Back to Me

Keysha & Friends Novel #2

by Earl Sewell

With family like this, who needs enemies? This is not how Maya Rogers hoped to get famous. First her boyfriend, Misalo, dumps her, and then the revealing photos that she sent to him go viral. Maya's reputation is in shreds, and now she's getting all the wrong kind of attention from guys in her neighborhood. How did life get so out of control so fast? One answer: Viviana. Maya and her cousin were close once. But guilty secrets and long-buried resentments changed all that. Viviana wants to make Maya miserable by stealing away Misalo, but she may be stirring up more trouble than anyone can handle. At least Maya knows that her best friend Keysha always has her back. But with so much bad blood flowing, will these family ties be severed for good?

Genres: Realistic Fiction, Drama

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

Reviews

[MissIntegrity · Rating 4 out of 5]

In my opinion Viviana needs sit her old hateful but down, this long , drawn out fight between her and Maya needs to stop actually this fight is getting so old, that it became a little boring towards the middle of the book im thinking "oh, are they fighting again?" And don't get me started on her sister Anna she is so dense,why would choose your sister over someone else she shows so very little support for Maya that it disgusts me. Hopefully, Earl can take the next book in a new direction because Maya and Viviana's bickering starts to get a little nerve wracking. And did I mention Miaslo with his stupid *bleep* how could he not have noticed that something about viviana just wasnt right, all the signs were there but his head was to far up his *bleep* for him to notice. I'm almost tempted to say she should just go out with Carlo because he has better sense and wouldve known that it was viviana the whole time he was riding her around in his car putting his tongue down her throat unlike *cough* someonee. But it's something about Misalo i like

[Chin123 · Rating 3 out of 5]

very entertaining, so much drama.

I am so surprised a guy wrote this bok!

[Tiffany Spencer]

Back To Me
*I MADE AN ERROR IN THIS REVIEW. THE “OTHER GUYS”’S NAME IS CARLO NOT CARLOS

Viva and Anna are fooling around dancing and making You Tube videos. Hip snaps and such. Anna took a belly dancing class briefly. Maya (Ana’s older sister) lets them knows it’s one in the morning and Ana should be taking it easy. She just got out of the hospital for “accidently” taking crystal meth. But they tell her she’ll turn the music down. The next morning, Viviana’s aunt (Raven) starts in on her about school. She says since it looks like she’ll be staying there she has to get her registered at Thornword and maybe “if she’s lucky” she’ll get to take some classes with Maya. Raven continues to pray and it comes out that Viviana hasn’t beeb in school most of her junior year and doesn’t have enough credits. Her mom was constantly moving on. In frustration, she gets up from the table and thinks about going back to her grandmother’s house. Outside, she finds her mom. Vivi tells her she wants to go with her, and she spins this fantasy about how one day she, Vivi, and Martin (her new man) will have about how they’ll have a big house one day.

Selena and Raven end up getting into it over Viviana. Selena wants to take her with her and Martin to Lousianna. Even tho they don’t have a home, she says they can live out of his pick up truck. Raven wants Vivianna to stay so she can get her education. Raven wins out and Selena tells Vivianna she’ll have to stay with her aunt “temporarily” until she and Martin make a life together (which leads to an argyment between them). Meanwhile, Maya finally gets Misalo to answer his phone (by calling from Keysha’s phone), but he tells her she’s not the woman he thought she was. (She danced with a guy named Carlos as some party) and hangs up on her after telling her he’s done for good. Keysha convinces Maya to go to a fair with her in hopes that Misalo will be there. (She thinks he’s just over reacing). Interestingly she also says she’d give Wesley another chance if the time were right. (Heritage Festival). Anna, Vivianna, and two of Anna’s girlfriends also decide to go to the Festival.

At the festival, Keya and Maya run I nto Priscilla. She and Keysha had some beef in previous books, but now theier cool. Priscialla warns Maya that she’s been talked about by girls and guys. She warns her about having the wrong reputation. Then tells her about some of the hate she’s gotten for being pregnant. Keysha runs into Wesley who later at a poetry reading at the festival, reads a poem he wrote dedicated to Keysha. Maya sees Misalo talking to Vivianna. She’s about to get into it with Vivianna but notices Misalo has walked off. We learn that Vivianna forwarded the pictures from Misalo’s phone. She also showed him a clip of Maya dancing with Carlos.

Misalo had come over to Vivianna to thank her for letting him know about Maya. Then Maya caught them hugging. (Somehow Vivianna’s father came up in conversation and she told he’d passed. She just took the opportunity to get a hug from him). She lets it go tho because she has something better in store for Maya than fighting her. Later, there’s a fireworks show. It’s crowded so Misalo accidently steps on Vivnna’s hand. He joins her and Anna for the show. Wesley sits with Maya and Keysha and later waks them home. Later, Keysha calls and Maya tells her about Vivianna’s shenanigan Maya comes up with a plan to get Miso to talk to her again.

