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Just My Luck: A Novel
Today is no ordinary day for thirty-eight-year-old Lanita Lightfoot. Today represents the culmination of years of struggle and sacrifice. Today she graduates from college. But first, Lanita’s husband treats her to a day of beauty at an upscale black salon in Los Angeles, during which she shares her story with the staff and the other customers–and what a story it is. . .
Talk about an entrance. Lanita was born in a little corner store in the thick of the Watts riots. Her untimely entry into the world saved the joint from being sacked by looters–and the shop owner showed his gratitude by giving Lanita’s mother, Aretha, a decade of rent-free residence. But when the reward dries up and Aretha takes to the bottle and a no-good loser boyfriend, Lanita’s life takes a sharp turn for the worse. Forced to live in a cramped, dingy apartment, Lanita longs for her real daddy to ride to the rescue. But when he finally shows up, she finds he isn’t quite the knight she’s dreamed of.
Still, Lanita is determined to make something of herself. A straight-A student throughout high school, she is accepted to Howard University in Washington, D.C., and marvels that she’s finally escaped the ghetto. As Lanita embarks on the journey of becoming a woman, she encounters icons including Michael Jackson and Todd Bridges, who help transform her perception of her own life. But one year short of graduation, she must return to Los Angeles to care for the ailing Aretha–an unpleasant reality that leads her to join in a sordid West Hollywood strip club and farther away from her dreams–until the fateful night her high school heart throb shows up at the club and shows her that the easy money she makes comes with a high price.
The bestselling author of The Night Before Thirty , Tajuana “TJ” Butler delivers one of her most richly imagined, complex, and beloved characters yet–and delves into the void that many young women spend their lifetime trying to the one left by a father’s absence.
Talk about an entrance. Lanita was born in a little corner store in the thick of the Watts riots. Her untimely entry into the world saved the joint from being sacked by looters–and the shop owner showed his gratitude by giving Lanita’s mother, Aretha, a decade of rent-free residence. But when the reward dries up and Aretha takes to the bottle and a no-good loser boyfriend, Lanita’s life takes a sharp turn for the worse. Forced to live in a cramped, dingy apartment, Lanita longs for her real daddy to ride to the rescue. But when he finally shows up, she finds he isn’t quite the knight she’s dreamed of.
Still, Lanita is determined to make something of herself. A straight-A student throughout high school, she is accepted to Howard University in Washington, D.C., and marvels that she’s finally escaped the ghetto. As Lanita embarks on the journey of becoming a woman, she encounters icons including Michael Jackson and Todd Bridges, who help transform her perception of her own life. But one year short of graduation, she must return to Los Angeles to care for the ailing Aretha–an unpleasant reality that leads her to join in a sordid West Hollywood strip club and farther away from her dreams–until the fateful night her high school heart throb shows up at the club and shows her that the easy money she makes comes with a high price.
The bestselling author of The Night Before Thirty , Tajuana “TJ” Butler delivers one of her most richly imagined, complex, and beloved characters yet–and delves into the void that many young women spend their lifetime trying to the one left by a father’s absence.
260 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
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November 9, 2025Just My Luck
Lanita and her husband are about to complete their collage education and Lanita’s husband is treating to her to a day at the salon with his instructions to spare no expense. Because this lady likes to pour out her life story too quick, we learn from her talking to the receptionist (Natasha) that her husband doesn’t have much but he’s her “fairy tale”. He’s handsome, compassionate, loving, dashing and chivalrous. He cuts glass for a living and they’ve been saving for a new house.
Natasha is surprised when Lania says she wants to take a vacation to the French Polynesian Islands. Didn’t she just say things were tight for them? But Lanita just remarks casually she’d be surprised at all the amazing things in her life that happened that weren’t supposed to. She was born lucky. Natasha looks at her like yeah right. So, Lanita tells her (her) story while she waits for Jimmy Choo (the stylist).
The night of August 11th 1965 her mother Areatha and her friend Marquette Fry are struggling financially. Aretha is even close to being evicted. Aretha plans to name her baby Lamount if it’s a boy and Lanita it’s a girl. (She hopes it’s a girl). Later that night, Marquette and Ronald (his brother) after going out to party get pulled over by the cops. After he fails a sobriety test, Marquette resist the cops attempt to arrest him.
