Sydney Zamora is fiercely independent, aggressively opinionated and utterly self-made. Armed with feminist ideals and a fashionista’s sense of style, this self-proclaimed feminista has reshaped her body, staked out her own little piece of Manhattan as a celebrity journalist and only dated men on her own terms. There’s just one problem: Sydney has never really let a man in. And now that she’s hitting her mid-thirties, she wants one. Badly.
Enter Mitzi Berman, a $40,000 a shot matchmaker forced on Sydney by her well-meaning sister-with-the-perfect-suburban-life (even if she does have a wife instead of a husband). Sydney is Mitzi’s most challenging project yet: she’s gorgeous but nearly impossible to set up with a man. Mitzi also has her eye on Max Cooper, scion of Harvey’s department store, the city’s chicest place to shop. But nothing could make either Sydney or Max Cooper run faster than Mitzi, with her inflexible instructions and her Brooklyn accent. And they might just wind up running into each other’s arms.
Feminista
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
This crazed black romantic comedy from journalist and author Kennedy (Bling) charts the rocky course of Sydney Zamora, a very angry single. The Cachet magazine writer decides, at 33, that she's got to get married before her eggs sour. So her rich sister hires Mitzi Berman, a successful Manhattan matchmaker, to find Sydney's Mr. Right. Mitzi's challenge, as she sees it, is transforming fierce feminista Sydney into a dress-wearing girly girl (says Mitzi: If you don't make some radical changes in your behavior, you will die alone). Catching Sydney's eye is the fabulous Max Cooper, the spoiled playboy heir of a department store fortune, but can her politics mix with his background? Truly, their path to connubial bliss is barbed with obstacles, charted with sarcastic glee by Kennedy, a pioneer of chick lit's naughty stepsister—bitch lit. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"Every successful woman with an 'S' for single on her chest (and a target on her back) can relate as Sydney struggles with wanting to ‘be the girl’ and be in constant control. The great thing about this hilarious novel is that Erica Kennedy makes us wonder if that's possible while also questioning whether it's necessary." --Helena Andrews, author of Bitch Is The New Black
"Feminista is smart, hilarious, and totally of the moment. Every feminist fashionista will find herself on these pages, as Erica Kennedy uses wit and verve to take a look at some of the tough decisions women have to make on the road to having it all. One of the most enjoyable reads of the year."-- Rebecca Walker, author of Baby Love: Choosing Motherhood After a Lifetime of Ambivalence.
"Why can't all women's fiction be as funny, smart and witty as Feminista?"--Anna David, author of Bought and Party Girl
“Kennedy tweaks the template to create a beautiful, biracial, brainy heroine, far hipper than chick-lit is used to.”—Kirkus Reviews
"Feminista is a love story for women, like Sydney, who aren’t quite sure they still believe in love. A feminist page-turner that will have readers laughing in recognition of the twists and turns of the dating jungle." --Rachel Kramer Bussel, editor of Fast Girls
“A story of two people that may be perfect for each other despite their differences set amid the flash of New York City.”—News and Sentinel (Parkersburg, WV)
“Feminista [boasts an] unapologetically ballsy protagonist, Sydney, a writer who finds love almost despite herself.”—www.thefrisky.com
“In turn uplifting, funny, a little sad and always, always entertaining.”—www.bookshipper.blogspot.com
“Erica Kennedy's Feminista is funny, charming, and just possibly too close to home…Sydney is hardly a typical heroine.”—www.opednews.com
“Kennedy jazzes up the chick-lit formula with a cast of colorful characters and plots inspired by TMZ and Page Six…readers will enjoy Kennedy’s humor (she’s a master of the well-aimed zinger) and the fictionalized real-life dramas she inserts in the story.”--Newsday
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By jamyla bennu
Format:Hardcover
So, i keep hearing this book described as "bitch lit," a title I appreciate and welcome, like "dick flick," for its evocative and tongue in cheek twist on a popular phrase. But I didn't actually think the main character Sydney was a bitch. She was certainly more... prickly than your average romantic novel heroine, but imho it wasn't as simple as that.
Sydney is trying to work out her politics in a messy world which doesn't always cooperate with her, and rather than branding her a bitch I found myself empathizing with that aspect of her personality. Given the title and blurbage of the book, I expected a successful, fashionable heroine with strong feelings about independence and feminism, who does not want to shape herself according to male expectation; sure enough Sydney shows herself to be a woman who has internalized and identified with her politics, feels like the world is not entirely on her side, and has never found a man with whom she could let her guard down.
Her search for such a man forms the crux of the story, and as the book chronicles her steps and stumbles I think it totally works as light romantic lit - the people are beautiful, well-off, successful, and inhabit a world of glamor gossip and high fashion. There are fancy expensive restaurants, designer shoes, the occasional heiress. Therapists, celebrity matchmakers, and fabulous parties.
