Bathing and the Single Girl

by Christine Elise McCarthy

The life of an actress in LA isn’t all glamour, money, and bedding rock stars.

Sometimes it’s more about humiliation, red wine hangovers, and the bad decisions they fuel. Ruby Fitzgerald has barely worked in years, not that anyone remembers her for anything but her short stint on a long-canceled but iconic TV show. But that was back when her career prospects seemed on the upswing -- longer ago than Ruby cares to admit -- and awkward sex with regrettable partners is doing nothing to take the edge off. Everything once functional in her house is going on strike, but the unemployment checks barely cover the mortgage, and a self-respecting girl needs to be able to pay her bar tab -- so repairs are on hold. One more bubble bath and a few more cocktails. A gal can always get responsible tomorrow.

With everything mounting against her, a cranky and increasingly despairing Ruby will have to find out if her life’s larger indignities are the result of bad luck, or a chronically bad attitude. What follows is a walking tour of the hilarious depths you can sink to if you stop exercising your best judgment.

Genres: Fiction

374 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 26, 2014

About the author

Christine Elise McCarthy has been acting professionally for 25 years and is recognized primarily for her roles as U4EA-popping bad girl, Emily Valentine, on Beverly Hills, 90210, as Harper Tracy on ER, and as Kyle, the gal who killed Chucky in Child’s Play 2. She has also appeared in recurring roles on China Beach, In the Heat of the Night, and Tell Me You Love Me. Among her other film roles are Abel Ferrara’s Body Snatchers and two films starring Viggo Mortensen: Vanishing Point and Boiling Point.
As a writer, she has written three episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210 as well as characters and storylines for the series, a pilot that was optioned by Aaron Spelling, and comical true-life essays that she performed at the Upright Citizens Brigade and Naked Angels theaters in LA. She maintains an irreverent food porn blog called www.DelightfulDeliciousDelovely.com for which she provides recipes, photographs and sometimes shares details of the triumphs and, more frequently, the humiliations of her own life. She has a great passion for photography (www.MyPinUpArt.com) and has shown her pin-up and decaying Americana imagery in the United States & Paris. She has been on the selection committee of Michigan’s Waterfront Film Festival since its inception in 1999, she is co-director of the Victoria Texas Independent Film Festival, programs for the Self-Medicated Film Festival and The Lady Filmmakers Film Festival, and consults & judges for many others. Her directorial debut, Bathing & the Single Girl, was accepted into over 100 film festivals and won 20 awards.
Bathing & the Single Girl, inspired by the short film, is her debut novel.

www.BathingandtheSingleGirlBook.com


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Reviews

[ᒪᗴᗩᕼ · Rating 4 out of 5]

The lifelong struggle of a virtually unknown actress...hitting rock bottom and coming full circle

Book Title: Bathing & Single Girl
Author: Christine Elise McCarthy
Series: Stand Alone
Genre: Chic-Lit, Humorous
Source: Kindle E-Book (Library)

☆My Pick for Book Theme Song: Work Bitch by Britney Spears --this chic just needs a job.

Ratings Breakdown

Plot: 3.5/5
Characters: 3.8/5
The Feels: 3.5/5
Theme: 4.2/5
Flow: 3/5
Backdrop (World Building): 4/5
Originality: 4/5
Book Cover: 4/5
Ending: 5/5 Cliffhanger: No, Stand Alone

Will I read more from this Author???

Overall Rating: 3.7/5 STARS

My Thoughts

I almost dnf'd this a couple of different times. It really seemed to lack substance and a clear picture of where it was going, and it stayed that way until the last quarter of the book, maybe less. I only kept going because it was hilarious, seriously funny. I also didn't want to let Emily Valentine down, she always got screwed over (It's a 90210 thing --the OG version).

Yeah, so this is by the chic that played Emily Valentine in 90210, Christine Elise McCarthy. It's an opinionated and humorous depiction of her life, maybe, with some alterations; I'm not sure. If you’re a staunch republican or a born-again Christian; you probably will not like this. Overall, the ending is what saved this, because she gets her wake up call and finally, seriously finally, gets her act together. There are some situations in this book, where I seriously thought…TMI…way too much information. She really wasn't afraid to go there…like anywhere.

