Entertainment lawyer Alex Hirsh accompanied by his wife Alice and their daughter five year old Gabby, relocate from New York to the San Fernando Valley. Alex lands a high maintenance client box-office queen Rose Maris. However, he also begins to change going to a gym to work out helped by a trainer and turning to Armani.

Soon he begins to work late hours becomes a tabloid favorite for his late nights with Rose Maris. Being a native New Yorker, Alice, once her tear ducts go desert dry, is not one to back down from a confrontation even in wonderland. However, she starts wondering if she wants Alex, who now goes by the name Xander back, as two eccentric female neighbors encourage her to after two hunks she finds interesting.

PIECES OF HAPPILY EVER AFTER is a well written drama that is saved from the stereotype cabinet by Alice who's refreshing with her New York shtick of disparaging (must have been a Brooklyn Dodger fan in a past life) of everything SO CAL. She and her new BFFs (the profanity queen and the retired porn star) bring humorous withering condemnations of Southern California especially men who think with their lower head like Xander. Yet surprisingly the strength of the novel rests with the mother and daughter relationship as Irene Zutell provides a strong family tale.

Harriet Klausner