But there's more here, too. And what makes it refreshing is the main character's nontraditional - even borderline resentful - relationship with these typical ingredients, as well as the other things her prickly personality bring to the table. Sydney's conflict about her tokenism, her relationship to food and to her body, her discomfort with her salary and the 'complicated relationship to luxury goods' that is central to the story all bring up concepts of class, race, and gender which are more than a character ordinarily has to reconcile within the pages of light romantic fare - and I think Kennedy does an excellent job of portraying Sydney's struggles to figure it all out. She needs not just a great man, after all, but one with whom she can be herself, prickles and all.
Modern, savvy, thinking women have to make these kinds of social and political negotiations constantly, all while navigating the intersecting matrices of race, class, sexuality, and of course gender. I think Kennedy inserts these ideas quite smoothly into a new-millenium girl-meets-boy story in a way that brings them up and respects them, but also protects the story from getting too heavy to fly under its own snarky power. The book remains a page turner, with story angles shifting left and right, lots of humor, and a rollicking pace that is maintained up to the very end. It's light, but not fluffy, with a little something to chew on.
Sydney is trying to work out her politics in a messy world which doesn't always cooperate with her, and rather than branding her a bitch I found myself empathizing with that aspect of her personality. Given the title and blurbage of the book, I expected a successful, fashionable heroine with strong feelings about independence and feminism, who does not want to shape herself according to male expectation; sure enough Sydney shows herself to be a woman who has internalized and identified with her politics, feels like the world is not entirely on her side, and has never found a man with whom she could let her guard down.
Her search for such a man forms the crux of the story, and as the book chronicles her steps and stumbles I think it totally works as light romantic lit - the people are beautiful, well-off, successful, and inhabit a world of glamor gossip and high fashion. There are fancy expensive restaurants, designer shoes, the occasional heiress. Therapists, celebrity matchmakers, and fabulous parties.
But there's more here, too. And what makes it refreshing is the main character's nontraditional - even borderline resentful - relationship with these typical ingredients, as well as the other things her prickly personality bring to the table. Sydney's conflict about her tokenism, her relationship to food and to her body, her discomfort with her salary and the 'complicated relationship to luxury goods' that is central to the story all bring up concepts of class, race, and gender which are more than a character ordinarily has to reconcile within the pages of light romantic fare - and I think Kennedy does an excellent job of portraying Sydney's struggles to figure it all out. She needs not just a great man, after all, but one with whom she can be herself, prickles and all.
Modern, savvy, thinking women have to make these kinds of social and political negotiations constantly, all while navigating the intersecting matrices of race, class, sexuality, and of course gender. I think Kennedy inserts these ideas quite smoothly into a new-millenium girl-meets-boy story in a way that brings them up and respects them, but also protects the story from getting too heavy to fly under its own snarky power. The book remains a page turner, with story angles shifting left and right, lots of humor, and a rollicking pace that is maintained up to the very end. It's light, but not fluffy, with a little something to chew on.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Why I Decided To Read It: I loved Erica Kennedy's first novel, the hip-hop roman a clef, BLING, and I've basically been waiting for her to write another novel for over four years now.
What's It About: It's about a writer, trying to find the perfect mate.I know what you're thinking: Isn't all chicklit about a writer trying to find the perfect mate? Same ole. Same ole. But in this case you're wrong. See below.
What Makes It Different: The main character, Sydney Zamora, has an extremely strong personality. She's also smart and (gasp!) a feminist. Also, the love interest is complicated in a way that you'd expect a scion to be complicated in real life -- but they're rarely depicted this way in other chick lit and women's fiction.
What I Loved: I can't remember the last time I read something romantic with a main character that described herself as a feminist. How refreshing. I also like that she was a complicated feminist and seemed to live by her own rulebook for Feminism. Plus, she's mean. I love mean women. Also, the book is laugh-out-loud funny and really readable to the point where I had trouble putting it down. I really hope that Ms. Kennedy doesn't make us wait another four years for her next novel.
What I Didn't Like: Well, I found Sydney Zamora unlikeable, b/c she didn't seem to like anybody else. She had a problem with every single woman and man she came in contact with and was incredibly judgmental. Usually that would stop me reading, BUT in this case the character was so complex, and the writing was so good, that I kept on turning pages to the end. All in all, I would say that Sydney Zamora is extremely compelling if not immensely likeable.
What's It About: It's about a writer, trying to find the perfect mate.I know what you're thinking: Isn't all chicklit about a writer trying to find the perfect mate? Same ole. Same ole. But in this case you're wrong. See below.
What Makes It Different: The main character, Sydney Zamora, has an extremely strong personality. She's also smart and (gasp!) a feminist. Also, the love interest is complicated in a way that you'd expect a scion to be complicated in real life -- but they're rarely depicted this way in other chick lit and women's fiction.
What I Loved: I can't remember the last time I read something romantic with a main character that described herself as a feminist. How refreshing. I also like that she was a complicated feminist and seemed to live by her own rulebook for Feminism. Plus, she's mean. I love mean women. Also, the book is laugh-out-loud funny and really readable to the point where I had trouble putting it down. I really hope that Ms. Kennedy doesn't make us wait another four years for her next novel.
