Drama Factor [Paperback]

Wanda M. Toby (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 21, 2004

Xavier, a star football player, finds his nigh starting off badly when his girlfriend's husband charges up a flight of stairs after him and forces him to climb out onto a fire escape in order to avoid confrontation. The night is equally bad for Grace when her horrendous date assaults her, triggering her to make a mad escape. Xavier thinks it's getting better when they meet, but things only seem to get worse after his night with her. He finds himself unable to play ball and caught in between his matchmaking mother and sister, and a paternity suit. In the midst of his teetering life, Xavier is facing an identity crisis that he continually ignores by relying on friends and family. With Grace and her ex-convicted sister in the fray, Xavier soon learns that someone has to be brave enough to face the shadows of his pain in order to save him from further disaster

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Haitian-American author Wanda Toby is driven to write by the passion of creation. Wanda received a Masters of Health Science from the University of Florida, and is a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor working with a statewide private rehabilitation company. She is also a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. Wanda lives with her husband in South Florida and looks forward to writing many more stories about love, loss, relationships, and family.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

PROLOGUE

January 1999

Rachel stood outside the prison walls waiting on salvation to swiftly come to her. She had been inside for the past three years of her five-year sentence. Today she was stepping out with a bus ticket and one hundred dollars to her name. She couldn’t even begin to describe her disgust for the place that held her captive for so many days. Her mind, body, and spirit were all drained of the zest she once had.

Rachel paced up and down the length of the street, stopping only to look across the field and down the road to where her savior would come and rescue her from this place. Her clothes stank of it. She reached up and scratched the tattoo, a dull sketch of a coiled snake, at the base of her neck. She pulled on her flimsy gray shirt, tightening it against her body to shield her from the cold. Rachel wiggled her body in a true 5-year-old’s tantrum style and turned to face her past and future, for it would never leave her.

The prison house loomed over her as if to beckon her back inside of its walls for a visit with the twisted women she left behind. Rachel couldn’t think of one person she would miss, not one of them. There were all types of women trapped in those prison walls, some from their own device and others not.

She turned away from the prison gates and shivered with complete disgust for the establishment with its cold brick and mortar and nothing but lost hope running wild inside. "God, where’s my sister?" she asked, looking anxiously down at her watch.

Rachel reflected that she was in jail because of her man. A lot of the women she met in her three-year tour of the female prison were in jail because their significant other, somehow, got them involved in some illegal, destined-to-jail activity. The women were either willing participants or caught up in a scheme to their complete displeasure but couldn’t bring themselves to trade his name for their freedom. She wasn’t part of that group. Rachel was part of the crew that got themselves thrown in jail because they couldn’t control their temper or their men. She overreacted when she found her live-in boyfriend cheating on her and was left with the consequences. For the rest of her life, she would bear the consequences of not only being foolish but of also being branded a convicted felon.

"Dammit!" Rachel exclaimed. She had given up hope on her sister and started walking. At least she could stay warm.

Before she took three steps, Rachel saw the gates opening up, and a car moving through them, approaching slowly. She bounced back and forth as she waited impatiently for the vehicle, a white 1999 Dodge Neon rental, to stop in front of her. She felt the tears build up in her eyes at the sight of her sister.

"Hey," Grace said as she reached over from the driver’s side to push the car door open.

"Hey," Rachel strained to reply.

"Where have you been for the past few years?" Grace asked as her sister settled herself in the car.

Rachel didn’t say anything. Her mind was racing with the agitated experience of living behind those walls. She had s

Product Details

• Paperback: 251 pages
• Publisher: Writersandpoets.com (December 21, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0970380372
• ISBN-13: 978-0970380371
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,518,567 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Looking for love in all the wrong places......., September 13, 2005

By 

Michelle Henley "Literary Diva" (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Drama Factor (Paperback)

Drama Factor

Wanda Toby

WritersandPoets Publishing

Looking for love in all the wrong places.......

Xavier, star football player keeps finding himself in one compromising position after another.

