Product Description

Three prolific authors bring truth to the title of thisheart-wrenching book, Love Is Never Painless, with acollection of novellas that explores the deeper side oflove -- the side rarely explored in love stories.

In Eileen M. Johnson's "How the Other Half Lives," longtime friends Jamellah andFernecia are having trouble with the men in their lives. And as their worlds seem tocrumble, they must count on their friendship to keep it together.

In "Love Is 2 Blame," by V. Anthony Rivers, Malcolm is devastated after histwo-year relationship with Shaylisa ends. And trying to move on will not be easy -- but the lovely Zahara may be the perfect woman to show Malcolm what true love isall about.

In Zane's "Staring Evil in the Face," Robier has everything: a successful career,beautiful children, and the woman of his dreams. Having loved Tiphanie sincecollege, he is determined to keep his marital vows -- until Tiphanie is involved in ahorrible car accident that changes the entire course of their lives.

From nervous breakdowns to drug addiction, in Love Is Never Painless, Zane,Johnson, and Rivers have penned powerful stories that not only will have readerstalking, but will bring a new perspective to their own relationships.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #46166 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-18
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Review
"Arguably not since . . . Nancy Friday has American letters produced a purveyor of erotica with such mass-market appeal."-- The New York Times

"A legend among her fellow authors."-- Today's Black Woman

"Zane has transformed her erotic tales into a cult of personality conglomerate that would make NBA superstars jealous."-- Uptown magazine

About the Author
Zane is a professional African-American woman in her early thirties and the author of several books, including THE HEAT SEEKERS, SHAME ON IT ALL and THE SEX CHRONICLES.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

INTRODUCTION

Have you ever felt like you have done everything conceivable to make a relationship work and there is nothing but drama anyway? Have you ever loved someone more than life itself, but they disvalue that love? Have you ever sacrificed something for another, only to have them not appreciate your generosity? All of us, as we all have feelings, have experienced something like this.

Life is strange. So many people cross our paths during our predetermined amount of years on earth. Many of them will be in our life from day one to the final hour. Many will come into our lives later and hang in there until the very end. Then there are the "other ones." People who are only in our lives for a minute, a day, a week, a month, a year, or a few years. We cannot understand how the relationships with them can start out seemingly perfect and end in total madness.

Whenever I think of a love lost, I hear the words to "Isn't It a Shame?" by LaBelle in my head. The questions asked throughout that song have always hit home with me. How can two people love each other, create children together, cohabitate, build a life together, and then end up hating each other in the end? No one enters into a relationship or marriage expecting it to fail. No one gives of their heart and soul in exchange for being mistreated, either mentally or physically. Yet, anger happens. Abuse happens. Cheating happens. Death happens.

While all of the above can be devastating, the truth of the matter is that old adage: "It is better to love and have lost than to never have loved at all." No matter what the circumstances, no matter what the outcome, love is what makes life worth living. Love is the center of the universe. Love can move mountains. Love can also tear down walls. Love can also kill. Love is never painless.

I know that from personal experience. I have been hurt by those who claimed to love me. It was disappointing, but it does not mean that I will ever give up on finding the right one. There is a man out there who complements me on every level, who can appreciate what I have to offer more than he craves his next high, who can mirror my ambitions with his own, who can uplift me instead of trying to hold me back. Meanwhile and between while, I have children to raise, challenges to meet, and history to make.

Thanks to V. Anthony Rivers and Eileen M. Johnson for participating in this anthology. If you walk away from this book thinking that you should reevaluate your outlook on love, then we have accomplished our goals. I wish you success, I wish you happiness, but most of all, I wish you love.

Blessings,
Zane
Copyright © 2006 by Zane

From How the Other Half Lives

by Eileen M. Johnson

Jamellah pulled the heavy Persian rug toward the hallway and off the wall-to-wall carpeting. Grabbing the vacuum cleaner and wrapping the thin cord around her slim brown hand, she turned the power on and began the task of cleaning the carpet. Humming an old Commodores tune, she pushed and pulled the vacuum until beads of perspiration formed above her nut-brown upper lip. Not only was today Friday, her usual cleaning day, but she was expecting company. Not just any company, but that of the sexy black male persuasion. Kenny was thirty-three years old, the owner of a small but profitable construction company, and very married.

