So Fashion Forward!

I was totally dead on my feet yesterday. No, it's not that I was working THAT hard, it's that I can't seem to sleep at night. Sometimes it works out ok. I work at home and I'm a night owl so I usually start my work day around 9:30 and will work even in the wee hours. Course I always have to read before I got to bed, even if it means falling asleep just a few pages in. 

I've been working in the office a bit lately and that means working a more normal schedule, i.e. waking up during the day like the living do. Unfortunately, one of the reasons working at home is working for me right now is that with my crazy sleep deprivation problems, I can catch up on sleep and still get all of my work done. Not so with regular office hours. Normally, between the hours of about 2am and 7am I will wake up at least 3 times. You try getting any decent sleep when you're coming completely awake that many times in the night! Can't happen unless you can sleep later than 7. 

Anyway, so that's why I've been a bit out of it and neglecting my blog. I'm sorry! So, dead on my feet yesterday, I got home and crashed on my bed with Deadly Beautiful by Sam Baker (no I didn't fall asleep, I managed to stay awake, but I literally fell/crashed into bed with the book!). I read until Project Runway was on and then realized just how appropriate the pairing was for the evening! Like a great red and a steak.

In Deadly Beautiful, which follows Baker's previous novel, Fashion Victim, journalist Annie Anderson has traded in her crack reporting and sleuthing skills for a nice calm job at a fashion magazine. Yeah, right - her boss is slightly more reasonable than the fashionista boss in Devil Wears Prada, though. Anyway, Annie's working fashion week in Bryant Park when her best friend Lou finds out that her half-sister has gone missing in Japan. Scarlett Ulrich, Lou's sister, was one of the world's most famous child models thanks to a little Maplethorpe photo that appeared on the cover of a hot rock album in the 80s. Lou has kept her family a secret from everyone, including Annie, but it's clear that as much as she tries to deny it, Lou feels a strong sense of responsibility towards her little sister. Lou calls on Annie to use her talents to discover what has happened to Lettie and hopefully track her down. The problem is that Scarlett's just one of a handful of girls who have gone missing in Tokyo of late, and two bodies have already been found. 

Baker draws on her own experience as a fashion journalist to take her readers on a thrilling ride from the runways of Bryant Park to the famed hostess clubs of Tokyo. Her novel is a revealing look at the not so pretty side of the fashion industry that is neatly wrapped up in a great mystery. Though this is technically a follow-up to Victim, it can be read all by its lonesome without any problem. Personally, though, I'm planning on getting myself a copy of Baker's debut so that I can read more about Annie.

Fun stuff, especially since I finished reading it during the commercial breaks in Project Runway!