Customer Reviews

He's Just A Friend

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Mary Morrison is a superb writer and her latest novel He's Just a Friend is no exception. Fancy Taylor, who is as fancy as her name suggests, is a female gigolo. She has sex with rich men, whom she calls her sponsors, in exchange for money, clothes, cars, etc. Desmond, whom she always refers to as just a friend, is always there to pick her up when something goes wrong in her life. He gave her a used car when she didn't have one, paid her 2,000 rent on numerous occasions, and professed his undying love for her, but always just thought of him as a friend since she would never consider dating a blue-collar worker. Byron Van Lee, a wealthy man that has Fancy so in love that she cut loose all of her sponsors, turned out to be happily married leaving Fancy alone and feelign stupid. Is she going to finally give Desmond a chance or revert to her old ways? Fancy has issues from her past that make her the way that she is. I will not give any more info so I won't spoil the story. Btu I will say that the other charcters introduced in the book are just as captivating. She introduces us to some of the characters in her previous books. What are you waiting on?? GET THIS BOOK!!

Unconditional love, unwavering friendship, self-respect, and reaping what you sow are only a few of the moral lessons swirling around in Mary B. Morrison's HE'S JUST A FRIEND. As Morrison intertwines a myriad of lessons in this swiftly flowing novel, her colorful characters and lively plots entertain and amaze us. Fancy is our main character; however, various other morals sagaciously appear via Fancy's best friends Savoy and Tanya.

From the outside looking in, one sees Fancy Taylor's prowess, arrogance, tenacious weave, expensive attire adorning a tawdry size 7, an opulent apartment, and luxurious transportation. The various male 'friends' in her life each serve a specific purpose-- money. HE'S JUST A FRIEND is a didactic novel that chronicles the extravagant lifestyle of a money chaser. Morrison successfully shows that appearances are deceiving and that everything has a price. Nothing is without toil no matter how easy it appears to the onlookers. As we dissect Fancy's veneer and chip away her armor, what we find beneath elicits both disgust and pity. As Fancy experiences 'what goes around comes around', she realizes that what she's so often overlooked and taken for granted is indeed her biggest blessing. But once you soil and walk on a rug for so long, not even the washing machine can rejuvenate it to its original tenacity.

In HE'S JUST A FRIEND you get an action packed story that also makes you ponder. First the characters capture your attention then the lively story ushers you through the novel. Got a minute? That's all you'll need for HE'S JUST A FRIEND because once you get going with it, you'll keep going until it's complete.

Reviewed by KaTrina Love
of the RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

I have to tell you, this was a great book to read. The author is writing a series inter-mingling the characters from Soulmates Dissapate, Never Again Once More and He's Just a Friend, into her next novel and I can't wait.

Fancy Taylor is selfish and self-centered. She is out for only one person and that is herself. At first I didn't feel sorry for her, but as you read the novel and come to understand why she does the things that she does, you can't but help feel sorry for her.

Desmond believes he loves Fancy, but she does him wrong repeatedly, but he is always there for her. Her best friend, SaVoy is a little naive when it comes to relationships between men & women, but as the novel progresses, you will find out why she is as naive as she is.

I don't want to give away any real details of the story line, but would highly recommend you read this one ASAP. Do not wait for it to come out in paperback. Go buy the hardback, you will not be disappoined.

Way to go Mary Morrison! Can't wait for the next one.

Well I won't say this book was a total waste of my time, but it's definitely not one I would recommend to someone else to read. I usually enjoy Mary B. Morrison's books, but this one just left a sour taste in my mouth. The characters weren't developed fully... we never got to understand WHY Fancy was the way she was. The little snippets of information about her past and her mother should've definitely been explored further considering Fancy was the main character and it would've helped us to better understand her make-up. It was too many things that should've been explained in more detail that just kinda left you hanging. Overall.. it was one of my least favorite books that I've read!

He's Just a Friend is a very good example how Fancy was looking
for Love in all the wrong people.
She had the love she needed right before her.

It was to bad she only thought of Desmond as Just a Friend. Just a friend would not have done the things Desmond did for her. While I did not want Carlita to be more than just a friend for Desmond .I thought Savoy would have been a better mate if it was not going to be Fancy. This is one story that I would say needs to come with a warning ,it was a hot one to have handled. Which is the case in all of all of Mary's work.

