorous mom, Sophie’s a jock, a poster girl for Title IX. And after two decades apart, they know nothing about each other, and rarely agree on anything.

But maybe-just maybe-a colorful bunch of misfit, egotistic ball players can bring them together.