The God of Good Looks

"Riveting and transportive--a summer read with bite."--NPR

Most Anticipated by Oprah Daily, Good Housekeeping, and Zibby Mag!

A modern-day Bridget Jones's Diary, this entertaining, warm, and humorous debut novel from award-winning writer Breanne Mc Ivor follows a young Trinidadian woman finding her voice and a new kind of happy ending.

Bianca Bridge has always dreamt of becoming a writer. But Trinidadian society can be unforgiving, and having an affair with a married government official is a sure-fire way to ruin your prospects. So when Obadiah Cortland, a notoriously tyrannical entrepreneur in the island's beauty scene, offers her a job, Bianca accepts, realizing that working on his magazine is the closest to her dreams she'll get.

As Bianca begins to embrace her power and creative voice, she starts to suspect Obadiah is not the elite tyrant he seems. She's right. Born in one of the poorest parts of Trinidad, Obadiah has clawed partway up society's ladder and built his company around his meticulously crafted persona. Now, he's not about to let anyone, especially Bianca, see past his façade.

When Bianca's ex-lover threatens everything she's rebuilt, jeopardizing all she's come to love about her new life, she's surprised to find support from the most unlikely ally and, finally, draws the strength to fight back like her mother taught her.

Sharp-witted and fiercely fun, The God of Good Looks alternates between Bianca's diary entries and Obadiah's first-person narrative to portray modern Trinidad's rigid class barriers and the fraught impact of beauty commodification in a patriarchal society. Boisterous, moving, and full of meaty, universally relatable questions, Mc Ivor's sparkling debut is an open-hearted, awakening tale about prejudice and pride, the masks we wear, and what we can become if we dare to take them off.

Publisher: William Morrow & Company
Published: 05/16/2023
Pages: 384
Weight: 1.15lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.30w x 1.30d
ISBN: 9780063278813


Review Citation(s):
Library Journal Prepub Alert 12/01/2022 pg. 4
Publishers Weekly 03/27/2023
Kirkus Reviews 04/01/2023
Library Journal 04/01/2023 pg. 101
Booklist 04/15/2023 pg. 20