Pleasure

Nia #1

by Eric Jerome Dickey

Having left a man who has failed to meet her intimate needs, a woman considers the morally challenging notion of pursuing relationships with more than one person and gives into fantasies in her subsequent affairs with a married man and an unmarried stranger. 200,000 first printing.

Genres: Erotica, Fiction, Romance, African American, Urban, Audiobook, Adult Fiction

Paperback

First published April 1, 2008

About the author

Eric Jerome Dickey was born in Memphis, Tennessee and attended the University of Memphis (the former Memphis State), where he earned his degree in Computer System Technology. In 1983, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in engineering.

After landing a job in the aerospace industry as a software developer, Eric Jerome Dickey's artistic talents surfaced, inspiring him to become an actor and a stand-up comedian. Yet Eric quickly found out that writing was something he could do and do well. From creative writing classes to avidly consuming the works of his favorite authors, Eric Jerome Dickey began to shape a writing career of his own. Having written several scripts for his personal comedy act, he started writing poetry and short stories. "The film work gave me insight into character development, the acting classes helped me understand motivation...All of it goes hand in hand," Eric explains. He joined the IBWA (International Black Writers and Artists), participated in their development workshops, and became a recipient of the IBWA SEED Scholarship to attend UCLA's Creative Writing classes. In 1994 his first published short story, "Thirteen," appeared in the IBWA's River Crossing: Voices of the Diaspora-An Anthology of the International Black Experience. A second short story, "Days Gone By," was published in the magazine A Place to Enter.

With those successes behind him, Eric Jerome Dickey decided to fine-tune some of his earlier work and developed a screenplay called "Cappuccino." "Cappuccino" was directed and produced by Craig Ross, Jr. and appeared in coffee houses around the Los Angeles area. In February 1998, "Cappuccino" made its local debut during the Pan African Film Festival at the Magic Johnson Theater in Los Angeles.

Short stories, though, didn't seem to fulfill Eric Jerome Dickey's creative yearnings. Eric says, "I'd set out to do a ten-page story and it would go on for three hundred pages." So Eric kept writing and reading and sending out query letters for his novels for almost three years until he finally got an agent. "Then a door opened," Eric says. "And I put my foot in before they could close it." And that door has remained opened, as Eric Jerome Dickey's novels have placed him on the map as one of the best writers of contemporary urban fiction.

Eric Jerome Dickey's book signing tours for Sister, Sister; Friends and Lovers; Milk in My Coffee; Cheaters; and Liar's Game took him from coast to coast and helped propel each of these novels to #1 on the "Blackboard Bestsellers List." Cheaters was named "Blackboard Book of the Year" in 2000. In June 2000, Eric Jerome Dickey celebrated the French publication of Milk in My Coffee (Cafe Noisette) by embarking on a book tour to Paris. Soon after, Milk in My Coffee became a bestseller in France. Eric Jerome Dickey's novels, Chasing Destiny, Liar's Game, Between Lovers, Thieves' Paradise, The Other Woman, Drive Me Crazy, Genevieve, Naughty or Nice, Sleeping with Strangers, Waking with Enemies, and Pleasure have all earned him the success of a spot on The New York Times bestseller list. Liar's Game, Thieves' Paradise, The Other Woman, and Genevieve have also given Dickey the added distinction of being nominated for an NAACP Image Award in the category of Outstanding Literary Work in 2001, 2002, 2004, and 2005. In 2006, he was honored with the awards for Best Contemporary Fiction and Author of the Year (Male) at the 2006 African American Literary Award Show. In 2008, Eric was nominated for Storyteller of the Year at the 1st annual ESSENCE Literary Awards. In January 2001, Eric Jerome Dickey was a contributor to New American Library's anthology Got To Be Real: Four Original Love Stories, also a Blackboard Bestseller. He also had a story entitled “Fish Sanwich” appear in the anthology Mothers and Sons. In June 2002, Dickey contributed to Black Silk: A Collection of African American Erotica (Warner Books) as well as to Riots Beneath the Baobab (published by Inte

Reviews

[Nay · Rating 1 out of 5]

Every blue moon a book comes along that makes you want to bang your head against the steering wheel. Now is that time, not the best by E.J.D.

