Crush

October 24, 2011
A tenuous theme ties this anthology together, beginning with Grant's steamy romance, "White Chocolate," in which a perfectly nice love story devolves into a waiting game due to the heroine's propensity to second-guess herself. Lutishia Lovely's "Wanted: You" begins as a 31-year-old virgin with a crush on her boss reads the first in a series of purple-prose come-on letters/emails directed at him. None of the many "suspects"âamong them a rich, white bitch, a pathetic former client, and the lawyer's cheating ex-wifeâare portrayed positively, though despite so many choices, the dénouement nonetheless shocks. Closing the book is the confounding "From One Lover to Another," from Book-Remarks.com founder Cydney Rax. It features a professional woman unable to shake off her gangsta ex-boyfriend, even after he cussed out his mama. A chance meeting at the movies with an architect at her firm leads her into new relationship, but the skank he crushes on and her bad-boy ex loom large.