Grace on the other hand, a successful doctor, has the drama of always winding up with one loser after another on her myriad of blind dates. As fate would have it, escaping from yet another one of his compromising trysts, Xavier stumbles upon Grace who is licking her wounds from a date from hell.

Despite meeting in less than pleasant circumstances, Grace and Xavier both realize that they are more than attracted to one another and a romance begins to blossom. But both are stubborn despite the urging and approval of both Xavier and Grace's families.

Drama Factor is a novel that is well written, filled with drama, love, betrayal and trust. The characters were well developed, showing good, strong, positive relationships between Rachel, Grace's sister as well as Xavier's relationship with his mother and sister. Ms. Toby shows the parallel between Grace and Rachel who are quite similar despite the different paths that have chosen to take in life. I appreciate reading a novel in which, despite the "norm" of the male psychie especially as an athlete, Ms. Toby displays her male protagonist in a positive
light - - one who is not afraid to express his true feelings without feeling less than macho.

Much kudos to Drama Factor. I look forward to more work from Ms. Wanda Toby.

Michelle Henley
APOOO BookClub

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Talk About Drama, April 9, 2005

By 

The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers (RAWSISTAZ.com and BlackBookReviews.net) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Drama Factor (Paperback)

If you want to experience some drama, read DRAMA FACTOR by Wanda M. Toby. The action starts off at full tilt. A woman has just been released from prison, having served three of a five-year sentence for beating up a man. A well-known professional football player is being chased out of an apartment via the fire escape by his girlfriend's husband; a man he found out about just moments earlier. A doctor is out on a blind date that her mother has set up, only to find out he is the date from hell, and she literally has to run for her life. And folks, that's just in the first ten pages of this book.

Grace Watson is an osteopathic doctor who has just escaped from the ultimate bad blind date. She flees to a local Waffle House to regroup and think about what she'll tell her sister once she gets home. For she knows that her sister, Rachel, who is fresh out of prison has a serious attitude about men, and will hunt him down if she has to. Then, down plops handsome Xavier Jean Françoise, the infamous X-Factor of the Atlanta Falcons, and Grace is completely clueless to his identity. Xavier is also scampering away from a bad situation. He is hoping that he's ditched the husband of his recent fling. Unable to get Xavier to leave her booth, the two strangers share a few moments of conversation, contemplation, and attraction. Although intrigued by one another, past relationships and deep hurts keep the two from even sharing their names as they go their separate ways.

Well the two don't take into account Rachel's flair for being a meddlesome sister or Xavier's matchmaking mother and sister. When the opportunity presents itself, the three capitalize on it to aide in bringing some love into the lives of their precious family members. Once they get Grace and Xavier together, they all stand back and watch love take its natural course. The drama gets kicked up a notch when outside sources intervene to derail what appears to be a relationship bound for matrimonial bliss.

We all have the tendency to sensationalize the lives of those who live at the upper echelon of the income scale. We sometimes think that they are beyond the normal everyday grind that affects those of us who are classified in the middle and low-income classes. But, Ms. Toby quickly points out drama has no boundaries. It doesn't matter if you are a doctor, a professional football player, or someone who works a regular nine to five job, drama will follow you. Money, stardom, and success are some of the traits that will attract the excitement that breeds unwanted attention. And in many cases, it comes just because. I felt the author did an excellent job of incorporating her Haitian background and humanizing the life of a professional athlete to provide a refreshing variation in this book. Drama lovers, this is one you must read.

Reviewed by Brenda M. Lisbon
of The RAWSISTAZ™ Reviewers

5.0 out of 5 stars Love, Sports and Family, July 21, 2005

By 

Jacquelin Edwards (Antioch, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Drama Factor (Paperback)

This was an excellent read. I read this book in a day. A mystery with an interesting storyline that could be anyone. This book showed the human side to athletes and situations and circumstances surrounded around choices that people make in those relationships. Excellent read and keep up the great work.

www.sotre.com