Jada by Denise Alexander

Publisher/Date:  iUniverse, July 2005
Genre:  Romance
Pages:  100

Rating: ★★★½☆ 

If I had three words to describe JADA, author Denise Alexander’s debut novel, it would be: no more drama!

Alexander’s tale is the semi-erotic tale of Jada Williams, a sexy diva in a new relationship with femme Shanice. Jada, who’s only out to her friends, has been in the life for a few years, and thinks she has finally met the perfect woman. After meeting at a club, the two hit it off and get pretty serious after a couple of months.

Both Jada and Shanice have endured dead-end relationships in their in their pasts that took tolls on their souls. Jada learned she can’t be something she’s not to please others, while Shanice survived endured an abusive affair. They lean on each other and try to trust again, though it’s not easy.

Everything is peachy for the pair until Shanice loses her job. Jada soon learns the real Shanice is ugly — and it takes something piercing for Jada to realize that Shanice is not as perfect as she seems.

Alexander is a good storyteller, I’ll give her that. But Jada moves too quickly to for the reader to get a real hold of the characters. The novel’s namesake comes off kind of immature and shallow at times, and the couple’s problems seem to be easily solved with sex. The grammatical errors also take away from the tale, too.

However, I do recommend Jada for lazy afternoon read — one that starts off good but ends too
swiftly.

Reviewed January 2006