I gave this book 4 stars for several reasons. The book is worthy of 5 stars as far as the storyline is concerned, but the way it is written makes it live up to only 4. Lipstick Jungle was a bit hard to follow due to the fact that per chapter, Bushnell jumps from character to charter. Just as you're finally getting into one character, she cuts that one off until the next chapter and picks up where she left off with another character. This was a bit difficult to follow because I found myself confused and questioning, "Wait, who is Victory again, what does she do?" This lasted all the way through the book. Each character is complex and well created, but when you've got 3 to follow, this becomes a confusing mess when you haven't read anything about said character for 20 pages and now you're facinated with the current character and what's happening in their life. Apart from that, I hate chapters that are 25 pages long.
On the plus side of things, Bushnell is talented and knows how to write about the powerful, successful women in the New York district. I would have liked more details about the city, but she gives enough to allow your mind to invision the scenes... just enough, though, not a drop more. I'm a very detail oriented reader/writer, so when someone say "it was a busy day in New York..." and nothing more, I'd like to know HOW it was busy... was there a concert of taxi horns sounding off in unreheased intervals?, were the New Yorkers plowing into each other in their hustle to get to their destinations?, etc.
The book is worthy of reading, but you'll find yourself exhaugsted from the jump just trying to keep the characters from molding into one another.