Girl whines about sexual freedom and not being a slut.

Girl sleeps with twins at the same time.

Girl whines about sexual freedom and not being a slut

Girl sleeps with the same twins individually.

Girl whines about sexual freedom and not being a slut.

Girl sleeps with random girl

Girl whines about sexual freedom and not being a slut.

on and on ....In the end despite all the hoopla about sexual freedom blah blah... girl is a slut.

Even the endless sex scenes became boring and I was waiting for something more to happen.

[Janine · Rating 5 out of 5]

OMG! I'm about halfway through and this is amazing!!!

O-M-F-G!!!!! This book DEFINITELY put me on another level when looking at sexual freedoms and sexuality!

[Tracy Darity · Rating 4 out of 5]

“You can’t put toothpaste back inside the tube.” pg. 101 Pleasure

This quote struck me because it defines how I feel when I read an Eric Jerome Dickey novel. Although I swore off his work after reading Sleeping With Strangers (not because it was bad but because he annoyed me with page after page of in-depth descriptions and then expected me to go out and buy a part II); I found myself searching bookstores, calling up “reading” friends, and traveling to three libraries in search of Pleasure. Why? Because I want to become more active in the book club I am a member of and this was the first book they selected that remotely moved me. And guess what, I was so deep into the book I missed the meeting.

Pleasure falls under the genre of Erotica and I am not a fan of erotica, at least not the erotica books I have read, which have no more value than a badly produced porn flick. But somewhere I read, with Pleasure, EJD had written a book of erotica that actually had a plot and pretty good story behind it, even if readers were torn…either you loved it or you hated it.

At moments I hated this book. Found myself skimming through some of the humdrum, repetitive sex scenes that often times mirrored the humdrum, relentless descriptions of thoughts and scenes that added no value to the story and merely served to stretch it out. At other times I loved the story because he painted a vivid picture of a character that I could relate to emotionally, even, if not physically. Then again this is my love/hate relationship with EJD. His ability to write a novel that flows so quickly that you get enamored with the characters as he takes you on a journey to places, here and abroad, that you never have visited; but just as quickly, you are agitated because he’s taken you off pace with pages of unnecessary words.

My only disappointment with Pleasure was my disappointment with erotica in general. Once you’ve described a sex scene once or twice the excitement is gone and it begins to feel dirty and nasty and I’m just over it already. Some things just need to be left to the imagination, especially when you have a pretty good story going. There is nothing sensual to me about people having sex with multiple people within the same day and not washing, not brushing their teeth, and definitely not using condoms in this day and age, and that is where my attention began to drift to as these descriptive narratives played out. I would have preferred more on the psyche of the twins and what made them tick. The book could have ended at page 421, and I would have been happy, even at page 433. But by the time I reached, “If my eyes had remained open….” on page 442, I had disconnected and was neither shocked, nor cared.

EJD gets 4.5 stars because I enjoyed the the story in its totality. Maybe I will resume my love affair with his work and go back and pick up Waking With Enemies.

Much Love,


Tracy

Tracy L. Darity is the author of He Loves Me He Loves Me Not and Love….Like Snow In Florida On A Hot Summer Day, For additional information visit www.TracyLDarity.com.

[Tiara]

Pleasure
“I would like to drink your bath water” exclaimed says the guy from the W. “I piss in my bath water” Nia whispered. Pleasure is a book about a girl who has a problem and she likes to give herself away. She is looking for love and finding it in all the wrong places, so she has sex to fill where the love isn’t.

The book so far that I am currently reading right now is Pleasure by Eric Jerome Dickey. This book is an adult book. I would recommend this book to Valerie Oyibo because she likes to read the books I read. The emotions that I had when reading this book were laughable emotions.
What kept me reading this book was the very first line, it kept me wanting more. My mom told me about it, so it must be good. I think that the author wrote this book because he just likes to get his point out. About how you can find pleasure in many different ways when you’re happy or mad.

