Fake Plastic Love

A Novel

By: Kimberley Tait

Narrated by: Khristine Hvam

Length: 13 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

“Prepare yourself for a daring, unsparing takedown of millennial Manhattan, trick by glossy trick.” —Beatriz Williams

We are a bifurcated generation, the Romantics versus the Realists: those who prefer transistor radios to Bose sound systems, scuffed ocean liner trunks to gleaming Rimowa hard shells, fountain pens to BlackBerry keyboards, restored old roadsters to eco-friendly hybrids, the unsmudgeable guarantee of old illusions to present-life ones, tinny and certain to disappoint.

When M. meets Belle at Dartmouth, they become the unlikeliest best friends. Belle is an unapologetic Romantic famous on campus for her bright red accessories and hundred-watt smile, while M. is a tomboyish Realist who insists she’ll always prefer her signet ring to any diamond. Despite their differences, they are drawn together, and after graduation they both move to New York with all the unfounded confidence of twenty-two. M. secures a job at the city’s most prestigious investment bank, and Belle turns her nostalgic aesthetic into one of the first lifestyle blogs, which quickly goes viral. Their future is spread before them, a glittering tableau of vintage cocktails, password-guarded parties, and high-octane ambition. But as they are pulled deeper into their new lives, and into the charming orbit of their Gatsby-esque new friend, Jeremy, style and substance—and dreams and reality—increasingly blur. In this fake plastic world, what do success and love and happiness even look like?

Dazzling, whimsical, and full of yearning, Fake Plastic Love is the transporting story of bright young things tested by the unsentimental realities of post-graduate life. Tipping its hat to F. Scott Fitzgerald, Kimberley Tait’s gorgeous, incisive debut is a portrait of millennial Manhattan—equal parts nostalgia and modernity—that explores the timeless question: You will be a grand total of what you spend your time doing, so what do you want to add up to?

©2017 Kimberley Tait (P)2017 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

New York Post Best Books of Summer
amNewYork Summer Beach Reads

“Fake Plastic Love dives into the depths of the digital age and the cost of a healthy work/life balance…The book encourages readers to step away from the screen in order to invest in the lives of those living and breathing around them.” —Associated Press

“Kimberley Tait presents a truly charming story in the manner of F. Scott Fitzgerald, balancing that essential line between light and complex…Tait writes with such deftness and clarity…and balances this with a writing style that delightfully dances off the page – like a perfect glass of champagne.” —The New Potato

“With lively, illustrative tones reminiscent of yesterday’s writers, Kimberley Tait captures the pain and beauty of post-college life as her colorful, ambitious 20-something characters test their terrifying new adulthood and find their place in today’s world. This book is dreamy, factual, sad, and funny. It’s a dose of unsweetened cranberry juice, a reminder of the world’s conflicting, beautiful, and heartbreaking messages.” —Maureen Sherry, author of Opening Belle

Loved it!

Kimberly Tait's writing was so beautiful! The characters and the story really came alive. I've recommended it to friends!

A Wistful, Effervescent Toast to "Being True"...

What made the experience of listening to Fake Plastic Love the most enjoyable?

What a charming and utterly delightful story! Kimberley Tait (as read by Khristine Hvam) captivated me from the start with her artfully polished and elegant storytelling that harkens to a bygone era and catapults it forward into a modern-day setting. Her words sparkled into a vibrant, celebratory toast to individual ideals and truths too often muddled or masked by the blares and blasts of a 24/7 digital world. I found the writing to be heartfelt and earnest, almost as if the spirited beauty, strength and wit of Katharine Hepburn could be converted into words on paper. As the story unfolded, I found hints of my own twentysomething self in her characters, and I found myself wanting to pour myself a Pink Gin cocktail from Belle’s bamboo bar cart, rewind time and recapture some of the untarnished brilliance and innocence of youth skipping and winding through college lawns and the streets of New York that the author depicts so well. “From that loftiest perch the city’s grid really was remarkable–with streets and lives and loves lost and found linking together and laid out as a network of silver piping.” (I must also applaud the clever and astute observations of often-baffling Corporate America from a female perspective that are oh so amusingly threaded into the storyline!) Throughout the story, I found myself wistfully lost in the dreaminess of the song-like qualities of the writing and the characters themselves--so much so that when I reached the final pages of the final chapter, I experienced the similarly heart-shattering pang of emotion I feel the night before the last day of a perfect vacation--I didn’t want it to end. Cheers to a “glad-eyed” future and that it will be topped off with more “pretty” from the talented Kimberley Tait!

What other book might you compare Fake Plastic Love to and why?

Kimberley Tait seems very much inspired by the writing of F. Scott Fitzgerald -- a modern-day "The Great Gatsby" with a twist of millennial and female lead.

Which character – as performed by Khristine Hvam – was your favorite?

I felt Khristine seamlessly captured the lead character's (M., the narrator) authenticity with perfection. I believed I was listening to M. read her own memoir aloud.

If you could take any character from Fake Plastic Love out to dinner, who would it be and why?

I would go to the real-life equivalent of "The Vanderbilt Club" with M., the narrator, and order her signature favorites off the menu from Theo at the Main Bar. We would sit and share laughs and observations from our work-week, riddled with all of the amusing ridiculousness of Corporate Culture "norms." From there, we would Uber to Chumley's or another one of the selective haunts quietly tucked away in the city (as described in the book) to continue chatting about life and love and what life's cards hold for us next. I feel like M. could be one of my very best and most trusted, reliable friends.

Any additional comments?

Imaginative, vivid character development joined with vibrant setting placement...I felt like I was strolling through the grid that is Manhattan, the campus greens of Dartmouth and the slick cobblestoned streets of London with people I know well. The perfect Audible book!

Well written story that didn’t need to be written

The author clearly spent a lot of time with her word choice and descriptions included in this story. Too bad she didn’t take more time on the plot. Nothing original in this story at all. Full of cliches and predictable story lines.