It’s been years since we talked to Elizabeth Ballis, who by all indications, remains one of the city’s top real estate agents, but when we bumped into Stacey Ballis last night, we had to ask. Turns out that Stacey, a “chick lit” author who was reading from her new novel “Room for Improvement,” is in fact, Elizabeth’s daughter. Stacey’s new novel, her third, combines a self-confessed obsession with reality TV shows about home improvement with a humorous look at the life of a single woman a la Bridget Jones.
We can’t imagine that the careers of Stacey’s parents (not only is mom a real estate agent, dad, Stephen, has been a prominent real estate developer) didn’t have an effect on this book and her love of home improvement shows. We’d give you a review, but, you know, we just bought the book last night. Give us a little time, why don’t you? Props to our pal and Stacey’s fellow chick lit author Laura Caldwell, who we turned up to hear read from her new novel, “The Rome Affair,” on the same Borders bill as Stacey.