This book has a fun premise, but it's a complicated choice for teens, who may miss out on the message embedded here. Unfortunately, by the time the main character does learn her lesson, she has become fairly unsympathetic.

Protagonist Andrea Sachs starts out as a highly likeable character: She just graduated from Brown, traveled to India, aspires to write for The New Yorker, has a healthy relationship with her family, and adores her idealistic boyfriend who works as an inner-city teacher.

She lands a seemingly plum job as assistant level 1 to Miranda Priestly, executive editor of Runway magazine, which is the last, final, and only word in fashion. And so begins her transformation.

Always critical of her snobby co-workers, shamelessly extravagant expense accounts, unhealthy views of the female figure, Andrea saves her sharpest wit (in her head or behind one's back) for her arrogant, demanding, patronizing, and over-the-top in evil boss, Miranda Priestly.

But as Andrea plays the game -- wrapping Miranda's holiday gifts, picking up her dry-cleaning, calling for copies of Harry Potter books (before they are released to the public) -- she begins losing weight, wearing expensive but free designer clothes, attending celebrity parties, and dropping names of the Runway world to other New York young socialites.

She's learning a life-long lesson about the ultimate virtue in being true to yourself despite potential professional sacrifices. Adult readers know this from the start. But teens curious about the world of New York fashion and this look into the inner operations of clothing designers, stylists, models, and photographers may be too caught up in the glitz to catch the author's point.