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CHANGING FACES by Kimberla Lawson Roby

CHANGING FACES

by Kimberla Lawson Roby

Pub Date: Feb. 1st, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-078077-0
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins

Three longtime best friends find their relationship strained when one of them goes off the deep end.

Chicagoans Whitney, Taylor and Charisse have been a close-knit trio since college. Big, beautiful Whitney has a good job in telecommunications, along with a serious food addiction. Single and eager to lose weight in time for her 20th high-school reunion, she meets sexy Rico at her gym. Rico is willing to help her get fit, but is this new workout partner too good to be true? Elegant lawyer Taylor avoids dealing with a debilitating medical condition, risking both her health and her relationship with commitment-phobic architect boyfriend Cameron. And pious Charisse is a control-freak nurse and mother of two with serious mental problems she has managed to keep under wraps. Charrise is also a cruel hypocrite, keeping several ugly secrets. Why Taylor and Whitney tolerate her at all is never adequately explained. Her orderly façade cracks for good when her long-suffering husband Marvin decides to finally stand up for himself (he begins skipping church and moves into the guest bedroom). This loss of control enrages Charisse and she begins to fantasize about how she will “take care of” all the people who have wronged her. Her vengeance extends to Whitney, who uses her new-found confidence to finally confront Charisse about her bullying ways. This encounter, among others, builds to a vicious, though not particularly surprising, act of violence.

Sin and secrets in a lurid, uneven melodrama.