Model Citizens: Riding for a Fall by Henry Pepper
Angela Durand and Joanne Hart are two very different personalities drawn to one another in this glamorously intimate novel of fashion, fame, and the pride that cometh before the fall. Angela is more the shy and down-to-earth girl from France, while Joanne, a California girl at heart, is more headstrong and confident. But however different they may seem on the outside, on the inside they want the same thing. To be Super Models. And with a bit of blackmail, they succeed at this high-in-the-clouds aspiration. But their success may also be their undoing.
Now Angela seems like a sweet girl throughout this entire book. She is very open-hearted and wants what is best for her best friend/lover Joanne. But Joanne, however, seems very conflicted. She has achieved the fame and fortune, but there is a sliver of a chance that she could lose it all. And that sliver's name is Brett.
Brett is Joanne's on-again-off-again boyfriend who plays for the NFL. Cool, right? Well...it would be if he wasn't a psychopath. Yeah...that is a definite cause for concern. And everybody but Joanne has pretty much realized this concern. She is pretty much stuck in the whole denial stage of their whole relationship. In fact, sometimes it seems that she loves who he is and what he does to her, even though what he does and makes her do is not normal. Not normal at all. But as Angela points out many times in the story, if she doesn't accept that his actions are wrong and leaves him, Joanne can just forget about modelling any more, because he could be the death of her.
Brett might go just a bit too far to keep Joanne in his clutches, and the sad part is, Joanne might not try to stop him.
This book has many wonderful attributes to it - the storyline, the characters, the ending...especially the ending - but I think my favourite has to be the cover. It screams elegant old Hollywood to me. It is eye-catching, and breath-taking, and the black and white just works.
Model Citizens was a great read. It showed us the glamorous side of fashion, a behind-the-scenes look at what fame sometimes costs, and a bit of how karma is a fickle mistress. I absolutely loved every single minute of it.
