Saturday, March 2, 2013

Breaking All My Rules-Trice Hickman

Breaking All My Rules


Trice Hickman

Kensington/Dafina, Feb 26 2013, $15.00

ISBN 9780758287205



Six months ago Boutique owner Erica Sanford ended her engagement to the “Good One” Claude Daniel Richardson after finding out he was an amoral egomaniac that cheated on her. Her family is upset as they deemed him perfect to fit in with her CEO father and the rest of the high achievers since he was a star college player with brains and personality. As her BFF says Claude is Lucifer as he rejects her demand to stay out of her life. No one dumps Lucifer.



On jury duty at the D.C. Superior Court, Erica and sanitation worker Jerome Kimbrough meet and begin seeing each other. He fears his low social status as a high school dropout working on his GED and with a young son Jamel means her family will reject him as a street loser even though he turned his life around. However he is no Claude though he has his “Claude” equivalent in Jamal’s mother mucking up his relationship with Erica.



Breaking All The Rules is a fresh look at the social class structure within the African-American community. The protagonists are a strong pair and the support cast dynamic as stereotyping by their respective friends and family powerfully intrude on their relationship; perhaps more so than their respective ex drama queen and king. Although there is too much outside interference dropping in and out, readers will enjoy this close look at seemingly opposites falling in love in spite of the consternation of people (who speak this different forms of English) in their inner circle.



Harriet Klausner





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