GLITTER

In the 22rd century, major corporate executives and their families re-create Versailles, complete with their own King.

Just under 100 years ago, Sonoma Inc. saved the world from starvation but demanded that France hand over its most treasured historical palace. Calling their establishment Sonoman-Versailles, its multicultural executives live there as if it were the Baroque era, but with bots to dress them in their period costumes and with the palace wired into a sophisticated computer system. Danica Grayson lives with her overbearing mother, who blackmails the King into naming Dani as his fiancee after the white 17-year-old sees him strangle a member of the court. Desperate to escape her fate, Dani strikes a deal with a drug dealer who promises her a new life for 5 million euros. To make the money, Dani works with him to sell the titular Glitter. The drug is so addicting that Dani can be sure of ever increasing profits from the courtiers. However, she must work with the dealer’s assistant, a green-eyed man with Asian features to whom Dani feels a compulsive attraction. As the plot thickens, Dani strategizes an escape, but that must wait until the next book. Pike creates an intriguing and imaginative world that mixes the future and the past, with enough suspense to keep pages turning and enough forbidden romance and florid descriptions to satisfy genre conventions.

Poufy gowns and corsets in a futuristic setting make for an interesting spin on a perennially popular genre.