The next day she and Keysha hit up the mall. She thinks she’ll buy a bikini so HOT he’ll HAVE to talk to her. But they run into Carlos in the shoe store. Keysha isn’t feelin him, but he lets them use his employee distcount. Maya takes him up on the offer. Keysha doesn’t. Later, he joins them in the food court, but Misaalo comes over and asks Maya to speak with him. Words are exchanged between Carlos and Misalo and they end up getting in a psychical fight and being led away by security.

‘Vivianna has a change of heart and decides since she has to leave with Maya she’ll try getting along with her, but when she tries to talk to her Maya tells her to just stay out of her way and leave Misalo alone. This is when Vivianna declares war. She sets up a My Space and Facebook page and asks Anna and Misalo to be friends. Misalo immediately accepts and they start to chat. He tells her about what happened at the mall. Vivianna offers to spy for him and eggs on his hurt by saying she saw Maya and Carlo in a car making out. She then lays it on thick saying he’ll never do him like that and he’ll never hear no from her. She also calls him baby which he seems to accept before they log off the chat.

At the mall, Carlos tells Maya he got fired and gets her to agree to have lunch with him later at Pizza Hut. She goes there with the intention of telling him to stop presuing her but Misalo shows up. Carlos is right in the middle of asking Maya to be his girl when Misalo walks over with his friends and says it’s true and then breaks up with Maya. She starts to cry. Carlos gets up and ask what the hell his problem is and Misalo tells him he won’t let Carlo get away with disrespecting him before he leaves. Ma ya the whole time wants to tell Misalo she came there to tell Carlos she doesn’t want him to see him but she can’t get the words out. (Before this Vivianna bumped into her in the hallway and was probably the cause somehow of telling Misalo where she was).

Vivianna beats her uncle at Jepordy and he says he’ll talk to Raven about having her tested. He thinks she’s smarter than she thinks she is. She’s touched by this even tho she doesn’t like tests. She meets up with Carlos and he thanks her for the tip. She says when she overheard Maya making plasns to see Carlos she had to tell him. She then starts to come on to him. He asks doesn’t she think it’s wrong but she lets him know she has no problem with it and he shows her he’s cool with her advances too. Viviana thinks she can’t wait to throw this in Maya’s face.

Keysha comes by and they decide to go to the Coummunity Center, find Misalo, and make him listen. When they find him he’s with Vivianna and she’s all over him. Misalso isn’t trying to hear what Maya has to say. He tells her to go be with Carlos. Vivianna insults Keysha and it comes to blows. Maya and Vivianna start to fighting. Then Keysha and Vivianna. Eventually Misalo just leaves. Misalo takes Vivana home and tells her he hates how things have turned out. He’ll still call her but he just needs some time. Vivanna is hesitant to tell Anna about the fight because she’s gotten used to living with them and she likes her uncle. When she does tho Anna says she’ll work out a truce with Maya but they’ll have have to cool it. Vivanna agrees to this. So, she heads to Keysha’s. Anna makes Maya agree to staying out of each other’s way by telling her that if she does she won’t tell her mother about the pictures of her being flashed all over town. Misalo, asks Vivanna out and after finding out her dad taught her how to box, he asks her for lessons so if needed he can take down Carlos. Keysha tells Maya she needs to just let Misalo go. Maya knows its true but she just can’t let go.

Maya delivers some bed sheets to Vivianna and finds out she’s wearing her clothes. (Vivianna couldn’t find anything to wear to meet with Misalo so she “borrowed” clothes from Maya’s room that still had the tags on them). Vivanna tells her she’s borrowed a lot more than clothes. Maya then goes to the movies and runs into Carlo. She finds o ut he was going to see the same movie so they sit together. After the movie, he takes her to an intimate spot where he and his uncle use to go to fish. After taking her out on a row boat, he kisses her. But he ruins the moment by brining up the pictures. He says he’ll protect her from anyone who comes at her wrong about the pictures and this leads him to say that he’s also going to kick Misalo’s ***. For the disrespect he’s shown him and her.

Vivanna decides she wants to look better for Misalo than Maya ever did so she calls up her old friend Toya’s “tricks”. She goes to the mall and steals the credit card from a woman. She later finds out it’s Barbara Kendall. She recognizes the last name but tells herself it can’t be Keysha’s mother because they don’t look alike. After she spends thousands of dollars on the card she returns home. She texts Misalo but he doesn’t answer. When he does he says he’s been with his dad all day driving. Vivianna and he pass some texts back and forth. The conversation gets heated and Vivanna outright alludes to having sex with him. He asks her to go with him to the rink. After the call, she decides another way to keep him is to buy him so she goes to the mall. Only her card is declines do she has to buy him -a shirt- out of her own money.

