Being a celebrity publicist at a Los Angeles PR firm isn’t the glamour job Alex Davidson thought it would be. Her love life is zilch, her newest client—an actor fresh out of rehab—keeps hitting on her, and all she has in her refrigerator is a half-empty bottle of Pinot Grigio. But her wisecracking gay assistant and her spark plug of a best friend give her reasons for crawling out of bed in the morning (well, most of the time).

Everything changes the day her firm is bought out by a rival agency and Alex finds her once secure job of wanly ministering to a roster of B-list celebrities suddenly at stake. It looks like Suzanne, Alex’s old boss and mentor, is being shown the door. And G, her new boss, wants bigger clients and more exposure. But certain things just don’t add up: Why did G refuse to help Suzanne when a big client—a hot Latina singer/actress hell-bent on world domination—decided to bolt from the firm? And why is he being so nice to Alex all of a sudden? Knowing that in Hollywood there are always strings attached, Alex does a little digging and uncovers a dirty scheme that, if brought to light, will rock the entertainment industry. Will the temptation to betray Suzanne and accept a lucrative offer from G be too powerful for Alex to ignore? Or can she save her job, keep her soul, and score a victory for women in Hollywood?

So 5 Minutes Ago is a laugh-out-loud novel about one young woman’s attempt to make it in the shark-

infested waters of Hollywood. Set in the sun-drenched L.A. of celebrity-magazine photo shoots, velvet-roped VIP parties, and red-carpet events, Hilary de Vries’s debut novel takes us on a wildly entertaining romp with enough juicy behind-the-scenes action to satisfy even the most insatiable celebraholic.

From the Hardcover edition.