PJ has a life she's happy with - she spends her evenings as an up-and-coming San Franciscan DJ, scratching, spinning and mixing disks and creating great vibes on the floor. She lives in couch world, spending her nights on the couches of friends and acquaintances, and only has what she can carry in a blue duffel. There are rules for living in couch world - don't spend too long on any one couch, keep unobtrusive, don't eat their stuff, and her routine's served PJ well for two years.
When well-known DJ Jonathan Hadeis hears her work and decides to manage her properly, PJ's wary but thrilled. He loves her sound but her style could do with some work, which is where aspiring model/accountancy student Samantha comes in. Samantha has her eye on Jonathan - older, sexy, wealthy and powerful, he could help her go places in her career, if only he'd stop paying the attention she deserves to PJ.
All Leslie really wants is to get married, but her long-term boyfriend Rick is concerned that she'll be unhappy at having her career derailed. On to her eighth position in four years, Leslie's not sure exactly what career that might be, and her family are only too happy to point that out. Currently working in the personals, Leslie really wants to work in features (or at least she thinks she does), and she's got one shot to prove herself to the editor. When her story on a homeless DJ lacks 'bite' Leslie starts to investigate PJ's past, and in the process jolts DJ PJ out of couch world and into the real world.
The release of the article forces all three women to examine the way they've been living their lives, and to face up to the family and relationship pressures that have oppressed them. That all sounds a little heavy, but Yardley's message (at least as I read it) is that women should be focusing more on what they want and less on what others want for them.
There were a couple of moments I particularly enjoyed, including the analysis PJ does on both Leslie and boyfriend Rick's apartments, and the rules of couch world survival. The writing is involving, the characters strong, the premise certainly unique, and the plot unpredictable. I'm often wary of the Red Dress Ink imprint, which often indicates below-par chick lit, but Yardley (author of Will Write for Shoes) delivers a unique and interesting story that switches between first (PJ) and third person. PJ is strong enough a character for the story to pivot around, and as her history emerges the story becomes even stronger. - Alex
No comments:
Post a Comment