cover image Copycat

Copycat

Kimberla Lawson Roby. Grand Central, $20 (192p) ISBN 978-1-4555-6971-7

Bestseller Roby’s idea to bring a copycat nightmare to life strains credibility because of too many plot holes. It’s hard to believe that Traci Calloway Cole, a bestselling new author, would befriend Simone Phillips, a stranger and unpublished writer, just because they ended up at the same high-end hair salon, especially when Traci’s short-lived friendship with another writer went terribly sour. Still, Traci interrupts her busy schedule to read Simone’s chapters, helps her get an agent, and promises to push the book on her own website. Her husband and sisters are suspicious of Simone, who, among other peculiar things, adopts Traci’s appearance—down to her eyebrow shape, hair color, and hairstyle, using extensions to complete the look. Why doesn’t all this make her wary of this new person in her life? Simone blithely goes into credit card debt to duplicate Traci’s expensive accessories and clothing, puts the same costly appliances and furniture in her rental condo to exactly replicate the rooms in the successful author’s home, and requires her fiancé to leave his family’s church so they can join Traci’s place of worship, all without considering that she might be doing anything out of the ordinary. But the weakest turn occurs when Simone plagiarizes Traci’s first novel and tries to pass it off as her own. Roby’s Pollyannaish approach and simplistic resolution to a complicated situation unfortunately fall flat.[em] (Jan.) [/em]