Unable to afford to stay on campus during the semester break, 18-year-old Gia Bryant is forced to return home to her junkie mother and Harlem project building. Less than twenty-four hours after returning, Gia's mother steals the small amount of money she has - leaving her homeless, broke, and desperate to get back to school. Gia's luck begins to change when a club promoter offers her a job in New York City's hottest nightclubs. With the bark and bite of a Pit-bull, the brains of an ivy-league scholar, and the beauty of a hip-hop video vixen, Gia begins to use her full arsenal of assets to get what she wants, unleashing a power she was previously cynical of. In trading her sneakers for stilettos, and days at the library for nights at the clubs, she begins to lose herself in a world of fast cash, rich men, and designer labels. As she becomes wrapped up in unexpected drama, Gia's focus blurs and the walls she's built to conceal her painful upbringing from her promising future begin to collapse. Will Gia's new life as the city's it girl prevent her from returning to school and accomplishing her goals?
Jessica Harris is a teacher at a New York City public high school. She enjoys writing both fiction and poetry. Her poetry placed in the 78th Annual Writer's Digest Writing Competition and she won Manhattanville College's Robert O'Clair poetry award in 2003. Jessica currently resides in Brooklyn, New York. Home'Sick is her first novel.