Brit chick-lit author (Sparkles
) and Conservative Party pol Bagshawe delivers a potent mix of sizzling sex and girl-power savvy with this riches-to-rags-to-riches saga. Three best friends—twangy Texas tart Sally Lassiter, English diplo-brat Jane Morgan and Jordanian beauty Helen Yanna—navigate the clique-infested waters of their elite Beverly Hills high school. But before they graduate, family tragedies for Sally and Jane, and an abrupt arranged marriage for Helen, pull the trio apart and trigger their separate rises to mistresses of the boardroom and bedroom. Jane brashly uses a family scandal to step into the world of commerce, while Sally goes back to her Texas roots to dispense “Hollywood dazzle.” Helen, meanwhile, discovers passion and her Middle East roots as the wife of an Egyptian carpet dealer. When the three meet 10 years later in Los Angeles, their idea for a glitzy superstore with a fair-trade conscience takes off, leaving the gals to swipe at one another over the business and choose what really matters. In this intoxicating fantasy of fame, fortune and red-hot sex, all that glitters really is gold. (Feb.)
