Lady Sings the Cruels

by Eric Pete Narrated by Cherise Booth, Kevin R. Free, Ezra Knight

Overview

Essence best-seller and book club favorite Eric Pete returns with another seductive tale of love gone wrong. On the day he is supposed to propose to Amelia, things go tragically wrong, and Bodie ends up in the slammer with a conviction for manslaughter. Amelia can't believe Bodie is guilty, but she knows she's got to move on and find herself a better man. And just when she thinks she's found that man, Amelia finds out her new lover has more in common with Bodie than smooth moves.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

Pete (Don't Get It Twisted) traces the lives of three Houston residents in his fifth novel with mixed results. Waitress and aspiring singer Amelia is derailed when her boyfriend Bodie is sent to prison after his conviction in connection with the botched robbery of the pawn shop where he, accompanied by his thug friends, had gone to buy an engagement ring for her. When he gets locked up, Amelia tries to put Bodie behind her and follow the example set by her best friend Natalia, who has become a national sensation after appearing on a reality talent show. Ike, a corrections officer at Bodie's prison, meets Amelia at a club and, unaware that she's Bodie's ex-girlfriend, romantically pursues her. Bodie learns what is happening in the outside world and plans his revenge. The story has its slow patches and some of the plot points are too obvious, but the inner lives of the main characters and most of the supporting cast are well sketched. And though the sex scenes are awful ("parting my yearning walls," anyone?), Pete has a knack for describing budding romance. The last few chapters build to a satisfyingly bittersweet conclusion. (Nov.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

An engaging novel of hard times and second chances set in Houston's African-American community. Alternately narrated by Bodie, Ike and Amelia, the novel opens with the three doing hard time of a sort: Bodie is in prison for a murder he didn't commit (thus protecting guilty friends); Ike is Bodie's prison guard, shackled at home to a shrewish girlfriend; and Amelia, Bodie's girlfriend on the outside, is scraping by waitressing, her dreams of stardom dashed. A few years earlier, Bodie was living the gangster life while managing Amelia's burgeoning singing career. But just as she is about to audition for the TV show American Icon, she sees Bodie on the news, running from cops; he's ultimately charged with murder. Amelia's best friend, Natalia, eventually won the Icon competition and the accompanying fame, while Amelia gave up singing altogether. Helping out her sick cousin Me-Me one night, Amelia sings her set at the Lullaby Club, and her passion and determination are rekindled. On that night, she meets Ike, fresh from a mayor's dinner, where he caught his girlfriend and her boss in the men's room. Ike and Amelia share an immediate connection, and he just can't figure out where he's seen her before. But then it hits him-every time he enters Bodie's cell for a contraband search, he sees her pretty face in a picture pinned to the wall. Bodie, though no angel, is an innocent man and is doing his time the only way he knows how, by keeping palms greased on the inside and his woman watched on the outside. Though Bodie has some power in prison, it doesn't keep him safe from CO Arnold. She terrorizes all the corrections officers beneath her, especially Ike, and sexually assaults the prisoners whenthey're in solitary confinement. As Amelia gets closer to realizing her dream and she and Ike begin building a loving relationship, Bodie, who's discovered their romance, moves in for a brutal, final revenge. A gritty depiction of prison life, a few sweaty sex scenes and a cast of well-drawn characters converge in this drama of damaged lives.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171165659
Publisher:	Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date:	03/04/2008
Edition description:	Unabridged

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