Sex Factor: Yes, all of them are rather uncomfortable…not necessarily badly written…just weird and kind of gross. She also has an unhealthy obsession with getting guys into a bathtub with her.

[Cindy Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great, fun, laugh out loud read. I really enjoyed it!!

[Star · Rating 5 out of 5]

BATHING & THE SINGLE GIRL stars Ruby, a down-on-her-luck actress with bad taste in men and a non-existent bank account. Somehow she manages to make things work…for a while. As Ruby searches for Mr. Right and the next role, she does a bit of soul searching. BATHING & THE SINGLE GIRL is irreverently hilarious and poignant. As Ruby goes to audition after audition, dates Mr. Wrong after Mr. Wrong, and her house is breaking down around her she still thinks the next big thing is around the corner. Until so much goes wrong she can’t help by stare the truth in the face. Even though she’s a strong woman, loyal friend, and very intelligent, Ruby does her best to stick her head in the sand. Witnessing Ruby’s bad (yet outrageously funny) decisions and her journey to reclaim success, you’ll laugh, cry, and cringe right along with her. I definitely laughed out loud (which got me strange looks) and felt for Ruby as she went through all her trials and tribulations. BATHING & THE SINGLE GIRL packs a powerful punch and many laughs.

[Cheryl Van Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not gonna lie - I read this book because an old friend is the author. I was worried. "What if I don't like it? I can't give a false review - but if I don't like it, I don't want to wreck her ratings." At first, I found it tough to get into. That made my fear worse. "Oh God - what if..."

Then, she found her groove and HOLY SHIT this is some WAY funny, SUPER brave stuff. Irreverent, inappropriate, piss your pants, snort your wine out your nose (yes, I did) funny stuff!! Intelligent without being snotty. And it gives life to SO many experiences we, as women of ANY age, have had to deal with and emotionally digest.

I'm so proud of you Christine - GREAT job!! I hope this blows up the charts!!

[Wendy Grant · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must read! This book is whitty, hysterical, and will most likely give you many "OMG, I can totally relate" moments. A few parts seemed a little unbelievable but overall I really enjoyed it and it was such an easy, don't need to think much kind of read too.

[Daria Zeoli]

I could perhaps overlook the lack of contractions in dialogue that made the main character’s conversations sound unnatural. I could even deal with the fact that Ruby Fitzgerald is so darned unlikeable.

But the colloquial use of the word “retarded” that occurs pretty frequently? And this line?

Oh God, I thought as I curled my fingers around his mini gherkin. I felt like a pedophile.

Nope. I’m out.

[Carriemcook · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. It was witty, charming and there was an emotional arc. The main character was so self aware that it made me wish she was one of my best friends. If you want a fun read pick this up!

[Jenny · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ugh. Full disclosure: I only got about a third of the way through this book. I'm not a big fan of giving up on books, because I always wonder if the VERY NEXT PAGE is where it will all turn around. I read enough of this book to be confident that there is no turning around. Bad.

[Candace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read! Absolutely hilarious! Can't wait for her next book!

[Terri Rowe · Rating 5 out of 5]

After seeing the short film a few years back-I have eagerly anticipated this book-and it is well worth the anticipation!

[Jason Squire Squire Flück · Rating 4 out of 5]

Raunchy, wildly revealing, and loaded with female arcanum, I’m relatively sure I blushed multiple times while reading Bathing & The Single Girl. Based on her one woman short film of the same name, Christine Elise McCarthy provides a painfully hilarious inside look at dating in the Hollywood trenches while trying to eke out a living in The Business. Ruby Fitzgerald considers herself a professional actor. She’s never done anything else in her life. Acting is in her blood. Her friends agree. But she hasn’t had a fulfilling, and financially rewarding, acting gig in more years than she can remember. She gets called for less auditions than there are months in the year. She’s paying her bills, barely. To add insult to injury, she hasn’t had a boyfriend—or sex—in almost as many years as her last lucrative acting gig. Unemployment leads to boredom. Boredom leads to depression. Depression leads to bad choices. So when Ruby breaks her dry spell, bad choices seem to be all she makes. First, she can’t find a guy who actually wants to seal the deal. Then she finds a guy who may not be able to seal the deal—literally! As she stumbles through the dating world trying to find a man she wants to sleep with—and talk to—she grudgingly admits that her career may be over. Between her bouts of self-doubt and man hunting, her small coterie of loyal friends help her keep her chin up and her eyes on the prize. Can Ruby find a man who gets her off intellectually while getting it on physically? Will Ruby be able to revive her career from the depths of unemployed irrelevance? Told with shock-jock irreverence, Bathing & The Single Girl upends long held misconceptions about how easy it can be for a single woman to get laid.

