by Anne Tolstoi Wallach
Despite the Tolstoi in her name, Wallach isn't descended from the great Russian novelist, but then this book isn't up to Princess Daisy standards, let alone Anna Karenina. The author is creative supervisor of Grey Advertising in New York, though if advertising is as cutthroat a business as this novel indicates, it's impossible to believe anyone would spend 15 minutes working at it. Wallach's characters are that special breed that inhabits gushing pop novels written with one eye on the best-seller lists and the other on paperback contracts. (This first novel has already brought $850,000 for hardback and paperback rights.) The heroine, an advertising executive named Domina, is power-mad. But since she's gorgeous and wears tight jeans and streetwalker shoes, the men at her agency won't let her sit on their board of directors. The plot is shamelessly padded by fashion chat, details of room decor and characters named Maran, Roe, M.J., Lolly and Harrell. Yes, there are sex scenes—for $850,000 you were expecting mah-jongg? Unlike other recent novels with ultra-liberated heroines, this one has a senseless, romantic ending. (New American Library, $13.95)
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