A collection of short essays sets out to reveal the truth about sex and the modern single girl via tales of love lost, sought and found. And while the importance of this exploration is open to debate in a world saturated with Cosmo
confessions and Sex and the City
reruns, and the stories assembled here do little to assert their necessity, they're generally quite enjoyable. Elissa Schappell's "Confessions of a Teenage Cocktease" is a sparkling, incisive account of finding true love almost by mistake, and Erika Krouse's "Penelope" is a funny-sad look at a humiliating breakup. With only a few exceptions, the essays focus on heterosexual sex, and almost every scene is clearly situated in an urban environment (often New York). Only one story touches on the matter of sexual assault, nor is there much that's titillating. The similarity of the authors' voices and experiences combined with the pieces' brevity and earnest feminism-lite tone prevent the content from being truly provocative or groundbreaking. Readers will find moments of truth, comedy and poignant recognition in this compendium, but they won't find much that's challenging. Agent, Jenny Bent. (Feb.)
