Way Too Much Drama

Keysha & Friends Novel #3

by Earl Sewell

The toughest lessons aren’t always taught in the classroom… Maya is ready to put the fabulous back into her life—and that means getting her manipulative cousin, Viviana, out of it. Bad enough that Viviana is living under the same roof and tried to claim Maya’s boyfriend Misalo for herself. Now she’s going to Maya’s high school and she’s part of the quiz team competing on a TV show…alongside Maya, Keysha, and Misalo. Maya’s got no sympathy when Viviana finally starts to feel the pressure of fitting into her new world. That’s until her cousin does something drastic…and dangerous. Maybe Viviana isn’t as tough as everyone thought. Maya could be the only person who can help bring her back safely. Question is…does she want to?

Genres: Contemporary

219 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 1, 2013

Reviews

[Tia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a quick fun read that had very good life lessons. Realizing that I've read book three, I will have to get my hands on one and two. Maya and her cousin Viviana were at odds with one another for a couple of reasons and both decided to try to ruin each others lives. They were also fighting and competing over a boy, which is always a bad idea. Viviana had thought she'd found a friend that she could relate to, but soon found out she knew nothing about her at all. She was also hiding a gift she shared with her Dad that made her uncomfortable sharing with her peers. 'Way Too Much Drama' is a fun quick read that will have you laughing out loud. I do recommend to teens and adults.

[Tiffany Spencer]

Way Too Much Drama
Maya tells Keyshia she’s not interested in going to help Viviana. Keyshia tells her she has to forgive (just like he had to forgive Priscilla). So they leave to go to the park behind Maya’s house. Luckily, Wesley’s just pulled up in his dad’s car. He just got his license. When they get there, the park is empty. When they finally find Vivianna, she looks a hot mess and she brushes off Keyshia’s attempts to be nice to her. She walks back to Maya’s. Wesley says he’s never again coming to the rescue of another girl after Keysha snaps at him for saying Vivianna is just as crazy as he ex (Lori). Maya tells Keysha now she sees why she didn’t want to get in the middle of Vivianna’s ish. Keyshia asks her if she’s going to confront her about Misalo and she says yes in her own way.

Vivianna gets home and thinks about the four girls that jumped her. She’s convinced she got set up by Maya. When she sees Maya it turns into a fight. Maya tells Viviana she’ll never forgive her for ruining her relationship. Vivianna tells her it was never that strong to begin with and he was going to break up with her anyway. Maya warns her to stay away from him. Viviana accuses Maya of having her set up. Maya says it wasn’t her but maybe it was someone that can’t stand her just as much (because she has a bad rep). And Viviana tells her *she* has a rep for being a snitch. Which brings things back her telling on her father. Only Viviana doesn’t want to believe her father murdered someone. Again, Maya warns her to stay away from Misalo but as she leaves Viviana thinks about what she has to do to get him back.

Keysha calls the next morning, and Maya agrees to meet up with her at the pool later. Keyshia tells her she saw Carlo but as far as Maya’s concerned it’s over. She and Misalo get into an argument (at the pool) because Misalo doesn’t believe she snuck out. He thinks Carlo took her and Vivianna to the party. He gives her some half-ass apologies for not hearing her out and not deleting the photos immediately. He tries to also say dating Vivianna was “by accident” but Maya isn’t trying to hear that. Instead, he tries to turn it around and accuses Maya of having sex with Carlo. He storms off when Maya points out it shouldn’t even matter to him because he was so busy up Vivianna’s behind and ask how it felt when he found out he got played.

Maya wants what they had back but doesn’t know how they’ll ever forgive each other. Viviana also sees Misalo -at the pool- and makes him listen to her by refusing to get out of his car. She says the truth of it is she does hate Maya and wanted to get back at her for something she did to her father but she actually did fall in love with him. If he gives her a second chance she’ll give it up to him to show him how much she loves him. Keysha finds out that Jerry’s having an end of the year party. She doesn’t want to go but let’s Maya convince her (after seeing a dumb post on FB from Vivianna *ill be there too baby* and wanting to confront Misalo). Only when they get their Jerry acts like a petty lil b because Keyshia isn’t feeling him anymore and kicks her out.

He takes her up on it and takes her to an abandoned house. Neither of them has done it before and he’s rough with the kissing. Viviana asks does he love her and he answers yes Maya. She walks out on him. When he catches up to her she looks at pathetic he looks and tells him to take her home. Maya and Keyshia both have appointments at the shop before school starts. Maya tells Keyshia she heard Viviana tell Ana that she and Misalo went all the way. Still, she doesn’t know what she’s going to do about him.

