Anonymous

The Vocal Performance Gave My Favorites Life

Reviewed: 01-07-24

This was amazing. I was able to re-experience all of the emotions that my favorite read of 2023.

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Great story, wrong reader!

Reviewed: 11-15-22

This story is magnificent! I can’t get pass someone who reads this that is from “Atlanta”, isn’t offended by the way the reader portrays our culture. The way she sounds the words is very disrespectful at least. Nobody from Georgia, NOBODY, sounds this way! If it hadn’t been for the great story and the fact I like to listen as oppose to read, I wouldn’t have listened to this just because of her voice and how she portrayed ppl from the south! It’s not appealing and makes the story bland as good as it is.

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1 person found this helpful

Why Does the Female Narrator Have THAT Accent?

Reviewed: 05-13-22

Let me just say that I was wrong, so very wrong. Let me explain.

I purchased this ebook on October 14, 2020 because of the cover alone. It was so gorgeous I couldn’t not have it in my collection. I then saw the author at the Atlanta Kick Back in June of 2021 and purchased the paperback, because once again it was just a beautiful cover. However I continued to put off reading this book because I was intimidated by the page count of over 400.

Fast forward to January 2022 when I finally dove into this masterfully written slow burn read of young love. I feel like I cheated myself out of the wonder that was held in these pages by continuing to put it off. Don’t be like me. Take the time to read or listen to the tale of Claudette (Clo) and Dominic's (Nic) journey into adulthood and love.

This is Rae Lyse’s first published work and her pen isn't to be played with!! 5 Stars for the story itself. Now as for the narration the male narrator was fine but the female narrator was borderline offensive as a person that was not only raised in the southeast but someone that grow up in metro Atlanta it was a lot with the accent. Very distracting so much so that I stopped going to the narration of the story during her readings to avoid the "southern" accent she put on. I believe she is coming back for the 3rd installment of the series my hope is that the accent is not has pronounced. Over all the performance was a 3 star because of it.

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A Marriage Break Up Is Hard

Reviewed: 05-13-21

Marriage is hard and sometimes it just don’t work out but there is a way to dissolve your marriage with some grace. Unfortunately Nedra’s husband Chris failed on this.

In this read we met Nedra Phillips - a gun enthusiast - who is married at the beginning of the read. She is mad and confused as to why her life is going the way it is when she meets our hero. Our hero, Jermaine Hawkins - is an NBA star at a crossroads in his career.

In this read I felt the pain of Nedra coming off of the page. It was a painful but realistic view of a breaking down of a marriage in the beginning of the read. So realistic as a read you have a sense of relief when she “snaps” out of the fight for her marriage stage she was in. I think it is fair to say that I despise Chris. He was selfish in the handling of intimate moments with Nedra. I was very satisfied with the “sonning” that Jermaine gave out to him in the end.

I loved how in touch Jermaine was with his feelings and what the universe is showing him. I especially loved the thought surrounding rebounds. The spicy scene was good, I do wish we could have got some more relationship building being played out on the page. There was a lot of use of the eye description of everyone having “Amber'' and Jermaine sounded a bit too “hotepy” with the nickname “goddess.” 3 Stars

A word about the audio performance is boring. The narrator sounded like she was just reading and not performing the story.

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Sweet Story

Reviewed: 04-28-21

This super short read/listen following the bond that is developed while completing the week core of doing laundry between our hero Sydney and heroine Daren.

This read is almost sugary sweet in how our hero - Sydney- inner monologue plays during his interactions with Daren even after the discovery of her new boyfriend. Sydney was getting on my nerves a bit with not expressing himself. We didn't get the Daren perspective however it was nice to have a plus sized heroine represented in romance.

As I mentioned this is a short read/listen that is performed by Robyn Isaacs with a run time of 1hr and 16mins according to Audible. If you are a lover of steamy as I am you will find that this one doesn't have it throughout however the ending does pack a pretty good “climax.” 3 Stars

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1 person found this helpful

CCJ never Misses

Reviewed: 04-10-21

In this one we met Pierre Perry, III and Logan Byers. Pierre is Hollywood royalty with a rocky past. He is fighting to not just be seen as a trust fund baby but a grown man, while still honoring his ancestors that have come before him and making a name for himself. Logan Byers comes from a long line of high powered attorneys and was once a practicing herself until she discovered her voice and created her own lane as an executive concierge. They literally collide into each other's lives one early morning.

The book is a longer project from CCJ but there is no lull in the journey that our two main characters take. They are both flawed characters both eliciting several deep negro sigh accompanied by eye rolls at some of their situations. The realism that this read gave about struggles with parental control over one's life and addiction hit home for me. So when Pierre or Logan got a win I was right there celebrating with them.

