Don't forget to check out this month's exclusive interviews with AA Fiction authors
Tayari Jones and Keith Lee Johnson in our section.

Shannon Holmes Never Go Home Again

4.5 out of 5 books

Never Go Home Again is about 16-year-old Corey Dixon. Corey is trying to live the straight and narrow but the lure of the streets is more appealing. Corey eventually starts selling drugs, drops out of school and lands in prison. In prison, he meets a mentor that will teach him some important lessons. The story and the characters were very compelling. What was different about this story is that Corey didn’t come from a broken home. Both parents were married and tried to steer him in the right direction, especially his dad. And despite all the people around him telling him the right things to do in life, he journeys down a path that no one could envision. This is the third book by Shannon Holmes, and arguably his best yet. His novels keep getting better and better. Never Go Home Again is not just a good street fiction novel…it’s an excellent novel period.

Noire G-Spot

3.5 out of 5 books

G-Spot is about 19-year-old Juicy Stanfield who is in a relationship with a 46-year-old gangster named Granite "G" McKay. G owns the infamous Harlem G-Spot social club and gives Juicy all the material things but no love or sexual fulfillment. G keeps Juicy under lock and key, but when G's son comes into the picture, things get interesting as Juicy has her eyes on him. On the cover of the book, Noire has a blurb by another author claiming that this was "Coldest Winter Ever meets Addicted." This is a disservice since you won't be able to judge the book on its own merit. There weren't enough steamy erotic scenes to even compare it to Addicted. Juicy simply wasn't "juicy" enough. G-Spot is exciting and action packed but there's also some disturbing violence in this book. Because it was marketed as an urban "erotic" tale, a reader may not be prepared for this type of story line. Maybe the author's next book Candy Licker will deliver what the title promises. All in all, this was still a wonderful novel....a STREET FICTION novel..

 

Tayari Jones The Untelling

4.5 out of 5 books

Tayari Jones gives us a narrative about a young woman named Aria Jackson whose life is turned around when her father and baby sister are killed in a car accident and Aria is forced to grow up quickly. Her mother and sister both become distant after the accident and Aria feels like she is living alone in the world. She tries to carve out a decent life for herself by teaching literacy to teenage girls and continuing to live with her newly-engaged best friend. When Aria finds out that she may be pregnant by her longtime boyfriend, she finally thinks that she will have the family that she always wanted. But there is a secret that could destroy her relationship and everything she had hoped for. Tayari Jones creates vivid characters that leap off the page. When reading The Untelling, I felt like I was walking down the same inner-city neighborhood as Aria. Jones’ writing style puts you in the mind of Bernice McFadden. And with a wonderful novel like The Untelling, she’s well on her way to becoming a critically-acclaimed author herself. Check out this month's exclusive interview with Tayari Jones.

Eric Jerome Dickey Genevieve

5 out of 5 books

Genevieve Forbes has it all. She has a Ph.D., wonderful career, and a loving equally successful husband. Her traumatic childhood comes back to haunt her when she and her husband, the unnamed narrator of this novel, attends her grandmother’s funeral in Alabama. The husband comes face to face with Genevieve’s undisclosed family history as well as his own childhood demons. This novel has a lot of twists and turns that begin right away. The first four pages will leave you in shock. You know right away that this isn’t a regular tale about going down south to bury a relative. Eric Jerome Dickey once again has written an extremely riveting story. Genevieve is a must read and should be added to your summer reading list.

 

Keith Lee Johnson Little Black Girl Lost

4 out of 5 books

What do you do when your virginity is sold to a white insurance man by your own mother? This is what Johnnie Wise has to deal with in Keith Lee Johnson’s latest novel Little Black Girl Lost. Johnnie, 15, was sold off by her prostitute mother. Johnnie is reluctant at first due to her religious views but quickly overcomes this. She decides that if she is going to be in this business, she’s going to have some material things to show for it unlike her mother. No boys in her town want anything to do with her but when she finds one that does; she has some hard choices to make. Will she abandon the seedy lifestyle of prostitution and become a normal young woman again? This book is filled with spellbinding drama and suspense. Keith Lee Johnson does a masterful job with this cautionary tale. There is also a huge cliffhanger that leaves room for a sequel. Hopefully, there will be one. Check out this month's exclusive interview with Keith Lee Johnson.

(Past Books That Are The Cream Of The Crop!)

Bernice Mcfadden Sugar

4 out of 5 books

Sugar is set in the small town of Bigelow, Arkansas during the 1950s. Sugar Lacy is a young prostitute that moves into Bigelow and becomes friends with Pearl Taylor, a church-going wife and mother. The whole town hates Sugar immediately, not only for her blonde wig, red lipstick and short dress, but because she’s caught the eyes of the men in the town. Sugar learns some disturbing details from her past that will change her life and people around her forever. This was a wonderful debut released in 2000 and followed by an equally-astounding sequel This Bitter Earth in late 2002. McFadden’s stories will draw you in and captivate you. All her novels are recommended, which include the aforementioned This Bitter Earth, The Warmest December, Loving Donovan, and Camilla’s Roses. And if you didn’t know…Geneva Holliday, author of the new novel Groove, is actually a pen name used by Bernice McFadden!

(A Spotlight On Writers Who Deserve Their Shine Too!)

Teri Woods Dutch II: Angel's Revenge

4 out of 5 books

Dutch II begins where Dutch ended this time focusing on Dutch’s partner Angel and One-eyed Roc, who became Rahman after converting to Muslim in prison. Angel and Rahman both served only 3 years of a life sentence due to a legal technicality. Angel, along with her prison lover Goldilocks, vows to reclaim the streets and the power that Dutch left behind. Angel is more ruthless than you ever imagined. Rahman returns to clean up the very streets he created so much havoc on. Angel and Rahman are on different sides of the game; will they stay friends or become enemies? This novel is just as exciting an entertaining as the first. The third installment should be just as pleasurable.  Teri Woods proves that she is one of the best of this genre.

Books I Just Could Not Bother To Continue With!

Stephen E. Chatman Confessions of a Womanizer

No ratings for books that were not finished!

By the title of the book you would think that this would be a tell-all book by a supposed womanizer, right? Wrong! This book is random experiences that the author has had with different women during his womanizing. This is nothing more than a collection of cluttered confusion. There is no chronological order for the dates and times that are listed on the pages. This is not in a memoir format but just the author’s random thoughts that have no rhyme or reason. Personally, I could not get past page ten of this novel. I have a confession myself: I wish I never even picked up this book.