Beyond the Blonde

Readers hoping for more hauteur la Bergdorf Blondes can reach for this debut by a celebrity colorist at a Manhattan salon. Flynn-Hui's alter ego, sweet but street-smart Georgia, works miracles for a bevy of glamour girls at Jean-Luc, the "epicenter of beautification." Georgia's own humble roots are worlds away from those of her clients, whom she categorizes by neighborhood (there's the Greenwich, the Beverly Hills and the Short Hills—"the Greenwich with a serious inferiority complex"). Georgia's mother, Doreen, runs the classiest salon in their neck of New Hampshire, but struggles to stay afloat, which is why she prodded her daughter toward the big city, where Georgia worked her way up from sweeping Jean-Luc's floors to wowing his clients. But like the best dye jobs, the salon's artifice of amity conceals the darkness beneath. Ups and downs ensue—from workplace romance to blithe betrayal—all barely noticed by the coddled clientele. Knifed in the back, Georgia and her friends resolve to decamp for grittier downtown digs, hoping to take their clients with them—but Jean-Luc himself is a force to reckon with, and Georgia struggles with her own crisis of confidence. Snarky but not overly stinging, this read is as kicky and flirty as a head of highlights.