In the Arms of One Who Loves Me [Hardcover]

Jacqueline Jones LaMon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 25, 2002

From fabulous new author Jacqueline Jones LaMon, a sexy page-turner that follows the lives of two young, black professionals as they navigate career and romance, ambition and heartbreak. Two paths that meet by serendipity.

Nia Benson, a college graduate who dreams someday of running her own public relations firm, believes the world is her oyster. But Nia runs up against the harsh realities of corporate life and office politics when she is fired from a job she loves. For someone who has always had a plan and a purpose, Nia feels suddenly adrift, questioning her aspirations and sense of self. It doesn’t help her state of mind when Nia learns her long-time love is seeing someone else. She finds emotional release, however, in an unexpected place.

Seth Jackson is trying to make his way in the cutthroat music industry. After years of chasing one woman after another, he is finally ready to settle down. When he meets the mysterious, captivating Lauren at his best friend’s wedding, Seth falls hard and fast. He has no doubt: Here is the woman with whom he is destined to spend the rest of his life. Until a twist of fate and painful secrets threaten to tear them apart.

Facing the collapse of all that they believe in, Nia and Seth set out on separate journeys to find themselves. Along the way, their paths will criss then cross, through tears and laughter, as they uncover deep truths about who they are, what they need, and where their hearts really belong.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Ostensibly about two young African-Americans trying to make it in Manhattan in the early 1980s, LaMon's debut reads more like a paranoid rant, the kind of self-indulgent screed that climaxes with a poetry contest. Nia Benson's universe teeters when she is fired from her job to make way for her boss's niece, and her boyfriend leaves her for another woman. Meanwhile, Seth Jackson, a self-confessed lothario hoping to succeed in the music business, falls for Lauren, a woman with a ton of baggage. Both Nia and Seth have affairs with other people, who are mere stepping stones along the learning path that leads them to each other. An overreliance on melodrama combined with unwieldy subplots lawsuits, lesbian affairs, bribery add up to poor storytelling, as secondary characters are used to soapbox shamelessly. The need to learn not to compromise, to love oneself and to be honest are trumpeted, but much of the Black Power speechifying, while legitimate, simply sounds clumsy and dated in LaMon's hands. She fares better when she focuses more on romance than rhetoric, but even then her all-tell-and-no-show prose gets in the way: "days like these made a woman inhale and feel energy literally expand within her soul." The favoring of oration over narration makes this a windy, dissatisfying effort.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From the Inside Flap

From fabulous new author Jacqueline Jones LaMon, a sexy page-turner that follows the lives of two young, black professionals as they navigate career and romance, ambition and heartbreak. Two paths that meet by serendipity.

Nia Benson, a college graduate who dreams someday of running her own public relations firm, believes the world is her oyster. But Nia runs up against the harsh realities of corporate life and office politics when she is fired from a job she loves. For someone who has always had a plan and a purpose, Nia feels suddenly adrift, questioning her aspirations and sense of self. It doesn?t help her state of mind when Nia learns her long-time love is seeing someone else. She finds emotional release, however, in an unexpected place.

Seth Jackson is trying to make his way in the cutthroat music industry. After years of chasing one woman after another, he is finally ready to settle down. When he meets the mysterious, captivating Lauren at his best friend?s wedding, Seth falls hard and fast. He has no doubt: Here is the woman with whom he is destined to spend the rest of his life. Until a twist of fate and painful secrets threaten to tear them apart.

Facing the collapse of all that they believe in, Nia and Seth set out on separate journeys to find themselves. Along the way, their paths will criss then cross, through tears and laughter, as they uncover deep truths about who they are, what they need, and where their hearts really belong.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: One World/Ballantine (June 25, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345447190
• ISBN-13: 978-0345447197
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,333,025 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars BEAUTIFUL writing, though story missed SOMETHING - 3.5, August 6, 2002

By 

TNC Reviews (Lake Charles, LA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In the Arms of One Who Loves Me (Hardcover)

In the Arms of One Who Loves Me is the debut novel from author, Jacqueline Jones LaMon. The novel introduces us to Nia Benson and Seth Jackson, two people who are trying to figure out the career and romantic paths of their lives in order to get to that place where they can exhale; through coincidental circumstances, the two always manage to see each other, if only briefly.

