A STARRED PUBLISHERS WEEKLY REVIEW!

Craving Temptation

Deborah Fletcher Mello. Kensington/Dafina, $6.99 mass market (320p) ISBN 978-0-7582-9298-8

Mello dishes up rich emotions, memorable characters, and family intrigue set against a background of cultural and political conflict in the second Just Desserts contemporary (after The Sweetest Thing). When attorney Troy Elliot, who’s running for mayor of Memphis, meets the vivacious Amina Salman, his opponent’s campaign manager and daughter, Troy finds his priorities changing. As an accomplished professional, Amina is frustrated by having to balance her conservative Muslim father’s expectations and her own dreams. Amina and Troy creatively plan dates while her brother secretly pursues unsavory business deals. Following their hearts, the lovers marry, setting off a chain of events that tests family loyalty and exposes schemes. Mello handles sensitive religious and cultural issues with grace, and her captivating and heartfelt novel will please new and returning readers with its skillful characterizations, well-paced action, and scintillating love scenes. Agent: Pattie Steele-Perkins, Steele-Perkins Literary Agency. (Aug.)

Reviewed on: 06/02/2014

Release date: 08/01/2014

Comments

DAMMIT, DO BETTER!

I love reading. I get excited when I discover a new author or find an outstanding story. I’m eager to leave reviews and share with others my new finds. When a book or story is lackluster, leaving me less than thrilled, I usually remain silent. I know the effort that an author has put into a story. I know how hurtful a bad review can be. It is not for me to dash anyone else’s dream because what I might not have liked, someone else may have loved. Recently I read books that left me disappointed, and angry. One was an award-winning title, the author gleefully claiming a coveted statue for her efforts. Clearly what I hated, others found award-worthy. And that actually scares me. The story was as well-written as any other in the genre. Its formulaic plot hit all the buttons that her publisher required. But as a woman of color, I found it as insulting and as distasteful as any story I have ever read. The story featured a Native American heroine. She had self-esteem issues, co...

TREYVON MARTIN

Seventeen-year old Treyvon Martin was walking back from a convenience store to his father's home, when he was allegedly accosted and shot dead by a community watch captain. Heading home put him in a “gated” community where he clearly wasn’t welcomed. Treyvon was black and his presence in that “gated” community was a source of consternation for the man who shot him dead as evidenced by the 911 telephone call that was made just minutes prior to the deadly shooting. The media reports that George Zimmerman, a white man, called for police assistance, reporting that Treyvon was “a suspicious person". Despite being advised by the 911 dispatcher to not follow the young man and to wait for police, Zimmerman felt that he had the authority to approach and confront Treyvon instead. That confrontation has now left a family to bury a child who once had a bright and promising future. The central Florida police have yet to levy any charges against Z...

NAUGHTY OR NICE TOUR - DAY 6 - DEBORAH FLETCHER MELLO

I'm so excited to be a part of the NAUGHTY OR NICE BOOK BLOG TOUR. And it gives me great pleasure to give you the first peek at my next release, PLAYING WITH FIRE . Available from Dafina books on February 24, 2015, wherever books are sold, PLAYING WITH FIRE is the first in my two-book Sultry Southern Nights series. ENJOY this excerpt and please, PRE-ORDER your copy today! Romeo Marshall is over six feet of cool, smooth, hot, southern seductiveness--just like the music at his popular Raleigh club, The Playground Jazz and Blues Bar. With his beloved mother gone and no father he's ever known, the business is Romeo's everything. It's a place where anything can happen--and the evening one gorgeous young woman and one intriguing old musician walk into the bar--and into Romeo's life--it does. There's something about high-powered, down-to-the earth Taryn Williams that captures Romeo's attention like no other woman has. Yet unanswered questions from his past s...

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