Maya straight up tells Viviana she doesn’t like her and doesn’t want her there. She says she’s going to do everything in her power to get her kicked up. Viviana asks if she hates her and Maya with no hesitation says yes. Vivianna says good. Now she know how she feels. Vivian’s aunt Raven tells her the next morning she’ll have to take a placement exam at her old school Thornton and also a health exam. Before taking the exam, Viviana meets a girl named LaShounda-a thick, hood rat chick- that she has something in common with. She’s also taking the placement test. She’s from Milwaukie and got sent there for some bull. They decide after the test to go the Lollapalooza music festival after they make a stop by Viviana’s.

Keysha decides to date Wesley again and their going to Lollapalooza. She invites Maya but she turns her down. She’d rather stay at home. She sees Misalo’s picture as her background picture on one of her pages and she starts to cry. Unfortunately, Vivianna and LaShounda walk in. Immediately, LaShounda rubs Maya the wrong way. She calls Maya “Paris Hilton”. LaShounda is a little *too* into kissing Viviana’s butt. Maya gets an idea how to get even with Vivianna. LaShounda is making herself at home in Maya’s refrigerator. She goes even further and spills her drink on the floor. Viviana tells her it’s not a big deal. Just clean it up. Maya sees Viviana and LaShounda going out with the backpacks. She asks what their doing but it just ends up turning into back and forth between her and LaShounda. Then she and Viviana leave.

Maya goes into Paul’s room, gets his itching powder, and sprinkles it in Viviana’s underwear. On the way to the festival, Viviana and LaShounda talk about their backgrounds. Viviana finds herself opening up to LaShounda about her mother and father. We find out that LaShounda got kicked out when she was 15 and has been moving around ever since (on the streets). She once stayed with her grandmother (Ola) but she passed away. She’s now in foster care (which she hates). Grandma Esmeralda wakes Maya up from a nap concerned that she can’t find Vivianna. Then Keysha calls and tells her she’s at the hospital. Her date didn’t go well. At first, she saw her and video-taped her doing something that we don’t get to find out cause Maya says she’s not interested. Then she says she ran into Toya Taylor who pushed her. She’d been holding a grudge and wanted to fight. So, they did.

Two of her friends hold her down while she’s jumped. No one helped. There were no police in sight. Wesley does try to fight but the guy knocks him against the concrete and he goes unconscious. Keyshia screams for help and the paramedics come. By the time police come, Toya and her friends are long gone. She says Wesley’s dad is coming for them -after getting emotional that he came to her rescue- and she’ll call back when she gets home.

Vivianna tells LaShounda her plan. She lets her carry her stun gun. She’s going to make the rounds pick-pocketing and give the goods to LaShounda to hold. If anyone comes after her zap them with the gun and run like hell. Then they’ll take it all to a pawn shop. Viviana is able to get 100 in cash, some jewelry, and some credit cards and some other electronic devices. They get Subway and catch a train. On the train, Vivianna sees ... Toya. (She now has keloids down to her shoulders). She hasn’t forgotten when Viviana had her sprayed. Then she jumps her. Viviana is able to get the upper hand for a moment, but her goons start to give her a beat down again. LaShounda comes to the rescue with the stun gun and they get out of there.

(Why does it repeat Keyshia telling Maya what happened). Wesley is kept over night for observation. Viviana is grounded. Then at breakfast (after this) the itching powder kicks in and she starts to scratch her boobs. She then gets out of there and heads to school. The scratching continues through out the day. She meets up with LaShounda who blows smoke up her *** over the fight and says she’ll have to teach her how to fight. It gets so bad now she has welts. Lashonda’s foster dad accuses her of being on drugs and she almost gets into it with him. Vivianna tells her what happened when she got home. She tried to sneak in through the back and her uncle pointed a gun at her. Her grandmother accused her of having sex. Her aunt said she was trying to destroy her family.

Vivian’s scratching gets so bad at school, her skin turns red. The teacher asks would she like to go to the nuse. She says yes, but instead she goes home. She discovers the itching powder in Maya’s room and pours it all over her pillows and bed. Then she puts it in her lotion bottles, shampoo, and perfume. Maya realizes why Viviana wasn’t in some of her classes and finds the powder’s been out and sees it in her bed. But she doesn’t realize it’s in her shampoo and lotion. In history class, Viviana shows how smart she is when teamed up against Misalo in a game of Jeopardy. Misalo tries to talk to Maya after class and invite her out but she’s not gonna make it easy for him to get back with her.

After school on the way home, LaShunda asks Viviana when they’ll pawn the stolen stuff. She needs the money. Viviana tells her she’s still on lockdown but gives her 20.00. (LaShunda so far seems to be like a user. She’s always expecting Viviana to pay). She thanks her and her if there was a way that she could live a free life style would she, Viviana says hell yeah but LaShunda says she’s still working out the details of her plan. There’s a contest announced in history. You can win scholarships and ten-thousand dollars. The contest is for a high school quiz show. Four students will have a chance to represent Thornwood High School in the district competition.

