When plucky, ambitious Sophie graduates from college in 1998, all she knows is that she loves writing and she digs music. So she hightails it to New York, where, after a brief settling-in period, she nestles into that city of dreams, hoping to make her own come true. Wasfie lightly dances through Sophie's newbie big-city adventures, from a gig at Boldly Beautiful
magazine, which has her writing saccharine "what-brought-us-back-together tales," to a post at BeatMaker
, where she soon infiltrates the male-dominated world of hip-hop, and from a romance with a fellow hip-hop fan to an affair with a budding hip-hop star known to the world as Ferocious and to his mother as Earnest. Sophie's smart, stylish narration and her descriptions of the early hip-hop scene provide real pleasure, as she slinks through the halls of the grungy Landmark recording studio in her tall boots and Club Monaco skirts or dances the night away in a raging club. Even those who prefer their tunes more sedate should take a chance with this surprisingly heartfelt and winning story. Agent, Sita White. (May)
