Customer Reviews

Mr. Right Now

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Mr. Right Now by Monica Jackson is a paranormal story about three women and a phenomenal man.

Luby Jones, a beautiful and successful attorney meets her new neighbor and discovers that all she can think about is bedding him. In order to dispel her feelings for this man who she considers her complete opposite, Luby, her building mate and best friend Dani set out to match make Jake and the third of the best friends, Cat.

Jake Kosevo, the new guy in the building finds himself hopelessly attracted to Luby. Unfortunately he carries this unbelievable magnetism that has every woman he meets and some men, wanting to knock his boots.

This story is about a group of people looking for love and self fulfillment. Luby is looking for Mr. Right, Dani is looking to find herself, Cat is looking to get the man that she has always wanted and Jake is trying to convince Luby that she is the only one for him. As they all look to make their wishes reality, things start to happen that you just wouldn't believe and it has you wondering if we can trust what we see or are there other forces working around and within us?

Paranormal is a new genre for me. When I thought paranormal, my mind said vampires and aliens. Never did I expect to find humor and very, very hot sex scenes, but Ms. Jackson has made me a convert. I thoroughly enjoyed the interaction of the characters as well as the storyline. For years I have followed Ms. Jackson's career by reading her romance novels. As of today, I will read anything written by Monica Jackson. This book has showcased Ms. Jackson's imagination and her incredible ability to write. I can hardly wait for her next release.

Reviewed By: Eleanor S. Shields, Black Butterfly Review

Luby Jones, Danielle "Danni" Sellers and Cat Harris are all the best of the friends as well as neighbors in the same apartment building. These ladies couldn't be more different, yet all are plagued by relationship issues.

Although she is the only married one of the trio, Cat is unhappy in love. The fire in her marriage has fizzled out and she is not interested in rekindling it. Although her husband, Darryl, is someone's dream man, he is not hers. Cat is looking for a way out of her marriage without shattering Darryl's feelings completely. Will her plan to escape from her marriage and at the same time fulfill someone else's fantasy fly or will it backfire?

Danni is a blond Barbie look-a-like who seems to only attract thugged out rough necks. When her luck turns from bad to worse, what will Danni do? Will she be able to turn things around or will she continue to accept her pitiful destiny?

The book centers around Luby. She is a bright attorney with a colorful past. Raised by her grandmother, and estranged from her certifiably crazy mother, things for Luby will never be the same. When she meets Jake, a new neighbor in the building, her attraction to him is undeniable. This blows her mind because she has never been attracted to anyone but Black men, yet it seems that Jake and Luby are destined for each other. Will Luby be able to throw caution to the wind and accept Jake for who he is?

MR. RIGHT NOW is not the usual boy-meets-girl story. It is a culmination of supernatural occurrences, raw unbridled sexual escapades and strong bonds of friendship that will leave you shaking your head. Ms. Jackson weaves a tale that I found to be interesting and with further character development, I would have rated it even a notch higher. The personal tragedies that Luby faces and her estranged relationship with her mother come full circle once she becomes aware of her special inheritance. Also, Ms. Jackson addresses inter-racial relationships and accepting people for who they are versus what we perceive them to be. All in all, I found this to be a refreshing story, with a paranormal twist that captured my attention.

Reviewed by Nedine
of The RAWSISTAZ™ Reviewers

This is an interracial paranormal story. It is a story of one woman and her two very close friends, note the description of the book on the back cover doesn't accurately describe the book. I'll deal with the two friends first. One is black, like the main character Luby and the other is white. Luby's black friend Cat, is married but unhappy in the marriage and wants out. She comes up with an unorthodox way of ending the marriage, that I can't say I agreed with but it was creative. The problem I had with this character is I really felt no sympathy towards her. It wasn't really clear what the problem was with the marriage and why marriage counseling couldn't fix it. The second female friend, Danni is described as a short white Barbie, ad nauseam, who only dates black men because of something that happened in her past with her father and brother. While I sympathized with the tragedy of her past, I had no sympathy for her present circumstances. She not only just dated black men, but the worst kind of man period. This woman had real issues that her friends seemed only to give lip service to b/c they were too involved in their own problems. Even the solution they came up with for Danni wasn't really a solution for Danni's underlying issues, just a bandage. I found these side stories about Luby's friends to be more distracting than anything else. Maybe with further character development I would have found them to be more compelling. In fact, I think if Cat and Danni had their own separate fully developed stories the characters would have been more compelling b/c they were interesting women.