A mob grows from and more and more police arrive on the scene. In the end Mrs. Fry, Marquette, and Ronald are all put in the car (all for fighting) and taken to the station. Aretha (whose joined the crowd) gets angered and spits on one of the cops, but is able to evade him. Another lady just taken in mistakenly thought to be her and people start to riot in the streets. The next morning while Aretha is trying to get away from her building before it’s burned, she starts to go into labor. A Jewish man (Silverstein) allows her to come into his jewelry store Recognition of Areta stops a young man from looting the store.
But the good luck ended after 12 years. Mr. Silverstien’s son blamed them for his father’s passing and kicked them out when he found out Aretha didn’t have a job. The new house is a one bedroom. Lanita has to sleep on the couch and what’s even worse there’s roaches and mice. Plus Areatha sells the television. But her mother promises its judt temporary. Areatha also becomes an alcoholic (a violent one). Shown when Lanita tries to hide her liquor and Areatha takes her belt to her. They hardly have food. Aretha sells their food stamps for money for cigarettes and liquor and hygiene products fall lower on the priority list. Lanita starts to lose popularity because she starts to smell (during her 6th grade year).
Because of a school incident where the students tease Lanita about how bad she smells before a test is given, (that also winds up in a physical altercation between Lanita and an ex friend Michelle) Mrs. Jackson offers to help and Lanita to the store to get soap and toothpaste. She also suggests some government programs to help get Aretha a psychologist and find a job. After this, Aretha completes an Alcoholics Anonymous program and stays sober for two months. She then starts a training program to become a nurse's assistant.
Lanita makes friends with a girl named Gloria. One day Lanita walks in to see her mother making out with a man that Aretha says is her daddy. He goes on to explain that he was married when he found out she was born. So not to upset his wife he kept it from her. He’s lived in Vegas for 11 years, but they divorced last year. Lanita meets an author (Robert Beck) on her way to Gloria’s that asked to be pointed in the direction to the pool hall to meet his friend. They talk a little bit about his writing and he tells her to look into him when she’s older. It seems like he gives her a dollar but when she gets home, she discovers its 50 dollars. Paul (Aretha’s daddy) says he’s a pimp turned author named “Iceberg Slim”. Aretha says she’ll let her keep the money but if that “jive turkey” approaches her again to turn and run the other way. Later, Lanita hears her mother say that he’s trying to make her daughter a prostitute. After finding out what this means, she takes the money, puts it in a jar, and puts it in the back of a cabinet. She promises she’ll keep it there and never use it.
In later years, she reads all his books. He dies in 92 of liver failure. It’s not long before things improve. Paul moves in and gets them a television and a telephone. He gets a car and they often go vacations or just get aways (like to Disneyland and to the park). Aretha gets the job as a nurse’s assistant and starts on night shifts in a nursing home. He doesn’t work but he spoils them and they were never short of things they needed around the apartment. Lanita asks how he can do this and he says he’s lucky. He explains to her about casinos. He says he won enough previously to hold him over for a little while. Lanita asks if she can go with him one day and she says when she’s of age. She asks if he thinks she’ll be lucky too and he says his blood runs in her so there’s a good chance.
Then Lanita starts to see this in action (when things start to just “come” to her daddy (like free food and change). This starts an argument between Paul and Aretha. Paul wants Aretha to not work around the clock. (In other words she’s not giving him sex). She doesn’t want him to go back to Los Vegas and accuses him of being a “dreamer” (aka a bull shitter). At first, Lanita notices when woman give her daddy pieces of paper he’ll immediately throw them in the trash but he takes one woman’s number and comes very close to letting her come over. Lanita hears him and blocks by getting in the bed with him so the woman can’t come over.
Lanita starts school and on the way home (first day of school) she sees the woman coming out of their apartment and calls him out. Lanita then runs over and Gloria invites her over. Lanita decides that she’s just going to have to convince her mother to work in the day and no more than 8 hours. After this Paul tries to leave, but Aretha refuses to let him walk out the door. They argue over her working doubles. She says she’s working for their future and asks why he can’t wait this out. But he tells her its over. In one last attempt, she asks what about Lanita and he says she’ll be fine. She slaps him and tells him to get out.