What I Didn't Like: Well, I found Sydney Zamora unlikeable, b/c she didn't seem to like anybody else. She had a problem with every single woman and man she came in contact with and was incredibly judgmental. Usually that would stop me reading, BUT in this case the character was so complex, and the writing was so good, that I kept on turning pages to the end. All in all, I would say that Sydney Zamora is extremely compelling if not immensely likeable.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
FEMINISTA by Erica Kennedy is the second book by this author, but if you are expecting the same type of read as Bling, it is not to be, as this book is not only different, she has an entire community that is discussing FEMINISTA and feminist issues on Twitter, Facebook and her own blogspot. In fact, I told the author I was about to read this while on Twitter and she told me the book is described as "Bitch-Lit" but I didn't see it.
While Sydney Zamora is independent, aggressive and handles her business, "bitchy" is not what comes to mind for me as I read her story. After chasing a career for 12 years, she's ready to find the man who can deal with her independent spirit. She is ready to be a wife, mother and raise a family AND still continue to have her career. So, in order to do that, she enlists her sister Liz to help, who talks to her better half about the plan. She does not agree to help, in case she doesn't like the guy, the plan won't backfire. With that Liz, hires Mitzi Berman, a professional matchmaker, to help Sydney find Mr. Right. It was the best story line for me, because of the interaction between them as Mitzi sizes up and "reads" Sydney and Sydney..well you'll see. Along the way, you meet funny characters some who had me "laughing out loud" with antics that were over the top, yet I could visualize them and they were down right entertaining.
Thanks Ms. Kennedy for a fun book that gives us what I most like in a book, great characters that I can escape with for a few hours and who leave a lasting impression and allows for a GREAT discussion.
Reviewed by Linda Chavis
for The RAWSISTAZ(tm) Reviewers
While Sydney Zamora is independent, aggressive and handles her business, "bitchy" is not what comes to mind for me as I read her story. After chasing a career for 12 years, she's ready to find the man who can deal with her independent spirit. She is ready to be a wife, mother and raise a family AND still continue to have her career. So, in order to do that, she enlists her sister Liz to help, who talks to her better half about the plan. She does not agree to help, in case she doesn't like the guy, the plan won't backfire. With that Liz, hires Mitzi Berman, a professional matchmaker, to help Sydney find Mr. Right. It was the best story line for me, because of the interaction between them as Mitzi sizes up and "reads" Sydney and Sydney..well you'll see. Along the way, you meet funny characters some who had me "laughing out loud" with antics that were over the top, yet I could visualize them and they were down right entertaining.
Thanks Ms. Kennedy for a fun book that gives us what I most like in a book, great characters that I can escape with for a few hours and who leave a lasting impression and allows for a GREAT discussion.
Reviewed by Linda Chavis
for The RAWSISTAZ(tm) Reviewers
Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not a re-read for sure
This book was ok, with a few funny parts but more slow parts. I loved her first book so much I read it almost every year when I am in between books and can't find any new good... Read more
Published 5 days ago by jazwa
5.0 out of 5 stars
Feminista
So far, it's been a good read...I'm looking forward to purchasing the late Ms. Kennedy's other books. She will be missed...
Published 1 month ago by Robin Adams
5.0 out of 5 stars
Always Great
This is Erica's last published book and I am going to take my time with this one...she was my favorite writer! So far so good and I want to read fast but I won't! Read more
Published 5 months ago by Rosita A. Artis
5.0 out of 5 stars
FeministA
If you've read Bling and liked that then you'd love Feminista. Very well drawn story of a accidental fairy tale. It's hilarious and will leave you cheering for Max and Sydney.
Published 12 months ago by I ADORE JADA AND BORN
2.0 out of 5 stars
Horrible
There is too much profanity in this book on almost every page. I don't want to keep this book. I don't want to give it away, donate it ether. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Ms Cam
2.0 out of 5 stars
Very Disappointed
I LOVED Erica Kennedy's 1st novel "Bling". It was fluff, but it was a fun entertaining read. I was excited to read "Feminista" b/c of Kennedy & the reviews. Read more
Published on October 4, 2010 by Kimmie
4.0 out of 5 stars
Multi-Culti Chick Lit
Sydney is an multi-culti celebrity journalist who decides that her biological clock is ticking and she needs to do something about it. Read more
Published on August 15, 2010 by Candace
5.0 out of 5 stars
Differrent and Exceptional!!
Ms. Kennedy has taken her writing skills to another level. Can't wait for her next book!! You can tell that she took her time writing this novel. For it shows. Read more
Published on February 3, 2010 by Kisha Townes
3.0 out of 5 stars
Have I read this before?
Pure curiosity -- that's my reason for reading this novel. Sometimes it is nice to lose yourself in someone else's neurotic drama. Read more
Published on January 24, 2010 by Kharabella
4.0 out of 5 stars
Prince Charming Better Have Some Heavy Armor!
Syndney Zamora is one helluva woman--hell being the operative word. She's a sharp-tongued, take no prisoners, self-made single woman in the city with a Helen Reddy perception of... Read more
Published on December 24, 2009 by K.L. Brady "Karla"
