Naughty or Nice

Olivia, Tommy, and Frankie, all sisters, search for love, relationships, and good sex, not necessarily in that order. Dickey has created a hot and sassy story of three well-spoken Africa-American women who happen to be sisters. Their relationships with men are varied; their dreams are to succeed in life and love. Each main character is portrayed by a different narrator; the voices are melodious and the sex steamy. A heavy dose of slang punctuates the narratives, tripping lightly and fluidly from the narrators' tongues. M.B.K. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine

October 6, 2003
Dickey's holiday gift to readers follows his usual sure-fire formula of African-American sex, love, infidelity and redemption (Sister, Sister
; Cheaters
; The Other Woman
). This time the backdrop is Christmas/Kwanzaa in Los Angeles, with lights twinkling in the windows and fake snow glistening beneath the palm trees. The McBroom sisters—Frankie, Livvy and Tommie—all have serious man problems. Frankie, the oldest, owns a lot of real estate, drives a Benz and has to advertise on the Internet to snag a date. The unfortunate result is a mailbox full of e-responses from losers: "I should've been more specific and said no Jheri curls, brothers who wear pink curlers, played-out pimps, wanna-be gangstas, streetpharmacists, or gold-tooth-wearing hustlers." Middle sister Livvy's husband has betrayed her with a white woman, the result of which is a baby and a torrent of legal bills. Livvy's answer is to hit the Internet as well, answering an ad from a man searching for women who have been betrayed. Readers be warned: Livvy's hookup and resulting affair are hot enough to scorch fingers. Tommie is the youngest, and she's in secret love with the gentle, single dad across the street who thinks she's just a good friend. The whole Christmas/Kwanzaa business is almost a throwaway; the real focus of the book is sex. Dickey is a master at writing about women and what they want and how they want it. There are three kinds of physical love in these pages: hot, red hot and nuclear, and all three McBroom women get it on and have it every which way. To say the problems of the trio work out for the best in the end is to state the obvious. What reader would expect any less? Agent, Sara Camilli.
(Oct. 27)

Forecast
:
This latest Dickey sports an attractive, new-look cover that downplays the holiday angle, which should make for added curb appeal and a shelf life that extends beyond December.

November 1, 2003
In this holiday novel by Dickey (The Other Woman), the course of true love is not running smoothly for the McBroom sisters, who fear that they'll be spending Christmas alone.

Copyright 2003 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2003
Just in time for the holidays, Dickey offers a very funny and engrossing novel about the McBroom sisters, born and raised in Los Angeles. Frankie, Livvy, and Tommie are very close and support each other unconditionally. Oldest sister Frankie has acquired her wealth through investing in real estate and has been dating via the Internet. Surprisingly, her dates are never as exciting in person as they are online. Middle child Livvy is distraught because she has learned that her husband is having an affair. After suffering the embarrassment of having paternity papers served at her home in front of guests, Livvy fights fire with fire and begins her own clandestine affair. The youngest sister, Tommie, is reclaiming her life after a physically abusive relationship. When she becomes enamored of her neighbor and his daughter, it takes all of her therapy and determination to trust her feelings and follow her heart. Each of the sisters must make hard choices to forge a future unclouded by their past mistakes. Dickey's latest offers plenty of the laugh-out-loud humor that has made his work a staple on best-seller lists. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)