


By the book’s end, Winter is serving 15 years in prison. She even meets-and ignores the advice of-a fictionalized version of Sister Souljah, who appears as something of a role model to the wayward teen.

The novel vividly details how Winter’s hubris and greed, two other heirlooms passed down from her drug-dealing father, led to her undoing. “It was important for me to know I deserved the best, no slum jewelry, cheap shoes, or knock-off designer stuff, only the real thing.” Practical considerations, such as whether her infant fingers could even hold up the rings, mattered less to the Brooklyn-raised diva than the shine. “The same night I got home my pops gave me a diamond ring set in 24-karat gold,” Winter Santiaga says. From the first pages of Sister Souljah’s 1999 debut novel, The Coldest Winter Ever, the teenage protagonist declares that she’s been a style icon since birth.
