Women's Fiction, African Americans - Fiction & Literature, Conflicts - Fiction, Occupations - Fiction
Log in to track your reading progress.
Overview
Until that fateful moment when she was shot and left for dead, Regina Harris was living la vida loca with pimps and hustlers and using whatever money she had to get high and forget that she was living in poverty in Harlem. Now she's a college graduate and journalist who has turned her life around, living on the Upper West Side and hobnobbing with movers and shakers. She's become the classy Satin Doll of the Duke Ellington song...but she's never forgotten where she's from.On a night out partying with her homegirls in Harlem, Regina meets aspiring lawyer Charles Whitfield, who comes from a prominent, upper-class black family in Philadelphia. As a relationship begins, Regina tries desperately to hide her former life -- and her friendships with Yvonne, who's a single mother looking for a man; Tamika, who's raising two kids while their father does time; and Puddin', who has a weakness for bad boys and weed. But when Regina's past is revealed, it threatens to destroy both her relationship with Charles and the life she has worked so hard to create.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly
A major house has picked up another self-published novel, Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Karen E. Quinones Miller's Satin Doll, after it hit the BlackBoard African-American bestseller list. The writing here is better and the plot more successfully imagined than most other offerings in this genre. After years of living on the edge in Harlem, Regina Harris is shot and violently beaten. She decides to change her life, attending college, getting work as a writer and finding love with Charles Whitfield, a well-bred, aspiring politician. But Regina's past, Charles's present and the class differences between the two threaten both their relationship and Charles's career. () Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.Kirkus Reviews
A now-revised first novel, originally self-published, graphically celebrates a girl from the 'hood who makes it on her own by knowing how and when to fight back. Miller, a reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer, knows the territory: her depictions of Harlem, Philadelphia's African-American bourgeoisie, and the drug-and-club scene all have an admirable authenticity. But, unfortunately, the story told by her protagonist, Regina Harris, never engages: poor but beautiful Regina needs to demonstrate throughout that even a young woman with a bad past can survive and remain true to herself. Brought up in Harlem, Regina is a model daughter until her widowed mother dies, overwhelmed by coping with Regina's older sister Brenda, a crack addict with a newborn infant. Young Regina tries to take care of baby Renee, but there's no money, and she fears Renee will be put in foster care. Regina starts shoplifting, then doing sexual favors for rich drug dealers, but after she's wounded in the melee surrounding a drug deal turned violent, she decides to go straight. She graduates from college and becomes a remarkably well-paid and successful freelance writer. Still, she can't escape her past, even when she marries handsome Charles Whitfield, a lawyer and the only son of well-to-do black Philadelphians. When Charles runs for Congress, his opponent releases information about Regina's history to the press. The couple weathers the storm, Charles is elected, and Regina gives birth soon after to a daughter. The marriage breaks down, though, when she learns he's been unfaithful. Regina, hanging tough, has her own ideas about revenge—and the future. Sadly, our heroine is no role model but just a satindoll, doing what's expected in a story that is more a gussied-up concept than a credible delineation.Book Details
Published
June 28, 2005
Publisher
Pocket Books
Pages
318
Format
Paperbound
ISBN
9780743482455