The portion in this book that is captivating is the part when Nia Simone goes the W, which is a bar and a hotel put together and finds the two twins she had met earlier in the book at the park. She calls the two twins her identical sin. If this book was made into a movie I would be shocked because this book is explicit. I would have the two twins mark and Karl and Nia
Simone plays in my movie because they are the main characters. Those three characters make this book interesting.

Who is my favorite character in this book would be Nia Simone because she so open and doesn’t really care what people think in this book. She just really wants to find her lover, but until she gets her lover she is doing things with her identical sins she never thought she would do before. The one character I really don’t like in this book would be Logan her ex-boyfriend. He’s just very annoying character because he irritates the mess out of Nia because he still wants her but she doesn’t want him.
The way I predicted the ending of this book was she would marry Mark the one twin she liked the most and he would leave his wife for Nia. That’s exactly what had happened.

[OOSA · Rating 4 out of 5]

I Need Twins!

This sexually charged novel is appropriately titled - "Pleasure." Honestly, I almost put this book down for good several times. The beginning was rather slow. Only at the urging of others did I keep reading. After the introduction of the twin brothers did the story actually start moving and became interesting. Overall, the story was good. However, I was disappointed in the ending. With a slow beginning and disappointing ending, this is a book I’d recommend but more so as a library read.

Reviewed by: Tracy
3.5 stars

[Nakia · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am very iffy about Eric Jerome Dickey. I loved "Genevieve" and "Sleeping With Strangers" but everything else always feel blah to me. Such was the case with "Pleasure". It was VERY longwinded, filled with a lot of unnecessary detail (thanks to this novel, I now know which route to take from Atlanta to Greensboro, North Carolina lol). I'm pretty sure they could have cut out 200 pages easy. I didnt quite understand the main character, but I'm going to chalk that up to EJD being a man and trying to write from the woman's perspective. I didn't GET her at all lol I was mostly disappointed with the ending...to read 400 pages and be left with...nothing? He needs to do better.

[Bri Little · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF @ ~32%

When I picked it up I could tell this book was far too long 😭 Nevertheless this was my first EJD book so I gave it a try. The story itself was fine, but some of the language is repetitive/pretentious/philosophical and the pacing is just sloooow. And it’s really just a man writing about a woman’s sexual liberation?? So I think I’ve read enough.

[K2 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This read is cool.....too long for the subject matter for my particular taste, yet a GoodRead nevertheless. Do not get Mi wrong it’s not extremely explicit, but it dragged on in too many spots and just should not have been so long, but that’s just for my taste in particular.

[Beverly Diehl · Rating 3 out of 5]

2 1/2 stars. I SO wanted to love this book. Erotica, from a male author? Thought it would be an interesting POV, but then he goes and writes it from the POV of a female character.

Okay, fine. Still on board. Surprisingly, he gets most (if not all) of the sensations right. A set of identical twins, or as the character dubs them, identical sins. Hot menage sex, hot F/F sex, more hot menage sex. There was also the interesting look at black life in Atlanta among the people who've emigrated from the Caribbean: the protagonist, Nia Simone, and her mother are from Trinidad, and they still have a house there; the twins are from Barbados; one twin's wife has an islands connection.

I read this on my Kindle, and there were some crazy formatting issues. The word "pleasure," used repeatedly, yet (almost) always spelled out as plea sure. Was it deliberate or a formatting goof? Other words oddly split were im port ant, Ca rib bean, and a couple others, so I am thinking it was a formatting accident, not an author affectation, but every time I hit one (every screen or three) it stopped me dead in my tracks. Kind of like it bugged Nia to have her ex keep texting her with "your always on my mind" messages.

