Lady Sings the Cruels [Mass Market Paperback]

Eric Pete (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 7, 2006

Amelia Bonds is a singer with dashed dreams of stardom. Then a small gig at a local nightclub gives her a second chance at a career-and at love, when she meets Ike, a corrections officer who falls under her spell. But their melodic love story takes a dramatic and suspenseful turn when Ike reveals shocking ties to Amelia's past that neither can escape.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Pete (Don't Get It Twisted) traces the lives of three Houston residents in his fifth novel with mixed results. Waitress and aspiring singer Amelia is derailed when her boyfriend Bodie is sent to prison after his conviction in connection with the botched robbery of the pawn shop where he, accompanied by his thug friends, had gone to buy an engagement ring for her. When he gets locked up, Amelia tries to put Bodie behind her and follow the example set by her best friend Natalia, who has become a national sensation after appearing on a reality talent show. Ike, a corrections officer at Bodie's prison, meets Amelia at a club and, unaware that she's Bodie's ex-girlfriend, romantically pursues her. Bodie learns what is happening in the outside world and plans his revenge. The story has its slow patches and some of the plot points are too obvious, but the inner lives of the main characters and most of the supporting cast are well sketched. And though the sex scenes are awful ("parting my yearning walls," anyone?), Pete has a knack for describing budding romance. The last few chapters build to a satisfyingly bittersweet conclusion. (Nov.)
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About the Author

Eric Pete lives in Houston, Texas, with his wife, Marsha, and his daughter, Chelsea. The author of Don't Get It Twisted and Gets No Love for NAL, he self-published the novels Someone's in the Kitchen and Real for Me. Author website: ericpete.com.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: NAL Trade (November 7, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451219546
• ISBN-13: 978-0451219541
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,285,667 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Eric Pete is an award winning novelist. His published works include: Real for Me, Someone's In the Kitchen, Gets No Love, the national bestseller Don't Get It Twisted, Lady Sings the Cruels, Blow Your Mind, Sticks and Stones, Reality Check, Crushed Ice and Piano In the Dark. He has also contributed to the anthologies After Hours, Twilight Moods and On The Line. His upcoming solo novel, Frostbite, and collaboration with New York Times bestselling author Carl Weber, The Family Business, are both scheduled for release in early 2012.

Born in Seattle where he developed his passion for reading and knowledge, he relocated "back home" with his mother to Louisiana where he attended high school and college.

He is a U.S. Army veteran and member of Delta Sigma Pi Professional Business Fraternity.

A graduate of McNeese State University, he currently lives with his family in Texas where he is working on his next novel.

For more information, visit his website: www.ericpete.com, his Facebook fan page or visit him on Twitter @IAmEricPete.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars When It All Falls Down, March 31, 2007

By 

Shaquitta Leday (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lady Sings the Cruels (Mass Market Paperback)

In Eric Pete's latest novel, Lady Sings the Cruels, we meet Amelia Bonds. Amelia had dreams of becoming the next big thing. She had an amazing voice that everyone loved and had plans on going places. That was until her world was crushed when her long-time boyfriend, Bodie, was sent to prison for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

However, after helping out her cousin in a time of need, she was drawn back into the singing career whether she wanted to or not. Overall, things seemed to be going well. She met a new man and is finally started to let go of Bodie.

Bodie was intent on getting out and getting back to Amelia. He had an undying love for her and would do anything to make sure that she would be in his life forever. He refused to accept that she did not want to be with him anymore. As Bodie sat in prison, he came up with a plan to make sure that things happened the way he wanted them to.

I loved this book. One of the reasons why is because the characters seemed real to me. Eric Pete did such a good job with these characters and the descriptions of what was going on, that I felt I was sitting in the room watching everything play out. There were characters that I learned to love, while others made me want to reach into the book and shake some sense into them. Full of drama and action, Lady Sings the Cruels was a page-turner from page one all the way to the end.

Shaquitta Leday
APOOO BookClub

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Though one can be confined, true imprisonment exists within the mind, April 1, 2007

By 

SilverFox "Silver Fox" (NYC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lady Sings the Cruels (Mass Market Paperback)

Lady Sings the Cruels by Eric Pete is a wonderful series of intertwining events that dissolve into each other. Together they create a riveting yet toxic tale. With dreams deferred, life altering decisions made in a second, Lady Sings the Cruels explores how the choices made not only by our selves, but, by others as well can corrupt every event that follows.

For every songbird that has given up, this tale will stir up any lingering hope. Anyone who has been incarcerated, is living a life likely heading there or whose life has been spent trying to be supportive of that type of person, this book will expose some of often underplayed blurring of lines between who should be on what side of the bars. Mr. Eric Pete's deftly forces the reader to feel and see every event that occurs. You will be transported to places where brutality rules and power is abused at every turn.

The reader watches jealousies and envy corrupt . Through all of the many smaller stories woven into the fabric of Lady Sings the Cruels, the reader is drawn into the eye of a long brewing storm. Of the three central characters around which this vortex blows Amelia Bonds is the Lady who seems to suffer the most. Love for the misguided Bodie rips away her hopes at a crucial turning point in her life, Years have passed when Ike, a decent hard working prison guard, fights with the choices he is forced to make both in and out of work. His powerful presence adds new elements. When their worlds collide the maelstrom takes more than a few casualties. With believable personalities and a carefully told story, Lady Sings the Cruels is a must read. Ironically it is not my favorite of Mr. Eric Pete's books. So if this is your first or second venture into his literary universe, I strongly suggest you read all of them. You'll be glad you did.


Insight

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Non-stop page turner, November 27, 2006

By 

J. Jones (Dallas, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lady Sings the Cruels (Mass Market Paperback)

In my opinion, novels that have true-to-life characters, situations, and down-to-earth personalities are what stimulates the reading. In
"Lady Sings the Cruels," it captures those charateristics and then some. From the abrupt turn of events to the steamy sex episodes, it is what makes this book a non-stop page turner. I hope you have a great reading endurance because you won't want to put this one down.