We get some cameos from other characters from CCJ books as family and friends, this added more perspective. I loved that the book presents the world behind the camera not only on a practical level but on a personal level as well. The good, bad, and ugly are laid out in this read with commentary about the entertainment industry, the public consumption of media, and more.

I was able to listen and read this book via audiobook and let me tell you Wesleight Siobhan and Emmanuel Ingram brought the words to life. Emmanuel's portrayal of Pierre Perry took him to the front of my book bae list!! I will be comfort listening to this one again in the near future, great job! 5stars

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Erotica???

Reviewed: 03-11-21

This is a short read about Omar Goodness and his women, cause he had dealings with a few in this read.

Omar Goodness or Oh My Goodness, cute, has been a busy man. We met him while he was on a date with Tia but my dude is spreading it wide with two other women in the read all the while stating that he has real feelings for Tia - whom we don’t really get a great background on except she blacks out and has a terrible friend.

I was able to listen to Cary Hart's performance of this story and he always delivers so there is no concern there because he did what he could with the words that were given.

As I mentioned this is a short one so it's hard to not give away the story but not a lot of spice was being given, and why was the wasting of perfectly fine underwear causing so much hoopla??! And listen I get the idea behind blacking out due to “overstimulation” can be appealing but that can be so dangerous especially since she was out long enough for an ambulance to be called. Even with all that, I am not sure if this should have been classified as erotica because the steamy scenes were just ok. I would have liked more story building and character development so that I could care about the relationship between OMG and Lights Out. 2 stars

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Why So Fast???!

Reviewed: 03-05-21

This read was not good at all. So many stereotypes were depicted in this one from the multiple baby “daddies”, the single mom not taking care of the multiple kids, and jailbird comes home to millions of dollars.

At points if felt like the author had forgotten what was written about the scene or characters. The plot was all over the place and I didn’t root for anyone to win in this one. Well maybe Tracy she seemed like a hard worker. But them main characters were trash.

Speaking of garbage the narrator. Was she hyped up on speed cause she was flying through this “performance.” I had to adjust the speed from 1.0x to 0.7x to have her reading at a decent pace. She was very monotone not giving much of a performance at all. 1 star for both the story and the performance.

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Friends with Benefits Never Work

Reviewed: 03-05-21

The friends to lovers trope can come off a “corny” however in this read it is far from the yellow grain that doesn't digest well. The involvement of attempting to be friends with benefits always ends in disaster … or does it? This read explores the highs and lows of trying this mess.

In this read we met the hero, Shad, and the heroine, Aisha, who are a part of a bigger friend group - Vick, Darwin, Shad, Monie, Lisette, and Aisha - that have all been friends for 13years going back to puberty days. These folks are tight meeting up every second Saturday to share a meal and some giggles it appears.

At one of these meetups Shad invites Aisha to attend a work event with him where a cover band performs 90s R&B hits. Now listen I am wondering if this is a thing cause I would love to go to a concert like this 90s R&B is the music of my youth and gives me all the feels to this day!! It appears that I am not alone in that cause Shad and Aiesha too shared a love for this classic time in music history.

This is a short, lunchtime read/listen so I will not spoil the book for you but Shad was listening to his heart most of the book then his brain took over and that was the slip up. Aisha, I love a woman who is comfortable in her sexuality and body. Momma knew what she needed and only accepted that!!

The supporting cast of friends makes me wish that we get some stories about them because each was a great addition to the story and helped with moving it forward. I enjoyed the audible performance Emmanual Ingram (@bookofemmanuel). I am convinced that man could read a phonebook and make it interesting. 4 stars

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2 people found this helpful

Short, Cute and Steamy

Reviewed: 02-19-21

New to me author Tanzania Glover caught me with the name of this read - Lay Your Head On My Pillow is one of my favorite songs of all time. Tony! Toni! Toné! Is one of my top 5 best R&B male groups.

In this short read we met Toni Riley, a guidance counselor at her high school alma mater, a position that was meant to be temporary but is starting to look real permanent as she hasn’t quite figured out what she wants to be when she grows up. Then we met Arlan Parks, a world renowned artist who is also alumni of the school as well and is back to offer his services to the alma mater.

Toni thinks Arlan is super fine but is a baby and she has no time for babysitting … until she realizes that his age may not be big but other things are. Arlan did come off at a little bit creepy to me at one point and I personally would have ran away but this is Toni’s life.

I did enjoy the audible version of this as well as the ebook of this read and the narrator Robyn Isaacs did a great job. I believe this was my 1st time hearing a performance from her.

This was a cute read that packed some steam, which I really enjoyed. 3.4 Stars

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