There were repetition of phrases, like "identical sins" that were striking the first time, a nice callback the second time, still somewhat cute the third time, but with continued use, simply annoying. I hope I never see a reference to a woman's "chocolate star" again. I did like the tie-in to Anais Nin, another sensualist on a journey of discovery, but while I have always been able to relate to Anais, I could not relate to Nia.

It was MUCH too long (476 pages). There really wasn't a plot, or any sense that Nia, the main character, learned, changed, or grew during the course of it. She just had lots of (unsafe) sex with men (and women) who were emotionally and/or legally unavailable to be with her, not that she seemed to want a permanent partner anyway. The complication of Mark's wife Jewell, a television personality, seemed unnecessary, and what really ticked me off is there is a scene near the end, where the reader is led to believe it involves one brother, but actually involves the other, so there's a ta-da! moment. In rereading it, it is clearly contrived; somebody's "calling out his name," so Nia, the narrator, knows who it is, but it's withheld from the reader. There's a fine line to play that kind of trick on the reader/viewer and have it still be satisfying, a la The Sixth Sense; in this case, I just felt PLAYED.

I will read more of this author's work in the future. Based on the other reviews I have read from his fans who were deeply disappointed in this offering; he has done much better than this. It's worth a look to see how male writers imagine sex from a female POV, but if you're looking for something deep as well as sexy, this ain't it.

[Gaea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, I've read several reviews on this book that were on either side of the spectrum... either people really loved it, or they really hated it. To be honest, there were points on both sides that I could agree with. However, when I really sat down and thought about this book, I found the genius in Eric Jerome Dickey's writing, and grew to appreciate him more because of it.

Any fan of EJD knows that he writes about everything... love, crime, deception... the list goes on. So you really have to take each book for what it is, and evaluate it on the genre and content. "Pleasures" would be catagorized as black erotica, without a doubt. So when you think about most books in this category, you begin to think of what the true substance of the book is about, and whether or not there is a "plot" involved besides sex. The negative reviews that I've read all said that there was no plot in this book, and that they couldn't finish reading it because it was so terrible. Well... I beg to differ. I think that if nothing else captured you about this book, then the writing itself should. You can tell that EJD has matured as a writer, and though erotic and sexy, the use of words in "Pleasures" is just extraordinary. EJD does a perfect job of using imagery to make you FEEL and UNDERSTAND the characters on a deeper level. As far as the plot, the title itself should indicate what the entire book is about! "Pleasures" is a book about a woman who is seeking higher levels of pleasure, period. The book has a beginning, a climax, and a conclusion. In order to really figure out the plot of the book, you have to read it in its entirety. I think most folks got stuck in the climax, where it seemed that every page was a non-stop sexcapade, and refused to move on to find out how Nia's journey eventually ended.

Another thing that I truly appreciate about EJD is that he is surgical with descriptions and locations. "Pleasures" takes place in Atlanta, and as I was reading, I felt that I was in the car with Nia! I knew every place that he mentioned, and he desribes it to the T. Even in his other books, I've always felt like I could travel to the city that the book is placed in, and find the places that he writes about with no problem.

All in all, I thought that this book was really good, and I would recommend it to any adult person. I do find that you need to read this at home, because there are moments when the writing can get you all worked up, and there's no need to have that happen while you're sitting under the dryer at a beauty salon. LOL

[comfort · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had never hear of this author and downloaded from my library without knowing anything about it. What a surprise- initially you think this is a story simply about the heroine giving and receiving sexual pleasure and boy is there a lot of pleasuring going on-with brothers.

It is her journey and theirs to a degree understanding what they want and need out of their lives. Very hot and smexy read, with a realistic ending.

There is only one scene which I thought would not/could not possibly happen towards the end which was a bit of a spoiler for me, otherwise recommend this book wholeheartedly.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was torn between two and three star on this one. I am an advid EDJ fan, but I almost gave up on this book several times. The book did not pick up and really grab my attention until around page 200...that's about half way through the book.

