Honey

Banta debuts with a sweeping if surprisingly dreary ode to the pop princesses of the late 1990s and early 2000s. Amber Young is just 10 when she’s first scouted by agent Angela Newton at a 1990 New Jersey talent show. Two years later, she signs on with Angela and they set out in pursuit of stardom, though Amber consistently feels like she’s falling short of her rivals, beginning with a disappointing appearance on Star Search. As the years pass, she puts out hit records and music videos, but she’s repeatedly compared unfavorably to her industry peers, accused of being too overtly sexual in contrast to performers with a girl next door image. Her best friend, Gwen, is one of those seemingly wholesome pop stars, but Angela knows there’s more below the surface of Gwen’s story. Their friendship gets complicated when Amber disrupts Gwen’s made-for-PR romance by sleeping with her heartthrob boyfriend. Interviews, song lyrics, and liner notes punctuate Amber’s first-person narration, which chronicles the singer’s efforts to break free of her industry-created sexpot image and start writing her own music. Although the behind-the-scenes friendship between Amber and Gwen has moments of resonance, their conflicts lack believable drama, and the romantic relationships are missing emotional credibility and genuine heat. Like much of the pop music at its center, Banta’s novel is long on style but short on depth. (June)