B as in Beauty

Move over, Ugly Betty; Fat B's in town and she's just as bewitching, bodacious and beautiful as the unconventional Latina TV star. In Ferreras's dazzling debut, Cuban-American Beauty Maria Zavala—“B” to her friends—bounces off the page like a firecracker while she discovers how to embrace her curves under the tutelage of a wise madam. At the outset, B's not just ashamed of her chubby bod, but finds it standing in the way of a promotion at her Manhattan ad agency—thanks to a bitchy boss—and she hasn't been laid in ages. B's best friend and co-worker, petite Lillian, tells B to “reinvent” herself. Natasha Sokolov, her Russian-American tax preparer, goes a step further by offering her a moonlighting position “comforting” men with a fetish for voluptuous women—men who will pay “to worship a body like yours.” B accepts the proposition (selling time but not sex), only to find once again the sting of rejection: her first client rejects her for being too lightweight. It's just one of many illuminating, funny and deliciously awkward moments on B's page-turning road to love and happiness. (Apr.)