Cherries in the Snow

by Emma Forrest

In Sadie's head, she's a novelist. In real life, she spends her day searching for the ultimate way to say red at Grrl, an ultra hip make-up company. In her sex life, she's a modern-day Lolita who's never dated a man under forty. Then Sadie falls in love with Marley, a graffiti artist with a firm commitment to another his eight-year-old daughter, Montana. Sadie isn't used to competing for a man's affections and certainly not with a little girl who is uncannily like herself. Real love could just be too grown up for her Cherries in the Snow is a novel about womanhood, love, and lipstick. Flippant, sexy, acid and smart, this is Emma Forrest at her most dazzling.

Genres: Fiction, Chick Lit, Contemporary

269 pages, Paperback

First published June 6, 2005

About the author

Emma Forrest is a British-American journalist, novelist and screenwriter. She currently resides in Los Angeles, CA.

Reviews

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Namedropper, Emma Forrest’s début, is one of those books I must have read twenty times in my late teens and at least five times since then. Cherries in the snow is different but similar, it’s hysterically funny and very very sad. Such a well written novel. The fact that I sometimes want to strangle the narrator and sometimes want to take her home and make her tea is a testament to this. And I now want to reread Namedropper and feel the same about Viva.

[Pandora · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't let the cover or title fool you into thinking this is chick lit. Chick lit heroines may bewail calories but they rarely talk about the orgasmic properties of bulimia and they certainly don't self-mutilate. If you've read her memoir 'Your Voice In My Head', you will certainly wonder how much of Sadie's story is biographical but that doesn't matter when you write with such a clever, self-deprecating hand. And what Gen X girl hasn't wanted to be 'the person who makes up the names for lipsticks'? It's all a bit theraputic and I've gone straight on to 'Thin Skin'.

[Mila · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really enjoyed the makeup naming bits. The rest was amusing, but not hugely. And what's with all the crying?

[anarcho · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s poetic, but has a lot of similarities with Your Voice in My Head.

[Mary Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Emma Forrest is a talented author with a very distinctive voice, and Cherries in the Snow may well be my favourite of her fictional works. Sadie works for her best friends cosmetics company, naming its products and trying to come up with her ‘cherries in the snow’ the iconic Revlon lipstick that she thinks is the most perfectly named cosmetic. She only dated men much older than herself until she meets Marley, an artist who is under 30 and has a young daughter.
The relationship that stuck with me the most upon finishing this book was not that of Sadie and Marley. I actually find Marley quite boring, and was surprised that Sadie fell so absolutely for him. It was the relationship between Sadie and Montana that made this book for me. I won’t say too much, but the funniest, cringiest and most poignant moments play out between the two- no Marley needed(as far as I am concerned!)

[Laurel · Rating 5 out of 5]

OK but it's kind of a rip-off that she never comes up with a lipstick name as good as CHERRIES IN THE SNOW. That's the whole point of the book! And she comes up with nothing!

But If you've read this book, you should know that WELCOME TO MONTANA* would be an incredible name and totally invokes an actual lipstick color! Think about it in yr mind then click here. I know! We picked the same one!

*For those who have not read the book, the hot dad love interest throws up a WELCOME TO MONTANA tag three stories large on a Brooklyn building the day his daughter Montana is born. Which is pretty crap in re: leaving his wife & newborn daughter to do something that courts mortal danger hours after his kid is born and is also just plain rude. But this is never discussed in the book.

[Karen Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sadie is a modern girl, a British Jewish New Yorker. She names make up products for a living but is in the process of wanting to write her novel.

I loved this book, it perfectly captures the excitement of youth, the indelibility of some friendships and the terrifying incredible feeling of true love.

I got to the end and just wanted to read it again

[Annabel Daguerre · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funny, joyous, super easy read. I love Emma Forrest!

[Shelly Rios Petrelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Made me laugh out loud, raw in both prose and theme, yet honest. I love this kind of writing. No inhibitions whatsoever. That is bravery......

[Julius Alexander · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this on the basis of a review and although I never usually read 'chick-lit' (for want of a better word) this was a light and fun read. Good holiday book.

[Whitney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cherries in the Snow is a name for a lipstick! The protagonist's favorite lipstick. Cosmetics and lipsticks. Waxy and glossy. Protagonist falls in love with a graffiti artist who has a bratty daughter named Montana, I think? And at some point the protagonist gets a UTI or yeast infection or something, and she makes her man take her to a doctor? My memory of this book has waned and distorted, but the fact that I have remembered at all must say something!

