Customer Reviews

The Hot Box: A Novel

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

The "hot box"; a baseball drill that can be played with three or more players and two to four bases, or... a title from today's hottest erotic author. Talk about a double entendre! When you read a Zane book, you pretty much know what to expect. Sex. Drama. Sex. Humor. Sex. More drama. More humor. More sex. However, what makes Zane so special, is even though you know what you're going to get, she can still surprise you with HOW you get it. I read this book with the same zeal that I read all of her books. I start and I seriously can't stop until the last freaking page.

This book is aptly named because the people in this book take you hither and yon with all the mess they get into, create, and encourage. I sometimes get lost when there is such a dogfight mentality with the characters and plot, but again, Zane steers us as only a skilled literary navigator can and I didn't get lost. Only hot. I would finish Zane's books a lot faster if this woman wouldn't give me so much to daydream with, DAMN!

This story centers around Milena, Lydia, Glenn, Phil, Yosef, and Jacour. Two women, four men that have more loin action going on than most Las Vegas brothels! No, I'm NOT joking! Milena has some very strong morals, so strong that she hasn't let anyone near her morals for eight years (yeah you heard me right). The question is how far can she keep on playing "Chastity Clamp-it-shut" before someone comes along that makes her test those morals? You won't believe what happens. Lydia is quite the little hoochie. She spends major time with the guys and really should open her very own chain of 24-hour Kegel fitness gyms.

Glen & Phil... *sigh*. What can I saw about these two? Like most of you, I had a mother who said, "if you can't say something nice about someone don't say nothing at all". I'm sure Mama Frost meant REAL people, so Glen & Phil are fair game! (good). I'm a guy who loves women so I know firsthand the "power" they possess and what we guys do to get a taste or feel of that "power". But I mean COME ON fellas! I guess every story must have its fools right? Every one of these characters have redeeming qualities, they just get caught up. Zane comes strong with this one, but really... what else would you expect?

**On a personal note**
While reading an author's work is in and of itself intimate because you get to read what came from their hands, their brain, their sweat; what Zane writes at the end of this book only makes me admire her even more. She breaks it down and gets really personal and real about some revelations she's had, how she feels about writing erotica, and her candid feelings on some pretty timely topics. I don't have to agree with them all to appreciate what a talent this woman is. I've always taken issues with people who say "ewww, she writes erotica". Yeah, so? I'd bet money that most of these people haven't even picked up a novel written by this woman, and I'm sure they have NO IDEA the careers she's launched or how brilliant of an entrepreneur she is. I understand why she wrote what she did at the end, but she didn't need to. Her success says it all.

WOW!! Didn't even know you had a new book until I walked into my local Wal-Mart, who never has anything. When I saw Zane is bold letters I knew I had hit the jackpot! YOU DID GIRL!! Thanks soooooo damn much for bringing some excitement in my life. I couldn't put The Hot Box down. I read it in 16 hours. It's that damn good. I couldn't wait to get to the next work, page, paragraph, chapter! I ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT. For all of those reading this, if you haven't gotten it GET IT NOW!! It is a must have for all ZANIACS!! Our girl has brought drama, suspense, love, confusion-all to this book. Thank you so much Zane once again, for being a beautiful black woman, and giving us some of the greatest books!!!

Ok, I have read and own everything and I mean everything that Zane has put her name on, even the books she edits, and I have to say that more and more she is disappointing me. Her earlier writings you could find a way to relate the characters or situations to some aspect of your life, making the characters more relateable and lovable, but now her works just seem to be rushed. If I am totally honest the last two books she wrote it seems like she had a ghost writer, they are so not her style. The last two books she has hurt her image as a positive Black author, not saying that she has always had positive black characters cause she had some low down ones, but the last few have just had me shaking my head. I really do not like books or movies portraying Black men or women as weak, stupid, or just plain doggish and thuggish. She is just feeding stereotypes, which I didnt think her capable of. With her branching out into cable television she has widend her audience and in doing so she has forgotten who her first fans were. Now her new fans will read about the same sterotypical things regarding black people as the rest of the world shows on television. She's just feeding the BS. It is a classic case of her going commercial and not sticking to her roots. I love Zane and I aint mad at her for getting her money, I just wish she stuck to her roots. She built this huge following and its feels like she abandoned everything I liked about her. After wasting twenty dollars a piece for her last two books, it will be a long time before I buy another one. And can someone please tell me what happened to Addicted the movie and AFTERBURN TWO coming out?! I have been waiting forever. Seriously!