Now the main characters Luby and her hero Jake. Luby is a young black attorney who is looking for love. As successful as she's supposed to be in her profession she's not happy with her job or with the way she looks, as compared to her two friends Danni who's white and Cat who is lighter skinned than Luby is. Luby also has issues with her mother who is in a mental institution but may not be insane, she has issues with her sense of self and is unaware of her true magical heritage. Enter the new tenant in her building, Jake. Jake is a chick magnet, literally. He has a family heritage of being able to wield magic of some kind, in his case a type of magic he can't control. He say's he's like a vampire but not. Still not clear what he is. But he has a glamour that makes him literally sexually irresistible to women and some men. Of course Luby is not immune, neither are her two friends. No woman is immune to Jake, he's blessed or cursed with this glamour. But he's white and Luby at first wants to set him up with her white friend. Jake on the other hand only wants Luby. Luby can't resist Jake or is it his glamour? While I like both Luby and Jake together it's still never clear if Luby's attraction to Jake is solely based on his glamour. It's never really clear if she see's beyond this, nor does it seem to really be an issue in the book, but it was for me.

Overall I think Luby and Jake's story was very compelling. I think it would have been even better with more focus on their issues and less on Luby's two friends. However, this book is worth a read, Ms Jackson is an excellent writer.

Well let's get to the bad before the good. People have a tendency to only remember the bad when you add it last.

Bad: I'll break the main characters down.

Luby: It was hard to have any type of sympathy for her. She constantly talked about how beautiful her white friend Danni was. Her pretty skin, big boobs, tiny figure, and blonde hair and blue eyes. She mentioned that all the guys always look at Danni first, and not Cat or herself (who by the way are both black). I swear it Danni's perfection was mentioned one more time in that book, I wouldn't have finished it. She even mentioned that most guys like Cat's lighter skin compared to her darker skin. As a black woman myself, that really got on my nerves.

Danni: Only judging on her actions and words, I would have taken Danni as being a really easy girl who would jump in bed with anyone(there is a name for it but I'll be a lady), as long as they were black. I hated the fact that she only dated black guys, and they just seemed to "love" her. I don't think there was a decent portrayal of a black man in the entire novel. The only one was Darryl, Cat's husband, and I'll touch on that next.

Cat: She was an okay character until she decides to give her poor beautiful white friend the gift she's always wanted. I won't give away any detail, but I found that whole situation with Cat's husband to be absolutely absurd. I wasn't buying Danni as a poor innocent victim. She chose all those losers, and now she was taking a good man (of course black) from someone else. Just didn't appreciate that.

I also didn't like the narration switch at the end. It was very distracting to read 2/3 of the book in Luby's narration, and then switch it to 2 other narrators at the end.

Good:

Now on to the good aspects. The love scenes were so hot and amazing. Very heavy and sweet. The love scenes were a true page turner. The story idea was really good. I loved the paranormal view of life. Jake was so hot, I fell in love with him instantly. M. Jackson's writing style if very refreshing and new. I like that.

My only problem, which is why I scored it a 3 and not 4 or 5, was because I didn't like how much time was taken up explaining how great and beautiful her blonde "white" friend was, and the main "black" character complained about not being as pretty and how white guys don't look at black women. In life I found that if you're pretty, guys, no matter what race, will look at you. Some maybe more reluctant than others, but they look. The main character Luby, seemed a little self-hating.

