“Prepare yourself for a daring, unsparing takedown of millennial Manhattan, trick by glossy trick.” —Beatriz Williams
We are a bifurcated generation, the Romantics versus the Realists: those who prefer transistor radios to Bose sound systems, scuffed ocean liner trunks to gleaming Rimowa hard shells, fountain pens to BlackBerry keyboards, restored old roadsters to eco-friendly hybrids, the unsmudgeable guarantee of old illusions to present-life ones, tinny and certain to disappoint.
When M. meets Belle at Dartmouth, they become the unlikeliest best friends. Belle is an unapologetic Romantic famous on campus for her bright red accessories and hundred-watt smile, while M. is a tomboyish Realist who insists she’ll always prefer her signet ring to any diamond. Despite their differences, they are drawn together, and after graduation they both move to New York with all the unfounded confidence of twenty-two. M. secures a job at the city’s most prestigious investment bank,and Belle turns her nostalgic aesthetic into one of the first lifestyle blogs, which quickly goes viral. Their future is spread before them, a glittering tableau of vintage cocktails, password-guarded parties, and high-octane ambition. But as they are pulled deeper into their new lives, and into the charming orbit of their Gatsby-esque new friend, Jeremy, style and substance—and dreams and reality—increasingly blur. In this fake plastic world, what do success and love and happiness even look like?
Dazzling, whimsical, and full of yearning,Fake Plastic Love is the transporting story of bright young things tested by the unsentimental realities of post-graduate life. Tipping its hat to F. Scott Fitzgerald, Kimberley Tait’s gorgeous, incisive debut is a portrait of millennial Manhattan—equal parts nostalgia and modernity—that explores the timeless question: You will be a grand total of what you spend your time doing, so what do you want to add up to?

Kimberley Tait's profile page

Kimberley Taitwas born and raised in Toronto, Canada, and moved to the U.S. to attend Dartmouth College, where she wrote an Honors Thesis on life as a staged performance in the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Kimberley earned an MBA from Columbia Business School and has worked at investment banks in New York and London, continuing to work with financial services and investment firms as a writer and marketing strategist. A Canadian, American, and Swiss citizen, Kimberley lives in London with her husband. Fake Plastic Loveis her debut novel.

New York PostBest Books of Summer
amNewYork Summer Beach Reads
“Kimberley Tait presents a truly charming story in the manner of F. Scott Fitzgerald, balancing that essential line between light and complex…Tait writes with such deftness and clarity…and balances this with a writing style thatdelightfully dances off the page – like a perfect glass of champagne.”
—The New Potato
“Fake Plastic Love by Kimberley Tait isthat summer book that will delight you and lead to many cocktail hour discussions with friends, champagne in hand…I immediately felt like I was back in a similar period in my own life.”
—Quarterlane
“Fake Plastic Lovedives into the depths of the digital age and the cost of a healthy work/life balance…The book encourages readers to step away from the screen in order to invest in the lives of those living and breathing around them.”
—Associated Press
“Beautiful…Insightful… Fans of Gatsby will surely enjoyFake Plastic Love, butTait puts a new spin on an old story that will still leave readers feeling surprised with each page they turn.”
—The Dartmouth
“With a title just begging to be a beach read, this novel following Ivy League grads moving to Manhattan (fans ofThe Futureswill enjoy this one) offers a new, eloquently written take on a tale so many New Yorkers are already familiar with.”
—amNewYork(Summer Beach Reads)
“With sweeping nods to Fitzgerald and other writers of the Gilded Age,Tait’s debut novel sparkles with vitality and conscience…Fluid, graceful, and unfaltering prose highlights this remarkable novel; relatable characters and themes complete the package.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Relatable…A painfully accurate portrayal of the disillusionment and disappointment that many twentysomethings experience after college, this isa classic coming-of-age story.”
—Library Journal
“With lively, illustrative tones reminiscent of yesterday’s writers, Kimberley Tait captures the pain and beauty of post-college life as her colorful, ambitious 20-something characters test their terrifying new adulthood and find their place in today’s world. This book is dreamy, factual, sad, and funny.It’s a dose of unsweetened cranberry juice, a reminder of the world’s conflicting, beautiful, and heartbreaking messages.”
—Maureen Sherry, author ofOpening Belle
“Kimberley Tait spins a keen, exuberant, unexpected story of friendship and ambition among the newly minted, and can she write.Fake Plastic Love is packed with those telling details, those neat twists, those perfect turns of phrase that keep you gasping right through to the end. So bright, so authentic. I loved it.” —Beatriz Williams,New York Timesbestselling author ofA Hundred SummersandA Certain Age
“Kimberley Tait’s debut novel isa funny, big-hearted peek inside our new gilded age. She nails the details of modern-day Wall Street, capturing the glamour, the cutthroat competition, and, ultimately, the futility of putting money first.”
—Kevin Roose,New York Timesbestselling author ofYoung Money
“Kimberley Tait’s debut is a terrific New York book—it’s stylish and substantive, old-fashioned and entirely modern. Her writing brims with wit and whimsy. A summer read to be savored!”
—Cristina Alger, author ofThe Darlings
“The market has already crashed, the economy has contracted, but ‘Where there is hope,’ as Kimberley Tait’s recently graduated narrator says, ‘there is opportunity to be carved out.’Like The Great Gatsby and Bright Lights, Big City,Fake Plastic Love examines one innocent’s unsentimental education with great energy and panache.”
—Stewart O’Nan, author ofWest of Sunset
“A captivating mix of eras (Cole Porter meetsLenny)…Writing with verve, confidence, and no shortage of wit in her sparkling debut, Kimberley Tait uses the relationship between two very different young women as the intriguing centerpiece of a timeless story that manages to entertain even as it vivifies the certain perils of performing your life rather than living it.”
—Elizabeth Kelly, author ofThe Last Summer of the Camperdowns