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Playing with Boys: A Novel, by Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez
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When Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez' first novel was published last year, it caused a sensation. Readers flocked to the story of six friends in Boston because both the voice and the characters Valdes-Rodriguez created were utterly fresh. A brand new, large, and eager audience came out for a book they felt had been created just for them-young American women whose Hispanic side had been overlooked by commercial novels until The Dirty Girls Social Club.
In Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez' delicious new novel-each a Latina in her late 20's -take Los Angeles by storm in Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez' delicious new novel. Marcella, Olivia and Alexis have bonded not only over the trouble with men but about how tough it is to make life work in L.A. no matter what you do. Marcella is a hot young television actress, hardly able to enjoy the life she's bought for herself and certainly not enjoying her body, which is never quite perfect enough. Olivia's boy is her toddler son-and she's tethered to him and to her suburban mommy track so tightly the other girls sometimes cringe. Alexis has a smart mouth and an ample body; she's a beautiful musicians' manager with loads of style but about enough self-esteem to fill a Prada card case. Her complicated love affair with the casually sexy Cuban rapper Goyo is a deeply satisfying romance that will delight readers almost as much as the emotional richness and girly fun of the heroines' friendship.
- Sales Rank: #2983182 in Books
- Brand: St Martins Press
- Published on: 2004-09-01
- Released on: 2004-08-26
- Ingredients: Example Ingredients
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.60" h x 1.24" w x 6.34" l,
- Binding: Hardcover
- 368 pages
From Publishers Weekly
Three very different Latina women vow to bring Los Angeles to its collective knees in this funny, guilty pleasure of a novel, which bears some resemblance to its author's previous hit, The Dirty Girls Social Club. Dallas-born talent agent Alexis Lopez is trying to break her fellow Meximericans, a band called Los Chimpances del Norte, into the big-time spotlight, but she's also looking for new blood. Enter Marcella Gauthier Bosch, a half-French bad-girl actress, once a star of Spanish-language soap operas and now aching for a mainstream movie career that doesn't involve being cast as a maid or a hooker. All she needs is a serious, Latina-focused script—and that's where Olivia Reyes comes in. The shy, dowdy stay-at-home mom is still traumatized by the memory of seeing her father gunned down by Salvadoran soldiers. But she also has a serious, autobiographical screenplay, and Alexis convinces her to let Alexis show it around—with the idea that Marcella will be perfect as Soledad, Olivia's mother. Complications abound, of course—there's Olivia's cheating husband, Marcella's disdain for men in general and a Cuban rap star who seems determined to break Alexis's heart—but so do the laughs. There's Alexis's middle-aged white ex-boyfriend who thinks he's a teenage gangsta, Marcella's latent-goth suitor and the good ol' hard-drinking, beer-gutted, coke-addled Mexican boys of Los Chimpances del Norte. While the action is slow and the novel repetitive in places—Alexis turns whining about her small breasts into an art form—this is a funny, heartfelt piece of escapism, Latina-style.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
"Playing with Boys is a testament to the powers of women wrapped up in a pretty Cinderella story times three."—Albuquerque Journal
"A beach read that . . . might make you giggle and blush."—Chicago Sun-Times
"As Marcella, Alexis, and Olivia grapple with men and their careers, they really don’t seem all that different from Bridget Jones herself."—Miami Herald
"The three amigas—a television actress, a single mother, and a manager of musicians—each has her own distinct lifestyle, quirks, and notions of romance, yet each manages to help her friends find balance, along with loads of good times."—Sacramento Bee
"Three very different Latina women vow to bring Los Angeles to its collective knees in this funny, guilty pleasure of a novel . . . [A] heartfelt piece of escapism."—Publishers Weekly
From the Inside Flap
Praise for The Dirty Girls Social Club:
"...a fresh spin on the best-of-friends novel that's funny, touching, and exhilarating. A winner!"
- Jennifer Crusie, author of Faking It
"Don't dare lump this novel in with…Sex and the City knockoffs. Yes, it's a compulsive beach read, but the women are smart, brassy, and messy enough to make you pause mid-sunscreen slathering."
- Entertainment Weekly
"The feel of a night out with the girls…charming…undeniably fun."
- Miami Herald
"This lively debut novel…reads like the Hispanic version of Waiting to Exhale."
- New York
Most helpful customer reviews
14 of 16 people found the following review helpful.
"Playing" around
By EA Solinas
Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez cornered the Latina chick-lit market with her debut, "The Dirty Girls Social Club." But she hits the sophomore slump in "Playing With Boys," an overstretched story about defying the cliches that dog Hispanic women. It's a good idea, just not executed well.
Alexis Lopez is a slightly overweight talent agent, with a nasty "gangsta" boyfriend and a longing to break Meximericans into the spotlight. She finds her possible breakout star in Marcella Gauthier Bosch, a stunning rich wild child who wants to be a serious actress, but keeps getting offered roles as "maids" and "crack whores."
As Alexis struggles to find Marcella an outstanding role with no jiggle, she encounters Olivia. Olivia is a dowdy, traumatized young mom, with a crumbling marriage. But she's also written the brilliant "Soledad," a screenplay that chronicles her mother's life -- the perfect vehicle for Marcella. All three women struggle to bring "Soledad" to the screen, and struggle just as hard to deal with their delicate relationships with men...
At first glance, this sounds like a feisty romp, with three very different Latinas plotting to challenge the behemoth that is Hollywood. It's a cool idea, and one ripe to be explored. Unfortunately, Valdes-Rodriguez doesn't give it everything it needs to really bloom. There's too much book here for too little plot -- it putters out about halfway through the book, and just sort of limps to a finale.