Keysha calls Maya later and tells her Barbara’s been in a bad mood because her credit card got stolen. She tells her the person who used it she suspects was a teenager because of the places they shopped. Like “Wet Seal”. She says Barbara thinks the person might try to steal her identity. Then she tells her Mike and Sabrina saw Vivianna and Misalso making out at the skating rink. Later at dinner, Maya brings up the new clothes and questions how Vivianna got them in front of her parents. (Not even putting two and two together). She then tells them she’s dating Misalo. Raven says it’s tacky and her father ssays they don’t date each other’s ex’s and forbids Vivanna not to see him. Vivianna and Raven argue heatedly over this. Anna jumps in and then throws Maya under the bus and tells her parents Maya is dating Carlo the guy whose house she was over when she accidently took crystal meth and thought it was candy.

Raven has a talk with Vivianna that all boils down to she’s a lot like her father and she has a lot of bitterness. If she doesn’t cool it she’ll end just like him. So she needs to straighten out her rivalry with Maya. When Keysha tells Maya the fight is definitely on, she meets up with Carlo in attempt to change his mind, but he says its going down and he’s going to beat the cockiness right out of Misalo quickly. The fight gets out of control and people that have come to watch start to jump in. The police show up and in the chaos Vivanna looks for Misalo. He’s talking to KKeysha and she’s asking him why he forwarded the pictures. This is the same thing Carlo accused him off and he looks confused and says he didn’t. He didn’t delte the pictures because they were so beautiful. Keysha and Vivana get into it, but then Mislo puts two and two together. Vivianna was the one that had his phone after she showed him the clip of Maya and Carlos slow dancing. Misalso then calls it off with Vivanna before leaving the park.

Keysha tells Maya everthing she found out from Misalo. Then asks her why Viviana hates her so much. She says one day when Vivianna was thirteen he took her out for a birthday celebration. Vivanna’s father was a member of a gang called the Latin Kings. He went into a rival gang’s terriroty and got into a fight in front of her.. One of his crew’s head got smashed through glass. He got hit in the back with an ice pick. One night, she saw him and one of his members talking about how they killed and beat down the man that came after him. After this she got scared . Vivanna, Selena, and Viviana’s father were staying with her grandmother and she ended up telling them what she heard. Viviana’s father got sent to jail and not long after he got out he got killed. Vivianna blamed Maya for not keeping her mouth shut. She said he she would have he’d still be alive. After this Maya gets a phone from Vivianna saying there are some girls after her and pleading for help.

My Thoughts
Firstly, I thought I’d finished this series a LOOONG time ago! The last book I slightly remember reading was “Maya’s Choice”. Years later, two more books have pooped up. I wish there was a way on GR when you finished a series that an alert would pop up when other books in the series were added.
I’ve had this book a while and didn’t even realize it was part of the Keysha series. It took me a few chapters to catch on. Then I had to remember what happened in “Maya’s Choice”. But this is the kind of book that you really don’t have to go back and re-read the last one because what happens in the last one is repeated in this one. Even tho I don’t want to re-read that one I might just to go back and edit the review.

For this one I have a vent. I CAN NOT STAND when people do THOUGHTLESS ish and then when it blows up in their face THEN they want to explain and apologize. Every SINGLE thing that happened in this book was Maya’s fault. Well other than what happened to Vivanna’s father. Maya didn’t have anything to do with him being a gangster but that’’s another good example about people’s actions having CONSEQUENECES.
First of all, you can NOT send half-naked pictures to ANYONE. If I had a husband I wouldn’t send *him* naked pictures on his cell phone. Not because they’ll pass them around but because THINGS GET HACKED ALL THE TIME! Then it’s just “iffy”. These are teenagers. Yeah, yeah, yeah you *THINK* your going to be with someone the rest of your life, but if you aren’t do you really want your “EX” having naked pictures of you like that. Vivianna was FOUL to spread them around. I wouldn’t do ANYONE in my family like that but Maya should never have taken them in the first place. At least Keyha had the good senese to tell her that.