Some parts of the book bored me. Everything about the main had to do with sex and her arousal and sexual thoughts, feelings and desires. EVERYTHING in the book had to deal with sex. After a while, I just started to skim the 10 page sex narratives.

I think that the characters had so much more to offer and were cheapened by the sole focus on sex. The last few chapters made the book worth reading, but I have enjoyed his other books more.

If you enjoy erotica, you will LOVE this book. If you don't....well you might be disappointed.

[Sheri · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was the first book I read from this author. It had many good reviews, so I was really looking forward to reading and enjoying it.

The storyline itself was okay, but I found the writing style disjointed and hard to follow, and there was so much unnecessary information included that it got rather tedious at times. I found the main character hard to connect with, and there really wasn't much depth to her. I wanted to like her and feel for her in her struggle for sexual independence, but I mostly found her confusing. I probably would have liked this more if there was more of an actual plot and less pointlessly random sex.

[Juanita · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ummm wow! I have read just about all of EJD books. This book had me aroused the whole entire time. Very well written. It's amazing that when women are exploring their sexual side we are labeled everything but the child of GOD. IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THIS BOOK PLEASE DO! Do you know the difference of being in love and being in lust??? Being fucked and being made love too????

[Nicole Bedford · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was sensual, seductive, mouth watering, tantalizing, orgasmic, and erotically poetic. The best novel about seduction I've ever read. Want to embark on a sensory overload into literary erotica then this is your novel! Absolutely brilliant!

[Heather in FL · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a group read, or I probably would not have chosen to read it. That said, I had a lot of trouble getting into it. For more than half the book, I had no investment in any of the characters. I didn't care about the sights and geography of Atlanta. I didn't care about the route it takes to get from Atlanta to North Carolina, or all the specific places they saw once in North Carolina. The whole thing with Mark and Karl was messed up, and I don't mean because they were having a threesome. One was married, the other wasn't available, but I guess that's what she was looking for. They had major sibling rivalry issues.

I didn't care about the story until Nia was confronted, and then it got very interesting learning the history of the brothers and why Mark's marriage was so crappy and why Karl was unattainable.

I like a happy ending, and while Nia maybe "found herself" through her experiences, I didn't feel fulfilled by the ending. I realize she couldn't continue with Karl and Mark, but I had hoped she might sort of "tame" Karl. Although that would create extremely odd family occasions, lol. And I knew she couldn't go back to Logan (pathetic putz). But I had hoped she'd find her someone.

[Jaszmin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly I really didn't like this novel. I don't think I like the writer either. It seems like every book of his that I get my hands on has threesomes m/f/f. In every single one of them which I thought was kind of selfish since this book was about the woman finding herself and letting her other self come out for a while. At one point she does end up with the brothers but then she has a foursome with another girl. And then she watches the wife of one brother get screwed on her bed by the other brother. It was disturbing and I didn't like that at all. She was suppose to be independent, but she just seemed so weak to me. And she didn't end up with either one of the brother's they all went back to their dysfunctional lies... I meant lives.

[Irish · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am an EJD fan from way back and I have always loved his books, but this one hurt me deep. Unless you are into living in a freaky fantasy world where nothing outside the bedroom exists...this isn't the book for you. We all have deep inner thoughts about sex and the exploration of sex, but the main character was just a lost soul if you ask me. She was a shallow freak. And the other characters, they were all twisted which is why they participated in such horrible behavior. Sex in this context was nothing more than crack! Lost souls looking for a release. It took me forever to get through this one.....time wasted.

[Danni · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found this tedious at best. The story had potential: a woman who has a threesome with twins. But somewhere between the minutiae of details (like I really need the exact make and model of all the cars in the parking garage that she was parked next to) and the idea that all black people (and apparently some white people too) are from some Carribbean island, the story took a sad downward spiral. Just too many side stories that I could not care less about, characters that were trite and improbable situations.

I won't spoil the ending for you, but suffice it to say that I gave this one to Goodwill...and I never give away books I could ever possibly re-read again in this life.

