Author Lauren Weisberger gets back on track with her third and newest novel, Chasing Harry Winston (2008). As with her first book, The Devil Wears Prada (2006), we are in the heart of New York City with a couple of gals definitely into brand identity.

Weisberger is a master at the product push. New York City is her canvas of images, interweaving the hip hotspots, cool designers and brunch spots of ill repute into her narrative. She wised up and dropped another big name designer in her title. The product placement is slick, even Project Runway has nothing on her.

The story’s best appeal is as a primer for the girls trapped in the flyover states. We miss out on the hottest things if it is not featured on Oprah’s Favorite Things or in Sex and the City. Because of Winston, I now know things like Sky Studios, Kérastase Products and Dwell Magazine exist. Lucky me.

As for the writing, Winston is better crafted than Prada with more character development than monster recall. This is a definite improvement over her second novel, Everyone Worth Knowing, a hard-to-believe take of boutique public relations and party girls.

The bottom line is Chasing Harry Winston is like Lucky Magazine in paragraph form.