Nothing to Lose

Winters’s third entry into the D.C. Series (after Almost Doesn’t Count), about a trio of up-from-poverty friends who juggle careers, love, and family in the cutthroat political world of Washington, D.C., delivers a high-octane blend of intrigue and twisted morality, as her heroines lean on each other to “stay strong, stay focused, and make it in life.” In this installment, self-centered Sherise tries to manage the press for presidential candidate Jerry Northman, steady her rocky marriage, and hide a potentially disastrous fling; emotionally scarred Billie gets her legal mojo back at a firm that hires her bitter ex-husband as a consultant; and confused and angry Erica joins the White House campaign of her father, Jonah Nolan, a Pentagon powerbroker who won’t acknowledge his biracial daughter for fear of the political consequences. Each woman will do anything to get what she wants—for Billie, that’s revenge; Sherise seeks forgiveness; and Erica wants a relationship with her father. Winters’s women are as fierce, smart, and wicked as the ruthless rivals who try to use them. But the real treat here is the startling mirror their tale holds up to Washington, with its crowded cast of high- and low-minded achievers, nebulous politics, and messy motives. Agent: Peter Miller, PMA Literary and Film Management. (Dec.)