Cynthia "Cyn" Lopez sweeps up after TV star stepsisters and attends the ball wearing glass Manolos in the latest Chiquita lit offering from Platas (Friday Night Chicas
). Overworked, underappreciated 24-year-old Cyn meets her Prince Charming at a Starbucks, unaware that he is Eric Sandoval, 29-year-old CEO of AmerCon—the company that just acquired RTV, the television station where Cyn and her glam-fabulous VJ stepsisters work. Keeping their professional lives secret, Cyn and Eric begin a joyful courtship that comes to an abrupt halt at the RTV Music Awards, when dating and workplace politics, miscommunication and the jealous, meddling steps (armed with incriminating video) conspire to tear them apart. What Platas lacks in literary craft she makes up for in verve, working visual gags, quick cuts and witticisms ("it seems I'm a cassette tape in an mp3 world"). She imbues her story with Latin spice and a dance hall pace, and populates her New York with vibrant, virtuous heroes and deliciously wicked villains. The result is another finely tuned if formulaic brain vacation for working chicas of all stripes. (Apr.)