The fact that Kenny was married did not disappoint Jamellah. All of her boyfriends were married. As she always told her best friend, Fernecia, the more happily married they were, the better. Married men were low maintenance and that was right up Jamellah's alley. Married men required no commitment, you didnt have to deal with them 24/7, and they were usually extra passionate and extra generous. That's the way she liked her men. She had actually started dating married men at a very young age after quickly growing weary of young, inexperienced boys who were in her face constantly. So at nineteen, she had gone out and met Clarence at an after-work happy hour. Clarence was a twenty-eight-year-old dreamboat who already had his own small investment banking firm, the fabled house on the hill, and his own Benz. He also had a very somber and sexually unresponsive wife. This was a disappointment for Clarence but a blessing for Jamellah. She and Clarence participated in a hot and heavy fling that lasted until she turned twenty-one. In those two years, he managed to give her a used but still fashionable Audi, a pair of stunning two-carat diamond solitaire earrings, and a nearly permanent headache from his complaining about how unhappy his home life was. So after getting him to secure the financing on a snazzy little town house and helping her to set up a small but lucrative stock portfolio, she gave him a well put together story. With well-rehearsed but very persuasive tears rolling down her cheeks, Jamellah told Clarence about how she could no longer sleep at night without him and how she wanted him to leave his wife. As much as Clarence wanted to be with the cute and sexually uninhibited Jamellah, he realized that the state they lived in was a community property state, and under no circumstances was he ready or willing to give his tight-lipped wife half in a divorce. After an Oscar-worthy performance, Jamellah told him that she might be willing to get over him in exchange for a few parting gifts. Relieved that Jamellah withdrew her staunch ultimatum and waved the white flag, he presented her with a nice diamond tennis bracelet, tuition for her last semester of college, a discreet and heavy deposit in her money-market account, and grateful thanks for the two years of her life that shed devoted to him. Amazingly, they parted as friends, and would occasionally meet for a drink and a quickie.

Three months later, feeling pleasantly boosted with her car, town house, stock portfolio, and degree, Jamellah was once again on the prowl. Love could definitely wait a few more years. Right now, she craved more security. After landing a job as an entry-level adjuster for a large insurance agency, she soon began to use her huge office building as a hunting ground.

She paired crisp linen business suits with soft, lacy peekaboo camisoles and tall heels for a look that was professional yet sexy. Each morning, she painstakingly applied her makeup and arranged her extension-enhanced tresses to look like she had just stepped out of a magazine. Her good looks immediately drew the attention of several of her colleagues. Pretty soon, both her looks and her strong work ethic drew the attention of one of the company's VPs. In the first six months that Jamellah worked for Southwestern Life and Casualty, not only did she do desk work but she also did her homework. She knew which of her suitors had the most pull within the company, who earned the most, who drove what, who was married to whom, and who could get her where she wanted to be.

After chatting with Hugh McDonough, vice president of operations, at the Christmas party, Jamellah soon made him her prey. From that point on, she always made it a point to look extra sexy at the Thursday afternoon staff meetings that he presided over. It also helped that she was always full of provocative conversation at all social functions.

Within three months of the Christmas party, Jamellah was taking all of the gifts that Hugh presented her with, and he, in turn, accepted all her free time and talent. From her prior research, she knew that his wife, Meredith McDonough, cared only about the Times-Picayune society page and the city's black bourgeoisie.

Although Hugh was a lusty and insatiable lover and much older than she generally liked them, he was definitely the route that Jamellah needed to take.

By the time Christmas rolled around again, Jamellah had been promoted to a competitive yet promising position as an underwriter. She received this promotion partly because of her hard work but more so because of Hugh's iron influence on the powers that be. With her cushy new job came a cushy new gift from Hugh. Jamellah gladly got rid of her old car for Hugh's gift, a brand-new, shiny black Audi A8 that she drove to her office with pleasure and pride.

No matter how discreet the two attempted to keep their involvement, it was unmistakable. One minute Jamellah was trudging around the city assessing claims and the next she was three floors up in the building, her mind far from flood, fire, and accident damage. Of course, this did not sit well with the other sisters in the office. They had spent years at Dillard, Xavier, Southern, Alcorn, and Grambling, studying and preparing for corporate America. Some graduated magna and even summa cum laude and were shocked to find out that no matter how much education you got, you often wound up in a surplus pool of black college graduates fighting for entry-level jobs not even near your field. The shock went even further when they realized that a simple blow job or two could catapult a 2.5 GPA graduate like Jamellah into a job it would take them years to move up to. This of course led to their extreme dislike of her.

At forty-five, Hugh was handsome, wealthy, and wise beyond his years. However, for a brief time, he felt something for the twenty-three-year-old Jamellah that could have been mistaken for love. She returned the favor of his expensive gifts and favors with practiced sexual skills and unlimited affection, which he never got at home. Of course it would bother Jamellah when she would see Hugh and Meredith at social gatherings and on the society page, but she understood her place in his life and his place in her career. Hugh, in turn, would often get angry when the water-cooler talk by the agencys black male employees was about Jamellah and her fabled sexual escapades. But since no one in the office building knew about his relationship with her, he had to keep his anger to a minimum in public, but when he was alone with her, he lashed out at her with contempt and disgust.

Contempt and disgust soon turned to jealousy and abuse, and that was when Jamellah decided that it was time to end their allegiance. Knowing th...

Customer Reviews

DAMN, DAMN, DAMN!!!!
This book was off the hook!!! I literally finished it in 2 days!! I can't say if it was because I was going through something myself at the time, or if the book was just plain reality that hit me where it hurts...but whatever the case may be, I'm glad I purchased this book because it helped me to get through my own drama. This was one of the best reads I have ever laid hands on. The first novel hits you and it makes you say, "I love myself and I love the people that love me!" Then the second novel hits you and it makes you say, "that's what you get for not giving me the love that I so deeply found and gave to you," But then the third novel hits you and it makes you say, "what the hell have I been thinking and doing all of this time - wake up sista!" Eileen Johnson, V. Anthony Rivers, and Zane...YA'LL PUT IT DOWN!

