I got an advance copy of this book and couldn't put it
down! I finished it the day after I
opened it. It starts in 1950's New York
with a daughter of a hotel magnate and her best friend. Her Father gives her an
ultimatum that she must start seeing one of his employees, his second hand in
the operations of his hotel, or she can start working in housekeeping! He has been running his businesses without
any assistance and wants to make sure that things will go on with the help of a
husband for her after he is gone. She
cooks up this trip to Miami with her friend, to say that she’ll be seeing the
gentleman on his trip as he’ll be gone for a while. The real reason for her, is to stay in touch
with the band members and to get her friend away from her cheating boyfriend
who her family wants her to marry. They
end up going on the trip to Miami and then to Cuba! They get involved with members of the band
which is not done in those days. The
story is so well written you can almost feel the heat in Miami and hear the
Latin music! This book is entertaining,
well written and a page turner!
I received this book from the author through the Good Reads
program. It was sent in the hopes that I
would write a review of the book which I have voluntarily done so.
Description as found on Good Reads: Set in the 1950s, Lady Be Good is Amber Brock's
mesmerizing return, sweeping readers into the world of the mischievous,
status-obsessed daughter of a hotel magnate and the electric nightlife of three
iconic cities: New York, Miami, and Havana.
Kitty Tessler is the winsome and clever only child of self-made hotel and nightclub tycoon Nicolas Tessler. Kitty may not have the same pedigree as the tennis club set she admires, but she still sees herself as every inch the socialite--spending her days perfecting her "look" and her nights charming all the blue-blooded boys who frequent her father's clubs. It seems like the fun will never end until Kitty's father issues a terrible ultimatum: she may no longer date the idle rich. Instead, Kitty must marry Andre, her father's second-in-command, and take her place as the First Lady of his hotel empire. Kitty is forced to come up with a wily and elaborate plan to protect her own lofty ideas for the future, as well as to save her best friend, Henrietta Bancroft, from a doomed engagement: Kitty will steal Henrietta's fiance, a fabulously wealthy but terribly unkind man from a powerful family--thereby delivering the one-two punch of securing her now-fragile place on the social ladder and keeping her friend from a miserable marriage.
Then Kitty meets Max, a member of a band visiting New York from her father's Miami club, and her plans take a turn. Smitten, but still eager to convince her father of her commitment to Andre, Kitty and Hen follow Max, Andre, and the rest of the band back down to Miami--and later to Cuba. As Kitty spends more time with Max, she begins waking up to the beauty--and the injustice--of the world beyond her small, privileged corner of Manhattan. And when her well-intended yet manipulative efforts backfire, Kitty is forced to reconsider her choices and her future before she loses everyone she loves.
“Kitty Tessler, a headstrong glamour girl determined to move up in the world, steals the spotlight in Amber Brock’s latest, a tour-de-force filled with intrigue and surprises.” -- Fiona Davis, nationally bestselling author of The Address and The Dollhouse
Kitty Tessler is the winsome and clever only child of self-made hotel and nightclub tycoon Nicolas Tessler. Kitty may not have the same pedigree as the tennis club set she admires, but she still sees herself as every inch the socialite--spending her days perfecting her "look" and her nights charming all the blue-blooded boys who frequent her father's clubs. It seems like the fun will never end until Kitty's father issues a terrible ultimatum: she may no longer date the idle rich. Instead, Kitty must marry Andre, her father's second-in-command, and take her place as the First Lady of his hotel empire. Kitty is forced to come up with a wily and elaborate plan to protect her own lofty ideas for the future, as well as to save her best friend, Henrietta Bancroft, from a doomed engagement: Kitty will steal Henrietta's fiance, a fabulously wealthy but terribly unkind man from a powerful family--thereby delivering the one-two punch of securing her now-fragile place on the social ladder and keeping her friend from a miserable marriage.
Then Kitty meets Max, a member of a band visiting New York from her father's Miami club, and her plans take a turn. Smitten, but still eager to convince her father of her commitment to Andre, Kitty and Hen follow Max, Andre, and the rest of the band back down to Miami--and later to Cuba. As Kitty spends more time with Max, she begins waking up to the beauty--and the injustice--of the world beyond her small, privileged corner of Manhattan. And when her well-intended yet manipulative efforts backfire, Kitty is forced to reconsider her choices and her future before she loses everyone she loves.
“Kitty Tessler, a headstrong glamour girl determined to move up in the world, steals the spotlight in Amber Brock’s latest, a tour-de-force filled with intrigue and surprises.” -- Fiona Davis, nationally bestselling author of The Address and The Dollhouse
