It’s a club like no other. Only the most important women receive an invitation. But one daring young reporter is about to infiltrate this female-run secret society, whose beguiling members are caught up in a dark and treacherous business.

For years, rumors have swirled about an exclusive, women-only social club where the elite tastemakers of NYC meet. People in the know whisper all sorts of claims: Membership dues cost $1,000 a month. Last time Rihanna was in town, she stopped by and got her aura read. The women even handpicked the city’s first female mayor. But no one knows for sure.

That is, until journalist Jillian Beckley decides she’s going to break into the club. With her career in freefall, Jillian needs a juicy scoop, and she has a personal interest in bringing these women down. But the deeper she gets into this new world–where billionaire “girlbosses” mingle with the astrology-obsessed–the more Jillian learns that bad things happen to those who dare to question the club’s motives or giggle at its outlandish rituals.

The select group of women who populate the club may be far more powerful than she ever imagined.

And far more dangerous too.

SPOILERS BELOW

I didn’t read any reviews of this book until after I’d picked it up, so it wasn’t until then that I discovered this was supposed to be satire/funny — I didn’t really find it to be funny.

Right off the bat, I have a hard time with romantic threads that include cheating; I want to root for the boy/girl to get together, but when one of those people is married, I don’t root for either of them. In fact, I root for the spouse. I want to get behind the romance 100%, but I couldn’t do that in this book because Miles is married (and Jillian doesn’t seem to care, which makes it hard to like her).

For me, though, the hard part came when it turns out the “real” power of the women came from witchcraft. My first thought was, “really? that’s the only way women can be powerful and influential?” But my next thought was that I didn’t want to finish the book. Actually, I couldn’t.

I know that people have differing views on witchcraft and its realism — a lot of people brush it off and a lot of people wholly embrace it. I’ll probably sound like a lunatic to a lot of people, but I’ve known people who practice wicca/witchcraft, and I know a lot more people who’ve helped others come out of wicca/witchcraft — it’s not something to be taken lightly. I’m all for magic and spells in fantasy novels, but there’s something different about witchcraft in the real world.

I made it 80% of the way through this book, but by that point the ceremonies, spells, and coven were more than I wanted to expose myself to. If that plot point hadn’t been in the book, I would have finished, but I just wasn’t comfortable with it. Other than that, I didn’t mind the author’s style and writing.

Rated R for language and adult themes.