The Golddigger’s Club

In Cherié’s debut, longtime friends Monica, Deidre, and Stephanie want wealth and success, and they manipulate the men in their lives until they attain these goals. Though Monica dreams of running her own public relations company, her husband, Tony—a professional football player—doesn’t want her working. Deidre, a stylist desperate for bigger challenges, seeks investors for her fashion magazine and soon meets Dwayne, a financial consultant who wants to help her find money. Craving as much financial security as possible, Stephanie, who dances in music videos, takes up with Levin, an up-and-coming R&B singer. Exhibiting little in the way of growth, these selfish and narcissistic female protagonists are matched only by their controlling, and equally shallow men. The book will bore readers who want to do more than cheer on a woman’s ability to convince a man to buy her a Hermès handbag. (Jan.)