What can I say that has not already been said. Zane is in a class and a level few writers reach. I say that because for me Zane writes novels that not only entertain but there is also a message for the reader. That being said makes it special. It's something that stays with me long after I've read the book. The Hot Box is one of those books. It made me laugh, it touched my heart and made me see things from a different perspective. I learn something new about life each time I read one of her books. Once again I say it was a superb story!!!

I was really not impressed by this latest Zane novel,It did start off decent and flowed pretty well.But the ending was rushed and left me very dissapointed.

It jumped to 5 years later in about 2.5 seconds with no thorough explanation on how the characters even got even got to that point in their lives.

I had questions about Phil and Glen,I wanted to know what happened to them at the end since the climax of the book centered around them, but when I read "The Commentary by Zane" she basically stated that she purposefully did not say what they were up to five years later and wanted the readers to come to their own conclusion.I mean really?? how lame is that,this is not the first time she left readers to draw their own conclusions when it came to characters and their fate in her books.Stop being lazy and just give us a thorough detailed epilogue.And what kind of job Yosef got that paid 40,000 a year????...I was happy for him but at the same time wanted to know how he got his come-up.Too many details were left out of this story.

I did enjoy the plot but also the character development was not strong enough.I really wanted to like this book because I am a fan of Zane but this story could have been a whole lot better if she hadnt thrown together a quickie ending.

Very slowwwwwww read. There were a lot of things in the story that were really far fetched and unbelieveable. It took me a few months to get thru this book and it usually only takes me 1-2 weeks tops! Sorry to sound so harsh, but save your $$$ for something else.

I am a very huge fan of Zane's books. I did like this story because it was different. If you would ask people how they met I bet you can never say you met someone the way one of the characters in this book said they did. I don't like the way it ended tho becasue I dont think one of the character's truly recieived her Karma.

I enjoyed reading this book. I oftentimes don't have time to read as much as I like between my family life and work. However, this book was so good, I couldn't put it down. I ordered it on kindle and I read it within one day. The only negative aspect I can point out is the way the "twist" unfolded. The reactions of some of the characters did not seem real to me. Hence, I gave it 4 stars instead of 5. But that is nothing major to make me not recommend the book for reading.

Zane has definitely written better works. I normally complete her books in a couple of days. Well, this one took me over three weeks to finish. I'm so glad I checked it out from the library. It would have been a waste of money to actually purchase. To say the least, I'm disappointed with the storyline that seemed to linger on and on. Plus, the writing lacked that of a great writer. Sorry

Never really got the whole baseball theory other than one of the male characters was a retired baseball star but I'm glad the book turned out to be less confusing than described as best friends Melena and Lydia try to figure out the battle called love. Veternarian Melena hermits herself in her work after calling off her wedding to proballer Jacquor after he cheated on her at his bachelor party. He returns 8yrs later still professing his love and is determined to get her back. Melena then comes up with the plan to show that she moved on by introducing him to her love interest which is non-existent until she meets the homeless Yosef and offers him the job. Now she has two men competing for her affections and is feeling more alive than she's felt in eight years. Then there's Lydia who wants nothing more than to get away from small town life and her dead in cashier's job but in the meantime she's making do with her factory worker boyfriend Glenn and her longtime secret affair, his best friend Phil who's starting to pressure her when he decides he wants them to be exclusive.
This book didn't have a lot of eroctica but it fit the characters and read very quickly. An enjoyable story that I'd recommend.