Hamptons Beach Read Of The Day: The Perfect Manhattan

We know we set the bar a little high with our first Beach Read selection. After all, you can't really select anything better, or more Hamptons-inspired, than The Great Gatsby, so we thought instead of feeling entirely defeated by our prior awesomeness, we'd bring you something a little lighter: The Perfect Manhattan by Leanne Shear and Tracey Toomey. Here's a book we can all relate to on some level or another, because it covers all the bases.

You have a recent Columbia grad (Cassie) as your lead character, who just wants to be a writer but is realizing it's harder and more expensive than she thought (I'm right there with you sister). So she turns to bartending, which leads her to the Hamptons, a trust fund boyfriend (James), the crazy world of Hamptons nightlife, polos, celebrities and a Lizzie Grubman reference or two. Just in case you thought it was a total Cinderella story for dear Cassie, the book also tells all about her share house experience (boys, boys everywhere and not a bed in sight), and dodging drugs and stealing tips as a bartender barely wearing anything while working in the top clubs the Hamptons has to offer. The author might drive that class division thing into the reader's head a bit much (ok, we get it, Cassie = poor. Her boyfriend = rich), but overall it's a good beach read and they drop more names of local Hampton hangs than they do of designers James' girl friends are sporting. And you'll probably even get a bartending trick or two out of it too.