Book Review: You Know Better

I really tried to not like this book, but with every page turn I was drawn further into the psycho-sexual labyrinth of well developed characters, a great storyline, and a wonderfully structured plot that provided purpose and meaning to the book. That stated, B. Lisa’s debut release, You Know Better, comes highly recommended, and should certainly be recommended as supplementary text for any brotha who thinks he’s got the skinny on Playa-hood.

Chance Carter is the love of Autumn Storm’s life. He’s fine, sexy, hot, and a freak in the bed. After several years of cheating, reconciliation, hurt, love, pain, lies, a secret babymomma….and great sex, Autumn decides to take a chance at real love and true happiness…with an old flame from the past. Meanwhile, Chance – now married to his babymomma – cannot let go of what he believes to be “his pussy”. But, when a woman’s fed up, there’s nothing you can do about it. Unless you’re Chance Carter. Things go from bad to worse when he realizes that Autumn is determined to move on with her life and marry the man she’s fallen in love with. And to make matters worse, Marquez – Autumn’s new beau – can fuck better than Chance: “I’ve been to ‘church’ as Chance called it but never before have I been to heaven.” But, Autumn is not shallow and her love is not superficial. She certainly appreciates good sex, but she also longs for mental stimulation, as well as a promising future of marriage, children, and eternal bliss.

Although this short novel is told from the emotional perspective of a woman, it does a fairly decent job in how it deals with male complexities, putting forth an honest attempt to grapple with man’s infinite struggle to be faithful. And we can see this in the acutely well-balanced male characters. While Chance is the typical no-good brotha displaying unconscionable behavior, unrepentant for the pain he regularly causes Autumn, yet, Devin is a stand-up guy, and Marquez is a responsible single father who makes an honest effort to atone for his past indiscretions.

Finally, B. Lisa does erotica very well. The sex scenes are well written, provocatively designed, with alluring choreography that authenticates Autumn as a bona fide freak-a-leek. I just love a woman who can suck a good dick, and Autumn’s a true head-nurse. B. Lisa really knows how to stir a delicious moment of pure hot sex. The following lengthy bedroom scene is well worth the print:

…With no words between us, Marquez and I began to undress each other while rubbing and kissing on one another. As we both stood in our birthday suits kissing and admiring each other bodies, I gently pushed Mark on his bed and kneeled down between his legs. Grabbing his dick with both hands and slowly rubbing up and down his shaft, I gave him a devilish smile as I took the KY gel off the night stand and poured a lot of it into the palm of my hand. Slowly massaging the heating oil up and down Mark’s shaft then picking up the pace until his dick was once again hard and erect, I insert it into my mouth. Marquez gasped when the head of his penis touched my lips as it entered my warm mouth. With reckless abandonment, I sucked and licked his dick as I gently massaged his balls. Mark grabbed my head and pushed his big dick deep down my throat causing me to gag. Taking back control of the pace to slow it down, I slowly ran my tongue up and down his shaft licking it like a melting ice cream cone. Sticking my tongue into his slit tasting his pre-cum must have turned him on because he held my head locking his fingers into my hair moaning and thrusting his rock hard dick deeper into my mouth. Moving his hips to the rhythm of my head movement, I sucked harder and faster running my tongue all around his cock. I stopped and held his delicious meat in my mouth. Using only the muscles in my jaws, I sucked him like Maggie Simpson sucked on her pacifier. I continued to give my man oral pleasure. Marquez moaned out loud in ecstacy calling softly my name until he was ready to cum. Grabbing my head once again, he thrust hard into my mouth as his dick went deep down my throat….Marquez came in my mouth, filling it up with his hot salty tasty cum, I greedily milked that bad boy swallowing every drop. Just like Maxwell Coffee, it was good to the last drop….

I haven’t seen that kind of professional dick-slurping since Linda Lovelace in Deep Throat. And this book is loaded with sensual erotic goodies as such but doesn’t become the focal point of the story, and the lusty sex doesn’t obscure the plot. Nor does the book rely too heavily on these amply written sex scenes to keep the reader interested in turning the pages. The sex scenes only accentuate a plotline that would surely work as well without them.

Speaking of plot, as with any good read it has become almost formulaic that a book (a least the contemporary ones) should also have glitches, bumps, and bad turns. Aside from the bad editing, this book’s plot is very smartly constructed, with realistic portrayals of love, intimacy, pain, and romance. The scenes are poignant, the dialogue is passionate, and the narrative is sweetly paced…..until the writer makes a desperately daring turn off of Nice Plot Road, swerves into the intersection of Mystery Lane and Suspense Avenue, crashing her richly detailed automobile into an obscure car at the left-bank corner of Experiment Boulevard, before plummeting into the murky swamps of Pointless Pond. Her passenger (i.e. the reader) is rushed to the Intensive Care Unit at Zora Hurston Hospital where we wait, hope, and pray that the final chapter of You Know Better will resuscitate our interest, revive our focus, and save the book. I don’t know what occured, but something happens in the book near its ending which threatens to derail the believability of the entire hook. But, you’ll just have to read the story and see for yourself.

cop the book!