Three novellas that tackle the darker sides of love
Love is Never Painless is a collection of three novellas by African American authors that tackle the darker sides of love. None of these stories has a happy ending, and though they all have unique perspectives on the theme "love is never painless" they each handle it in different ways. These are stories about physical abuse, rape, abandonment, and drug addiction, so don't expect something light-hearted and fun to read. That being said, the collection is solid, the stories are well-written, and they all definitely provide some food for thought. It's nice to see authors tackle something besides the typical love story and it's good to read something that shows the other side of love.

The stories are, in order:

How The Other Half Lives by Eileen M. Johnson

Fernecia and Jamellah are best friends who grew up together in the Third Ward ghetto of New Orleans. They both came from impoverished families and fought their way through hardship to graduate from college and make a name for themselves. Fernecia did so by marrying Fernando, a well-off man who she met through one of Jamellah's boyfriends. Embarrassed by her poor family and overweight body, Fernecia never thought that a man like Fernando could fall in love with her. But he did, and he married her, and together they have a son, Hugs. Still, despite all that she has, Fernecia can't help but feel like she's playing pretend in her big house with her maid and her fancy car. She'll always be the ghetto girl from Third Ward, she just now has to pretend that she isn't. Jamellah took another route. She'd always known that she was beautiful, and she used her looks to her advantage. She even used them to reel in married men who would buy her a house, a car, and help her climb the corporate ladder much more quickly than she could have on her own merit. After years of sleeping with other women's men, Jamellah finally feels like she wants one of her own. When she meets one of Fernando's friends at a fundraiser, she thinks she might have finally found the man of her dreams. But like Fernecia, she'll soon learn that things aren't always what they seem...

How The Other Half Lives was a good way to start off a collection about the darker sides of love that people don't normally talk about. Fernecia and Jamellah both know what it's like to come from the wrong side of the tracks and to lift themselves up from nothing to make something of their lives. However, they both realize that despite having material wealth and living what appears to be the American dream, there is darkness in every life. When they both experience hardship in their relationships and things seem to fall apart, they use their friendship as the backbone to pull it back together again. This story shows that romantic love isn't the only thing that helps people survive hardship, but that friendship plays an important role as well.

Love Is 2 Blame by V. Anthony Rivers

When his girlfriend Shaylisa breaks up with him, Malcolm is heartbroken, distraught, and disenchanted about love. He thought he'd found the one and then that image was shattered by Shaylisa's dismissal. Though his good buddy Jamal keeps trying to make Malcolm jump back on the proverbial horse, Malcolm just isn't ready until he meets the beautiful and charming Zahara. Zahara is a single mother and is forward, open, and honest in a way that Malcolm has never experienced. She doesn't play the mind games that Shaylisa did and she makes it clear from the start that Malcolm is what she's looking for and she wants a relationship not just a good time. Malcolm has to decide if he wants to sit around and wallow in self-pity, hoping that one day Shaylisa will want him back, or if he wants to move forward and begin a future with Zahara.

Love is 2 Blame was my least favorite story in the collection because it felt a little disjointed. For much of the story, Rivers writes from a woman's point of view and, as a woman, I have to say he has no clue what's going on in our heads. In fact, there wasn't a single woman in the whole story who I could identify with or who I even liked. That as a whole, made it difficult to like the story. Still, I can see how it earned its place in this collection. Love is 2 Blame is a story about how you can't just sit around and mope when you've had your heart broken because you never know what you might be missing out on in the interim period.

Staring Evil in the Face by Zane

Starting Evil in the Face is the story of college sweethearts Tiphanie and Robier. Shortly after the birth of their first child, Tiphanie is involved in a horrible car accident that does permanent damage to her back and leaves her addicted to painkillers. Over the years her addiction escalates until it spreads to alcohol, cocaine, and crack. Though Robier tries to be there for the woman he loves, and tries to help her pull her life together, no one can help Tiphanie unless she wants to be helped. After several stints in rehab, and disappearing acts that leave their children wondering where their mother is, Robier has to decide if he wants to help someone who doesn't want to be helped, or if he needs to just cut things off and try to salvage what's left of his own life.

Staring Evil in the Face was, of course, the best story in the collection. It's obviously the most carefully plotted, it's definitely the most wrenchingly emotional, and it's clear from the author's note "A Word from Zane" that the story comes from the heart. This story brings the collection together by helping to show that sometimes things fall apart, but not because the parties don't care, but instead because they care too much. Robier spends years trying to fix his wife, before finally discovering that he can't fix what she doesn't see as broken.

Great as usual
This book was excellent. As usual Zane, Eileen M Johnson, V. Anthony Rivers did their thing with this book. The stories told were heartbreaking, soul shaking and very emotional. I would suggest this book to anyone who lives in a fairy tale world when it comes to love. Love is great but it can also be painful. I read this book in two days, only cause I was at work. Can't wait for the next book.