CAROL TAYLOR

The Ex Chronicles, written by Carol Taylor, is a character-driven novel that succeeds in emotionally involving the reader in the lives of each of its main characters – Precious, Bella, Zenobia, Hope, and later on, Portia. Each of these ladies has a life full of emotional ups and downs. As friends should do, they help each other handle what life has dealt them.

Of course, most of these ladies are involved with a man that is no good for her, a former beau that is presenting her with all kinds of problems, but that doesn't stop these women from continuing to see their bad ex-boyfriends. They are settling for the one they can get right now instead of searching for the one that will treat them with love, honor, and respect.

Precious is a struggling writer of literotica. When she catches her boyfriend, Darius, in bed with another woman, she kicks him out. That doesn't stop her from seeing him time and time again, though.

Bella is a drug addict and alcoholic who doesn't think that her rich mom and dad care much for her at all. Her musician boyfriend, Julius, takes advantage of the money that mommy and daddy provide Bella with and he keeps her supplied with drugs.

Zenobia, now co-owner of a modeling agency, once had a successful modeling career, She gave it up for Malcolm, an unfaithful and emotionally abusive Dutch-African artist. Their relationship is unpredictable; one moment they are together, the next they are apart. When he is with Zenobia, he contributes nothing to help pay the bills and argues about her working.

Hope is the creative director at Shades, a magazine for black women. Her situation is different from those of the other women. Her father has died and she is trying to care for her mother who has Alzheimer's. Between her job and her mom, she is pretty stressed out. When her regular driver is replaced with Derrick, an attractive single father from Harlem, she is upset at first. But Derrick seems to be so compassionate and so caring that she slowly falls for him.

Portia is beautiful, so beautiful that Zenobia chases her down and asks her to model for her agency. Portia's dad died when she was 10 and she is living with her mother, little sister, and her mom's live-in boyfriend. There is no bad boyfriend that Portia is stil linvolved with, her problem is Rey, her mom's live-in boyfriend. He does absolutely nothing except lay around on the couch and make a mess. Until one day Portia walks in and catches him doing something so much worse. . .

I found this book to be extremely well-written. The story didn't pull me in at first, but the more I read, the more I began to care about what was going on with each of these women. Despite the fact that my life is completely different from any of the main characters in the book, Ms. Taylor succeeded in causing this reader to become emotionally involved with their lives. My favorite characters were Portia and Hope. All of these ladies showed incredible strength and determination, but the traumas that were in the lives of Portia and Hope touched me the most. The friendship they all show to each other is amazing. The way they help each other out through all of their different crises show what true friendship is all about.

For those of you who like drama, this book is a must. Issues such as depression, alcoholism, drug addiction, and self-worth are what these women face and help each other through. This is an erotic fiction book, so it does contain sexual situations, as well as a good amount of language. Reviewed for BellaOnline by Lisa Binion.