[Haney Hayes Promotions · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bathing and the Single Girl sets out to be a sharp, funny, self-aware look at a woman unraveling in Hollywood—and while the premise has promise, the execution didn’t quite work for me.

Ruby Fitzgerald is a former actress clinging to the ghost of a career that never fully materialized. Her days are filled with hangovers, regret, awkward hookups, and a house literally falling apart around her. The book leans heavily into dark humor and cringe, inviting readers to laugh with (or sometimes at) Ruby as she continues to make questionable choices while promising herself she’ll “get it together tomorrow.”

There are moments where the satire lands. The skewering of Hollywood’s disposability, ageism, and illusion of glamour is sharp, and Ruby’s self-awareness—when it appears—can be biting and clever. Unfortunately, those moments are inconsistent.

What ultimately held this back for me is that Ruby’s spiral rarely evolves. The story circles the same beats of poor decisions and self-inflicted chaos without enough growth, insight, or narrative payoff to justify the repetition. Instead of feeling cathartic or illuminating, much of it felt exhausting. The humor often leans more uncomfortable than funny, and the emotional arc never quite deepens beyond surface-level observation.

By the end, I wanted either more accountability or more transformation—something to signal that the story was moving toward meaning rather than simply documenting a prolonged mess.

Overall, Bathing and the Single Girl has a strong concept and flashes of wit, but it didn’t deliver the emotional depth or character development needed to make Ruby’s journey compelling. A miss for me, despite its clever premise.

[Matt · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to love this book, as the author has played some wonderful characters in Child’s Play and Beverly Hills 90210 and has such charm on podcast interviews. But the book is devoid of that charm, following a woman who refuses to grow up, spending money she doesn’t have to cook for men she doesn’t like in the hopes of taking a bath but not having sex with them, all while stubbornly refusing to take even part-time work to offset the multiple pages detailing her crushing debt. Not to mention the casual, “fun” way she has eight glasses of wine instead of dinner with only jokes about consequences. I have no problem following books where I don’t like the protagonist, but this was aggressive and off-putting. And maybe just as bad, McCarthy seems to lose her talent when the quotes come up, with most lines of dialogue having a clunky refusal to use contractions. “I am” as the default just sounds bad, and I want better, and I wish I’d gotten better. This was a heartbreak.

[Kim Donovan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ladies, if you think you have it bad dating in your 20's...you have no idea how worse it gets after thirty....especially for Ruby in this book. I can't remember laughing this hard reading a book. Sure, she has some financial/career setbacks going on, but that doesn't mean she deserves the kind of men she finds herself resorting to dating. It's rough out there especially after thirty-five, but makes for highly fun reading!

[Jaclyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not even half way through and no longer interested in finishing. Up until this point it's not exactly funny and the chapters slightly read like run on sentences.

[Jackie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book Info
Paperback, 372 pages
Published February 2014 by Multum In Parvo Publishing (first published January 26th 2014)
ISBN 0991304659 (ISBN13: 9780991304653)
edition language English
other editions (3)
Source:Digital copy from author

Book Buy Links
Amazon
B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS

BATHING & THE SINGLE GIRL is the smutty, mercilessly irreverent and laugh-out-loud funny debut novel by actress Christine Elise McCarthy. Inspired by her one-woman short film of the same name, it’s the kind of novel Jonathan Ames might write if he’d dropped out of college and had been working as an actress in Hollywood for the last 20 years.

The life of an actress in LA isn’t all glamour, money, and bedding rock stars. Sometimes it’s more about humiliation, red wine hangovers, and the bad decisions they fuel. Ruby Fitzgerald has barely worked in years, not that anyone remembers her for anything but her short stint on a long-canceled but iconic TV show. But that was back when her career prospects seemed on the upswing -- longer ago than Ruby cares to admit, and awkward sex with regrettable partners is doing nothing to take the edge off. Everything once functional in her house is going on strike, but the unemployment checks barely cover the mortgage, and a self-respecting girl needs to be able to pay her bar tab -- so repairs are on hold. One more bubble bath and a few more cocktails. A gal can always get responsible tomorrow.

