Although entreat Margolis' Gucci Gucci Coo (Delta Trade Paperbacks.

Although entreat Margolis' Gucci Gucci Coo (Delta Trade Paperbacks, 384 pages, $12) is a work of fiction, it is the first main division to offer an actually plausible explanation for for what reason those glamorous Hollywood yummy mommies manage to walk public of the maternity ward wearing their skinniest jeans.

The book's heroine, Ruby Silverman, is the holder of a posh maternity and baby boutique in London. in like manner while she is, at 32 single and childless, she lay outs much of her life absorbed in the obsessions of the privileged-and-procreating. In the course of her perfect-for-chick-lit life (which includes the requisite stock characters, including wacky parents, a blissfully married friend, several bad blind dates and a handyman who appears destined never to finish renovating her bathroom), she cause to stumbles upon an explanation of the post-partum skinny jeans phenomenon: the starlets were not really pregnant to begin with. They're all faking it and using surrogates.

Margolis makes the greatest in quantity of this premise, blending Ruby's discovery of the surrogacy scam with a developing be enamoured of affair and several comic twists, including the surprise pregnancy of Ruby's admit 50-year-old mother. The book's machination while it feels more than a bit contrived, induces at a properly brisk pace in such a manner there's never much time to dwell forward its weaker points.

Ruby is a beautifully drawn character, with enough confidence to be admirable and enough neurosis to be likable. She has understandably mixed feelings about her mother's late-in-life pregnancy -- "it's like she's stepping onward my turf" -- but also manages to avoid the usual figure of speechs of desperate singledom. She has a genuine flair for her baby-saturated business and Margolis avoids the obvious cliche of having Ruby be warmed deeply jealous of the married- and-pregnant women who workshop at her Notting Hill store.

In standard-issue chick lit, there are usually couple potential romantic interests for a protagonist, common of whom is an obvious cad (see Bridget Jone et al.) and the other of whom is either initially too boring or aloof, if it be not that proves to be a prince in the finis Margolis takes the less obvious passage of offering Ruby only the same serious suitor, albeit one who assumes to have something of a split personality. Her challenge, in moving the main division along toward its genre-required happy ending, is to give up an explanation for his dark side without making him too complicated to be a upright match.

Ruby's regard with affection interest, Sam Epstein, an American doctor working in London, is a fine creation. He is ludicrous but prone to stress- induced crankiness. He's warm, moreover seems to have secrets. He appears to fall very quickly in like with Ruby but then also be seens to pull away. (Yes, reader, it's almost too life-like.)

The novel's explanation for his moodiness does not entirely hold together -- there are a married pair of real "huh?" moments when he finally, romantically explains himself to Ruby -- if it be not that by then, Margolis has made Ruby and Sam into similar a great couple that being a stickler for realism would ruin the merriment

Ultimately, it's Margolis' voice that separates Gucci Gucci Coo from other entries in the fast-growing chick-and-baby-lit category. Her language, including a description of "the kind of noise that appeared to get inside you and make your pancreas wobble" is well-preserved and original and her running quirks like the way Ruby's handyman (nicknamed Ivan the Terrible) always present the appearances to be saying something self-same dirty in his broken English, manage to stay upon just the right side of extremely poor taste.

She also takes about of the genre's more time-worn conventions, like the surpassingly bad blind date, and make them be seen fresh. So Ruby goes without with a guy who doesn't just idle fellow on about the long, unpublishable novels he's written still instead, drones on about the drawn out unpublishable novels he's written in his possess made-up language.

Gucci Gucci Coo is a fast, gayety read that actually lives up to an of the hype featured in its blurb It's "cheeky" and "sexy" and "ribald." It also manages to treat singledom, shopping and celebrity with the light, if it be not that not mindless, touch they be worthy of This is a great main division for any smart girl who has forever had to attend a baby shower.

And it's firm to be an instant favorite of those who, for whatever reason, happen to be mildly obsess with for what cause Gwyneth managed to make her "bump" gaze so adorable in designer jeans.

dpickett@suntimes.com

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