Before leaving, her father gives her his dollar sign chain and tells her if she should ever meet someone nice and fall in love, make sure that his heart belongs to you, because if he ever expects you to share him with other women, he's not worthy. Lanita blames her mother, starts to just call her by her name, and becomes nothing to her but a care-taker. Gloria’s family becomes her family. But two days before Thanksgiving, Gloria and her family are moving to Oakland. They eventually become friends again tho. Aretha’s old boyfriend -before they moved- Lester comes back. With his return she starts to drink “firewater” again. Lanita starts to read and spend more time in the library and considers running away to Oakland and starts to get her preparations in order.
Aretha surprises Lanita by telling her they’re moving into a two-bedroom apartment. They’ll figure out how to get her a bed. They move in the day before her 14rth birthday. Lanita starts Jordan High School (a predominately black school). Lanita is encouraged by Gloria to try out for a school activity to make new friends so she won’t have to hang out in the library.
So, she tries out for the cheering squad. Aretha gets a better job at the end of Lanita’s 8th grade years as a LPN. Lanita is able to pull off a back hand spring even tho she’s told it takes some years to learn (at the audition)-even as ugly as it comes out-. Lanita makes the junior varsity team. Her friend Stasia makes it but their other friend Lisa doesn’t. They assure her she’ll make the dance team. Heather (one of the cheerleaders) tells her if she gets the hand spring right she might make Varsity next year. Just as Lanita is told about the expenses of being on the Varsity team, she’s offered a part time job in the library shelving books over the summer.
Mrs. Page tells Lanita on the last day of working she has something for her and they go to her house. She falls asleep and is surprised to be awakened by her mother. She’s further surprised with a surprise party in the backyard. Jermaine is there and apologizes for the way he treated her. After the party, Lanita gets her first kiss from him. After that night, Lanita thinks there’s a chance Jermaine will become her boyfriend, but a print ad model named Jasmine steals him away. No wonder who her friends tries to set her up with she wants no one but Jermaine, but then she remembers what her dad said and then decides she can’t study with him because that would mean she’d be sharing him (and she’s worth more than that).
Lanita and some friends are able to meet the Jacksons while shooting a Pepsi commercial. They also get to be in the commercial. And that’s when it happens. Explosives go off and set Micheal’s hair on fire. He’s whisked away to hospital and it’s reported he’s suffered second degree burns. The commercial has edited out the fire.
Jasmine goes away to college. It doesn’t change Jermaine’s feelings. Senior year Lanita gets accepted to Howard. Lanita decides 3 weeks before the prom that she *does* want to go. So, Mrs. Page gives her a selection of gowns to choose from and finds her a date (Todd). It turns out to be Todd Bridges (from Different Strokes). Todd tells Lanita he doesn’t think she really wants Jermaine. He’s just a longing. Jermaine and Jasmine come to the dance late. Jasmine tries to slip Todd her number to talk about “business” but Jermaine confronts Todd but then stops him from answering because he already knows she’s done this before. He says he’s not dealing with her tonight and walks out the prom. She follows after.
Gloria and Lanita reunite at Howard. While on vacation, Lanita is introduced to a famous author (Dorothy West) on an island. Gloria gets a job at a record store to save for a 2-bedroom apartment. Lanita and Gloria start to take up partying, drinking, and snorting coke. Lanita starts to dance while taking off her clothes while guys throw money at her. In 96, Lanita is told her favorite basketball star will be at a party. After waiting all night, she does get to meet him but finds out the next day, he collapsed in his dorm room and two hours later he was pronounced dead. Cocaine was found in his urine stream. After this, Gloria and Lanita don’t touch cocaine again.
Lanita decides to get baptized around the time of he birthday. When she comes home, Lanita finds out her mother is in the hospital and has been sick for some time. She has (alcoholic)cirrhosis of the liver. If she follows the doctor’s instructions there’s a good chance she’ll heal.. If she continues, she’ll get jaundice and might need a liver transplant. Aretha is able go home on Christmas Eve. Lanita finds out she was fired because she missed so many days because of her illness and because of that she’s about to be evicted because she got behind on her rent. Aretha also has a lot of bills from the hospital and then there are the expenses for her medication.