It's was certainly a 4.5* in my book. Mary please keep the heat coming in your books. Any enjoyable hot,and spicey, page turning read.

I picked this up on a whim and was immediately drawn in by the soap opera of Fancy's life, with her various "sponsors" who she deftly juggles to keep all her high maintenance life style paid for. The two main competitors for Fancy's affections are a flashy guy who treats Fancy very casually and who may be married to boot, and a good guy who always comes through for Fancy, but whose working class lifestyle leads Fancy to always insist that "he's just a friend." In contrast to Fancy is SaVon, a good church girl who is saving herself for the perfect man, and her slowly developing romance with recovering playa Tyrrone.

I was repeatedly frustrated with the poor level of writing and grammar in the book, not just in hilarious sentences like "Her eyes traveled all over the room as soon as she walked in" but in the way that plot developments would be long hinted at, and then never resolved (Fancy's relationship with her mother is continually alluded to but never shown) or resolved abruptly off-screen (SaVon's long awaited meeting with her mother). The plot jerks here and there, with major plot developments getting only a paragraph or two, while pages can be spent on Fancy's grooming routine....of course the latter is part of the guilty pleasure of this book and probably the reason I kept turning pages. The characters were over-the-top unbelievable in their one dimensional materialism, especially Fancy, but at the same time, like an episode of Dynasty, it was hard to look away.

I was shocked to find out when I read He's Just A Friend that it was not to my liking at all and I repeat my liking.

Typical story of giving up the kitty kat for cash, clothes and cars. Wanting a man, but know he is no good for you and ignoring the one that really loves you. There was no twist to that lemon of a book at all. All of Mary B. Morrison's book are the bomb except this one. I don't know what was the point in that book. The only highlight was she reintroduced Darius Jones from Never Again Once More. Darius at the end of the book hooked up with Fancy, the main character of the book. Don't know what happened with them I guess we will have to read the next installment of this drama.

There was some mediocre plots to the story, but nothing to right home about or tell a friend.

Later!!!!

There is a week of my life I gave up reading this book that I will never get back. The book was preachy, it had no direction, it had no plot, the characters were shallow, the author was on some kind of soapbox, and it read worse than bad soap opera copy. This is too bad to even recommend for in-flight reading.
Horrible book, horrible writing.

First this is a message to all who write book reviews on this site. PLEASE DO NOT GIVE AWAY THE ENDING. I am halfway through this book and decided to see if there were other people who had the problems with it that I did and I see someone posted the ending. If you need to do that at least give us a "Spoiler Alert." Now on to the book...

I've read two books by Ms. Morrison and being from the Bay Area I love that she incorporates cities and sights from the Bay. I liked those two books but I was very disappointed with this one. I didn't feel anything for the main character, there was no character background or development. Why did Fancy act the way she did? The little bit of background about her relationship with her mother was not enough for me. As I stated above, I am only halfway through the book, but I have a feeling that I won't learn anymore about her. The storytelling jumped around a little too much and I had to go back and read several paragraphs more than once.

I'm also afraid that I've grown tired of the same ol' storyline when it comes to black characters/books. Everyone sleeping around, women using sex for money, men being dogs, etc. I am sure that I will continue to support my black authors, but let's try to come up with more storylines.

Fancy Taylor is the ultimate gold-digging diva. Using men to finance her worldly possessions, Fancy is outwardly beautiful but has a cloud of ugliness that haunts her very psyche. She only knows has to take from people - taking her friends for granted and taking men for a ride with her sexual prowlness, will Fancy stop short before she totally self-destructs?

""HE'S JUST A FRIEND"" by Mary Morrison is an "ok" read. I would not say that it was a page turner because in the beginning, I struggled to get through it. Towards the middle of the book, the actions of the characters peeked my interest more. I wanted to reach through the pages and just slap Fancy into a realization that she really wasn't all-that-and-a-bag-of-chips. I was pulling for her to wake up and get with the program as far as Desmond was concerned. He was a good friend to her, but he was just a friend. I would have liked to see a bit more character development to see why the characters were the way they were. Yes, all in all, "HE'S JUST A FRIEND" was a good read and due to the manner in which it ended, I feel that a sequel may be down the road.

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