Extra: Karyn Bosnak, 20 TIMES A LADY

Whatever else you can say about Karyn Bosnak's 20 TIMES A LADY, you can't say it's totally autobiographical.

How do I know? Because I've read her memoir, SAVE KARYN. Bosnak's claim to fame is that she started a personal Website at SaveKaryn.com (which is still up, although mostly concerning her new book), to ask strangers for money to pay off a $20,000 credit-card debt and to highlight her own struggle to cut lifestyle corners. People criticized the book (and the author) for its seemingly fancy-free approach to money -- easy go, easy come, I guess -- but I enjoyed it because Bosnak looks at herself and says, "I'm not in debt because something tragic happened to me. I'm in debt because I was foolish." And that takes the huevos grandes.

Very little of that struggle shows up in Bosnak's first novel, of which I was lucky enough to get an advance copy. Her heroine, Delilah Darling, does have a pet mascot and a love for all things cute and luxurious, but Delilah's troubles in love -- not money -- take center stage. After she reads a New York Post article on sex and decides she may have been, well, a bit too free with her favors (as befits someone named Delilah, I guess!) she decides to sink her unemployment into a cross-country trip to find her hookups of yore -- because if she can rekindle the spark with one of them, she won't have to add another man to her "list." It's cheesy and silly, but like a good romantic comedy, you feel satisfied at the ending. Not that I'm giving any clues.

Sure, there are some autobiographical details in 20 TIMES A LADY; reading Bosnak's new blog I notice she has a Yorkie now, like the heroine, and a few memorable scenes take place in her old stomping ground of Chicago. But my major deal-breaker for chick lit is when the biographical similarities are so overwhelming that it feels like the author, well, didn't make anything up for herself! Jennifer Weiner is another author who knows how to use her experiences (like her love for Philadelphia) in a way that doesn't overwhelm the reader. I know most people wouldn't be bothered by this, but I felt pretty miffed when I discovered that John Irving had pretty much copy-pasted his entire life into THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP. Bosnak is obviously a more talented writer than her Internet detractors give her credit for.