Lanita and Jermaine reunite at a New Years party. He suffered an injury and lost his scholarship. Now he’s doing manual labor. He asks when she’ll be back and she says next Christmas. He lets her know he’d like it see her but it doesn’t excite her like she thought it would. Lanita knows its too late. Still, she accepts a dinner invite. He blows a lot of smoke about he can’t blieve he’s finally on a date with her and visiting her in DC. So, she over exaggerates how good life is in DC. Lanita makes up her mind to stick the semester out (even tho her mother is against it). She tells Gloria it’ll just be until the fall. Miss Page says she’ll lend her the money for the rent and tells Lanita to tell everyone she owes and make payment arrangements. Jermaine calls again with more apologizes and trying to make plans to see Lanita. She says it’s a bad time and she’ll get back. Lanita goes to look for a job as a cocktail waitress but is told there are no positions open but there’s one for a dancer. She says stripping isn’t her. (She’s a Christian).
But she’s talked into it by the manager (Dave) when he tells her how much she’ll make a night. She passes the audition ad is given the name “Destiny”. Lanita starts to drink more. Now she’s dancing three to four times a week for a year. She catches Aretha up and repays everyone. Aretha regains her health and gets her job back. Lanita now shares a 2-bedroom apartment with Tina-one of the dancers-, drives a sports car, and dates some of the wealthiest men. In her new circle no one knows her as Lanita. Tina and Lanita get invited to the Playboy Mansion.
Tina and Lanita gets offered a shot before the nights over. Lanita realizes she’s living out Tina’s dream not her own. One day while dancing, Jermaine shows up and yells at Destiny to get off the stage. Dave tells her to tell him to handle that. On the way to her car, a crazed man demands his dance and attacks her but he’s thrown off her by Jermaine. He ends up taking her home, they fight, but end up going to her place. He tells her walk away and confesses he wants to have sex with her but he doesn’t want to be done like her clients. She confesses she’s a virgin. He says he doesn’t care and if she’ll give it all up, he wants to see where this can go.
Tina moves into the mansion 2 years later. Lanita moves back in with Aretha. Lanita starts to drink heavily tho she has Jermaine now. She gets so wasted she almost burns the house down. Thank goodness Aretha comes home. She stops drinking cold turkeyand starts back reading and going to church. She finds a job as a receptionist at a ad firm. Because Lanita helps a little girl find her father she ends up coincidently being chosen for the tooth paste commercial (it turns out her father is over). She gets a hefty check for it. Lanita and Jermaine marry. Lanita gets pregnant. The Rodney King verdict is not guilty, There are riots. Lanita’s water breaks. She delivers a girl. She names her Phoenix. She isn’t charged for the salon visit. At the end, we find out that her daughter Phoenix takes after Lanita and Paul. (She finds a five dollar billa t the graduation). Lanita and Jermaine graduate and get their teaching degrees.
My Thoughts:
I had this book for a while on my read list and on my tablet. Sometimes I would attempt to start it. Then I’d stop it. It just didn’t (hold my attention)… I was thinking it was gonna be about this lady going from one lucky experience to another and that just didn’t sound like it would be interesting. It was kinda like that only the events seemed to bounce from extremely lucky to extremely messed up. So, the title did it just. I should have liked it because it shows how you can have good things happen and then almost instantly here comes something *bad* right behind it. You can find that book you’ve been trying to come up on FOREVER and then the phone rings and BAM! They’ve scheduled you for another set of the tests the doctors think you need and now instead of the 2 appointments you thought you had for the month, you know had three more. STORY OF MY LIFE! But more than that it just felt like the book “Fly Girl”. Only tamer.