Now I know I gave more bad than good, but it's just because the bad really burned me up, and almost caused me to not finish the book. The reason I gave so much detail, is because I read Ms. Jackson's entry above, and I wanted other reviewers to know that I DID read the book. I think it's unfair to authors if you post a review, but have not read the novel.

***Anyway, this book is definitely worth the read. The writing style is terrific, but warning; if you are a strong, proud, black woman, Luby, Danni, and Cat may get on your last nerve.

Truthfully I thought Jake, Darryl, and anyone Danni got with deserved better.

The two reasons I gave this 4 instead of 5 stars is 1. the description on the back of the book is totally misleading. This is a paranormal romance and the paranormal aspect seems to come out of nowhere and 2.The other point of views that came up near the end of the book were a bit distracting. I would've preferred to switch POVs throughout the entire book or not at all.

Overall, it was a fun read. Although I wasn't expecting the paranormal aspect I enjoyed it. I did find myself rooting for the main characters to get together in the end. Although some of the situations were ridiculous, it was clear that this was supposed to be a fun novel that didn't take itself too seriously. If you just want to have a fun, light, paranormal read, you should enjoy this book.

The writer has some funny lines in this story. I got a good laugh (at the beginning). It is what kept me going through the book at first. I read Rock Star (boring and predictable) and thought that this one was starting out to be much better!

I liked how the hero seems to "see" the heroine in a different way (i.e. seeing her soul / aura as being beautiful). I thought that this was unique and showing that he had a tender side - especially with the painting. I liked that he appreciated her naturalness. That he also seemed to be a "hottie" was also an interesting twist. The interracial relationship did not seem to be a big issue in the book but only took on major significance in the end - I thought this was also good.

The sex scenes were worth reading as well (some of the slang could have been left out).

I thought the secondary characters were inconsequential and almost absurd (at least the way that one solves a marriage issue). I thought that a sister-like relationship with a Barbie-look-alike and a woman who "tends to get little attention from men" was rather odd.

I think the thing that threw me off was that the book gives no indication whatsoever that it is going to touch upon Harry-Potter-meets-Voodoo-like stuff. It totally came out of left field. If one is familiar with spiritual issues (that everything consists of energy, auras, vibration, karma, etc.) then ~some~ of the "mumbo jumbo" might make sense -

The book has some good points and bad points. I completed this book in one night. I most definitely thought it was better than Rock Star and I was turning the pages with anticipation whereas with Rock Star, I was getting a headache. I think the author could have developed things a little better though.

Ok I haven't read a paranormal romance story and this was a GREAT place to start. I have read some of Monica Jackson's stories and I enjoyed them and this story can be added to the list. One thing I enjoyed was that it was funny. I busted out laughing a few times. Also I wouldn't mind finding a Jake of my own (sweet and sexy is a pretty nice combination). I'm not going to go too much into the story but I did enjoy it and have read it several times already and I just bought it not too long ago.

I liked this book alot. I thought that it was a lot of fun. I liked Luby's character, she was a fun character to read. I loved her ongoing-dialogue about what was going on around her. The main male character was just hot...the only thing that I can say is wow. Remember for a lot of US we read books to take us away like Calgon. This is a paranormal book, don't take it seriously. IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A FUN BOOK THAT WILL MAKE YOU LAUGH AND CHEER FOR THE HEROINE THEN THIS IS THE BOOK FOR YOU.

This was undoubtedly one of the worst books I have ever read. The jacket cover describes three single girlfriends that are seeking a man to marry...Not true...! I won't spoil it, but when you are still married...you shouldn't be seeking your next husband. The book also has a paranormal twist--and unless you are an occult worshipper--for the most part you won't have a clue about some of the things that are going on. If you like the bizarre, this is for you...If you are seeking a book that you can follow, and that is of the real world--keep looking!

The summary doesn't exactly describe the book. It is a paranormal romance with Luby as the main character telling most of the story. The other characters have minimal say in this book and you read from their perspective. It was funny, it is raunchy, so be prepared for some cussin' and so on. All in all I did enjoy the book.