The Gift Bag Chronicles — Hilary De Vries

On generating the perfect party in Hollywood:
If celebrities don't walk your red carpet, you don't exist.
If you don't make Page Six, you don't exist.
To get ten celebrities to show up, invite four hundred. And send a car.
Publicity is the only job you can do perfectly and still fail.
And the gift bag totally matters.

As the newly promoted head of event planning for one of L.A.'s top publicity firms, Alex Davidson spends her days making decisions of utmost importance: Grey Goose or Belvedere? MAC or Stila? Queen Latifah or Chloë Sevigny? And though her boyfriend, agency president Charles Evers, lives on the other coast, she could be doing worse. But leave it to her mother to point out the obvious: After one failed, childless marriage, Alex is the “career divorcée” and the antithesis of her sister, the perfect stay-at-home mom. And there's no spin in the world that can cover up the growing rift between Alex and Charles.

From dealing with outrageously self-important clients and holier-than-thou C-listers to trying to make sense of her growing attraction to a man who is not her boyfriend but her best friend, Alex feels as if she's about one Red Bull shy of a meltdown. With her professional future hanging in the balance, she has the biggest party of the season to pull off. And the real question is: Will the gift bags measure up?