School of Fortune Book

A fun, fresh frolic of a novel starring a spoiled but lovable Texas heiress out to reclaim her fortune

Pippa Walker's wedding was to be huge—Texas huge—complete with twelve bridesmaids under contract from Pippa's mother to stay lean and long-haired, gondolas flown in from Venice, A- and B- guest lists. But when Pippa finds out her handsome husband-to-be isn't what she thought, she bolts from her own wedding, shocking society and getting herself disinherited. The only way she can get a piece of the family fortune back is to earn a degree from a school. Any school. It's a tough assignment for a girl who dropped out of SMU after pledging Kappa Kappa Gamma and shopping at Neiman's for a year.

But Pippa is nothing if not up for a challenge. Attracting one hilarious misadventure after another, she tries to earn her sheepskin at: driving school, matchmaking school, even a circus academy. It's only when she hits rock-bottom—The Mountbatten Savoy School of Household Management—that things begin to look up. But can she really be falling in love with a…valet?

Kirkus Reviews

From Brown (Elle Woods, 2007) and Weber (Hot Ticket, 2000), an energetic farce skewering the lives of the rich and obnoxious. The first 80 pages of this comic romp starring the very worst of high society is devoted to the absurdities of planning the wedding of the century. Mother-of-the-bride Thayne Walker is a day away from pulling off the multimillion-dollar fete that will make TomKat's Italian wedding look like a cheap Vegas elopement. And Thayne is the woman for the job-the Dallas socialite has the precision (bridesmaids are required to walk down the aisle at 22 inches per second) and toughness of a five-star general. Pippa, the bride, is a bit lost in all the hoopla, but as a devoted daughter she's happy to oblige. That is until fiance Lance reveals he's gay, forcing Pippa to call off the wedding at the alter-and then all Texas hell breaks loose. Beloved grandfather Anson dies on the spot and Thayne disinherits her daughter. While Pippa's hiding out from the frenzied paparazzi, she learns from Anson's lawyer that she is his heir (of one billion dollars), but there's just one caveat: She has to earn a diploma. The will doesn't specify college diploma, so she starts off on her journey of misadventure to earn a degree, tricky for a young socialite with skills limited to shopping and gossip. Driving school is a bust (although a trip to Wal-Mart for new clothes proves an enlightening experience) and matchmaking school proves equally difficult. When she enrolls in a rural clown college, she doesn't imagine she'll have to dance all day with Pushkin the bear (she's happily rescued by Boy Scouts when a jealous elephant tries to kill her). Happily, Pippa may have found her niche athousekeeping school (after all, she can identify all of Waterford's patterns at a glance). In exchange for a quick degree, she agrees to serve as majordomo to a Las Vegas socialite and in the process may bust a smuggling ring with the FBI and reconcile with her repentant mother. Great, silly fun, guaranteed to be seen at a beach near you.