cover image Satin Doll

Satin Doll

Karen E. Quinones Miller. Simon & Schuster, $21 (320pp) ISBN 978-0-7432-1433-9

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. ()