Instead of the teen girl whose mother and father split and she starts to be promiscuous with a lot of boys, we have a teenager girls whose just dead set on one guy throught high school and college. It’s just not my cup of tea to read these kinds of books. Other women seem to really be into “relationship” type books. It bounces from Aretha’s relationship with Lester to Aretha’s relationship with Paul, back to Aretha’s relationship with Lester. Then it gets into Lanita’s relationship with Jermaine and then into a basketball player she’s into that dies from cocaine and on and on. Then weirdly it starts name-dropping all these famous celebrities -half of who I either knew, had vaguely heard of, or didn’t know at all- I guess to show how lucky-unlucky Lanita was. Maybe it was just me but I was thinking why did it need that.
Then in the last chapters it turns into “The Players Club”. I REALLY wasn’t expecting that. And it was SO SIMILAR right up to the creepy stalker that wanted her to dance for him. I just don’t think this one was for me.
Rating: 5
Lanita and her husband are about to complete their collage education and Lanita’s husband is treating to her to a day at the salon with his instructions to spare no expense. Because this lady likes to pour out her life story too quick, we learn from her talking to the receptionist (Natasha) that her husband doesn’t have much but he’s her “fairy tale”. He’s handsome, compassionate, loving, dashing and chivalrous. He cuts glass for a living and they’ve been saving for a new house.
Natasha is surprised when Lania says she wants to take a vacation to the French Polynesian Islands. Didn’t she just say things were tight for them? But Lanita just remarks casually she’d be surprised at all the amazing things in her life that happened that weren’t supposed to. She was born lucky. Natasha looks at her like yeah right. So, Lanita tells her (her) story while she waits for Jimmy Choo (the stylist).
The night of August 11th 1965 her mother Areatha and her friend Marquette Fry are struggling financially. Aretha is even close to being evicted. Aretha plans to name her baby Lamount if it’s a boy and Lanita it’s a girl. (She hopes it’s a girl). Later that night, Marquette and Ronald (his brother) after going out to party get pulled over by the cops. After he fails a sobriety test, Marquette resist the cops attempt to arrest him.
A mob grows from and more and more police arrive on the scene. In the end Mrs. Fry, Marquette, and Ronald are all put in the car (all for fighting) and taken to the station. Aretha (whose joined the crowd) gets angered and spits on one of the cops, but is able to evade him. Another lady just taken in mistakenly thought to be her and people start to riot in the streets. The next morning while Aretha is trying to get away from her building before it’s burned, she starts to go into labor. A Jewish man (Silverstein) allows her to come into his jewelry store Recognition of Areta stops a young man from looting the store.
But the good luck ended after 12 years. Mr. Silverstien’s son blamed them for his father’s passing and kicked them out when he found out Aretha didn’t have a job. The new house is a one bedroom. Lanita has to sleep on the couch and what’s even worse there’s roaches and mice. Plus Areatha sells the television. But her mother promises its judt temporary. Areatha also becomes an alcoholic (a violent one). Shown when Lanita tries to hide her liquor and Areatha takes her belt to her. They hardly have food. Aretha sells their food stamps for money for cigarettes and liquor and hygiene products fall lower on the priority list. Lanita starts to lose popularity because she starts to smell (during her 6th grade year).
Because of a school incident where the students tease Lanita about how bad she smells before a test is given, (that also winds up in a physical altercation between Lanita and an ex friend Michelle) Mrs. Jackson offers to help and Lanita to the store to get soap and toothpaste. She also suggests some government programs to help get Aretha a psychologist and find a job. After this, Aretha completes an Alcoholics Anonymous program and stays sober for two months. She then starts a training program to become a nurse's assistant.
Lanita makes friends with a girl named Gloria. One day Lanita walks in to see her mother making out with a man that Aretha says is her daddy. He goes on to explain that he was married when he found out she was born. So not to upset his wife he kept it from her. He’s lived in Vegas for 11 years, but they divorced last year. Lanita meets an author (Robert Beck) on her way to Gloria’s that asked to be pointed in the direction to the pool hall to meet his friend. They talk a little bit about his writing and he tells her to look into him when she’s older. It seems like he gives her a dollar but when she gets home, she discovers its 50 dollars. Paul (Aretha’s daddy) says he’s a pimp turned author named “Iceberg Slim”. Aretha says she’ll let her keep the money but if that “jive turkey” approaches her again to turn and run the other way. Later, Lanita hears her mother say that he’s trying to make her daughter a prostitute. After finding out what this means, she takes the money, puts it in a jar, and puts it in the back of a cabinet. She promises she’ll keep it there and never use it.
