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_simplyread's review against another edition
4.0
Pretty Good
I needed the story to develop quicker and i would have loved to know what happened to everyone and how their life changed.. i didn’t like the way this ended.
I needed the story to develop quicker and i would have loved to know what happened to everyone and how their life changed.. i didn’t like the way this ended.
steel_city_peach's review against another edition
4.0
I forgot how much I loved this book. I really enjoyed reading this again.
steel_city_peach's review against another edition
4.0
I forgot how much I loved this book. I really enjoyed reading this again.
mochagirl's review against another edition
3.0
The title of Eric Jerome Dickey's latest novel, Chasing Destiny, has a dual implication because Destiny is a troubled teen who is `acting out' in the middle of her parent's messy divorce and it also alludes to an underlying theme of how far the lead characters are willing to go to change or control their fate.
Keith and free spirit Billie (aka Ducati because of the motorcycle she rides) have been lovers for about a year and the story opens with her announcing she is pregnant and him announcing he has decided to reunite with his wife, Carmen, and his fifteen-year-old daughter, Destiny - setting the stage for drama ala Dickey style. Carmen, a high powered Los Angeles attorney, is obsessed with Keith, an unemployed engineer, and wants to keep her man and her marriage together at all cost. As the story matures it is revealed how manipulative, vindictive, and conniving Carmen can be and we learn the fruit (Destiny) does not fall far from the tree.
Unbeknownst to her parents, Destiny has serious problems of her own. After sneaking out of the house for a harmless night of partying, she shamelessly victimizes and disfigures another in a "girl fight" to gain some street credibility and naively becomes a victim herself of a violent, brutal act that can ruin her future and embarrass her family. When she learns that her activities have been recorded and are being sold throughout the "hood" on DVD by her so called "friends;" she sets out to correct her mistakes and exact a little revenge but her plans go terribly awry and she is in even deeper trouble. In the meantime, Carmen conspires against Billie andKeith is agonizing over following his heart to start a new family with Billie or uphold his eighteen-year marriage vows and return to his old family, Carmen and Destiny.
Without spoiling the story - let's just say everyone's desperation reaches a boiling point and things quickly spiral out of control with unexpected results. Toward the middle of the book, I found myself rapidly turning pages to read about Destiny's confrontation with the videographers, how Carmen's threats to Billie turn physical and life-threatening, and what Keith's ultimate decision would be. The ending was a bit abrupt, but tied up nicely.
Dickey's talent and experience is evidenced in the handling of the multiple storylines and the intricacy of subplots and multi-character interrelationships. EJD fans will not be disappointed with this offering - although there is nothing new about this piece because it contains the classic components, vibe and cadence found in his last few novels -- it is a novel filled with a colorful supporting cast, a few steamy interludes, and witty dialogue just in time for a Spring release.
Keith and free spirit Billie (aka Ducati because of the motorcycle she rides) have been lovers for about a year and the story opens with her announcing she is pregnant and him announcing he has decided to reunite with his wife, Carmen, and his fifteen-year-old daughter, Destiny - setting the stage for drama ala Dickey style. Carmen, a high powered Los Angeles attorney, is obsessed with Keith, an unemployed engineer, and wants to keep her man and her marriage together at all cost. As the story matures it is revealed how manipulative, vindictive, and conniving Carmen can be and we learn the fruit (Destiny) does not fall far from the tree.
Unbeknownst to her parents, Destiny has serious problems of her own. After sneaking out of the house for a harmless night of partying, she shamelessly victimizes and disfigures another in a "girl fight" to gain some street credibility and naively becomes a victim herself of a violent, brutal act that can ruin her future and embarrass her family. When she learns that her activities have been recorded and are being sold throughout the "hood" on DVD by her so called "friends;" she sets out to correct her mistakes and exact a little revenge but her plans go terribly awry and she is in even deeper trouble. In the meantime, Carmen conspires against Billie andKeith is agonizing over following his heart to start a new family with Billie or uphold his eighteen-year marriage vows and return to his old family, Carmen and Destiny.
Without spoiling the story - let's just say everyone's desperation reaches a boiling point and things quickly spiral out of control with unexpected results. Toward the middle of the book, I found myself rapidly turning pages to read about Destiny's confrontation with the videographers, how Carmen's threats to Billie turn physical and life-threatening, and what Keith's ultimate decision would be. The ending was a bit abrupt, but tied up nicely.
