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A Novel
by Amy Rossi
Find them early enough, and they will always be her girls.
Birdie Rhodes was only thirteen when legendary modeling agent Harriet Goldman discovered her in a department store and transformed her into one of Harriet's Girls. What followed felt like the start of something incredible, a chance for shy Birdie to express herself in front of the camera. But two years later, she meets a thirty-one-year-old rock star, and her teenage heart falls hard as he leads her into a new life, despite Harriet's warnings. Then, as abruptly as it began, it's over, like a lipstick-smeared fever dream. Birdie tries hard to forget that time—starting over in Paris, in the dying embers of the LA punk scene, in Boston at the height of the AIDS crisis. She's not that person anymore. At least, that's what she's been telling herself.
Decades later, Birdie lives a quiet life. She works modest gigs, takes Pilates and mostly keeps to herself. Maybe it's not the glamor she once envisioned, but it's peaceful. Comfortable. Then a letter arrives, inviting Birdie to celebrate Harriet's fifty-year career. Except Birdie hasn't spoken to her in nearly thirty years—with good reason.
Almost famous, almost destroyed, Birdie can only make her own future if she reckons with her past—the fame, the trauma, the opportunities she gave up for a man who brought her into a life she wasn't ready for. Just like she's not ready now. But the painful truth waits for nobody. Not even Birdie Rhodes.
Told in two timelines, this striking debut novel explores the dizzying fallout of being seen and not heard in a high-stakes industry that leaves no silhouette unscathed.
"Thrilling and glamourous as its runways and backstage parties, The Cover Girl is also heartbreaking and redemptive with an ending that made me cry. Birdie is a singular, unforgettable character whose story encapsulates so much of what led up to the #MeToo movement, and why the movement was so necessary. I look forward to reading whatever Amy Rossi writes next!" —Ana Reyes, New York Times bestselling author of The House in the Pines
"Who's to blame when a beautiful girl becomes a rock star's muse before she can even drive? The Cover Girl is a haunting meditation on the price of fame, the slipperiness of memory, and the long tail of #MeToo. Almost Famous meets She Said, this book will stay with you long after its final page." —Alison B. Hart, author of April May June July
"The Cover Girl is an unforgettable, unputdownable, well-told retrospective that pierces the mesmerizing facade of rock star worship, and the glitter and glamour of the beauty and fashion industries. Amy Rossi crafts an intimate story of how one woman confronts her fractured past to heal, emerge and move forward." —Monica Chenault-Kilgore, author of The Jewel of the Blues
This information about The Cover Girl was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Amy Rossi received her MFA from Louisiana State University, and she lives in North Carolina, by way of Massachusetts, with her partner and two dogs. The Cover Girl is her first novel.
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