Nia is in an 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' relationship, has a friendship with a woman she really knows nothing about, and has aspirations to run her own public relations firm. When office politics leave Nia jobless, she finds herself trying to piece together a life that is slowly falling apart at the seams.

Seth is a man who loves the ladies, but at the wedding reception for his best friend, he falls in love with a mysterious sister named, Lauren. As he tries to build his budding music career, Seth finds himself reliving old ways as a naughty friend/neighbor seduces him and leaves him struggling to keep his relationship with Lauren intact.

In the Arms is a well-written novel by Ms. LaMon. She uses her skills as a poet effectively, and she definitely has a way with words that can move the reader. I read the first chap of her novel on her website and CRAVED to read the entire novel. As I did, however, I found some things that hindered my reading. One of those hindrances was the time sequence of the novel. Each chapter goes back and forth between Seth and Nia, and I had a hard time trying to figure out where, as a reader, I was in the story. This problem fixes itself towards the end. Other things that gave me pause can be grouped into one thing, the "unsurprises" of some of the surprise situations. I don't want to go into detail because I hope everyone will buy this book and experience it for him or her self, but there were situations in the story that just seemed "planted" and not grown organically through the story.

Overall, I would highly recommend that people pick up this novel. Despite my own sidetracks of the story, I believe people will enjoy LaMon's writing style. Reading her makes me anxious to see what she comes up with next.

Shon Bacon

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars life happens, September 11, 2002

By 

Candice Mccollough "candycane" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In the Arms of One Who Loves Me (Hardcover)

In the Arms of the One Who Loves Me was a book not only about finding that special someone, but about finding yourself. The two main characters, Nia and Seth, are attempting to meet their goals in life. Opposition, however, is constantly in their way. The novel essentially deals with each character separately, allowing the reader to become intimately involved in both Seth and Nia's lives. It leaves you with a feeling of hope -- that everything will eventually work out in your own life -- and a sense of knowing that no one can affect your life more than you. I loved the book and can't wait for more from Mrs. LaMon. I highly recommend this book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Lost Promise, September 4, 2003

By 

Staci Beasley "Modern Muse" (Norman, OK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In the Arms of One Who Loves Me (Hardcover)

I picked up this book based on the artistic, modern cover photograph of pretty Black people. I read the synopsis of two young Black professionals dealing with career, urban life, and romance and was intrigued.

I liked the first chapter with Nia. It was dramatic, but hinted at the character's depth and fortitude. I was surprised to realize that the story was set in 1980, as neither the cover nor the synopsis indicated this, but I rolled with it. While the chapter introducing Seth was amusing, it did not indicate who Seth really was as a person. As Seth is a primary protaganist, his character should either be likable, utterly unlikable but interesting, or a good man in a bad situation. As he is written, Seth is none of these. I spent the entire book trying not to dislike Seth based on his actions.

Having given up on enjoying Seth's story, I thought Nia's growth, both personally and professionally, would be a pleasant read, but the author's goals for that character got muddled in agenda and personal issues. I felt Nia's relationship with her best friend was unrealistic as each one tears the other down without any positivity. Nia's lesbian affair and its consequences would have been more believable if Nia had been given some sense of personal vulnerability about the experience itself.

At first the personal and professional overlaps between Nia and Seth's worlds feel coincendental, but towards the end, the convenience of it all allows for sloppy tie-ins and a dumb nonconclusion. This could have been great, like those wonderful Young Adult books by Walter Dean Myers, Virginia Hamilton, and Rosa Guy. It's just that the story's sense of purpose got lost.