Bling [Hardcover]

Erica Kennedy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 16, 2004

Cinderella remixed: an uninhibited, unputdownable novel about a small-town girl and the music mogul determined to turn her into a megastar.

When twenty-year-old Mimi travels from a small town in Ohio to New York for an audition with Lamont Jackson, head of the hottest hip-hop label in the business, she has no idea that her life is about to change overnight. The moment Lamont hears the beautiful young singer's silky voice, he signs her up in a bid to find mainstream success beyond the hip-hop charts. Soon Mimi is rocking the chicest designer clothes, hanging with an A-list crowd, and being escorted through the velvet ropes into the city's most exclusive clubs.

But everything comes with a price. As Lamont's new female star, Mimi is given the full makeover treatment. Fading supermodel Vanessa de la Cruz restyles bohemian Mimi into a ghetto fab glamour girl with outrageous shopping sprees at Prada and Gucci; Lena Whitaker, the hip-hop obsessed daughter of a powerful attorney, is handpicked by Lamont to become her club-hopping sidekick; and Mimi can't quite tell if her spotlight-craving record producer, Daryl "Country D" McHenry, is friend or foe.

As Mimi is seduced by the clothes, money, and decadent lifestyle of her new crowd, she comes to see that Lamont's own future in the recording industry rests on her inexperienced shoulders. Cinderella never felt pressure like this.

Fast-paced, sexy, and wickedly hilarious, Bling is a page-turner that grabs the reader from the very first line. Taking us inside the glittering world of New York's hip-hop scene with an unforgettable cast of characters, smart dialogue, and a whole lot of attitude, Erica Kennedy grabs the microphone and makes it clear that she is a major new voice.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In her debut novel Bling, Erica Kennedy exposes the dark underside of the hip-hop recording industry in the same way The Nanny Diaries outed the Park Avenue elite. Kennedy charts the course of Mimi, a small-town girl from Ohio who is discovered by Lamont Jackson, a hip-hop mogul who discards of gym clothing after one use and sends potential bedmates to his personal physician for a full work-up before hitting the sheets. Secondary characters like Lena Whitaker, the spoiled daughter of an LA lawyer who unknowingly foots the bill for trinkets like a $15,000 diamond necklace for Crazy G, Lena's booty call of the month, and Lamont's cocaine-snorting, Gucci-wearing, sister-in-law Vanessa de la Cruz, quickly become Mimi's image and social consultants. Rounding out the crew are a host of rappers who work for Lamont, including Ernesto, aka Phat E, a bear of a man who "raps about his slick girl-getting abilities" yet goes home every night to his high-school sweetheart Renee, who "was proud to walk the halls with Ernesto even though he had ballooned to 280 pounds by senior prom."

Bling takes readers on an insider's tour of the world of parties in the Hamptons, VIP lounges, fashion shows, and Tribeca penthouses. In fact, the tour is so intimate that many readers will recognize thinly veiled faces along the way, like Ally C., the blond-haired, blue-eyed publicist from Long Island, and Irv Greene, the aging music executive from Brooklyn. Kennedy leaves no stone unturned; there's even a prepubescent rapper aptly named Billy Tha Kid. All these details make for a very long book, and by the end, readers may find themselves skimming the pages to find out what eventually happens. Still, for anyone who has ever wondered what goes through the minds of P. Diddy and his entourage as they emerge from the Escalade, Bling promises to enthrall and entertain. --Gisele Toueg

From Publishers Weekly

Hip-hop's sexed-up commercial side meets its gangsta roots in this sassy beach read debut. Eternal playboy Lamont Jackson is the larger-than-life head of hip-hop label Triple Large Entertainment, and Mimi Jean, a sexy, naïve 20-year-old with golden pipes, is his newest protégé. Mimi's whirlwind life among New York's glitterati is paved with Lamont's money and guided with either love or malice by his many hangers-on, including wild child Lena, level-headed assistant Imani and height-challenged A&R rep Daryl. Mimi gets the makeover of her life in her rise to the top—a vocal coach, a new wardrobe and a boob job—as Lamont grooms his star. The label's gangsta-style rappers (Flo$$, Radickulys, MC Grimy, etc.) introduce a bit of badass into Mimi's glossy world. And it doesn't take long until Lamont and sweet little Mimi are burning up the sheets. The writing is pretty pedestrian, but who cares? Kennedy offers salacious details to spice up the already over-the-top premise. A firmer editorial hand could have chopped out a couple hundred pages and made the tale sleeker and just as lip-smacking. But then readers wouldn't get to play as many games of who's-really-who: was Lena inspired by Nicole Richie? Is Mimi Mariah Carey and Lamont Sonny Mottolla? Entertainment journalist Kennedy should find her own star rising with this urban fairy tale.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 528 pages
• Publisher: Miramax (June 16, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401352154
• ISBN-13: 978-1401352158
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (91 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,633,465 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A splash debut, June 2, 2004

By 

Cydney Rax "rmn1994" (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bling (Hardcover)

Lucrative recording contracts, shopping sprees, singing stars, paparazzi, sex, and life lived on the hip-hop edge. This is what you'll find in BLING, the splashy debut by Erica Kennedy. The story centers on Mimi, a twenty-something girl from Ohio who dreams of getting a record contract. She and her singing friends travel to New York to make the dream come true. The road the Mimi travels is one she could never predict and her life changes almost instantly when she hooks up with a hip-hop producer named Lamont.

The book is filled with short chapters and the plot moves at a fast pace. BLING is a likable page-turner. It provides a fascinating glimpse of the recording industry and can provide as a textbook of sorts for those who aspire to become a part of the hip-hop industry. There are tons of characters in this book, and at times the lines are belly-aching funny. There's plenty of fresh and hip characters who all talk the latest lingo, all of which may have you think you're reading from the pages of VIBE. Most of the characters will make you try to guess the real-life counterparts because there are plenty of similarities between BLING's subplots and actual hip-hop celebrities.

The only distractions are the mountains of background information about the minor characters. These narratives somewhat diminish the action and intensity of the story, but nevertheless BLING is an out-the-box hit; it's a recommended read that should appeal to those who love urban fiction, hip-hop music, and rags to riches African-American stories.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Aight! Too Long, April 11, 2005

By 

Jordan McCray (Wilmington, DE) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bling (Hardcover)

The beginning of the book does move at a fast pace, and keeps you interested. Things kind of go crazy in the last third of the book. The ending is actually a let down, very boring. The entire thing between mimi and Lamont was just way too forced.

I am from Ohio, and did not really like the way Mimi was played as some backwoods, country hick. Very stereotypical of east coasters to portray the Midwest that way.

There was a point where the number of characters became confusing. And some of the side stories like Sum Wun, and Rayshaun (I was looking for his character to really play a part, then..nothing!) and others definitely needed a good editor.
Her use of adverbs to describe dialogue became really irritating.
he said hesitantly
she said irritably
Again, the sign that her editor did not do their job.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Bling is BLAH!, August 6, 2004

By 

J. R. Elder (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bling (Hardcover)

I am disappointed in this book. It seems as if the writer just strung together a bunch of stereotypes and real life situations (names changed to protect the guilty)and called it a book. The writing seemed fake and titling the chapters after rap songs was just corny. I should have known something was wrong when, out of all the good hip-hop in the world, she reprinted lyrics by 50 Cent. I don't think this book is imaginative or creative at all.