This is probably the only book I've ever read where the women think about sex about fifty times more often than the men. In fact, at times it seems to be all the women think about -- even the joyless Olivia checks out porn. If Valdes-Rodriguez wants to portray Hispanic women in a uncliched light, she might want to avoid that. Her writing is solid enough, with looks at the different lifestyles and social positions of L.A., with a look at how hard it is to get a stereotype-free role in Hollywood if you aren't a blonde Caucasian.
While Valdes-Rodriguez succeeds in making three radically different women, only one of them is really likable. Olivia is as faded as her sneakers -- she doesn't register a single emotion you can identify with. Marcella is a little too insistently wild and decadent, not to mention bitter. The ultra-nice Alexis is much more likable, with her seemingly hopeless love for a sexy Cuban rapper and body image problems.
Valdes-Rodriguez had a good idea, just not the characters and plot to flesh it out. "Playing with Boys" is a dullish, overstretched slice of chick-lit, without much to make it come to life.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
A novel with serious themes underneath a light and fun tone
By Bookreporter
Alexis Lopez is a transplanted Texas conservative living among the liberal left in PLAYING WITH BOYS, the latest novel by Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, whose first was the bestselling THE DIRTY GIRLS SOCIAL CLUB. Alexis manages Latino musicians and her most famous band is the Los Chimpances del Norte, a Norteno band that is world famous among those of Hispanic persuasion.
The opening chapter has poor Alexis worrying over the band, all of whom are misbehaving badly at an exclusive party honoring the band members who had just donated $5,000,000 to UCLA's Center for Chicano Studies. The band, dressed in brightly colored outfits with huge belt buckles, is embarrassing Alexis, who believes in dressing conservatively in public, especially at these high-society functions. She also believes that those with money would know how to behave appropriately, but this rule does not seem to apply to "The Chimps." These men are millionaires, yet here they are at this fancy party groping the female guests.
One of the women who the bandleader, Filoberto, decides to grope is a famous Latina actress, Marcella Gauthier Bosch, known for those popular Mexican telenovelas. Alexis doesn't recognize the actress at first, because Marcella is working as a server at the party. When she explains to Alexis who she really is, Alexis is star-struck. At the same time, Alexis does not understand why this wonderful actress is working at a party when she should be the star of the party.
After Alexis saves Marcella from the hands of Filoberto, she bumps into Samuel, who had helped her set up the party and the donation to UCLA. Standing next to him is a very petite woman who turns out to be his wife. She's very quiet, shy and insecure, but once they get to talking, Alexis finds out that Olivia has written the script for an intriguing movie.
The three women's lives become entwined, as Alexis decides to buy Olivia's script and make it into a movie starring Marcella as the woman who portrays Olivia's mother, Soledad. Soledad and Olivia had witnessed the murder of Olivia's father in San Salvador many years ago, and this movie is the story of Soledad's life. As the deal is inked in pen, the three women bond and become unlikely friends.
In the meantime, Alexis is having boyfriend problems, and Daniel, a Pulitzer Prize-winning news reporter, becomes rather psychotic after she decides to break up with him. Soon after the breakup, she meets (by accident, literally) a handsome Cuban named Vladimir (Goyo), who takes the reader to Cuba and the story of his girlfriend, who is still trapped there, living in an oppressed country without any freedoms. Alexis feels an immediate attraction to this man and has no idea that their lives will soon intersect in more ways than one.
PLAYING WITH BOYS takes on a light tone throughout, but underneath the comedy lies a more serious theme. While Alexis's Hispanic friends are living a life taken for granted in the heart of Los Angeles, the stories of Soledad and Goyo remind them of what it was like for their friends and families before they came to the United States. Olivia suffers through reoccurring nightmares of what she experienced as a child in her homeland of El Salvador, while Goyo dreams of his lost love trapped in Cuba. And through it all, Alexis, Olivia and Marcella become friends despite their differences. What they share are universal feelings about men, relationships and what it is like to be a Hispanic American living in California.
It may take a while for the reader to get into the novel, as it takes some time to set up the characters and the plot. But once the reader gets past this, PLAYING WITH BOYS will keep one absorbed until the very end. The author does a good job describing Southern California, from the Valley to East Los Angeles and in between. The many different characters, both major and minor, are fun, fully developed and real. The story itself is original, with flashbacks to Goyo's and Olivia's childhoods, although the ending may be obvious to most readers. This reviewer gives PLAYING WITH BOYS four stars out of five and will definitely get a copy of THE DIRTY GIRLS SOCIAL CLUB.
--- Reviewed by Marie Hashima Lofton (Ratmammy@lofton.org)
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
Good & even inspiring read, but I could do without the politics and Jemima J references
By Danielle
I find it strange that I am the first to review this item, but not strange that it is now priced as a bargain book.
I decided to read this because I enjoyed this author's last work, The Dirty Girls Social Club. This was another good read, but there were entirely too many political references for me such as (ugh, she is a Republican or ugh, she is a Democrat). References I found out of place in a chick novel like this.
I also tired of Alexis' fat girl complaints, such as "nobody will like me", etc. etc. Also out of place in a chick novel ... we need more inspiring women!
But ... overall the book does not disappoint and there is quite a bit of inspiration in the story of these three women.
So enjoy the book but be wary of the political and "Jemima J" references. Chick lit readers will know what I am talking about!
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