Moral of this book: CONSUME cosmetics! Buy buy buy!

[Yvonne O'Connor · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sadie Steinberg is a 24 year old English girl working in NYC at her friend's cosmetics company. Her job is to name all of the products. Sadie seems to always find herself with the wrong (older) men - until she meets 28 year old Marley. The, she finds out he has an 8 year old daughter. Sadie is forced to act like an adult if she wants things to work-out. And slowly, with tons of mini breakdowns and twists along the way, she realizes that she does and that Marley is her knight, in spray paint, and Montana, the kid, is pretty okay too.

This book was an easy read, but really a bit of a mess in terms of plot and character development. Sadies' whole fascination with older men made no sense since her dad was great and still married to her mom. Montana was a caricature - as was her mom. Most annoying was Sadie's constant crying and whining. I almost hoped that Marley would dump her and smack his kid into some semblance of normalcy.

When you are more interested in the makeup names than the story, it is over!

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I know, you might be asking yourself- You seem to hate Emma Forrest why do you read all her books? Well, it's because I like the premis of her, but her work is poorly executed. Her books all run together to me. I swore when she went to the plastic surgeon in L.A. I'd read that before and I can only guess that was in Name Dropper since I went though the books I've read in the past two years and hers is the only one that was a maybe. I'm appalled by how her characters act, and I can only assume this is her. She's the woman-child who is obsessed with her dad and older men. She's the little girl who never grew up and cries for really stupid reasons. I really hated Sadie for most of this book, mostly because she was so irrational. I have no idea what Marley or any of those other men could of seen in her, but if you ask me Marley isn't very good at picking partners.

I also must complain that I still don't have a solid description of her Grrrl coworkers, they are all muddled together.

I agree with the person who wrote that if her work can be published anyone can.

[X · Rating 5 out of 5]

2024 Notes: I think of scenes from this book whenever I put on lipstick, so almost daily. I recall it like a memory of something I've actually lived. It's still one of my favorite books that I've read. I think it's an insightful portrait of a young woman. I can still remember the detailed descriptions and odes to lipstick types and trends as well as makeup styles and tips. Bruce Springsteen, the scene with the leotard, the soft 4th wall detail of the main character writing a novel, the scene with the plum, the adolescent jealousy towards a toddler -- I liked the person this book was about, and what we learned from her. I didn't feel a sense of admiration, but definitely an understanding.

[Ema · Rating 3 out of 5]

This should really be higher than a three but it isn't really worth the four stars as the main character ended up being too immature for enjoyment and the plot and it's pacing to be near non existent.

However the prose and writing of the book itself was FABULOUS. with so many amazing one line observations that I could relate to so much. And with brilliant use of makeup metaphors to bring it back to the plot of the book.

As much as it is a 'chick lit' book it really isn't at all, as it's a very sad story. Not in the actions but in the emotions running under everything.

[Vandrion · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's been about a year since I read this book but it was hilarious! The main character is British and works creating titles for make-up colors. It is a little naughty, which is part of what makes it so hilarious. I will quote a friend of mine who was reading the book because I recommended it to her: "I'm going to lose half my virginity reading this book!"
So there you have it, go get it!

[blah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly I have forgotten what happens in the book. All I can remember is the protagonist has image issues(I think) and she’s also apart of a makeup line. I also remember feeling alot of secondhand embarrassment (which I hate because I already get embarrassed enough in the real world, I don’t want to have to read about it) and that’s about it.

[Beth · Rating 1 out of 5]

first of all this is total chick-lit which is not my thing... second of all it was HORRIBLE. it wandered on aimlessly and i kept reading because i figured it HAD to get better... but it didn't. i'm not kidding when i say that this is the ONLY book that i didn't bother finishing...it was THAT bad

[Jennifer Elliott · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book may not seem to have a definite plot, but you pull for the character to make it through her ordeals!

[Sherry]

This is a hilarious love story about a neurotic 23 year old girl who names make up for a living. I recommend this book to every young woman. It is entertaining, funny, and smart.

[Fiona Endsley · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a good story, but the heroine(s) was/were unlikable, so that it was not as good as it could have been. Very disappointing for a book named after one of my favorite lipsticks.

[Kristal · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved, loved, loved Emma Forrest's autobiography but I find her fiction grating. Her characters are kind of infuriating and there's just so much whining - SO MUCH. She's a lovely writer though.

[Nefti Eboni Bempong · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this but I was like 14 at the time. I tried to re-read it again and just nope.