Reinventing the Woman

Questions about loyalty, love, betrayal and forgiveness swirl around heroine Camille Foster, a 29-year-old black professional, after she finds the strength to leave her physically abusive boyfriend and her home in New Jersey. Desperate and without friends, Camille flees to the suburban Maryland home of the estranged family she has avoided since college graduation. Although her older sister, Melanie, is a struggling single mother, Camille has ever resented her sibling's natural beauty and self-confidence--and, most of all, their mother's favoritism: Melanie has always been the sole recipient of her love and attention. Their mother, Catherine, for her part, never explained her bias or her cruel interference between Camille and her father, who did love his youngest child. Conveniently but with no obvious motive, Catherine convinces her old friend, motivational speaker Nora Jordan, to give Camille a job at Nora's phenomenally successful self-help business, Reinventing the Woman. Everything is relatively rosy as Camille discovers new faith and self-confidence. However, she is torn between selectively warm memories of life with Evan and a possibly bright future with cute co-worker Greg. None of the men here is a fully developed character; they are either devils or angels who serve as foils to the main attractions, Camille, Nora and Melanie. The novel is a thinly disguised self-help manual--each chapter offers a proverbial ""Reinventing Rule""--and Camille's conversations with Nora read like dialogue between a client and her therapist. Yet despite its blatant message, Rice's (Somethin' Extra) plot contains enough surprises to keep the narrative afloat, and the heroine's psychological breakthrough is neatly accomplished. Agent, Nina Graybill. (Jan. 11)