Beautyland by Dana Kline Review!

 

“She is going to sell you something and you will buy it.”

 

It’s Fashion Week and Lower Manhattan churns with construction on the third anniversary of 9/11, as Emma O’Farrell Paige arrives at the federal courthouse to depose her former boss, the diabolical villain behind a counterfeit perfume ring.

With little more than tenacity and courage, Emma breaks free from her dysfunctional Midwest childhood and fights for her long-distance marriage to independent league baseball pitcher Ethan Paige, as she plays to win among world-class dealmakers in the trenches of the international beauty biz.

Under the guidance of mentor and boss Julian Petrenko, Emma masterminds the two-hundred-million-dollar fragrance deal with boy band sensation ‘UK Connection’. When the deal of the decade reveals the underbelly of the vaulted Beautyland, Emma is forced to examine herself as closely as she’s studied the beauty game.

In her twenty-five years in the beauty industry, Dana Kline has seen it all. From her first job in a mall working with some of the world’s most famous luxury beauty & fragrance brands to writing a book. Her emphasis on learning, from both success and failure, is what makes her journey such a rich fascinating one. A woman straight from the pages of the novel she created.

My  Thoughts

Beautyland by Dana Kline is one of those books that keep you wanting to read, right from the very first paragraph. “She is going to sell you something and you will buy it.” is so very true for Emma O’Farrell Paige, married to her hometown sweetheart Ethan Paige who is a baseball pitcher, they have both broken away from their Midwestern, dysfunctional family to pursue their careers.

This story of a woman pursuing her need for a career in the beauty industry takes her to various positions, working with characters that seem so real. She works her way up until she is working with Julian Petrenko. With him she takes on the two-hundred-million-dollar fragrance deal with boy band sensation 'UK Connection'. 

I know absolutely nothing about the beauty industry, but I felt myself rooting for Emma as she works her way up in the 'beauty' scene. Filled with likeable and not so likeable people, but Emma perseveres in her career and her marriage that with most people would be hard to do. She is faithful to herself and her marriage, a tough road but they make it in spite of the obstacles for both of them. An interesting road for anyone to take.  It is noticeable that the author knows the beauty industry inside out and it definitely shows in her writing. This book is a must read, for anyone interested in the beaty industry or to just read for the heck of it. I did and I am glad I did, not often that you can find a book that is so down to earth that you almost think you know Emma and Ethan.

I give this book 5 stars which I don't often do.

I received a copy of this amazing book for review purposes only.