If you're looking for an early beach read, you'll gobble up this story of a rich Southern girl making good in Manhattan, much as you would keep watching a car crash (or Showgirls), because although it's shockingly horrifying, you still can't look away. There are so many parallels between Southern Charm and socialite Tinsley Mortimer's actual life, for readers in the know, it will seem like she's not writing tongue-in-cheek so much as drawing directly upon her personal experience. The heroine, "Minty," has the same middle name as the author, and designs handbags just like the author. They're both Virginian debutantes who relocated to New York and they both own tiny yappy dogs (Mortimer dedicates the novel to hers).
The guilty pleasure of Southern Charm comes from the extent to which Mortimer's story is out of touch with reality, as a questionably reliable protagonist gets fame and fortune handed to her on a platter and doesn't give a second thought to planning a dream wedding (with $300,000 of her parents' money), only to cancel it. Country clubs and wasting scads of cash: welcome to Tinsley's--er, Minty's world.
You can't take Minty's tale seriously. Then again, are you supposed to? Southern Charm is adorably clueless and enjoyably easy to read--pure escapism at its finest. --Natalie Papailiou, author of blog MILF: Mother I'd Like to Friend