Book Review: "Playing the Hand You're Dealt"

Playing the Hand You're Dealt by Trice Hickman

Reviewed by A. Jarrell Hayes

We’ve all heard the saying, “There are two sides to every story.” In Trice Hickman’s new novel Playing the Hand You’re Dealt, readers discover four sides to the same story. The story revolves around Emily Snow, an all-around good girl, as she deals with being in love with the father of her best friend of twelve years, Samantha Baldwin.

Emily and Samantha meet in college, where they were roommates freshman year and nearly inseparable since. The same day Emily meets her best friend for life, she also meets the love of her life: Samantha’s father, and successful attorney, Ed Baldwin. Not only is Ed the father of Emily’s best friend – and old enough to be her father – he is also married to Brenda Baldwin, a high-maintenance socialite. Emily was raised to play it safe, taking the paths acceptable by society, and never rocking the boat. She lost her father at a young age to unnecessary violence, and she definitely has daddy issues to deal with.

The death of Emily’s mother prompts her to move from Atlanta to Washington, D.C. – and right into the Baldwin household. Although time has passed since Emily had last seen Ed, her attraction to him hasn’t diminished; she doesn’t know if she can remain the “good girl” living under the same roof as him.

Everyone else is wrapped up in their own affairs – Ed with an important case, Samantha dealing with baby-daddy drama, and Brenda with her various schemes to climb the social ladder – that Emily is sure no one has noticed her attraction to Ed. But she still wonders if Ed feels the same about her, and what would happen if he and Emily were to get together. The only person that seems to have picked up on the chemistry between the two is the Baldwin’s maid and cook, Gerti – but she’s just the hired help and won’t say too much, right?

Hickman spins side tales into the novel – involving lust and love, secrets and affairs – and weaves them into the main storyline like Rumpelstiltskin turning wool into gold. The characters are alive and dynamic – especially the loud-mouth, firecracker Samantha; who, despite being raised in a wealthy and prestigious family, is as no-nonsense and street-savvy as they come. Where Emily is quiet and unassuming, Samantha is loud and obnoxious.

Although they are as different as night and day, Emily and Samantha are like sisters. The key word is “like”; Emily has to decide whether to take a chance of losing her best friend, the only family she really has left, and go after Ed – who’s married, old enough to be her father, and she doesn’t even know if he likes her! Playing the Hand You’re Dealt is thought-provoking and riveting.

Have a book you want The Black Urban Times to review? Email the B.U.T. Book Review Editor, A. Jarrell Hayes, at ajhayes@theblackurbantimes.com for details.

 
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Book Review: "Alibi" by Teri Woods

Alibi by Teri Woods

Reviewed by A. Jarrell Hayes

Desperate times call for desperate measures. The characters in Teri Woods’ novel Alibi are desperately trying to survive in the tough streets of 1980s Philadelphia.

The book starts with two young men desperate to make it in the drug game decide to rob a stash from Simon Shuller, the city’s biggest drug lord. The robbery is spontaneous and unplanned, and they run into Nard, who is desperate to keep his good name with the boss. This results in a shootout, where Nard is the only survivor. As he flees the scene, he is spotted by a neighborhood child and his mother. Now Nard is desperate for an alibi.

That’s where Daisy comes into play. She’s a stripper that does more than tease her customers. She’s also broke and takes care of her ailing mother. She’s desperate for some cash. When Sticks, Nard’s running buddy and Daisy’s part-time lover, approaches her with a wad of cash to provide Nard with an alibi, she accepts. It sounds like a good deal to her; she thinks all she has to do is talk to an investigator and that’s it. Besides, she’s desperate for the extra money.

Unfortunately, the plan doesn’t go through as Sticks predicted. There are some loose ends that need to be tied up – like the two witnesses to the shooting. Instead of talking it over with Simon Shuller, the main boss, Nard takes matters into his own desperate hands, making more of a mess for himself and his buddy Sticks. When holes begin to appear in Daisy’s alibi, Sticks adds to the body count in a desperate attempt to keep Nard from getting a heavy prison sentence.

Stick’s efforts are in vain, because Daisy wises up and bolts out of state, to live with relatives in the south. Daisy is a naive woman desperate for love. When her new boyfriend, who planned to marry her and buy her a house, disappears on her, and the authorities begin to pressure her, Daisy wants to leave it all behind and escape. Once she is on the run, Sticks and government agents follow her, both desperately trying to drag her back to Philly.

The book is non-stop action; full of plot changes and shootouts, as fans of Teri Woods’ writings have come to expect. The book has a frenetic pace; everything happens quickly and time gets compressed. To keep the action moving, there isn’t many parts for introversion by the characters. Especially for Daisy, who deals with a personal loss and being raped, but doesn’t seem effected by the events as one would imagine. After each traumatic event, Daisy continues with life as if nothing out of the ordinary happened. It isn’t that she’s a character with a particularly strong will.

