Jacqueline M. Smith

First, be warned, that this book is NOT a continuation of "I Am Your Fool" by Jacqueline M. Smith. This book has a totally different storyline with totally different characters. I am not sure why the author chose such similar titles for two totally different books?!?!

It revolves around a young lady named Destiny. The book opens up with Destiny getting kicked out of her therapist house because she was caught having sex with the therapist's husband. Destiny returns to the home of her boyfriend, William, who gladly takes her back until the therapist shows up the next day to tell the boyfriend why she kicked Destiny out. Although Destiny cries and pleads with the boyfriend, he too kicks her out. She proceeds to get her own apartment and it seems almost immediately starts sleeping with one of her single neighbors, Eric, on a "no strings attached" basis - I guess this is known as 'friends with benefits' today. Meanwhile, Destiny is intent on seeking revenge on the therapist for breaking up her relationship with William.

Here the story starts to take a lot of twists and turns the reader can see coming a mile away which is why I gave the book such a low rating. While Destiny and Eric start hanging out during the day and sleeping together at night, Destiny runs into a young man named Hakim. While Hakim is upfront that he is not seeking anything beyond a sexual relationship, somehow he and Destiny become good friends without any benefits. This part of the story was not very believable because the author went out of her way to paint Hakim as a "love em and leave em" player. So his relationship with Destiny seemed totally out of place.

To make a very long, long story short, it later appears that Hakim and Destiny are half siblings (father in common) which explains why the author avoided a sexual relationship between the two. Hakim's father, Derrick, reunites with Destiny's mom who has had another daughter. Of course, Derrick and Destiny's mom, Rosalee, both regret turning their back on Destiny (who was raised by her grandparents) and are both eager to make it up to her. Rosalee, who is dying of cancer, wants Destiny to look after her younger sister, Audrey, - whom we never learn who her father is - and, naturally, Destiny is all too happy to do. Never mind prior to this reunion Destiny hated her mother for abandoning her. Everyone welcomes Destiny into the two families except Hakim's sister, Jasmine, who is jealous of Destiny because she doesn't want to share her father. This part of the story didn't make a lot of sense since the author never portrayed Derrick as really spending any time with Destiny.

Meanwhile, Destiny uses Eric and Hakim to videotape a secret lifestyle her therapist is engaged in and uses the tape to destroy the therapist's marriage along with many of the therapist's friends' relationships.

Halfway through the book, I became totally bored with the storyline. I had to fight very hard to resist the urge to start skipping chapters. While the author tries to show emotional growth in the main character, it was just hard to relate to her. On one hand Destiny couldn't get over her relationship with William but she enjoyed sleeping with Eric - every time she thought of William, she was more determined to get her revenge on the therapist. Destiny had plenty of money inherited from her grandparents so she didn't have a job besides shopping and trying to come up with ways to exact her revenge. Naturally, Destiny and Eric get married and they along with Audrey live happily ever after. They are a few other dramatic events that occur within the storyline but they really aren't worth discussing and they definitely did not contribute anything interesting to the book.

Therefore, I would not recommend this book and I am eagerly looking forward to returning it to my local library this afternoon!… (altro)