Platinum

An entertainment journalist and coauthor of memoirs by Frank Lucas and Faith Hill, King presents a satirical fiction debut thick with multiple plots and lightly fictionalized celebrities. King's heroine is Alex Sampson Maxwell, a freelance entertainment journalist who's covered some of the era's biggest names, currently booked solid preparing to marry a well-known rapper named Birdie—divorced, with a young daughter—while ghostwriting the memoirs of infamous home-wrecking groupie Cleo. When she's assigned an additional story on rappers and their relationships, things get really precarious—as difficult as her relationship is already (especially in dealing with her stepdaughterto-be) Alex's new story teaches her the multiple ways that fame can cripple a relationship, if not kill it outright. This fast-paced melodrama occasionally overreaches and leaves a number of plot lines dangling, while the thinly veiled versions of actual celebrities (Jay Z and Beyoncé Knowles, Chris Brown and Rhianna, etc.) can be distracting, as readers will have no choice but to line up real and fictional events in their heads. Still, an entertaining mix of sex, betrayals, high drama, and tragedy will keep the pages turning. (July)