The Blonde

The Devil Wears Prada meets Steel Magnolias in this fictionalized account of the real-life rise of Kathleen Flynn-Hui, star of the hot Manhattan Salon AKS. Welcome to Jean-Luc, New Yorks hottest salon of the minute, where high above Madison Avenue, Georgia Watkinsstar coloristtends to the hair of socialites, actresses, models and moguls.Georgia wasnt born to the Manhattan elite, but she was born to color hair; back in rural New Hampshire, her single mother struggled to pay rent on her own small-town beauty parlor and keep her family afloat. But Georgia wanted more. And so, after a stint at Wilfred Academy, Georgia landed a job at Jean-Luc and moved to New York City. Thrust into a glitzy, glittering over-the-top world, Georgia finds herself highlighting dogs hair to match that of their owners, making house calls to the Hamptons, and barely batting a well-groomed eyelash at a thousand dollar tip. A rising star in the salon, Georgia is far too busy for romance or even a day offuntil she finds that her quiet, handsome colleague Massimo has more to offer than styling pointers.But when Jean-Luc betrays them, Georgia finds her loyalty and her love are put to the test, and she must depend on the most unlikely sources to help her navigate the ugly side of the world of beauty.

A breakout novel for a young writer whose last book was shortlisted for the Trillium Prize alongside Anne Michaels and Margaret Atwood, and whom the Toronto Star called a "force of nature." Hazel Hayes is a grad student living in New York City. As the novel opens, she learns she is pregnant (from an affair with her married professor) at an apocalyptically bad time: random but deadly attacks on passers-by, all by blonde women, are terrorizing New Yorkers. Soon it becomes clear that the attacks are symptoms of a strange illness that is transforming blondes--whether CEOs, flight attendants, skateboarders or accountants--into rabid killers. Hazel, vulnerable because of her pregnancy, decides to flee the city--but finds that the epidemic has spread and that the world outside New York is even stranger than she imagined. She sets out on a trip across a paralyzed America to find the one woman--perhaps blonde, perhaps not--who might be able to help her. Emily Schultz's beautifully realized novel is a mix of satire, thriller, and serious literary work. With echoes of Blindness and The Handmaid's Tale amplified by a biting satiric wit, The Blondes is at once an examination of the complex relationships between women, and a merciless but giddily enjoyable portrait of what happens in a world where beauty is--literally--deadly.

Siobhan Forrester, lead singer of Beneath the Blonde, has everything a girl could want - stunning body, great voice, brilliant career, loving boyfriend. Now she has a stalker too. She can cope with the midnight flower deliveries and nasty phone calls, but things really turn sour when intimidation turns to murder. Saz Martin, hired to seek out the stalker and protect Siobhan, embarks on a whirlwind investigation, travelling with the band from London to New Zealand, via the rest of the world. As jobs go, this one shouldn't be too hard, except Siobhan isn't telling the whole truth and Saz isn't sure she wants to keep the relationship strictly business.

A Simon & Schuster eBook. Simon & Schuster has a great book for every reader.