In later years, she reads all his books. He dies in 92 of liver failure. It’s not long before things improve. Paul moves in and gets them a television and a telephone. He gets a car and they often go vacations or just get aways (like to Disneyland and to the park). Aretha gets the job as a nurse’s assistant and starts on night shifts in a nursing home. He doesn’t work but he spoils them and they were never short of things they needed around the apartment. Lanita asks how he can do this and he says he’s lucky. He explains to her about casinos. He says he won enough previously to hold him over for a little while. Lanita asks if she can go with him one day and she says when she’s of age. She asks if he thinks she’ll be lucky too and he says his blood runs in her so there’s a good chance.
Then Lanita starts to see this in action (when things start to just “come” to her daddy (like free food and change). This starts an argument between Paul and Aretha. Paul wants Aretha to not work around the clock. (In other words she’s not giving him sex). She doesn’t want him to go back to Los Vegas and accuses him of being a “dreamer” (aka a bull shitter). At first, Lanita notices when woman give her daddy pieces of paper he’ll immediately throw them in the trash but he takes one woman’s number and comes very close to letting her come over. Lanita hears him and blocks by getting in the bed with him so the woman can’t come over.
Lanita starts school and on the way home (first day of school) she sees the woman coming out of their apartment and calls him out. Lanita then runs over and Gloria invites her over. Lanita decides that she’s just going to have to convince her mother to work in the day and no more than 8 hours. After this Paul tries to leave, but Aretha refuses to let him walk out the door. They argue over her working doubles. She says she’s working for their future and asks why he can’t wait this out. But he tells her its over. In one last attempt, she asks what about Lanita and he says she’ll be fine. She slaps him and tells him to get out.
Before leaving, her father gives her his dollar sign chain and tells her if she should ever meet someone nice and fall in love, make sure that his heart belongs to you, because if he ever expects you to share him with other women, he's not worthy. Lanita blames her mother, starts to just call her by her name, and becomes nothing to her but a care-taker. Gloria’s family becomes her family. But two days before Thanksgiving, Gloria and her family are moving to Oakland. They eventually become friends again tho. Aretha’s old boyfriend -before they moved- Lester comes back. With his return she starts to drink “firewater” again. Lanita starts to read and spend more time in the library and considers running away to Oakland and starts to get her preparations in order.
Aretha surprises Lanita by telling her they’re moving into a two-bedroom apartment. They’ll figure out how to get her a bed. They move in the day before her 14rth birthday. Lanita starts Jordan High School (a predominately black school). Lanita is encouraged by Gloria to try out for a school activity to make new friends so she won’t have to hang out in the library.
So, she tries out for the cheering squad. Aretha gets a better job at the end of Lanita’s 8th grade years as a LPN. Lanita is able to pull off a back hand spring even tho she’s told it takes some years to learn (at the audition)-even as ugly as it comes out-. Lanita makes the junior varsity team. Her friend Stasia makes it but their other friend Lisa doesn’t. They assure her she’ll make the dance team. Heather (one of the cheerleaders) tells her if she gets the hand spring right she might make Varsity next year. Just as Lanita is told about the expenses of being on the Varsity team, she’s offered a part time job in the library shelving books over the summer.
Mrs. Page tells Lanita on the last day of working she has something for her and they go to her house. She falls asleep and is surprised to be awakened by her mother. She’s further surprised with a surprise party in the backyard. Jermaine is there and apologizes for the way he treated her. After the party, Lanita gets her first kiss from him. After that night, Lanita thinks there’s a chance Jermaine will become her boyfriend, but a print ad model named Jasmine steals him away. No wonder who her friends tries to set her up with she wants no one but Jermaine, but then she remembers what her dad said and then decides she can’t study with him because that would mean she’d be sharing him (and she’s worth more than that).
Lanita and some friends are able to meet the Jacksons while shooting a Pepsi commercial. They also get to be in the commercial. And that’s when it happens. Explosives go off and set Micheal’s hair on fire. He’s whisked away to hospital and it’s reported he’s suffered second degree burns. The commercial has edited out the fire.
