Revenge Wears Prada: The Devil Returns by Lauren Weisberger

Title: Revenge Wears Prada:  The Devil Returns
Author: Lauren Weisberger

Read by: Megan Hilty
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Length: Approximately 13.5 hours (11 CDs)
Source: Simon & Schuster Review Copy – Thank-you!

I have enjoyed Lauren Weisberger’s novels in the past, and The Devil Wears Prada was a particular favorite of mine.  I was very excited to review Revenge Wears Prada and it kept me entertained on the road for a couple of conferences that I had to attend for work this past month.

Sadly, although I was entertained, I mostly wanted to wring Andy’s neck in much of the book.  It is ten years after Andy Sachs quite her job working for the demanding, eccentric, boss from hell, Miranda Priestly at Runway magazine.  Andy hit a low period after that in which her best friend moved away, boyfriend left her, and her parents split.  But she rebounded, found a new job, became best friends with her former nemesis, Emily, and met the man of her dreams, Max Harrison.  Max is not only handsome and from a famous media family, but as the new head of his media giant, he backs Andy and Emily’s dream to start a high end bridal magazine called The Plunge.  The novel starts as Andy and Max are about to have their own fairy-tale wedding.  When Andy finds out that things are not quite as she dreamed, she has an attack of nerves on her wedding day.  The novel flashes back to the period between the first novel and Andy’s wedding to fill in the details.  Real excitement doesn’t return until Andy and Emily are faced with an exciting offer from the devil herself, Miranda Priestly.

SPOILERS AHEAD

I loved finding out what exactly had gone on in Andy’s life, but Andy annoyed the heck out of me in this book.  When she found the letter from her future mother-in-law on her wedding day telling her son not to marry Andy and hinting that Max had run into an old girlfriend, Andy lets this almost destroy her marriage.  I wanted to smack Andy – newsflash; most mother-in-laws do not like their future daughter-in-laws.  Ask Max about his old girlfriend, don’t just assume the worst.  Even worse was that later on in the novel, Andy meets up with her old boyfriend Alex and has lunch with him AND DOESN’T TELL MAX.  Pot, meet kettle.

Max seems like a great guy until the end when he does something that was pretty despicable to Andy.  But I couldn’t help but think that the entire situation could have been avoided if Andy would have ever actually sat down and talked with Max and Emily about the sale of the magazine. Max and Emily should not have done what they did, but Andy’s avoidance of the issue for months drove me crazy.  The book hinted that Max was having financial problems, but that was never resolved.  Andy seems to note that Max is stressed out about something, but never bothers to actually talk to him about it.  Did Max help with the sale because it was going to be the end of he and Andy’s perfect lifestyle? 

I was also very sad for Clementine, Max and Andy’s daughter.  She was only a baby and adored both of her parents, and now was going to grow up in a broken home.  I can understand why Andy was upset certainly, but she had a large part of the blame herself.  I’ll admit that as a child of divorce myself, I was sad that Andy didn’t even try to work things out at all.  I’m only hoping that at some point Andy will grow up and take a hard look at herself in the mirror.  Andy seemed stuck in a victim roll that she created for herself.

SPOILER END

Overall, I enjoyed listening to the story even though Andy enraged me throughout the book.  The real highlights of the book were when Miranda Priestly arrived on the scene.  I wish there would have been more of her in the book.  I’m still not sure what the title refers too.  What Miranda out to exact revenge on Andy and Emily?  It didn’t appear that way.  I think I preferred this book as an audiobook to print book. 

Megan Hilty was an entertaining narrator and I think of her as the voice of Andy now.  I would definitely listen to her again.