Kirby Green

I carefully set my wineglass on my antique mahogany coffee table and flop down on my gorgeous, butter-soft, caramel-leather couch. In a twisted way, it cheers me up that I can be utterly miserable in the luxury of my two-story condo, with all of the carefully-selected possessions I've accumulated over the past few years. I'm a long way from Yakima, that's for sure. Something about spending my first twelve years in small-town Washington, in a house where we had plastic covers over the plaid couches (wouldn't want to spill grape Kool-Aid on that attractive indoor-outdoor fabric), sent me in screaming overreaction to the Dark Side. Translation: Why buy perfectly lovely drapes for a couple hundred bucks when I can buy imported Italian silk window treatments for just over a thousand?

There's a reason I cringe every month when I have to open the credit card bills, trust me. Since I cashed out my 401K from the ad agency to pay down my credit card balances, I would have been in great shape, except for the whole problem with the windshield wipers on my car.

They broke.

So, of course, I had to buy a new car. You can't drive a car in Seattle, Washington, home to All Rain All the Time weather with no windshield wipers, can you? The adorable little red convertible that I passed at Seattle Mercedes every day on my way to work had nothing to do with it.

Anyway, I was getting a thirty-thousand dollar raise to take the new job, so I deserved a new car. Except, when it came down to it, the thirty grand included optional bonuses, based on performance. So my monthly take-home is only a couple hundred bucks more a month than it was at the agency, which isn't really helping with the car payment.

Or the Visa bill.

Or the Mastercard bill.

Or the student loan payments.

Basically, I have a beautiful home filled with beautiful things, and I drive a beautiful car, while up to my beautiful eyeballs (brow wax = thirty-two dollars every three weeks at Natasha's Boutique) in debt.

Compensating? Me? You think?

That's what my career coach says, anyway. He's kind of like a therapist, but tax-deductible as a business expense. And, as saith the IRS, thus saveth me money that I can spend on shoes. Maybe that should be my new motto. I could get it put on a T-shirt.

I glance down at the worn and faded blue tee that I'm wearing. It has last year's motto on it:

If you can't be a good example, you'll just have to be a horrible warning.

Copyright 2005, Alesia Holliday

It's all about the Nice . . . Here's the back cover copy!

Kirby Green might lose everything because of a double-dog dare. Or she just might discover who she really is . . .

Kirby didn't get to be vice president of marketing by being nice. When she fires her entire staff within a few weeks (they all deserved it, really!), her new boss is hardly impressed. Wanting to prove his point, he issues a bet: If Kirby can get someone - anyone - to call her nice, she can take that long-awaited dream vacation to Italy with her best friend, Jules. If she can't, she can kiss the Colosseum good-bye. Oh, and her job, too.

Now Kirby has exactly thirty days to bully someone into saying she's nice - and to show her boss who's boss. If she doesn't fall hard for him first . . .

Kirby's assistant - and aspiring opera singer - Brianna has the opposite problem. She's so nice she's in danger of fading into the woodwork. Can Brianna teach Kirby a lesson on nice while learning to be the diva she's always dreamed of being?

From the author of AMERICAN IDLE, the book Publisher's Weekly called a 'zany debut,' comes an irrepressibly hilarious novel about learning to be yourself - even if it kills you.

Kirby demanded her own book. She stole any scene she walked into in AMERICAN IDLE - sometimes in a huge way! I mean, what kind of best friend sends you a box full of sex toys? Poor Jules! But Kirby lives life on her own terms, in a take-no-prisoners kind of way, and from the first page she was on in Jules's book, I knew she deserved her own.

The concept of 'being nice' is one that plagued me all throughout my life as a marketing consultant and then as a trial lawyer. It was one more razor's edge that women always had to walk in business that seemed less important for men. If we're too nice, we're pushovers. If we're not nice enough . . . well, you know the word. Rhymes with itches.

And itchy pretty much summed it up everytime I had to sit through another review telling me I wasn't quite nice enough. (Like, who wants a nice trial lawyer? Those multi-million dollar trial verdicts and settlements seemed to work really well for my clients . . . sigh.)

On the flip side, I wanted to explore a character who was so nice that people walked right over her, and see how the two could help each other. While I was brainstorming Brianna, I developed a close friendship with an opera singer. Yep, you heard that right. Never met an opera singer before Heather. She's the kind of beautiful that you would just have to hate if she weren't such an amazingly . . . oops, gotta say it . . . nice person. Plus, she's an amazingly talented singer. As I learned about the world of opera, I grew more and more fascinated with it.

A job where you need to GAIN weight?? Can we say bummer than I have no tune-carrying talent whatsoever??

So Brianna is an aspiring opera singer who's afraid she's not tough enough to be a diva. She and Kirby work together at Whips and Lace Manufacturing with two of the hottest guys in corporate America. But Brianna's already engaged. To a guy who's a little bit old-fashioned.

I had a tough time writing this book. First, external reasons - FOUR hurricanes smacked into the state of Florida, evacuations, power outages, kids sick, yada yada. But, also, internal reasons. Kirby hits close to home and Brianna was so difficult to write. I wanted to bring her forward to be a second protagonist, and she gets her very own first-person chapters. In the end, I loved how it worked out. We get to see each of them through the filters of the other's perceptions. I hope you love it, too.

With the quirky characters and sometimes laugh-out-loud madcap moments that Holliday is known for, Nice Girls Finish First is a completely enjoyable read. It's intriguing to be able to see both sides of the coin: a girl who is too nice and a girl who is too mean. There is also a romantic side plot to both girls' stories that I loved. . . I really couldn't find anything about this novel I didn't enjoy. Overall, I highly recommend this novel for some good, solid, romantic summer reading. . . I'm looking forward to seeing what this author comes up with next!
-- Rian Montgomery, www.chicklitbooks.com
» Read entire review

NICE GIRLS FINISH FIRST is a hoot! This book is funny, entertaining, and heartwarming -- a well-written, fast-paced story all wrapped inside one little bookcover. . . NICE GIRLS FINISH FIRST is a top-notch story for a summer beach read, and one not to be missed.
-- Diana Risso Romance Reviews Today

Readers will need to adapt to the changing first person perspective, but once accomplished will appreciate this fine insightful look at two women trying to make it. Interestingly, Kirby’s bullying management style sounds much like the Bolden school of supervision. Both females seem real especially their ambitions, goals, and concerns. Alesia Holliday provides a refreshing reading experience in NICE GIRLS FINISH FIRST- just ask Kirby.
-- Harriet Klausner, Amazon.com Top Reviewer

Nice Girls Finish First is the perfect story for you to toss into your beach bag and enjoy on a lazy summer day.  Alesia Holliday draws you in to the lives of madcap characters and makes you laugh as Kirby finds out that you don’t have to be on guard all the time, and Brianna finds out that saying “NO” once in a while doesn’t make you a bad person.  Will Kirby win the double dog dare?  Will Brianna find her natural diva within?  Pick up a copy of Nice Girls Finish First and find out if they do.
-- Lydia Funneman, Writers Unlimited

Just finished Nice Girls. Looooovvvved It! I was laughing out loud, really hard. I was making so much noise, Phil kept checking to see if I was alright. I can relate to Kirby on a couple of different levels and the lesson she learned about herself (although I've never done speed dating - too funny). . . This was such an enjoyable read, I didn't want it to end. You really touched all our emotions along the ride. I'm sure this book will be even more successful than American Idle. Good Job!
-- Kay Luecke, a reader from the Midwest