Chasing Destiny [Hardcover]

Eric Jerome Dickey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 11, 2006

Eight-time New York Times bestselling author Eric Jerome Dickey’s new novel is filled with intrigue, speed, and sex appeal. And an unforgettable female narrator rides her sexy yellow motorcycle right through it all.

Billie (aka "Ducati") is known as much for her extraordinary beauty as for the sexy yellow motorcycle she rides through the mean streets of Los Angeles. Tough, talented, and self-assured, Billie's used to doing things her way—but that was before love threw an oil slick in the road and spun her life into chaos.

Billie's first problem is simple: she's pregnant.

Her second problem is that her lover, Keith, is still married.

Keith has some "things" to deal with, and the people in his life are dark and duplicitous enough to take matters into their own hands, determined to keep Billie from having her baby. Billie suddenly finds herself confronted, attacked, run off highways, threatened and shadowed. Keith still has ties to his manipulative wife, Carmen, and he adores his fifteen-year-old daughter Destiny. Will he do the right thing by his new family, or stand by his old one?

Soon all eyes shift as everyone finds themselves desperately chasing Destiny, a troubled and deceptive girl dancing on the edge of womanhood. When the rubber meets the road, everyone's fighting dirty for what they want...and they're all willing to destroy their enemy or go down in flames to get it.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Dickey's (Genevieve) latest melodrama rides with Los Angeles's rough-and-tumble motorcycle crowd and has his signature sultry prose and African-American cast, but presents a surprisingly harsh attitude toward female characters. Billie (aka Ducati), a beautiful and self-assured biker, finds herself between the rubber and the road when her unemployed lover, Keith, confesses he's returning to his wife, Carmen, for the sake of their daughter-right after Billie informs him she's pregnant with his child. Carmen, a shady lawyer, will stop at nothing to reconcile her marriage, offering Billie money to vamoose and even threatening her own daughter, 15-year-old Destiny. Destiny, however, has her own problems: angry at her parents for separating, she rebels by sneaking out with the wrong crowd. When she's drugged, robbed and raped, a humiliated Destiny decides to run away rather than face her parents. By midnovel, Carmen, Billie and Keith are, yes, chasing Destiny and deploying dirty tricks to get what they want. With an emphasis on vulgarity and violence, the book is lively, but disappointing: rather than showcase what brings women together, Dickey hyperbolizes what tears them apart, advancing a caricature of women as troubled souls who, when hurt, hurt others. (On sale Apr. 11)
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Review

Dickey is a master at writing about women and what they want and how they want it. (Publishers Weekly)

--This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 14 and up
  
• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Adult (April 11, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 052594950X
• ISBN-13: 978-0525949503
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (163 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #770,613 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Eric Jerome Dickey is the author of twelve novels, including the bestsellers Genevieve, Drive Me Crazy, Naughty or Nice, The Other Woman, and Thieves' Paradise. Dickey writes full time and is developing a six-issue mini-series of comic books for Marvel Enterprises featuring Storm (X-Men) and the Black Panther.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous!!!!, June 5, 2006

By 

Coffy6 (Trenton, NJ United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Chasing Destiny (Hardcover)

I can't quite understand why there are so many negative reviews on this book from "so-called EJD fans". Part of being a fan of someone's writing is allowing them to evolve as a writer and following them faithfully down the paths they choose to travel. I enjoyed this book tremendously. The characters were dramatic, well-developed and very real. I particularly liked the way the characters' lives all intertwined...it is a small world. The ending was classic and not typical. I hope this is not the last we read of Destiny, Billie, and Carmen. Eric Jerome Dickey has outdone himself, AGAIN!!!

25 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars EJD HITS A HOMER WITH THIS ONE.....!!!, April 12, 2006

By 

Dana Y. Bowles "DYB" (West Chester, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Chasing Destiny (Hardcover)

Billy aka Ducati is a gorgeous "biker chick" famous for tooling around LA on her yellow Ducati. Billy is a looker, has posed on her motorcycle in a thong for a well-known magazine, and is desired by both males and females alike. So why would she waste her time in a toxic romantic relationship? Well, she does; and when the novel opens, she is sitting across the table from her not-yet-divorced lover Keith, announcing that she is pregnant with his child. Keith is less than enthused; beset with financial woes and all of the legal haranguing that can accompany trying to divorce a wife who doesn't want to be divorced, especially when she is a lawyer, Keith is facing eviction from his apartment. So while Billy is busy breaking the news of her pregnancy...Keith is trying to figure out how to break the news of his decision to reconcile with his wife....for the good of daugher Destiny, of course. Keith's news sends Billy over the edge; and what follows are a series of confrontations between the two women almost too embarrassing to recall. And when daughter Destiny is assaulted and runs away from home, Billy finds out exactly what evil may lurk in the hearts of many...she is stalked, her home vandalized, and her life threatened. Billy finds out the hard way the lengths to which some people will go to maintain hearth and home.
Without a single, in my opinion, likeable character in the whole saga, it is only Dickey's ability to weave a tale and keep readers turning the pages that render this novel the five stars it so rightly deserves.


DYB

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Read, April 17, 2006

By 

Anita Pearson (Nashville, TN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Chasing Destiny (Hardcover)

Very interesting read. I am an Eric Jerome Dickey (EJD) fan, and have been since my early college days. The stories in this book are woven together very well, mostly with lies, and a little bit of love mixed in.

There was a lot I liked. I enjoyed the mystery. I liked the way the stories merged together. I marveled at the re-introduction of old characters, since I have read all of the previous books by EJD, I embraced the brief references to old faces. I really, really loved the way one of the main characters called upon one person as their rock, their salvation, and it turned out that person was wrapped up in the same drama. I enjoyed the way the stories came together full circle. Clearly California is not all that big!

Overall I didn't care for all of the drama, come on the book's climax spanned 2-3 days, yet there was drama on every other page. None of the characters thought about the consequences of their actions. There was TOO much Violence. Most of the violence was way over the top. The excessive lies got on my nerves. I kept thinking- OK just tell the truth- the truth will set you free. But no- the people just kept lying and lying. I didn't care for the main character or the title character. One was so under-developed you couldn't get a grasp on their true self, so how could you really be surprised or shocked at their actions.

The book reminds me of a Jill Scott song- "Do you remember"- especially the last line! I would love to look at the rejected titles for this book- I know "Baby Mama Drama" had to have made the list, of course it has been done before.. But would have suited nicely.

Run out and get this book. It is good. It will make you think twice about telling a life changing lie