Synopses & Reviews
When turbocharged Park Avenue mom Ivy Ames finds shes been downsized from her high-powered corporate job
and her marriage, she swiftly realizes that shes going to need a whole new way to support herself and her two private-school daughters. At first she does the obvious thing: she panics. Then she decides to put her years of marketing savvy to work and dreams up a brilliant new business - helping upscale New Yorkers get their little darlings into the most exclusive kindergartens in the city.
Ivy enters a parent-eat-parent world where the egos are directly proportional to their owners enormous incomes, peopled by her only-in-Manhattan clients, including:
- Lilith Radmore-Stein, a newspaper mogul who is willing risk her entire empire in a demented effort to get her son admitted to Harvard Day
- Omar Kutcher (Kutcher the Butcher), a cold-blooded mob boss who seeks Ivys counsel on whether to bump off or pay off the powers-that-be to get his little pistol into the citys best all-girls Catholic school
- Stu Needleman, Ivys most obnoxious client, who threatens to ruin her if she wont help his four-year-old unibrowed daughter cheat on her kindergarten entrance exam
- Willow Bliss and Tiny Herrera, the biracial lesbian parents of an adopted wheelchair-bound black child who is the triple crown of diversity that every school will covet
From the backstabbers of corporate America to the leading toddlers of Fifth Avenue, The Ivy Chronicles is more than an insiders look at this elite and utterly preposterous universe. It is also a tale of midlife reinvention and unexpected romance - for anyone who has ever lost what she holds dear and had to start over again.
Review
I laughed delightedly--but also with the wry laugh of a parent who had been there. (Elizabeth Buchan, author of Revenge of the Middle-aged Woman) The brilliant, witty, and ultimately soulful heroine is a perfect tour guide who will leave you laughing up your latte. (Jill Kargman, coauthor of The Right Address) Wicked and delightful...Comparisons to The Nanny Diaries are inevitable, but The Ivy Chronicles is much funnier and darker. (Katharine Weber, author of The Little Women) An entertaining peek into private schools from one whos been there. Fun to read! (Janice Kaplan, coauthor of The Botox Diaries) A delicious glimpse into the sinister world of kindergarten admissions. Prepare yourself for a shocking, funny, and outrageous read. (Amanda Filipacci, author of Vapor and Love Creeps) Hilarious, spirited, and wise. Karen Quinn brilliantly skewers the insanely competitive world of wealth we love to hate. (Leslie Schnur, author of The Dog Walker) I'm still laughing....This exotic journey into private-school mania is fascinating, surprising, a little scary and, in Quinn's hands, very funny. (Bonnie Marston, author of Sleeping with Schubert)
Review
“If you think you may be a neurotic parent, read this and feel sane.”
—Allison Pearson, author of I Don’t Know How She Does It
“Entertaining . . . Picks up where The Nanny Diaries left off.”
—The New York Post
“[A] ferociously funny tale.”
—Us Weekly
“Hilarious.”
—Child magazine
“Tales of Manhattan’s elite trying to get their tots into private schools is sure to make you smirk condescendingly . . . The Ivy Chronicles delivers.”
—Boston Herald
“The brilliant, witty, and ultimately soulful heroine is a perfect tour guide who will leave you laughing up your latté.”
—Jill Kargman, author of The Right Address and Wolves in Chic Clothing
“With humor and heart, Karen Quinn brilliantly skewers the insanely competitive world of wealth we love to hate. Readers will cheer for Ivy!”
—Leslie Schnur, author of The Dog Walker
Synopsis
When Ivy Ames, a high-powered Wall Street executive, comes home to find her unemployed husband in bed with the wife of the traitor who's just taken her job, she decides a drastic and swift change is in order, Now jobless, husbandless, apartmentless--and even a bit clueless--she must find a way to put her life back together and take care of herself and her two young daughters. Down on her luck and with surprisingly little money left, she opens a business consulting with parents of toddler-aged children who dream of attending New York City's most prestigious kindergartens. And oh, the misadventures that follow! From the self-important Stu who thinks his pampered kid is the next Einstein to the lesbian mothers raising a talented disabled African-American little boy they adopted ("the triple crown of diversity that every school would covet"), Ivy's clients run the gamut. Her efforts to start this new business, embark on two teetering romances, tend to her own children, and find a new way in the world makes for a hilarious, over-the-top read. What begins as a business move born of pure financial desperation turns into a woman's quest to reinvent herself, and in the process expose the unbelievably preposterous underbelly of Manhattan's elite private school admissions process ...for five year olds.
Synopsis
What begins as a business move born of pure financial desperation turns into a woman's quest to reinvent herself, and in the process expose the unbelievably preposterous underbelly of Manhattan's elite private school admissions process for five year olds.
Synopsis
When turbocharged Park Avenue mom Ivy Ames finds that she?s been downsized from her platinum-card corporate job and her marriage, she swiftly realizes that she?s going to need a whole new way to support herself and her two private-school daughters. So she dreams up a new business?helping upscale New Yorkers get their little darlings into the most exclusive kindergartens in the city. What begins as one woman?s bid to earn a living becomes an everywoman?s tale of midlife reinvention and unexpected romance, set in a looking-glass world where even tots have résumés.
?If you think you may be a neurotic parent, read this and feel sane.?
?Allison Pearson, author of I Don?t Know How She Does It
?Entertaining . . . Picks up where The Nanny Diaries left off.?
?The New York Post
?[A] ferociously funny tale.?
?Us Weekly
?Hilarious.?
?Child magazine
?Tales of Manhattan?s elite trying to get their tots into private schools is sure to make you smirk condescendingly . . . The Ivy Chronicles delivers.?
?Boston Herald
?The brilliant, witty, and ultimately soulful heroine is a perfect tour guide who will leave you laughing up your latté.?
?Jill Kargman, author of The Right Address and Wolves in Chic Clothing
?With humor and heart, Karen Quinn brilliantly skewers the insanely competitive world of wealth we love to hate. Readers will cheer for Ivy!?
?Leslie Schnur, author of The Dog Walker
About the Author
Author Karen Quinn knows whereof she speaks. After losing her own high- powered corporate job, she, like Ivy, started a business advising well-heeled Manhattanites on private-school admissions. Her hilarious take on this terminally privileged, over-the-top world where even tots carry résumés will have readers snorting with laughter through every delicious page.