Then if you are in a serious relationship with someone, why would you SLOW DANCE with someone else at a party. Back in the day SLOW DANCING when I went to the skating rink meant grinding. Would you have been cool if you saw Misalo slow dancing with someone other than you? Then why was it ok for you to do this “because it was the only way you could get a ride”. That’s BULL! Out of ALL the people at this party, you couldn’t asked ANY ONE ELSE to take you home? Again Vivanna was foul because she left her stranded, but you always need to know someone you can leave with. I know TODAY when I go to my family outings who I can leave with because I know that after a couple of hours I’m good and ready to go back home. Then if you don’t know anyone that just goes to show you didn’t need to be at this party no way. So NO all this whining over getting Misalo back and how she couldn’t let it go. WELL.. YOU CAUSED ALL OF IT! And this book just irritated me highly. I didn’t even have a thought about if I wanted her to go with Carlo or get back with Misalo. The end irritated me today because oh HELL nah. You messed up someone’s image and stole their boyfriend but then you want them to come bail you out from an *** whooping that you DESERVE! And I just know that if the next book picks up from there, Maya’s gonna run other there and help Vivianna fight these girls.
Rating: 5

[Tia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very entertaining read. It reminds me of an after school special. There's a long held fued between cousins Maya and Viviana. They can't stand each other and now Viviana is staying with Maya's family for an indeterminable amount of time. Viviana is out for revenge and she uses Maya's boyfriend as the weapon. This book had all kinds of drama....sibling rivalry, family rivalry, abandonment, flash mobs, jealous boyfriends, social/cyber bullying and a love triangle. It was fast and fun.

I rate this book 3.5 stars

I would like to thank Netgalley and Harlequin/Kimani Tru for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

[B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part of the Kimani Tru series based on African American/Latin teens which can be read as a standalone although the author leaves you hanging on a cliff at the end. In a nutshell, the suburban teen, Maya, from a stable home clashes with the cousin, Viviana, from a poor, unstable home as Viv moves in to their home and promptly steals Maya's boyfriend through deception. There is alot of drama, lots of clothing and body description, lots of attitude, so all things probably enjoyable to teens. Since I'd like to be able to recommend it to younger teens, I'm glad to say it's language is clean and devoid of actual sexual descriptions.

[Arlette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really cool book just finished it today!

[Qatavia · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book is one of the best book i've read so far.

[Amelia Rucker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very Good Story

I grew up reading Buford High and Drama High, but what I really wished is that I got my hands on this book series quickly. I am going to add this to my Recommended Reading List as well as my Book Club. I can’t wait to read more.

[Shymier Hibbert · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book about two cousins who can't stand each other. It's a really good book I find myself so intrigued that i would continue reading Maya series. I think Maya and Misalo shouldn't get back together because their relationship is too damaged and toxic, plus he dated Vivianna for a little while after they broke up so what's the point? Vivianna always compares herself to Maya. She's insecure and wants to be Maya. She tries to take everything that Maya has which is something that Maya's sister Anna doesn't even do. Vivianna wants Maya's clothes, ex-boyfriend, and her seat at the dinner table. Vivianna has a hate obsession with her. Vivianna is also a conniving little brat that wants everything that Maya has which is sick.

[Kanijah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think the fighting between Maya and Vivana needs to stop. They are cousins and shouldn't be fighting. Maya and Anna need to put their difference aside and start being real sisters. Other than that the book is good.

[Kamilah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very entertaining book about two cousins who can't stand each other. I really liked it and I think anyone would enjoy this. Are you team Maya or team Vivianna? Do you think Maya and Misalo should get back together or see other people? I think they shouldn't get back together because their relationship is too damaged, plus he dated Vivianna for a little while after they broke up so what's the point? Might I add that Vivianna always compares herself to Maya. She's insecure and wants to be Maya. She tries to take everything that Maya has which is something that Maya's sister Anna doesn't even do. Vivianna wants Maya's clothes, ex-boyfriend, and her seat at the dinner table. Vivianna has a hate obsession with her.

[Sos · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a series about two cousins who have been fighting since a young age. Maya and Viviana are complete opposites. I'm sure anyone who has read the first two books will agree with me when I say, Maya is much more favourable ,being a kindhearted,loving , compassionate and smart girl. I felt all of Maya's emotions - especially her heartbreak for her ex boyfriend Misalo. This book can be summed up as full of drama, heartbreak, love and betrayal. I highly recommend it!!

[Brandy Glover · Rating 1 out of 5]

maya rogers is going throught alot. she sent pictures to her boyfriend that shouldnt have done nd and he broke up woth her. she douesnt have any friends right now but she has a lot of drama on heer shoulders mAYA TRIES TO SEE WHAT SHE CAN DO TO FIX THIS MESS.

[Harlequin Books]

Miniseries: A Keysha and Friends Novel

[Donnilia N]

I liked the book. It was very interesting and had a lot of twists.

[Kaylin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think that it was funny. It was also about fighting and getting jumped and you still won that was a good things.But i really liked this book .Everyone should read it

[BookQUEEN · Rating 5 out of 5]

like the book its new to me trying new kinds of books

[Joi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was filled with drama. I enjoyed it.