Meredith Rich strikes again, mining another glamour field – jewelry design – in this fantasy blockbuster. Biting and fast-paced, it’s about a street-smart ambitious woman and her treacherous road to independence and wealth. The story is a gloriously unabashed celebration of Dickensian plot twists, its heroine a poverty-stricken, abandoned child who eventually rises to the top of a multimillion-dollar empire. Along the way she changes her name and engages in the usual pantheon of betrayals, vendettas and sexual encounters. She’s a cool embodiment of the power-hungry woman … the ruthless female executive we just love to hate.