Woods’ exchange of emotion for continued action is probably the book’s most glaring flaw. But Woods does a great job of adding short little quips of thought from inside characters’ minds – oftentimes the thoughts are humorous. If Woods’ goal with Alibi is to entertain and increase the heart rate of her readers as they read, then she hit the proverbial nail on the head.

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Book Review: "I Didn't Work This Hard Just To Get Married"

I Didn't Work This Hard Just To Get Married: Successful Single Black Women Speak Out

By Nika C. Beamon, forward by Dr. Bella DePaulo

Reviewed by A. Jarrell Hayes 

People are single for a reason. The causes and reasons are as unique as the single person in question. However, people are bombarded with statistics quite frequently, but rarely with reasons and causes – especially when concerning single, successful, black women; or the reasons given are based on a few select women and given as a generalized overview.

In the book I Didn’t Work This Hard Just To Get Married: Successful Single Black Women Speak Out, author Nika C. Beamon goes beyond the numbers and gets answers from black women about why they are single. The women featured in this book include actress and comedienne Kim Coles and movie producer Effie T. Brown. Though their stories are different, there is one similarity in the attitudes of each woman: they are happily single.

That’s a powerful statement: to be happily single. That idea of being secure as a single, successful, independent black woman is reiterated throughout the book by the different women; sometimes in the same language, often in different words. It shows a multitude of paths on the journey of self-awareness and happiness.

The women are diverse in opinion and experience. There are single mothers, divorcees, and never-married childless women that share their stories of how they became happily single. Some of the women are religious, while others are less so or have non-traditional views on being a woman, sex, and relationships. All of the women are breaking down barriers in their careers, and are doing so while breaking through stereotypes and societal beliefs concerning single women.

The women in the book claim not to be bitter or fall into the “angry black woman” stereotype. However, the beginning couple of sections featured woman that seem to harp on the idea that there aren’t any good black men worth dating – an opinion that Beamon is ready to supply statistics to support. It could be that the women were simply relating experiences from past relationships, but there is a hint that some might have – or are close to – given up on black men in general.

True, men do have to share some of the burden of why women who want to eventually marry (the right guy) are left unmarried. Many men aren’t marriage material, or they don’t want to marry. This book isn’t about men, though; it’s about women taking shape and control of their relationship status without feeling the need to be tied to a man. It’s about women taking responsibility for their lives – and the lives of their children.

Most of the childless women in the book express a desire to become mothers, with or without a man. At first, it might appear that the need to procreate or sow wild oats isn’t unique to the male species; but some of the ladies do point out that if they are unable to find a suitable father for the child, they would not be opposed to adoption. For many of the women, the attitude is: biological clock be damned; the maternal instinct won’t wait for the right man.

This book is good for women who are happily single and need to know that there are others like her; or women who aren’t happily single or in a bad relationship and want to get to the place of self-reliance and self-esteem the women in the book have reached. Men will also find this book useful, because they are able to get insight into the mind of successful black women without having to ask many of the tough questions themselves.

However, men should ask their potential mate the questions anyways. If this book shows the reader anything, it’s that every woman’s reason for being single and attitude towards singlehood is different from the next woman.

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Book Review: "Married On Mondays"

Married On Mondays

by HoneyB

Reviewed by A. Jarrell Hayes

Marriage isn’t easy. If anybody tells you marriage is easy, they’re lying to you. But marriage becomes much more difficult when spouses hoard damaging secrets and fail to communicate properly with one another.

In HoneyB’s new novel Married On Mondays, the lives and marriages of three sisters is examined. The three women, Déjà, Foxy, and Victoria, share the same father but different mothers, and were born only weeks apart. This sounds improbable, but the sisters do fall into a hierarchy of maturity, as if the weeks separating them were in fact years.

Déjà is the leader of the three. In the pastry restaurant the three sisters own and run together, Déjà is the one that keeps the cogs moving. She takes charge and is no-nonsense, and usually is the one the other two sisters run to when things go terrible wrong. She’s the “big” sister.

Foxy is like the middle child; she competes with Déjà for attention and dominance out of the three. She’s her own woman and indulges in her appetites in an almost carefree, reckless manner. She’s needy, but views admitting dependence on others makes her weak; and she doesn’t want to be weak.

Victoria takes on the role of youngest sister: she is babied by the other two women, easily pushed around, and has difficulty standing up for herself. She’s the first one to run to others for help, and the first to give her assistance if asked. She’s open-minded, at times, but has a tendency to wander in life.

Each of the sisters is married to partners in a highly successful law firm in Crème City, a fictional San Francisco, California. Déjà is married to the talented, but somewhat timid Acer; Foxy is hitched to equally unfaithful and arrogant legal ace Winston; and Victoria is married to Naomi – a woman. The three sisters keep secret from their respective spouses their sexual infidelities and a lucrative joint side business as sexperts and attractions in a sexual fantasyland.