Dickey's talent and experience is evidenced in the handling of the multiple storylines and the intricacy of subplots and multi-character interrelationships. EJD fans will not be disappointed with this offering - although there is nothing new about this piece because it contains the classic components, vibe and cadence found in his last few novels -- it is a novel filled with a colorful supporting cast, a few steamy interludes, and witty dialogue just in time for a Spring release.
sunniemostlee's review
2.0
This book was aight...it was more like Jerry Springer "lite" (or maybe not so light) in an urban setting. "Happy Meal" literature, which has its place as well.
m_ess's review
2.0
I think it may be the trashiest, most morally bankrupt book I've ever read, and I've read a lot of men's adventure fiction. It's awesome, in the horrible ironic sense the word has recently acquired.
First: credit where credit is due. The dialogue is amazing. And it's all perfectly pitched. Everyone in this book is incredibly melodramatic. It's like a soap opera on the page. You almost don't have to imagine the smash zooms and cheap key lighting. It's right there. It's in the dialogue. It's not even subtext. Characters talk about it. They compare themselves to the movies the author is ripping off. Shit is text.
That said, make no mistake, Chasing Destiny is a very, very bad book. Sure, it started strong, but by page ten I was rolling my eyes. The entire book exists at a level of simultaneous hand-wringing and voyeurism normally found on true crime TV shows and Law and Order: SVU. Conversations meandered on. Critical scenes were cut short. Words, phrases, facts and metaphors are repeated an nauseum in the space of a few pages and then immediately forgotten. The massive character count and interconnection of events bogs down the narrative. A lot goes down but it takes hundreds of pages for the plot to progress even the tiniest amount. Then, Spoilers: The book falls apart. The ending is stretched and scattered to the point of anticlimax. The uplifting conclusion? It's the revelation that the entire book was a short and relatively pointless episode, one of many bad break-ups in the main character's life.
I know that by writing about it I've made this book sound much more interesting than it actually is. I know what you're thinking.
"That sounds interesting."
"It can't be that bad."
"Trashy is exactly what I'm looking for."
Perhaps even, "Those are all features, not bugs. Leave poor EJD alone. He knows what he's doing."
I want to set the record straight. Eric Jerome Dickey makes more money than god, so yeah, maybe he knows what he's doing, maybe he's exactly where he wants to be, but where he wants to be sucks. This book was hard to get through. This book hates women. This book needed an editor. This book wants to be porn and a pastor at the same time, but isn't particularly good at either. Was this book entertaining? Yes. Kind of. If you feel the urge to spend your time on this book, by all means indulge it. I did. But this book wasn't worth it.
First: credit where credit is due. The dialogue is amazing. And it's all perfectly pitched. Everyone in this book is incredibly melodramatic. It's like a soap opera on the page. You almost don't have to imagine the smash zooms and cheap key lighting. It's right there. It's in the dialogue. It's not even subtext. Characters talk about it. They compare themselves to the movies the author is ripping off. Shit is text.
That said, make no mistake, Chasing Destiny is a very, very bad book. Sure, it started strong, but by page ten I was rolling my eyes. The entire book exists at a level of simultaneous hand-wringing and voyeurism normally found on true crime TV shows and Law and Order: SVU. Conversations meandered on. Critical scenes were cut short. Words, phrases, facts and metaphors are repeated an nauseum in the space of a few pages and then immediately forgotten. The massive character count and interconnection of events bogs down the narrative. A lot goes down but it takes hundreds of pages for the plot to progress even the tiniest amount. Then, Spoilers: The book falls apart. The ending is stretched and scattered to the point of anticlimax. The uplifting conclusion? It's the revelation that the entire book was a short and relatively pointless episode, one of many bad break-ups in the main character's life.
I know that by writing about it I've made this book sound much more interesting than it actually is. I know what you're thinking.
"That sounds interesting."
"It can't be that bad."
"Trashy is exactly what I'm looking for."
Perhaps even, "Those are all features, not bugs. Leave poor EJD alone. He knows what he's doing."
I want to set the record straight. Eric Jerome Dickey makes more money than god, so yeah, maybe he knows what he's doing, maybe he's exactly where he wants to be, but where he wants to be sucks. This book was hard to get through. This book hates women. This book needed an editor. This book wants to be porn and a pastor at the same time, but isn't particularly good at either. Was this book entertaining? Yes. Kind of. If you feel the urge to spend your time on this book, by all means indulge it. I did. But this book wasn't worth it.
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