Party Favors by Nicole Sexton, Susan Johnston

From the Publisher

 Temple Sachet’s got style, smarts, and the party planning gene in her blood. Having grown up in New Orleans, surrounded by the pageantry of Mardi Gras, Temple learned a thing or two about how to turn a fantastic party into a money maker. It’s a skill that pays off big when her gala for the Missouri Opera turns into a Ray of Hope internship at the White House. Within weeks, Temple’s caught Potomac Fever—a hopeless, incurable addiction to D.C. for which there is only one cure: a nasty-tasting spoonful of disillusionment….

Temple rises quickly through the ranks of the Republican Party’s fundraising elite, navigating a treacherous community of lobbyists making deals for dollars, gossiping staffers, and child-like senators, to be appointed the highly coveted position of Finance Director for the Republican Senate Campaign Committee. Her every  waking moment is spent convincing the über-rich and ultra eccentric to hand over the cash money green and, in the process, she learns everyone’s secrets. Temple knows which senators can be manipulated by baked goods, which donors are most likely to pass out drunk at  dinners, which chiefs of staff are still “in the closet” and, unbelievably, which senators are actually good people, behaving with integrity even if no one is watching. She is envied, adored, respected, feared, and most of all needed as a fundraiser.

From the outside, Temple’s life looks like one fantastic party, but on the inside she’s tired of dating the wrong men and sleeping on the office floor. Her successes are measured in dollars, all of her status is derived from thepoliticians she knows personally, and all of her friendships stem from her career. But with her entire identity so wrapped up in D.C., can she walk away from it?

Party Favors gives a deliciously witty peek into the secretive world of political fundraising in D.C.  Written by a former Director of Finance for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the novel explores the very real truth that favor
means you owe, winning won’t save you, and, ultimately, you will be betrayed.

Publishers Weekly

With help from playwright Johnston and a handbag-full of chick lit clichés, former Republican fund-raiser Sexton offers a behind the scenes peek at the world of political fund-raising, as seen through the eyes of naïve but plucky Louisianan Temple Sachet. In D.C. as a White House intern, Temple's Southern charm and talent for throwing parties earn her job offers from the big wigs. As she climbs the career ladder, her beloved Yorkie, Goldie Hawn, forever at her side (in a Louis Vuitton Sac Chien), Temple gets a crash course in greed and dishonesty from the senators, staffers, lobbyists and donors who fight over money and influence. Blackberry abuzz, Temple works to rake in the cash, finding herself finance director for the Republican Senate campaign committee, charged with the task of raising $95 million (an effort Sexton herself led in 2004). Though she thrives on the power and status, Temple can't trust anyone, can't find a man (a straight man, at least) and wonders if all she's doing is funding hypocrisy. It's mildly charming Beltway chick lit. (July)

Kirkus Reviews

Chick lit scales Capitol Hill in this breathless first novel about a perky blonde fundraiser. Sexton has a Republican fundraising background; Johnston is a playwright. Temple Sachet, the blonde with the big boobs, has inherited her mother's Midas touch and Republican politics. She hates to leave her Louisiana hometown for St. Louis on her mother's remarriage, but the good news is that her stepfather Daddy Gil, a bank president, is just plain adorable. Once Temple gets the chance to intern in Washington., D.C., as a Ray of Hope, she catches Potomac Fever and never looks back. It doesn't matter that Temple is clueless about political issues (never discussed); she's phenomenal at massaging donors. We learn all about click lines, Direct Mail and Major Donors. She's only 29 when she becomes finance director for the Republican Senate Campaign Committee. The senators are mostly creeps, slobs or weirdos; one of them grabs her breasts out on the street. Temple does have one crisis of conscience ("I was raising all this money, but what was the point?"), but it's fleeting. A workaholic who also loves to party, Temple doesn't have much luck with men; most of the staffers on the Hill are gay. Her best friend is Goldie, a divine Yorkshire Terrier who rides in her purse. The authors provide incidents but no plot and no nuances. In Temple's telling, everything blurs: the struggle to reach financial targets, the senatorial rivalries, the heartbreak of Daddy Gil's death, the morale boost of hair extensions. If there's a climax, it's the moment she's stabbed in the back by one of her few human friends, but Temple handles it well: "Restraint coursed through my veins instead of blood." Goldie would haveconsoled her, but the dog has died, and her best prospect for a boyfriend, "an Asian JFK" who's an animal-rights activist, has been using her to network. It's time to leave the cesspool. There's nothing here to attract either chick-lit or Washington novel readers. Agent: Maura Teitelbaum/Abrams Artists Agency

Details from Seller

• ISBN: 1599214598
• Publisher: Lyons Press, The
• Pub. Date: July 2008
• Condition:

Comments from the Seller: SHIPS FAST! via UPS(AK/HI Priority Mail) within 24 hrs/ used sticker/some hilite

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