Product Description

From the "queen of urban fiction" (Publishers Weekly), Vicki Stringer, comes a scorching tale of love, lies, loss, and the indomitable spirit of a woman scorned.

Mischievous and manipulative, eighteen-year-old Red is an expert at deception with a provocative femininity. She employs her dirty ways - even faking a pregnancy with her boyfriend - to win a closet full of Gucci bags, a deluxe condominium full of baby accessories, a new car, and a book deal. But when one of Red's scams backfires and she winds up truly pregnant by her inmate ex-boyfriend, Bacon, she finds herself in more trouble than she's ever known. The drama truly unravels when Red's picture-perfect cons fall apart due to the power of - surprisingly - love.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #88851 in Books
• Published on: 2007-07-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780743493635
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
A little bit of moralizing laces the graphic sex and violence in this third street lit novel by Stringer, publisher of Triple Crown Publications and a former madam and drug dealer. The story spins around Raven "Red" Gomez, a victim of her stepfather's sexual abuse and her mother's rejection, for whom every relationship is another opportunity to con someone out of their cash. From duping her boyfriend Q into believing she's pregnant by using the urine of another woman, to conning her abusive, incarcerated ex out of royalties on his street novel, Red's "goal was to rich at all costs, regardless of who was hurt in the process". For Red, sex-however pleasurable-is a commodity traded for cash and power, children are a means to "catch" a man, and revenge for one's last double-cross is around every corner. This barely plotted tale (after Imagine This) serves up some suffering for the immoral Red, but a close getaway at the end promises a sequel.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Stringer's life story rivals her fiction for drama. Now considered the queen of street lit and featured in Essence and the New York Times, Stringer was once the cocaine queen of Columbus, Ohio. She wrote her first novel in prison, then self-published Let That Be the Reason (2001) and Imagine This (2004). Both became big hits with the hip-hop crowd, inspiring Stringer to establish her own publishing company, Triple Crown Publications. She now makes her hardcover debut with a calculatedly nasty yet redemptive tale of a ruthless woman warrior. The daughter of a Puerto Rican mother and an African American father, Red is smart, gorgeous, fearless, and mean, running elaborate daredevil scams while living a glamorous, if precarious, life. The source of her rampaging evil? Childhood sexual abuse. Red earns the tag "dirty" many times over as Stringer keeps readers riveted with graphic sex, dangerous characters, profanity-spiked dialogue, and nonstop trouble. Stringer's savvy street thriller has obvious appeal, and the cliff-hanger conclusion suggests that more Dirty Red tales are in the offing. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"A calculatedly nasty yet redemptive take of a ruthless woman...[A] savvy street thriller."- Booklist

"Gritty, gripping...Readers will agree that Stringer, known as the queen of street literature, has earned her crown once more." - Tampa Tribune

Customer Reviews

What a Downer
After reading the reviews in Essence and on this website, I was really excited about reading this book. Boy was I in for a letdown. This is not the fast-paced page turner that everyone touts it as. As a matter of fact it took me almost two months to finish.

As with a lot of these urban tales (and I hate to generalize) you can safely hypothesize the outcome about three chapters in. Even so, I was not impressed with the story line or character development. I have really grown weary of authors doing a very poor job of trying to re-create The Coldest Winter Ever.

That's it????
I not a big fan for her books (we had to wait damn near TWO years for part II of Let that be the reason) but i decided to give this one a try. It's not as a exciting as you would think. Every one wants a piece of Red blah blah blah. She's 18 and pretty much has everything and everone wrapped around her fingers. The books seems alittle bit rushed along. I didn't really find the the main point of the story other that Red is a golddigger.I would say this book is alright if you are into immature ghetto books. Oh and b4 I forget.....I HATE THE ENDING. But then again that's how most of her books end.....with a question mark. ENJOY!

Dirty Red Was A Dirty Beeyatch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This was truly a fast paced action packed novel. Raven "Red" Gomez was the kind of character that you love to hate. The reader will find themselves rooting for Red in her scheming. She has nothing but snakes around her,they all want something from her. Although Red is greasy herself she does have a heart. I was reading this book so fast my heart started to to palpitate the only thing that made me mad was that it was over toooooo soon. Well peeps Vickie has done the damn thing again. I also liked the way Vickie threw a little K'wan flavor in their by the way of Bacon, Red's locked up boyfriend.