Review: Beyond The Blonde

Beyond The Blonde
by Kathleen Flynn-Hui
Warner Books
September 2005
5/5 Star

There’s nothing like a refreshingly unique “Working Girl Lit” book where the character has a job other than in the publishing or movie industry. In Beyond the Blonde by Kathleen Flynn-Hui, our main character Georgia has the job of a stylist.

Georgia grew up in a tiny town in New Hamsphire, working with her mother in the town’s beauty salon. Georgia always knew she’d move on at some point. After attending school at Wilfred Academy, she gets hired at Jean-Luc, a famous Fifth Avenue New York City salon. Starting from the bottom she manages to work her way up, make new friends, and enjoy her new and exciting life.

She even manages to fall in love with a coworker, the handsome Massimo. But as always, good things change or come to an end; when the salon is bought out by another company, Georgia, Massimo and their friend know that it’s time to take a huge chance: they want to open their own salon. But Jean-Luc has been known in the past to completely destroy the competition, or anyone who goes against him. Georgia must choose between love, her job, and her future.

Will she make the right decision?

I absolutely loved this book. It is one of those books that have glamourous settings and characters, but manages to stay down-to-earth. Georgia was an amazing main character. She was at times uncertain, but mainly strong. The story had a lot of details about the goings-on at a famous salon, which was fascinating. The writing was absorbing and kept me engrossed.

I couldn’t find anything about this book that I didn’t like, even given the slight “fairy-tale” plot, probably because the character had to work hard and nothing was given to her on a platter.

I highly recommend this great novel and am confident that others will love it too- especially those who enjoy both glamour and books that revolve around a character’s career. Don’t miss this one!

Tags: Glamour Lit, Reviews, single city girl lit, Working Girl Lit