With everything mounting against her, a cranky and increasingly despairing Ruby will have to find out if her life’s larger indignities are the result of bad luck, or a chronically bad attitude. What follows is a walking tour of the hilarious depths you can sink to if you stop exercising your best judgment.

My Thoughts

From the clever chapter titles to the in depth honest look into the day to day life that Ruby Fitzgerald finds herself flailing through this one will grip you and pull you in despite any misgivings that it may be too close to reality that many people have faced at one time or another in their lives. Awesome laugh out loud bawdy humor mixed with a strong dose of sarcastic honesty combine to create a read that will fly by too quickly and a female lead character that we all would love to have every dream come true.

You really cannot help but like Ruby, she is so focused on a goal she made so many years ago she does not seem to realize that maybe it is really time to rethink what she needs to be happy. Acting was and is her dream career, however in a world that reveres youth more than talent she does not seem to have a place anymore. For the past 10 years of her life jobs have been getting fewer and fewer until what is offered her is so absurd that even as desperate for cash flow as Ruby has become there is no way she can in good conscience associate with the production her agent wishes her to try out for.

Ruby grows on you, even as you wish there were a way to tell her that the bad judgment she seems determined to keep succumbing to is only going to make things worse for her not better in the long run.

Funny with a clear cut message of hope at the end, Ruby Fitzgerald embodies many women and her path to self discovery as well as her path to overcoming self destruction is cluttered but realistic.

[Digital copy from author in exchange for honest review]

[Angie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Synopsis: "BATHING & THE SINGLE GIRL is the smutty, mercilessly irreverent and laugh-out-loud funny debut novel by actress Christine Elise McCarthy. Inspired by her one-woman short film of the same name, it’s the kind of novel Jonathan Ames might write if he’d dropped out of college and had been working as an actress in Hollywood for the last 20 years.

The life of an actress in LA isn’t all glamour, money, and bedding rock stars. Sometimes it’s more about humiliation, red wine hangovers, and the bad decisions they fuel. Ruby Fitzgerald has barely worked in years, not that anyone remembers her for anything but her short stint on a long-canceled but iconic TV show. But that was back when her career prospects seemed on the upswing -- longer ago than Ruby cares to admit, and awkward sex with regrettable partners is doing nothing to take the edge off. Everything once functional in her house is going on strike, but the unemployment checks barely cover the mortgage, and a self-respecting girl needs to be able to pay her bar tab -- so repairs are on hold. One more bubble bath and a few more cocktails. A gal can always get responsible tomorrow.

With everything mounting against her, a cranky and increasingly despairing Ruby will have to find out if her life’s larger indignities are the result of bad luck, or a chronically bad attitude. What follows is a walking tour of the hilarious depths you can sink to if you stop exercising your best judgment."


My Review: I guess I am missing something here because I did not click with this book. I was envisioning a comedy along the lines of what you get with a long awaited girls night. There was definitely some comedy but there were a lot of pages to slog through to get to it. I did not connect with the character at all, in fact I found her to be very judgmental and cruel. There were several great sub-characters though, I thoroughly enjoyed Eliza and Kate. I guess it was really up and down for me throughout the book and was difficult for me to pick up again each time.

[Meg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Laugh out loud, irreverent and outrageous!! And brutally honest at the same time. When the bills pile up and the work isn't flowing, you either laugh or cry - the main character in this book kept me laughing with her antics to stay afloat. Really fun read!!

[Tracy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This actually deserved a 3.5. This book was not challenging, didn't cause me to reflect on life, or cause me to be a more informed person.....but it did cause me to snicker and laugh out loud many times. An entertaining read, for sure!

[Tracy · Rating 1 out of 5]

http://www.freshcoffeeblog.com/2014/0...

"Bathing and the Single Girl was nothing like I was expecting. I prepared myself for an edgy, slightly controversial, hilarious story about an actress who is constantly blundering through life. But that wasn't what I got."

[Christy Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow

I choose the rating due to being really funny at certain points, sad and generally, a good read. You never really know how hard someone has it until you read from there point of view no matter what you do in life.

[Karen Humphreys · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic very funny and great read from start to finish loved it!