December 13, 2004
When a beautiful, kept black woman pulls herself out from under the thumb of her deadly, manipulative lover, she learns that freedom comes with a price in Noire's sexy, gritty urban melodrama. Nineteen-year-old Juicy and her unstable brother, Jimmy, were raised in Harlem by their grandmother after a drug dealer shot their "junkie ho" mother. Her steady since she was 17 is overbearing Granite "G" McKay, major thug/owner of the G-Spot Social Club, part drug house, part strip joint. More than twice her age, G gives Juicy all the bling she wants, but their stagnant sex life and his mercilessness have made her restless. Ever-feisty Juicy sates her hunger by watching male strippers on G-Spot's Ladies' Night and then by hooking up with G's son, Gino, who's just come from California. But when Juicy discovers that Jimmy is on G's payroll—and when the person who told her gets murdered—she rounds up friend Rita and both risk their lives to double-cross the increasingly cold-blooded G. Juicy and Gino also hatch a plan to steal G's hidden loot, but are set up on a fake drug run to Atlantic City. Several beatings and a gang rape later, Juicy and Jimmy finally manage to settle the score in the ultra-violent conclusion. Noire's heady brew of lethal realism and unbridled sexuality should spell "hot and bothered" for erotic fiction fans. Agent, Ken Atchity.
November 15, 2004
Granite "G" McKay is a Harlem hustler who owns the social club G-Spot, where high rollers spend $1,000 just to enter. The favors include dancers, drinks, drugs, and sex. G always chooses a beautiful virgin to show off and claim for himself. His woman of the moment is 19-year-old Juicy Stanfield. G took in Juicy and her younger brother, Jimmy, after their grandmother's death. G pays for Juicy's college education, but he also controls and intimidates her. G's son, Gino, returns to Harlem after his college graduation to help his father establish a new club. Juicy and Gino begin a hot affair that causes G's whole operation to regroup. G's pride forces him to flex his muscles, Jimmy is determined to save his sister, Gino is finished with his father, and Juicy faces horrible mental and physical torture. This is being billed as an urban erotic tale, and it lives up to the billing. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)