The tension in the novel begins with Foxy’s long-time affair with her ex-fiancé and her failing marriage with her husband. Since the sisters work together and their spouses work together, Foxy’s affair threatens the marriages and businesses of everyone. HoneyB weaves an exciting tale of deceit and lies, a result when communication in marriages fails.

The sex scenes are explosive as well as informative. HoneyB does more in the sex scenes than titillate, but goes into finding the sometimes elusive female g-spot, squirting, and obtaining explosive orgasms. Communication isn’t always about words, and HoneyB does a great job of adding the importance of physical and sexual communication between couples into the story.

The book does require the reader to suspend disbelief in order to enjoy it. The book has quite a few improbable situations within it. There’s even a shout out in the narrative to a title from another author on the Grand Central label. One of the love it or hate it moments in the book.

Out of the three marriages, only the marriage between Déjà and Acer is essentially trouble-free, while the other two are crumbling. Those marriages are in trouble because the spouses try to be married only on Mondays – when it’s convenient for them – not the full seven days a week.


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Book Review: Back Door to the Black Door

“Betrayal”

By Velvet

Reviewed by A. Jarrell Hayes

Welcome back to the Black Door, where all your desires can come true. Hidden behind unique and colorful Venetian masks you can take on a different persona. You are endowed with the ability to become a new sexually free person, and experience life as it is meant to be lived: absent of categories, such as son or wife. Just like the fictional Black Door sex club, Velvet’s most recent book in the Black Door series, Betrayal, is much more than a hedonistic romp; it has the ability to grab the reader with its vivid prose and multi-dimensional characters.

The characters come to life on the page and bring their own emotional baggage to the story. There’s Trey, only son of a squeaky clean Supreme Court justice and owner of the New York-based sex club The Black Door; Preston, Trey’s father, who is a bit of a pathos and is too preoccupied with his own life that he blindly trusts everyone around him, to his detriment; Ariel, Preston’s wife and Trey’s ex-lover, the foster child who grows up to have a successful law career but is haunted with abandonment issues; and Michele, the sexy slim-downed ex-fat girl that will use her acquired “influence” over men – and women – to her advantage.

The betrayal in this novel happened previously in the Black Door books. Trey and Ariel have an affair. But at that time Trey is dating Michele and Ariel is with Trey’s father, Preston. Both Preston and Michele discover the betrayal, but Preston has a stroke and can no longer recollect the incident. Ariel then takes this prime opportunity to marry Preston, and enlist Trey and Michele in a cover-up scheme worthy of Richard Nixon and Watergate – the only thing this book is missing is Deepthroat, but there was another kind of deep throat going on in this title.

To add tension and conflict to the novel, Michele, the only reluctant participant in the cover-up, lands a job working as Justice Preston’s secretary and assistant. Obviously Ariel and Michele are constantly at one another’s throats throughout the entire novel, but the only reason Michele keeps her job is that she is the weakest link in Ariel’s chain of deceit used to keep her husband.

Preston, arguably the book’s most successful character, is also the most static. The main plot of the book revolves around him and his lost memory and the attempt to hide the ultimate betrayal from him until his memory returns, which allows him to be pushed and moved by the other characters in a way that seems out of character for a Supreme Court justice. He tolerates Ariel and Michele’s bickering without putting an end to it or choosing a side; he becomes an easy mark for Michele’s seduction and appears powerless to stop her; and he constantly believes anything the other characters say to him, regardless of concrete proof or evidence – especially when Michele glosses over her involvement in the scheme and adds other details not factual into story of the affair.

Even though Betrayal is the continuation of the story begun in the novels The Black Door and Seduction, it invites new-comers to the series with open arms and background reviews of important events portrayed in the earlier novels. The deep detail into the back story does create scenes and sub-plots that at first don’t seem to fit in the action of Betrayal – such as the scenes featuring the private lives of Senator Oglesby and his wife, Angelica, and their involvement with the Black Door club – but they bring to light some of the dark intrigue that effect the moods and attitudes of the characters, especially Justice Preston, and eventually foreshadow possible events in upcoming books.

If you’re expecting a book that is filled with sex for sex’s sake, you’re in for a shocking surprise. The sexual encounters, from the first scene between Trey and new beau Lexi to Michele’s desperate romp with the married Congressman Laird Forester, advance the plot and storyline and seem in no way shape or form thrown into the mix just to make the book an erotic tale. The scenes are tasteful, non-offensive, and sophisticated – just like the rest of the prose. Velvet’s descriptions of the places and smells and emotions are worthy of contemporary classic literature. In contrast, the images Velvet gives for the characters provide just enough detail for the reader to use their imagination and create pictures of the faces and bodies that work best for their own sexual fantasies. That’s what this book is: a fantasy with substance; a guilty pleasure that doesn’t leave you feeling guilty.

A. Jarrell Hayes’ most recent books are “Reign of the Good King: Book Two of the Good King Trilogy” and the poetry collection “Just Another Angry Black Man.” He is an educator and freelance blogger.