I can only dream, but its a nice dream indeed...

One Fifth Avenue is the only other book by Candace Bushnell that I have read in recent years. The only others I have read being the famous Sex and the City and Four Blondes, two of her earliest works.

SATC - the book, was funny and engaging and even though the series departed from the book soon after the first episode or two (it was only based on it after all), the series managed to stay within the same vein throughout its 6 years lifetime. So it is suffice to say that I loved that one for it brought me into the world now known as Chick Lit (however sexist that may seem, it is rather appropriately named).

At the time that I picked up the book, I have already not touched a book in that genre for some time, having got a little bored of how the stories seem to be one and the same. Since the days of SATC and the Shopaholic books, such books can now fill entire shelves in the bookstore and they are not always fantastic reads.

So I have learnt to stick to stories based in NYC or London if I ever pick one up (these cities adds an ounce of interest for me) so there was one day that I came across this book. As usual, I flipped through the sleeves for a hint of what's within and the high powered and wealthy world of Fifth Avenue, NYC sold the book for me.

As you can see, I'm partial to the city, but the real reason I'm partial to it is because reading stories about the wealthy in NYC transports me to another world in my active imagination. (hey, if I can't be in a real-life story, I could at least imagine myself in a book-life story). While a little sceptical at first, One Fifth manages to awe me and proves to be just as engaging as SATC was.

The book was written in such a way that it doesn't have a person(s) as the central character. The central character is a building, yes, the building is located at -- One, Fifth Avenue -- and what a building it is! She made the building sound like a very beautiful, old style block and everyone who's ever been in it never seems to want to move out. There was only one new family to the building during the course of the story and they only moved in because the previous occupant of their magnificent unit has passed on.

It has all the makings of a great love story, of bad eggs and things happening that serves them right, of a romantic history involving people and places and all of this set in the exclusive world of One Fifth Avenue.

The narrative weaves in and out of the lives of several families who are currently tenants in the building, their separate stories and where the stories intersect each other. There is a bit in there for you if you are looking for romance, a bit in there for you if you are feeling bitter about life, a bit in there for you if you have just overcame a problem or the whole lot if you are just looking for an adventure in New York City just like me.

A brilliant addition to my list of favourite fictional books about Manhattan's fashionable elite, (including Bergdorf Blondes and The Devil Wears Prada) and much more touching and much less catty and frivolous than Gossip Girl. (Is GG a book? Because if it is, I can't believe the standard stories/books for young people has stooped to...)