Beyond the Blonde » (Unabridged)

Kathleen Flynn-Hui is the star colorist at Salon AKS, wife of acclaimed stylist Kao Hui, and devoted mother of two young daughters. She lives with her family in New York City.

Welcome to Jean-Luc, New York’s hottest salon du jour, where high above Madison Avenue, Georgia Watkins - star colorist - tends the hair of socialites, actresses, models, and moguls. Georgia wasn’t born to the Manhattan elite, but she was born to color hair; back in tiny Weepeekeemie, New Hampshire, her single mother struggled to pay rent on her own small-town beauty parlor to keep the family afloat.

Yet Georgia wants more from life. And so, after a stint at Wilfred Academy, she lands a job at Jean-Luc and moves to New York City. Thrust into a glitzy, glittering, over-the-top world, she finds herself highlighting dogs’ hair to match that of their owners’, making house calls to the Hamptons, and barely batting a well-groomed eyelash at a thousand-dollar tip. A rising star in the salon, Georgia is far too busy for romance or even a day off...until she finds that her quiet, handsome colleague Massimo has more to offer than styling pointers.

With a loving boyfriend, a calendar brimming with devoted clients, and unexpected career opportunities at her fingertips, Georgia’s life feels as golden as her customers’ favorite hair color. But when she is betrayed in an unthinkable turn of events, Georgia Watkins from New Hampshire finds her loyalty and love put to the test - and she must depend on the most unlikely people to help her navigate the ugly side of beauty.

Publishers Weekly

Readers hoping for more hauteur a la Bergdorf Blondes can reach for this debut by a celebrity colorist at a Manhattan salon. Flynn-Hui's alter ego, sweet but street-smart Georgia, works miracles for a bevy of glamour girls at Jean-Luc, the "epicenter of beautification." Georgia's own humble roots are worlds away from those of her clients, whom she categorizes by neighborhood (there's the Greenwich, the Beverly Hills and the Short Hills-"the Greenwich with a serious inferiority complex"). Georgia's mother, Doreen, runs the classiest salon in their neck of New Hampshire, but struggles to stay afloat, which is why she prodded her daughter toward the big city, where Georgia worked her way up from sweeping Jean-Luc's floors to wowing his clients. But like the best dye jobs, the salon's artifice of amity conceals the darkness beneath. Ups and downs ensue-from workplace romance to blithe betrayal-all barely noticed by the coddled clientele. Knifed in the back, Georgia and her friends resolve to decamp for grittier downtown digs, hoping to take their clients with them-but Jean-Luc himself is a force to reckon with, and Georgia struggles with her own crisis of confidence. Snarky but not overly stinging, this read is as kicky and flirty as a head of highlights. (Sept.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.