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The Business of Lovers: A Review


The Business of Lovers: A Novel by [Eric Jerome Dickey]Anytime EJD drops new work, I get excited. And just like I do when all his books are released, I ran to cop this one. No matter what EJD writes, I can assure you a few things for certain:

1. You gon’ learn a few new words. Big words. Small words. Words from other languages. Oh, you gon’ learn today!

2. You will meet at least three characters who will stick with you long after the books ends.

3. You will find Black women. Beautiful Black women. Black women of all shades, sizes and hues. Smart, cultured Black women. You may even find a few crazy Black women, but you know, Black women.

4. You will find Black men. Beautiful Black men. Fine-arse Black men. Black men who make you want to jump through the pages and lay yourself bare. Black men who love Black women. Black men protecting Black women. Black men of all shades, sizes and hues. You will find a few crazy-arse Black men who will beat you (other men) to death with bare hands or shoot the sh*t out of you or beat you with an object because they feel like it. You’re even going to find a few Black men who ain’t worth a whole lot. (see, DeWayne Sr.)

5. You will be entertained. You can bet your last dollar.

Okay, if I keep this up, I’ll never get to the gosh-danged review. So here goes.

I loved this book. I hated this book. Brick is the reason I loved this book. DeWayne Jr. is the reason I hated this book.

I disliked DeWayne from the moment I met him. As his POV continued, I hated him by the end of the book. The reason I disliked DeWayne is based solely on biasedness. Okay, so maybe I didn’t hate the book. Maybe I just disliked DeWayne with passion. Don’t worry, DeWayne, I wasn’t too fond of Coretta either. I most definitely wasn’t feeling Frenchie. And DeWayne Sr.? Forget about it. I don’t get off on talking about stuff, things or people I dislike, so moving on….shall we?

I can’t say whether I liked or disliked Andre. We didn’t get to learn too much about him, but I wished we had. He and Big Legs would have probably taken us down through there, but we will never know…or will we? I’d have preferred to read more about Andre as opposed to DeWayne.

Ken Swift and Jake Elliot…well…they showed up, showed out and then dipped out. Gotta love those two.

I loved Brick. I loved everything about Brick. I wanted much more for Brick. I was rooting for him from the moment he was introduced (EJD has the power to do that with his writing). Brick was complex. I couldn’t figure him out. Like he told Mocha Latte, he was a goshdarned riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. Maybe she was a reflection of him? Brick was always trying to save everybody, from trying to salvage the relationship between his father and his brother to trying to save his brother’s son and the son’s mama to keeping the pace off asses safe, Brick was to the rescue. I found that endearing. Actually, this whole book could have only had Brick’s POV and I wouldn’t have been mad about it.

Mocha Latte, she is one of those beautiful Black women EJD always writes about. She was smart and from the country. She found herself in a tough situation, just like the other two women she worked with. She did what she had to do to survive. I will never judge any woman for that. Out of all the women in the book (and there were quite a few), she was my favorite.

This book kept me flipping pages, and even when I had to stop reading it to do something around my house, I couldn’t stop thinking about reading it. However, there were some kinks. Monologues. Lots of those. LOTS of characters. If I wasn’t paying attention, I’d have been confused as to who was talking a couple of times. Sometimes, the characters came off as elitist and full of respectability politics. 
It seemed as if EJD was trying to make every woman in the world happy with this one. I understand he has a plethora of women fans from all walks of life and all races, but truly, I didn’t need the around the world or the fake love from Black men who claim to love Black women, but end up with others. Sir, just take your Frenchie and go. 

There was so much sex and so little use of protection. YIKES!

Overall, though, I’m still an EJD reader and will probably read the next book he releases. Prayers to the Most High: Oh please let it be Gideon!!!

I’m going to rate this book four-pages (think four-stars).

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