Whenever I read something as entertaining — and as insightful — as “Set Up in Soho” (St. Martin’s Griffin) by Dee Davis, I’m left wondering how many other good books I’ve missed just because they fall into the much maligned “chick lit” genre.
The label is condescending and too broad to be of much value.
Just about any contemporary story told by a woman — particularly one set in New York City — will be slapped with the label (unless she is published by Knopf with a Chip Kidd cover).
I’ve read forgettable trash in the genre and terrific stuff that is more like the novels of Anne Tyler or Laurie Colwin than the work of Candace Bushnell (I sometimes wonder if Tyler came along now with her warm and zany tales of family life if she might end up with a pink cover in the chick lit section of bookstores).
“Set Up in Soho” does touch on the relationship and career concerns of all the “Sex and the City” spin-offs, but Davis seems more interested in family life and basic trust issues between men and women than in the idea of taking us on vicarious shopping sprees in the more gilded sections of Manhattan.
The book’s heroine, Andrea Sevalas, is not a naive striver new to the city. She’s a native who comes from money and is already a minor celebrity due to her cable food show, “What’s Cooking in the City.”
The show mixes cooking segments with foodie news about celebrity chefs and the latest restaurant openings (Andrea describes it as “Martha Stewart meets ‘Entertainment Tonight’”).
Andrea’s playgirl mother ran off when she was young, leaving much of her day-to-day upbringing to a grandmother with a busy social schedule of her own and Aunt Althea (whose matchmaking business is an embarrassment to her niece).
“Set Up in Soho” introduces us to Andi at a crucial moment in her life and career — she’s dumped by her longtime beau in chapter one, injures herself falling into one of those double door openings you see on almost every New York sidewalk, and is given a make-or-break assignment at work to land a 
cooking segment with a reclusive chef who is about to open a much-anticipated new eatery.
Andi is not a chick lit sweetie pie. She’s opinionated, knows what she wants and has survived in the shark tank of cable television. If you were her enemy, you could see many reasons to dislike this woman. But Davis shows us Andi’s hidden soft spots; her troubled relationship with Aunt Althea makes her appealingly vulnerable.
Davis also knows Manhattan like the back of her hand, so that there is nothing generic about the book’s backdrop. On an early date with a new romantic possibility, Andi meets the guy in Madison Square Park for a burger at the Shake Shack and later in the book we find out that the TV host is a fan of Norbert Leo Butz.
Davis doesn’t write down to her readers (or her characters) and the result is what you might call a serious romantic comedy.
