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Chasing Destiny | ||
| Author: | Eric Jerome Dickey | ||
| ISBN: | 052594950X | ||
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Eight-time New York Times bestselling author Eric Jerome Dickey’s new novel is filled with intrigue, speed, and sex appeal. And an unforgettable female narrator rides her sexy yellow motorcycle right through it all. Billie (aka "Ducati") is known as much for her extraordinary beauty as for the sexy yellow motorcycle she rides through the mean streets of Los Angeles. Tough, talented, and self-assured, Billie's used to doing things her way—but that was before love threw an oil slick in the road and spun her life into chaos. Billie's first problem is simple: she's pregnant. Her second problem is that her lover, Keith, is still married. Keith has some "things" to deal with, and the people in his life are dark and duplicitous enough to take matters into their own hands, determined to keep Billie from having her baby. Billie suddenly finds herself confronted, attacked, run off highways, threatened and shadowed. Keith still has ties to his manipulative wife, Carmen, and he adores his fifteen-year-old daughter Destiny. Will he do the right thing by his new family, or stand by his old one? Soon all eyes shift as everyone finds themselves desperately chasing Destiny, a troubled and deceptive girl dancing on the edge of womanhood. When the rubber meets the road, everyone's fighting dirty for what they want...and they're all willing to destroy their enemy or go down in flames to get it. FROM THE PUBLISHER Eight-time New York Times bestselling author Eric Jerome Dickey's new novel is filled with intrigue, speed, and sex appeal. And an unforgettable female narrator rides her sexy yellow motorcycle right through it all. Billie (aka "Ducati") is known as much for her extraordinary beauty as for the sexy yellow motorcycle she rides through the mean streets of Los Angeles. Tough, talented, and self-assured, Billie's used to doing things her way-but that was before love threw an oil slick in the road and spun her life into chaos. Billie's first problem is simple: she's pregnant. Her second problem is that her lover, Keith, is still married. Keith has some "things" to deal with, and the people in his life are dark and duplicitous enough to take matters into their own hands, determined to keep Billie from having her baby. Billie suddenly finds herself confronted, attacked, run off highways, threatened and shadowed. Keith still has ties to his manipulative wife, Carmen, and he adores his fifteen-year-old daughter Destiny. Will he do the right thing by his new family, or stand by his old one? Soon all eyes shift as everyone finds themselves desperately chasing Destiny, a troubled and deceptive girl dancing on the edge of womanhood. When the rubber meets the road, everyone's fighting dirty for what they want...and they're all willing to destroy their enemy or go down in flames to get it. FROM THE CRITICS Library Journal Billie is the ultimate unconventional woman, beautiful and smart and riding through the streets of Los Angeles on her yellow Ducati motorcycle. Problems arise when she falls for Keith, becomes pregnant, and then realizes that Keith's "supposedly" soon-to-be ex-wife, Carmen, wants him back. Vowing to keep her family together at all costs, Carmen devises several devious plots to insure that Billie and her unborn baby stay permanently out of the picture. While everyone fights for his or her own interests, they all fail to notice the effect this insane love triangle is having on Keith and Carmen's 15-year-old daughter, Destiny. Billie, Carmen, and Keith are forced to chase after Destiny as she runs into all the wrong people and places. Despite extremely long chapters, this latest novel from Dickey (Genevieve) does not disappoint. A well-developed plot, interesting characters, and beautiful imagery of various neighborhoods of Los Angeles combine to make it an exciting read. Recommended for public libraries with contemporary African American collections. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 1/06.]-Lisa Jones, Birmingham P.L., AL Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information. Kirkus Reviews L.A. free spirit's life takes a dangerous turn when she discovers she is pregnant-just as her lover decides to go back to his wife. Part-time bartender, aspiring singer and celebrated biker babe Billie (aka, Ducati, after the Italian motorcycle) is understandably crushed when Keith tells her, at Starbucks no less, that he is back with his estranged wife Carmen, a controlling harpy who has long been blackmailing him emotionally. Even after convincing him to revoke their impending divorce, so that they might once again live as a family with their teenaged daughter Destiny, Carmen is unsatisfied. Winning back the weak-willed Keith is not enough for the hypocritical lawyer, who had a lover of her own. She knows that Keith still loves Billie, so she is determined to make sure the other woman stays out of Keith's life-by any means necessary. Meanwhile, Carmen's baby-faced daughter is struggling with her own strong emotions. With a habit of sneaking out of her room after dark, Destiny uses a big fight with her mother as a pretext for hooking up with a group of slightly older kids she meets on the street. What happens that night is a gritty descent into a shocking teen underworld of violence, drugs and amateur porn. When Destiny does not come home, it is Billie who finds the traumatized runaway, and drags her back to her parents, if only temporarily. After that, Billie finds herself menaced by somebody bent on harming her and her unborn child, while Destiny goes off on a harrowing mission of revenge. Dickey's latest (Genevieve, 2005, etc.) delves into dark territory, with mixed results. While Billie is the kind of strong, sexy, heroine that Dickey's readers have come to love, it is hard tobelieve that a bright girl like Destiny-even with her family falling apart-could sink so far, so fast. A violent, sometimes farfetched look at the desperate lengths people will go to protect the things that matter most to them.
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