Mirrored Life - Hardcover

Bad girl makes good-prison-issue cosmetology license in hand-in this pleasant bathtub book from the author of Balancing Act. After serving five years for her unintentional involvement in a robbery and murder in her tiny Texas town, and still mourning her mother's death and her father's descent into alcoholism, 20-year-old Sara Jane Talbot is ready to start over. Determined to succeed as a stylist, she moves into a halfway house in Dallas, gets hired at a swanky salon and starts experimenting with home beauty treatments from her mother's recipes. Thus is Serena St. James born-but she's broke and struggling to make it in a nearly all-white industry, until aging R&B star Diana Devreux pulls up in a limousine and demands a black stylist. Thanks to Serena's skill, Diana makes a huge comeback. Serena is handed a job as the diva's personal stylist and whisked off to a private cottage on her Las Vegas estate, where she gets involved with bodyguard Craig Alexander, a handsome charmer who adores her. All looks rosy until Craig reveals some romantic secrets and Joyce Ann Keller, the ringleader of the long-ago murder, comes looking for Sara Jane with blackmail and revenge on her mind. Shaky buildup of suspense and a bizarre, out-of-nowhere ending keep this book from really triumphing, but Sara Jane's spunky brand of tenacity is charming and Bunkley's clean prose keeps the story moving along at a good clip.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Fifteen-year-old Sara Jane Talbot, an unwitting accomplice in a violent hold-up, is sent to prison for five years. She uses her time behind bars to earn her cosmetology license and, as soon as she's free, changes her name to Serena St. James. Although she's little more than a shampooer at a prestigious Dallas salon, a twist of fate brings her to the attention of an R&B diva, whose personal stylist has quit unexpectedly. Suddenly successful, Serena gets caught up in the glitz and glamour of stardom, and even finds a man who loves her. But someone from her past is out to get her, and everything Serena has achieved is at risk. Readers who enjoy rags-to-riches-despite-overwhelming-odds stories, such as Susan Elizabeth Phillips' Fancy Pants, will root for Bunkley's heroine, and book discussion leaders will appreciate the questions included at the back of the book, which is part of the African American Reading Group Campaign. So well crafted are Bunkley's characters with their guilt, secrets, and wary hearts, that their appeal is universal. Shelley Mosley
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