Dating Games
A Novel
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
RM Johnson, author of the #1 Essence bestseller The Harris Family, returns with a riveting story of love, family, and revenge.
At age thirty-three, Livvy Rodgers is fed up with relying on men and working her dead-end job, so she decides to apply for a scholarship to become a registered nurse. In order to afford school, she needs to move to a smaller apartment -- leaving no room for her twin daughters, seventeen-year-old Hennesey and Alizé.
Though both gorgeous, the two sisters couldn't be more different. Hennesey, a brilliant straight-A student, is soon off to college on a full scholarship. She's in a strong relationship with Rafe, a recently released convict unjustly jailed for drug possession after taking the rap for his old friend, Smoke, who has since become the most ruthless drug dealer in Chicago. Now a free man, Rafe wants nothing to do with his old friends and street life -- especially when he falls for Hennesey.
On the other hand, Alizé, who is perfectly comfortable relying on her undeniable sex appeal, is a hell-raiser. Once Livvy makes her announcement, Alizé is in desperate need of some money. She and her girlfriends come up with an outrageous plan to score some fast cash -- persuading the men with fat pockets they meet at clubs to take the girls to a hotel, and then drugging them and making off with their wallets and jewelry. In a weird twist of fate, one of their first victims is none other than Smoke, Rafe's old buddy from the street. Once robbed, he's bent on revenge -- and the violent chain of events that follow will change the women of the Rodgers family forever.
Emotionally charged and filled with unforgettable characters, Dating Games is an intense and thought-provoking page-turner, exactly what readers have come to rely on from RM Johnson.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Johnson's latest (after Love Frustration) is an urban soap opera of sex, drugs, crime and deceit and even true love weaving together the dramatic, if predictable, story lines of various Chicago denizens. Livvy Rodgers, a nurse's assistant and single mother of twin 17-year-olds, is struggling to make ends meet as well as to get over her elusive and bad-hearted lover, Carlos. Daughter Hennesey is a sweet honor student headed for college with a full scholarship; smart-mouthed twin Aliz cares for little but money and sex. Manly, kind Rafe Collins is fresh out of prison for a crime he didn't commit and stuck in a job as an auto mechanic for his old criminal pal, Smoke, who's using the fancy car dealership as a front for drug dealing. Cutting between different points of view but always keeping a cool, almost journalistic distance from his characters Johnson charts the heartbreaks and hopes of each of them. Livvy may have finally found a good man in Wade Williams; Rafe takes a shine to Henny but not before Aliz tries to rope him in; Wade befriends Rafe; and Henny and Rafe get their chance but it's a bumpy road, as everyone's lives cross and recross, binding them all together. Livvy's quest to find love and security, Rafe's struggle to escape the clutches of Smoke and make a decent life and Aliz 's misguided attempt to steal her way to luxury all come down to a violent denouement. The final chapters strain credibility, but this is a solid drama from well-known author and Essence bestseller Johnson.