[Miranda]

Minireview: Perhaps the writing is a bit too similar to what goes on inside my brain when I am thinking WAY TOO MUCH. I like it, but I don't have the patients (currently) to read it. I think that I could really enjoy this book in the future..., but right now it is neither fast enough nor bloody enough for me.

Visit Sweet Vernal Zephyr for my long winded reviews.

[Danelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read this book before and decided to read it again, and i still feel the same way i felt before. I love it. This book introduced me to Anais Nin, and it's style was poetic like her words. I keep me interested and made me consider what love is, what lust is. It made me consider hurt, had me thinking of my experiences in life. And like most of Eric's books made me want to visit a different country and experience different cultures.

[Treenell Walker · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn't believe how pathetic this book was. Had to stop reading it and move on. This book was useless and had no true plot. Boring. The main character was a lame slut playing around with twins. This book also kept over describing unimportant surroundings, and put too much detail on unnecessary things. It sucks that this was my first book to read from this author because it makes me not want to read another. It will take a lot for me to read another one of his books.

[Tiffany · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have always been a Dickey fan. But sad to say I did not enjoy this one. I finished it which is saying something, but I didn't like it. His recent efforts have not been his best, including his Sleeping with Stangers series.

There was no depth to this book to me. Most of his books have a point, a message. In this one I found none.

[Morgan ***Books and Bougie*** · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boy oh boy.

Two stars for creativity in the adult scenes. But his writing style is synonymous with a high-schooler. I found myself grimacing at the grammar. If you want a book you can thumb through just for the "good" parts, this is it. Even the twist wasn't exciting.

[Jenifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

HOT!!!!!

[Angel Eyez]

I recently just finshied this book and it was hot! All about pleasure and some pain, but it was good. I loved it and I know anyone who loves pleasure will love it to! :)

[Metris · Rating 5 out of 5]

1 word "FIYAH"

[Tuere Robinson · Rating 2 out of 5]

i'm glad nia got her rocks off but i hate infidelity in any way and that's my only complaint!

[Lauren Ashley · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this book for a book club and the warning “it’s a dirty book” was not warning enough. I am not one to turn my nose up to spice, but this was just straight pornography that would cause most readers to turn away due to the graphic content. If you know that going into it, you will be better off. It is surprising just how much detail is given if you’re not prepared for it. The book begins with a very intense sex scene early on that is well written and interesting, but the next few chapters are spent reliving this scene over and over to the point of redundancy. Each sexual encounter is relived in more detail in memories and flash backs. There is very little plot other than sex until probably chapter 36. Then there is a bit of a twist and for a few chapters, it is very interesting. Sex is still wound throughout those chapters though. I would say that the initial sex scene at the W Hotel would have been enough for the entire book to focus on freeing the author to discuss the outside plot line and flashbacks and it still would have passed as an erotic novel. It really gets to the point that it’s no longer exciting or erotic and just repetitive and mundane. I found myself flipping through the pages looking for the end of the scene more than once. The author is a very skilled writer so maybe this just isn’t my genre. I will also say that many words and phrases were repeated over and over and over so many times that I can’t look at this cover without hearing just those phrases. “Sing-song moans”, “Bajan cherry”, and “Kiki Sunshine” to name a few.

[Teaguem2005 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not even going to front; this was absolutely sexiest novel I've read. Ever. Whew. Fire!! I've even added to my vocabulary by reading this book (cause I had to look up at least 6 words). Nia was exploring her sexuality when she and the twins happened upon one another while on a run. Their chemistry was electric from the jump. The detailed imagery of this novel cannot be denied. I actually had to read it in doses because of that imagery. Fifty shades of who? Puhlease. One half star was omitted for the length of the novel; I mean, I appreciate a wordsmith but certain scenes were entirely too long and I chose to speed read right on through them. The other half star lost was due to the annoyance I had to suffer with the word pleasure in the book; throughout the entire edition it is broken down as plea sure; yeah somebody needs to fix that.