From Publishers Weekly
Ostensibly about two young African-Americans trying to make it in Manhattan in the early 1980s, LaMon's debut reads more like a paranoid rant, the kind of self-indulgent screed that climaxes with a poetry contest. Nia Benson's universe teeters when she is fired from her job to make way for her boss's niece, and her boyfriend leaves her for another woman. Meanwhile, Seth Jackson, a self-confessed lothario hoping to succeed in the music business, falls for Lauren, a woman with a ton of baggage. Both Nia and Seth have affairs with other people, who are mere stepping stones along the learning path that leads them to each other. An overreliance on melodrama combined with unwieldy subplots lawsuits, lesbian affairs, bribery add up to poor storytelling, as secondary characters are used to soapbox shamelessly. The need to learn not to compromise, to love oneself and to be honest are trumpeted, but much of the Black Power speechifying, while legitimate, simply sounds clumsy and dated in LaMon's hands. She fares better when she focuses more on romance than rhetoric, but even then her all-tell-and-no-show prose gets in the way: "days like these made a woman inhale and feel energy literally expand within her soul." The favoring of oration over narration makes this a windy, dissatisfying effort.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Product Description
From fabulous new author Jacqueline Jones LaMon, a sexy page-turner that follows the lives of two young, black professionals as they navigate career and romance, ambition and heartbreak. Two paths that meet by serendipity.
Nia Benson, a college graduate who dreams someday of running her own public relations firm, believes the world is her oyster. But Nia runs up against the harsh realities of corporate life and office politics when she is fired from a job she loves. For someone who has always had a plan and a purpose, Nia feels suddenly adrift, questioning her aspirations and sense of self. It doesn’t help her state of mind when Nia learns her long-time love is seeing someone else. She finds emotional release, however, in an unexpected place.
Seth Jackson is trying to make his way in the cutthroat music industry. After years of chasing one woman after another, he is finally ready to settle down. When he meets the mysterious, captivating Lauren at his best friend’s wedding, Seth falls hard and fast. He has no doubt: Here is the woman with whom he is destined to spend the rest of his life. Until a twist of fate and painful secrets threaten to tear them apart.
Facing the collapse of all that they believe in, Nia and Seth set out on separate journeys to find themselves. Along the way, their paths will criss then cross, through tears and laughter, as they uncover deep truths about who they are, what they need, and where their hearts really belong.
Nia Benson, a college graduate who dreams someday of running her own public relations firm, believes the world is her oyster. But Nia runs up against the harsh realities of corporate life and office politics when she is fired from a job she loves. For someone who has always had a plan and a purpose, Nia feels suddenly adrift, questioning her aspirations and sense of self. It doesn’t help her state of mind when Nia learns her long-time love is seeing someone else. She finds emotional release, however, in an unexpected place.
Seth Jackson is trying to make his way in the cutthroat music industry. After years of chasing one woman after another, he is finally ready to settle down. When he meets the mysterious, captivating Lauren at his best friend’s wedding, Seth falls hard and fast. He has no doubt: Here is the woman with whom he is destined to spend the rest of his life. Until a twist of fate and painful secrets threaten to tear them apart.
Facing the collapse of all that they believe in, Nia and Seth set out on separate journeys to find themselves. Along the way, their paths will criss then cross, through tears and laughter, as they uncover deep truths about who they are, what they need, and where their hearts really belong.
