15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
"Playing" around, October 2, 2004
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.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good & even inspiring read, but I could do without the politics and Jemima J references, December 3, 2005
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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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A novel with serious themes underneath a light and fun tone, September 17, 2004
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)
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