Deirdre Shaw
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A thoughtful, well-written story about a young woman prevailing over a difficult past...wryly funny, refreshingly honest...Shaw writes convincingly, with insight and wisdom." - The Boston Globe    
 



"Raw, realistic...anyone who's ever had to deal with the death of a relationship (and isn't that pretty much everyone?) will appreciate Shaw's honest, vividly written take."  - People Magazine, (3 1/2 out of 4 stars) SAPCE
“A believable, honest and observant portrait of a woman who gets what she wants only after giving up what she thought she needed.” -- Kirkus Reviews

SAPCE
“Through Lacey Brennan, this novel's winsome heroine, Deirdre Shaw has written movingly about what it's like to be displaced--to be a New Yorker living in L.A. and for a time in Nebraska, to grow up the child of divorce... I'll never forget the novel's opening chapter.” -- Joshua Henkin, author of Matrimony
SAPCE

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Love Story’: When Deirdre Shaw was a Hollywood script coordinator and writer's assistant on TV dramas...she was advised to try writing her own scripts. But Shaw’s first love is novels, she said this week at a lunch in Manhattan hosted by her publisher, Random House, to preview Shaw's debut novel, Love or Something Like It, due in April. The story, set in Hollywood, follows a thirtysomething New York woman who moves west for a short-lived marriage. Shaw grew up in suburban New York, was a reporter at The Philadelphia Inquirer and moved west ‘for a relationship that didn't work out.’ But her novel is only loosely autobiographical, she says. ‘The fun was making up the characters, people you'd want to live with.
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— USA Today, Book Buzz, September 24, 2008

 

“Bright and promising...Shaw’s first novel unfolds easily, with well-crafted prose and vivid detail. A great young-in-L.A. novel.” -- Publishers Weekly, November 3, 2008

"Filled with humor and ridiculous moments...Shaw's first novel is an intriguing love story in which the heroine's task is to learn to know and love herself. The book has a palpable California setting, depicting an L.A. culture that shapes the work and experiences of those who live there in often unsettling ways."  - Library Journal

"The story's heroine, Lacey Brennan, is a charming and delightful character whose gentle humor and insight makes reading pure pleasure." - The Tampa Tribune

From the first celebrity-attended, social-climbing pool party, Deirdre Shaw's fresh prose and witty observations will have you hooked.” -- Katie Crouch, bestselling author of Girls in Trucks

"Piercingly insightful....Shaw's graceful prose and razor-sharp observations make this absorbing debut a true standout." -- Booklist
"Shaw’s piercingly insightful first novel depicts a woman in her thirties redefining her life. Lacey Brennan and her twin, Sean, were raised by their father, an opportunist whose next big deal is always about to close, after their mother leaves him to marry her high school sweetheart. Lacey’s escape is boarding school, while Sean runs away and cuts himself off from the family, save for sporadic contact with his sister. In her late twenties, Lacey meets Toby, a handsome stand-up comedian, and follows him from New York to Los Angeles. Toby’s new job as a TV writer proves to be a false start when his show is canceled, and he isn’t able or motivated to find another job. Toby and Lacey marry, but her new job as a writers’ assistant and his continued unemployment drive a wedge between the two. Unanchored, Lacey is forced to examine the career path she’s venturing down to determine if a life in L.A. is what she really wants. Shaw’s graceful prose and razor-sharp observations—at one point, Lacey observes her brother is “like a house burning down before our eyes”—make this absorbing debut a true standout. ” — Booklist

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If you read Deirdre Shaw’s ‘The Summertime Party’ without wanting to be friends with her, you need to find out what your heart’s made of.
— The NewPages, April 2004
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Deirdre Shaw’s ‘The Summertime Party’ is a bittersweet tale of social terror, Hollywood-style.
— Los Angeles City Beat, July 2004
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“Love or Something Like It reads like the long-awaited letter from that friend of yours who decamped to L.A. a decade ago: newsy, funny, sad, triumphant. It's a pleasure to settle in with Shaw's narrator, warm, unpretentious Lacey Brennan, as she struggles out of a painful starter marriage and into her own life.” -- Caitlin Macy, author of The Fundamentals of Play and the forthcoming Spoiled

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Deirdre Shaw’s gifts are enormous and Lacey’s story, at once
recognizable and wholly unique, is full of depth and heart.
Shaw’s writing is witty, wrenching, and beautiful. This novel is an
intimate portrait of a complex young woman, a stunning debut
from an immensely talented young writer. Love or Something Like It
is brilliant or something exactly like it!

— LISA GLATT, author of
A Girl Becomes a Comma Like That
and The Apple's Bruise

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