cover image Queen of Miami

Queen of Miami

Meta Smith, . . Warner, $13.99 (276pp) ISBN 978-0-446-69853-5

Maddeningly clichéd, yet as entertaining as daytime talk show brawls, Smith's second novel treads on the same turf as her street lit debut, Rolexxx Club : the hip-hop gutter. When Bobbi Hayes, a sexual conquistador and "one of the hottest DJs in Miami," crosses paths with Mikhail Petrov, a shady club owner of the Russian underworld persuasion, she falls easily under the sway of the immensely and illicitly rich Mikhail and accepts a DJ job on his yacht cruise to Greece. He eventually gives her the run of Babylon, the Hope diamond of the Miami club scene. Money can't buy love, but it certainly numbs the senses of the supposedly streetwise Bobbi, who is used by Mikhail as a front for devious activity that all but the dead, blind or totally naïve could see. As the relationship between Bobbi and Mikhail hits the skids and bodies start dropping, Bobbi turns to hunky club security chief Q in one last effort to find someone to trust. But is it too late? The cornucopia of sex, name dropping and hip-hop melodrama is bound to be gobbled up by fans of the genre. (Mar.)