Jasmine goes away to college. It doesn’t change Jermaine’s feelings. Senior year Lanita gets accepted to Howard. Lanita decides 3 weeks before the prom that she *does* want to go. So, Mrs. Page gives her a selection of gowns to choose from and finds her a date (Todd). It turns out to be Todd Bridges (from Different Strokes). Todd tells Lanita he doesn’t think she really wants Jermaine. He’s just a longing. Jermaine and Jasmine come to the dance late. Jasmine tries to slip Todd her number to talk about “business” but Jermaine confronts Todd but then stops him from answering because he already knows she’s done this before. He says he’s not dealing with her tonight and walks out the prom. She follows after.
Gloria and Lanita reunite at Howard. While on vacation, Lanita is introduced to a famous author (Dorothy West) on an island. Gloria gets a job at a record store to save for a 2-bedroom apartment. Lanita and Gloria start to take up partying, drinking, and snorting coke. Lanita starts to dance while taking off her clothes while guys throw money at her. In 96, Lanita is told her favorite basketball star will be at a party. After waiting all night, she does get to meet him but finds out the next day, he collapsed in his dorm room and two hours later he was pronounced dead. Cocaine was found in his urine stream. After this, Gloria and Lanita don’t touch cocaine again.
Lanita decides to get baptized around the time of he birthday. When she comes home, Lanita finds out her mother is in the hospital and has been sick for some time. She has (alcoholic)cirrhosis of the liver. If she follows the doctor’s instructions there’s a good chance she’ll heal.. If she continues, she’ll get jaundice and might need a liver transplant. Aretha is able go home on Christmas Eve. Lanita finds out she was fired because she missed so many days because of her illness and because of that she’s about to be evicted because she got behind on her rent. Aretha also has a lot of bills from the hospital and then there are the expenses for her medication.
Lanita and Jermaine reunite at a New Years party. He suffered an injury and lost his scholarship. Now he’s doing manual labor. He asks when she’ll be back and she says next Christmas. He lets her know he’d like it see her but it doesn’t excite her like she thought it would. Lanita knows its too late. Still, she accepts a dinner invite. He blows a lot of smoke about he can’t blieve he’s finally on a date with her and visiting her in DC. So, she over exaggerates how good life is in DC. Lanita makes up her mind to stick the semester out (even tho her mother is against it). She tells Gloria it’ll just be until the fall. Miss Page says she’ll lend her the money for the rent and tells Lanita to tell everyone she owes and make payment arrangements. Jermaine calls again with more apologizes and trying to make plans to see Lanita. She says it’s a bad time and she’ll get back. Lanita goes to look for a job as a cocktail waitress but is told there are no positions open but there’s one for a dancer. She says stripping isn’t her. (She’s a Christian).
But she’s talked into it by the manager (Dave) when he tells her how much she’ll make a night. She passes the audition ad is given the name “Destiny”. Lanita starts to drink more. Now she’s dancing three to four times a week for a year. She catches Aretha up and repays everyone. Aretha regains her health and gets her job back. Lanita now shares a 2-bedroom apartment with Tina-one of the dancers-, drives a sports car, and dates some of the wealthiest men. In her new circle no one knows her as Lanita. Tina and Lanita get invited to the Playboy Mansion.
Tina and Lanita gets offered a shot before the nights over. Lanita realizes she’s living out Tina’s dream not her own. One day while dancing, Jermaine shows up and yells at Destiny to get off the stage. Dave tells her to tell him to handle that. On the way to her car, a crazed man demands his dance and attacks her but he’s thrown off her by Jermaine. He ends up taking her home, they fight, but end up going to her place. He tells her walk away and confesses he wants to have sex with her but he doesn’t want to be done like her clients. She confesses she’s a virgin. He says he doesn’t care and if she’ll give it all up, he wants to see where this can go.
