A few years ago a street vendor in NY who I'm friendly with placed a copy of this book in my hands. He asked me to read it and give him my opinion. The synopsis on the back of the book and the cover art was enough to get me curious. (Although at times I will admit that I didn't want anyone to see the cover art)

Anyway, the storyline was pretty good. It really painted a vivid picture, but the constant name dropping of the authors and the publisher was a turn off. I almost put the book down a couple of times because I was annoyed by it, but I cared about the main character, Candy, and wanted to know what would happen to her. One of the best things the authors did was to make you really feel for Candy and her story. They also shined a bright light on AIDS.

This book could have gotten five stars if had been edited better. A good editor would have fixed all the grammar and storyline errors. (Italicizing all of the curse words, incorrect statements such as one legally changing their name at the Library of Congress, etc)

Overall, I give it three stars because if you can tolerate the writing you'll find that it is a good story that just needs polishing and fact-checking ( )