A PERFECT SUMMER READ
LOVE YOURSELF FIRST
A novel By Delvon Johnson
Author Delvon Johnson’s debut novel Love Yourself First is an absolute delight as it blithely takes us on a whirlwind twirl through the glitzy, glamorous, diva back-stabbing, lover-cheating, DL and gay-fierce world of the fashion industry, where everyone is fabulously dressed, paid big time, and sexed like a porn star. This tight little book is a funny and fast-moving page-turner, where even the baddies will find fans as easily as Dynasty’s Alexis Harrington did.
The story begins with our part-time narrator Dwight Jones, a young, bright, successful and handsome African-American co-owner of Vondell Consulting, a fashion firm, complaining about how hard it is to find true love. But he has little to complain about when it comes to his company. Vondell Consulting, thanks to Dwight’s own prowess and that of his business partner and bff, Isaiah, a drop-dead gorgeous Latino who also worked as an editorial assistant for Vogue Magazine, is drawing business and attention to itself like bears to honey. It’s also drawing snakes from the high grass.
Joan Marks is a model quality beauty and businesswoman with a gift for shoe design. When Dwight and Isaiah hire her into their company, her Eve Harrington wheels spin like Regan’s head in The Exorcist. And as she plots to undercut and snatch the spotlight and the business from “those two fags,” it sets off a string of hysterical fetes of treachery with one surprising twist after another.
In the meantime, Dwight’s love life is no less intriguing, as he suffers one humiliation after another in his romantic pursuits, and witnesses his friends going through the same things. The old adage ‘a good man is heart to find’ is given a delirious send-up in these pages sprinkled with designer labels, limos, fashion shoots, luxury hotel suites, hundred thousand dollar checks signed at the drop of a hat, and not a broke black soul in sight.
How the author so breezily connects the characters to each other without heavy-handedness, just adds to the fun.
The dialogue is sharp and bitchy and funny, and makes it obvious that Johnson had a good time writing it. This writer certainly had a good time reading it.
My only complaint would be to point out the copy edits, or lack thereof. It’s as if no one in the publisher’s office read the manuscript before printing it, not for story content as the story and the telling of it is solid, but for words double-repeated, spelling, words left out, and sentences inadvertently fragmented.
Still, this is an outstanding debut from a talented young writer who knows and loves the world he writes about—fashion, fashionistas and fabulosity.
Love Yourself First is a delicious parfait, ice-creamy, fruity, syrupy sweet and whipped; a light and airy homage to E. Lynn Harris in designer drag and sans the angst, the perfect summer read. As our forever upbeat hero Dwight weathers all the storms of his life and comes to the conclusion that loving oneself first and foremost is the key to happiness, we want to give him three snaps and a twirl. I look forward to the sequel and a more attentive copy editor.
A novel By Delvon Johnson
Author Delvon Johnson’s debut novel Love Yourself First is an absolute delight as it blithely takes us on a whirlwind twirl through the glitzy, glamorous, diva back-stabbing, lover-cheating, DL and gay-fierce world of the fashion industry, where everyone is fabulously dressed, paid big time, and sexed like a porn star. This tight little book is a funny and fast-moving page-turner, where even the baddies will find fans as easily as Dynasty’s Alexis Harrington did.
The story begins with our part-time narrator Dwight Jones, a young, bright, successful and handsome African-American co-owner of Vondell Consulting, a fashion firm, complaining about how hard it is to find true love. But he has little to complain about when it comes to his company. Vondell Consulting, thanks to Dwight’s own prowess and that of his business partner and bff, Isaiah, a drop-dead gorgeous Latino who also worked as an editorial assistant for Vogue Magazine, is drawing business and attention to itself like bears to honey. It’s also drawing snakes from the high grass.
Joan Marks is a model quality beauty and businesswoman with a gift for shoe design. When Dwight and Isaiah hire her into their company, her Eve Harrington wheels spin like Regan’s head in The Exorcist. And as she plots to undercut and snatch the spotlight and the business from “those two fags,” it sets off a string of hysterical fetes of treachery with one surprising twist after another.
In the meantime, Dwight’s love life is no less intriguing, as he suffers one humiliation after another in his romantic pursuits, and witnesses his friends going through the same things. The old adage ‘a good man is heart to find’ is given a delirious send-up in these pages sprinkled with designer labels, limos, fashion shoots, luxury hotel suites, hundred thousand dollar checks signed at the drop of a hat, and not a broke black soul in sight.
How the author so breezily connects the characters to each other without heavy-handedness, just adds to the fun.
The dialogue is sharp and bitchy and funny, and makes it obvious that Johnson had a good time writing it. This writer certainly had a good time reading it.
My only complaint would be to point out the copy edits, or lack thereof. It’s as if no one in the publisher’s office read the manuscript before printing it, not for story content as the story and the telling of it is solid, but for words double-repeated, spelling, words left out, and sentences inadvertently fragmented.
Still, this is an outstanding debut from a talented young writer who knows and loves the world he writes about—fashion, fashionistas and fabulosity.
Love Yourself First is a delicious parfait, ice-creamy, fruity, syrupy sweet and whipped; a light and airy homage to E. Lynn Harris in designer drag and sans the angst, the perfect summer read. As our forever upbeat hero Dwight weathers all the storms of his life and comes to the conclusion that loving oneself first and foremost is the key to happiness, we want to give him three snaps and a twirl. I look forward to the sequel and a more attentive copy editor.
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