Emily Ever After »

May Vanderbilt and Anne Dayton were hired at nearly the same time as editors for Broadway in New York. Fast friends, they bonded over their efforts to blend a love for the city with a life of faith. May holds a Master’s degree in Fiction from John Hopkins University and a B.A. in English from Baylor University. Anne Dayton is earning her M.A. in English Literature at New York University and has a B.A. in English from Princeton. Both live in Brooklyn.

A young woman heads to the city for her dream job as New York editor in this contemporary retelling of the story of Esther.

When Emily Hinton, a quirky and quick-witted Southern California girl, lands a job at the world-famous publishing house Morrow & Sons, she decides that she is moving to New York to find love and Louis Vuitton, no matter what her friends and family think.

Once in the city, however, Emily finds that in the highly secular world of a young Manhattanite, it’s anything but easy to balance her passion for New York’s glitz and glamour with her determination to live out her faith.

Eventually, the crisis comes to a head when Emily takes a stand for her faith, risking in the process her beloved job. Readers of CBA fiction, as well as general audience readers of contemporary women’s fiction like Bridget Jones’s Diary, will enjoy watching Emily trade in her Nikes for Prada in this funny and fabulous, modern retelling of the story of Esther.

School Library Journal

Adult/High School-Emily Hinton lived at home during her college years at San Diego State but longs to go to New York. Amazingly, her uncle knows an editor at a publishing firm there, and Emily gets a job. Her roommate is the "young, hip, professional" she purports to be but is also distant and controlling. Emily soon makes friends at work. However, other than Uncle Matthew, who runs a soup kitchen, she is not sure that there are any other Christians in New York. Then she meets a coworker, Bennett; he's handsome, Ivy League, professes to be a Christian, and keeps trying to get her into bed. When she goes home for Christmas, she runs into Jacob, an old boyfriend who looks very good, and is very interested. Back in New York, Bennett tries to go too far and she dumps him. Then an overambitious editor tries to "sell" a book that slams both religion and family life by leaving out that section when she presents it to staff. Emily objects and wins a promotion, but New York has lost its attraction. Frank, witty, and funny, this story succeeds in spite of its sometimes awkward reminders of Emily's Christian faith and upbringing.-Molly Connally, Chantilly Regional Library, VA Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.