Product Description

Billie is as notorious for her beauty as she is for the hot yellow Ducati motorcycle she rides down L.A.'s meanest streets. Tough and talented, she does things her way. Until an unplanned pregnancy spins her life out of control. Her problem: Her lover Keith's divorce decree has been revoked, forcing him to choose between Billie and his dangerously manipulative wife, Carmen, along with their troubled and deceptive daughter, Destiny, a fifteen-year-old dancing on the edge of womanhood. Horrific things happen when Keith's daughter disappears in the company of low friends in dark places. And in chasing Destiny, Billie, Keith, and Carmen find their lives inextricably linked by a dangerous and seductive pursuit-at any speed, at any cost.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #122518 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780451219275
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
Dickey's (Genevieve) latest melodrama rides with Los Angeles's rough-and-tumble motorcycle crowd and has his signature sultry prose and African-American cast, but presents a surprisingly harsh attitude toward female characters. Billie (aka Ducati), a beautiful and self-assured biker, finds herself between the rubber and the road when her unemployed lover, Keith, confesses he's returning to his wife, Carmen, for the sake of their daughter-right after Billie informs him she's pregnant with his child. Carmen, a shady lawyer, will stop at nothing to reconcile her marriage, offering Billie money to vamoose and even threatening her own daughter, 15-year-old Destiny. Destiny, however, has her own problems: angry at her parents for separating, she rebels by sneaking out with the wrong crowd. When she's drugged, robbed and raped, a humiliated Destiny decides to run away rather than face her parents. By midnovel, Carmen, Billie and Keith are, yes, chasing Destiny and deploying dirty tricks to get what they want. With an emphasis on vulgarity and violence, the book is lively, but disappointing: rather than showcase what brings women together, Dickey hyperbolizes what tears them apart, advancing a caricature of women as troubled souls who, when hurt, hurt others. (On sale Apr. 11)
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Review
Dickey is a master at writing about women and what they want and how they want it. -- Publishers Weekly

Review
Dickey is a master at writing about women and what they want and how they want it. (Publishers Weekly)

Customer Reviews

Fabulous!!!!
I can't quite understand why there are so many negative reviews on this book from "so-called EJD fans". Part of being a fan of someone's writing is allowing them to evolve as a writer and following them faithfully down the paths they choose to travel. I enjoyed this book tremendously. The characters were dramatic, well-developed and very real. I particularly liked the way the characters' lives all intertwined...it is a small world. The ending was classic and not typical. I hope this is not the last we read of Destiny, Billie, and Carmen. Eric Jerome Dickey has outdone himself, AGAIN!!!

EJD HITS A HOMER WITH THIS ONE.....!!!
Billy aka Ducati is a gorgeous "biker chick" famous for tooling around LA on her yellow Ducati. Billy is a looker, has posed on her motorcycle in a thong for a well-known magazine, and is desired by both males and females alike. So why would she waste her time in a toxic romantic relationship? Well, she does; and when the novel opens, she is sitting across the table from her not-yet-divorced lover Keith, announcing that she is pregnant with his child. Keith is less than enthused; beset with financial woes and all of the legal haranguing that can accompany trying to divorce a wife who doesn't want to be divorced, especially when she is a lawyer, Keith is facing eviction from his apartment. So while Billy is busy breaking the news of her pregnancy...Keith is trying to figure out how to break the news of his decision to reconcile with his wife....for the good of daugher Destiny, of course. Keith's news sends Billy over the edge; and what follows are a series of confrontations between the two women almost too embarrassing to recall. And when daughter Destiny is assaulted and runs away from home, Billy finds out exactly what evil may lurk in the hearts of many...she is stalked, her home vandalized, and her life threatened. Billy finds out the hard way the lengths to which some people will go to maintain hearth and home.
Without a single, in my opinion, likeable character in the whole saga, it is only Dickey's ability to weave a tale and keep readers turning the pages that render this novel the five stars it so rightly deserves.


DYB

EJD's Destiny is Among the Stars
When it comes to me and Eric Jerome Dickey's books its always the same. After I finish one, I'm forced to impatiently wait for word of the next offering. Once a new book comes out, I go to my local book seller (on the release date of course), grab the first one on the shelf, buy it, then find a quiet place to get my fix. But inevitably, before I read the first sentence, no, the first word I can't help but wonder; will this be it? It's a law of nature: What goes up must come down. Has ERIC JEROME DICKEY finally reached his pinnacle? Will this book be able to live up to the sky high standards he has set? Will my favorite author finally let me down?

Well, after reading the first few sentences of Chasing Destiny, I knew that if ERIC JEROME DICKEY falls from grace it won't be holding this book. Chasing Destiny is a fast paced, mentally satisfying journey into the lives of Billie, Keith, Carmen and Destiny. For 400+ pages they live, breath, love and screw up in ways seldom seen on the pages of a book. I'm telling you, they seemed real. With a cast of supporting characters shoring up the winding and mysterious plot, Chasing destiny made my cheeks burn from laughter and my heart ache with empathy. This book may just be this author's best book to date. I gobbled up the pages and now once again I'm saddened by the thought of waiting another year for his next book.

My only criticism is that while satisfying, the ending left me with a few questions. I wonder if for the first time readers will be blessed with a sequel. Basically, I'm just saying that when it comes to writers like Eric Jerome Dickey, the whole five star rating system thing gets sort of blurry. When a person writes at the level he does, you no longer base the number of stars you give him on comparisons to the work of other authors. He's on another plane with writers like Terry MacMillan, BeBe Moore Campbell and Colin Channer; sitting amongst the stars in the literary sky, Eric Jerome Dickey sits the highest on a throne of books as the King of African American Fiction (at least in my opinion). His work is uncomparable to any writer's. So when deciding how many stars he deserves you must compare him only to himself and his prior works. Even with that, I still give chasing Destiny 5 stars.