Tina moves into the mansion 2 years later. Lanita moves back in with Aretha. Lanita starts to drink heavily tho she has Jermaine now. She gets so wasted she almost burns the house down. Thank goodness Aretha comes home. She stops drinking cold turkeyand starts back reading and going to church. She finds a job as a receptionist at a ad firm. Because Lanita helps a little girl find her father she ends up coincidently being chosen for the tooth paste commercial (it turns out her father is over). She gets a hefty check for it. Lanita and Jermaine marry. Lanita gets pregnant. The Rodney King verdict is not guilty, There are riots. Lanita’s water breaks. She delivers a girl. She names her Phoenix. She isn’t charged for the salon visit. At the end, we find out that her daughter Phoenix takes after Lanita and Paul. (She finds a five dollar billa t the graduation). Lanita and Jermaine graduate and get their teaching degrees.
My Thoughts:
I had this book for a while on my read list and on my tablet. Sometimes I would attempt to start it. Then I’d stop it. It just didn’t (hold my attention)… I was thinking it was gonna be about this lady going from one lucky experience to another and that just didn’t sound like it would be interesting. It was kinda like that only the events seemed to bounce from extremely lucky to extremely messed up. So, the title did it just. I should have liked it because it shows how you can have good things happen and then almost instantly here comes something *bad* right behind it. You can find that book you’ve been trying to come up on FOREVER and then the phone rings and BAM! They’ve scheduled you for another set of the tests the doctors think you need and now instead of the 2 appointments you thought you had for the month, you know had three more. STORY OF MY LIFE! But more than that it just felt like the book “Fly Girl”. Only tamer.
Instead of the teen girl whose mother and father split and she starts to be promiscuous with a lot of boys, we have a teenager girls whose just dead set on one guy throught high school and college. It’s just not my cup of tea to read these kinds of books. Other women seem to really be into “relationship” type books. It bounces from Aretha’s relationship with Lester to Aretha’s relationship with Paul, back to Aretha’s relationship with Lester. Then it gets into Lanita’s relationship with Jermaine and then into a basketball player she’s into that dies from cocaine and on and on. Then weirdly it starts name-dropping all these famous celebrities -half of who I either knew, had vaguely heard of, or didn’t know at all- I guess to show how lucky-unlucky Lanita was. Maybe it was just me but I was thinking why did it need that.
Then in the last chapters it turns into “The Players Club”. I REALLY wasn’t expecting that. And it was SO SIMILAR right up to the creepy stalker that wanted her to dance for him. I just don’t think this one was for me.
Rating: 5
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 31, 2010
I had purchased this book a few years ago and never got around to reading it but had nothing to read and thought i would check it out, and it was truly an amazing story. What i liked so much about it was that is was so REAL, I could so vividly see this story play out in my mind. It was an emotional book in parts and I definitely recommend this book.
June 3, 2014
I finished reading this book last night and I must say that I REALLY enjoyed it!! I've had this book for several years and I'm glad I decided to reboot my reading with this book! I loved the other two books that I've read from Tajuana Butler and I love this one as well. I don't like to say too much in my reviews for fear of giving away too much but I really liked this novel!
November 24, 2008
I LOVED this book. I really wasn't expecting much from it and only picked it up to pass the time but I was really surprised by how good it was and I would recommend it to all my girlfriends.
July 19, 2009
A very enjoyable read,quite a lot that the protagonist had to go through, but in the end, it was all worth it.
July 20, 2018
Loved it!!
February 5, 2010
This book is a great book about the life a girl from her childhood to her adult life. It shows what some girls living in poor conditions have to go through at times. This book kept me reading I just couldn’t put it down from when her mother was an alcoholic to when she was in an abusive relationship. It shows how even the saddest stories can have a happy ending. I would recommend this book to women who are into romantic sad novels.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 22, 2015
The ending left me feeling like I wasted my time reading it.
I don't think her life was lucky or special in any way. I was waiting for the climax of the story, but it never came.
Maybe I don't like happily ever afters.
All in all the ending fell flat.
I don't think her life was lucky or special in any way. I was waiting for the climax of the story, but it never came.
Maybe I don't like happily ever afters.
All in all the ending fell flat.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 26, 2010
I love getting lost in the main characters life. You can totally picture everything that is going on and how this little girl is feeling. A good read with limited swearing.
July 14, 2012
No comment.
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