Ali Liebegott's Cha-Ching! is the story of a lovable screwup, her dog and her quest to "to go to a party and have a conversation that involved anything besides details from true-crime shows" by her 30th birthday.
It's 1994: Theo, like many striving 20-somethings before and after her, has decided that moving to New York will transform her into the person she wants to be. She drives out of San Francisco with no plan, a rescued pit bull named Cary Grant and a hangover--her last, she swears. Theo has few advantages: she's broke, she's gay and she's androgynous enough to joke with her transgender friend about being an exotic creature called a "sirma'amsir." She's also a chain-smoking alcoholic with a gambling problem who's spent her life working terrible jobs and avoiding confrontation. But she's got a big heart and good intentions and knows that she'll survive anything as long as she can get a library card, a haircut and a new pair of shoes.
Liebegott, who won both a Lambda and the Ferro-Grumley Award for her 2007 novel The IHOP Papers, writes with easy-going, straightforward style and without a whiff of pretension. Theo and her ragtag friends are all very flawed but ultimately good people for whom one can't help but root.
Set in depressing casinos and grimy apartments, Cha-Ching! is a surprisingly optimistic, sweetly funny tale--and Theo is a heroine you might have more in common with than you think. --Hannah Calkins, blogger at Unpunished Vice