If our team wins the district competition, each student will receive twenty-five hundred dollars in scholarship money and advance to the regional competition. If we win the regionals, then each student will receive five thousand dollars in scholarship money and a new laptop computer, and then we advance to the national competition. The final show will be hosted by a Hollywood celebrity.” After the tryouts, Misalo asks Maya to hang out but she turns him down. So, Wesley goes with him to get pizza. After school, Viviana hangs out with LaShonda but down plays how smart she is when LaShounda tells her something doesn’t fit and asks is she a nerd. LaShunda takes Viviana to her house and she’s introduced to her creepy foster dad. She shows her pictures of her girl Bebe and her boo TJ and where they leave. She says it’s her plan to go live with them and she wants to take Viviana too. Viviana promises she’ll go the shady pawn shop owner, and they can take the stuff over there and get the money today.

Keyshia, Maya, Misalo, and Viviana make the team. Maya is amazed that Viviana made the team since she lost a year of high school. At the homecoming dance, Misalo comes over to Maya and compliments her. He tells her he was an ass and he’s still kicking himself for believing Viviana and losing the most precious thing in his life. Maya says he should ask her to dance and they do. Viviana sees this and is upset, but is distracted by LaShounda and a boy named Red (that’s shown interest in her but she told him she wasn’t interested in him) who cheer her up by dancing all night.

On the bus, Keshia notices Viviana looks upset but is distracted by something on her phone. She shows Maya a clip of Viviana at the festival pick pocketing. Maya tells her to email it to her. It might come in handy. Thorton High wins the first competition. Viviana answers 10 questions correctly in a row. Afterwards, Misalo congratulates Viviana with a handshake. She instead hugs him, smacks his butt, and whispers call me and kisses his earlobe. We find out that LaShounda is mad at her because she went to the competition instead of with her to pawn the merchandise they stole. Mr. Morris tells Viviana she should be the leader of the team. He also tells her he thinks she’s a genius, but she needs to step up. Ana sends her a text that says her parents found a backpack with electronics and jewelry and she should be ready to be grilled.

She tells her aunt and uncle the bag belongs to LaShounda a girl that asked her to hold the bag for her, but she didn’t know what was in the bag. But then Maya shows her parents the video clip. The owner has turned on the locator and says I’m going to find you and he’s going to get the police. They’ve talked him out of getting the police involved. They ask her why she did it but she has no answer. Her aunt tells her she’s turning out to be a waste like her father and sends her to her room. LaShonda calls and tells Viviana she stabbed her foster father because he tried to rape her. Then she ran. She’s going back to Milwalki. She invites Viviana to come. She tells her what happened with her aunt and uncle. Then she makes her decision. They make plans to meet at the bus station.

Viviana is missing from the next practice. Red is put in her place. When Maya gets home, Viviana is gone. LaShunda takes Viviana to a crappy little place and her friends look strung out on drugs (one guy have a needle sticking out of his arm and it’s not for insulin). Then she hears gunshots. Viviana decides this ain’t gone get it. She’d rather go back to the bus stop. She goes to tell LaShounda but she’s incoherent and has a needle in her arm. Next morning, LaShounda tells her she needs to try heoroin. Viviana realizes this isn’t her friend and she tries to get out of there but LaShounda tells her she’s coming with her so they can get food. TJ and Bebe grab her. TJ says if she tries anything he’ll shoot her. They’ll go to Family Dollar, get something to eat, then they’ll take her to a place Viviana can rob.

TJ and Bebe don’t see the police, run out of the store, and are caught and tackled. (Along with LaShunda). Viviana kind of wanders through the streets this day and eventually the next morning runs into a police officer that reminds her of her grandfather that leads her to the station where it’s warm. Maya then gets a call from Officer Fernando that they have someone there who gave him her number. Grandmother Esmeralda later has a talk with everyone and tells that that their grandfather had a curse on him every since he came back from the Vietnam War. It was a demon and unless they deal with their issues it will continue to tear them apart. She tells Viviana her father was a bad man and he took a life she has to face that. She tells Maya to stop making Viviana feel beneath her. She’s strong and she’s smart and she could learn something from her.

Maya asks why she called her number instead of the house number. Viviana tells her something inside told her to. Grandmother says it was there Grandfather. He was with Viviana and guided her to safety and he wanted the girls to make up. Maya gets emotional and hugs Viviana and Viviana hugs her and they cry. Viviana is let back on the team. LaShounda has a trial coming up and can’t wait to get out so she and TJ can have some fun and look for another place. Viviana realizes LaShunda isn’t the kind of friend she wants.

My Thoughts:
They definitely could have left off the part about all the drama happening because of a “demon”. That was sooo out of left field! Sometimes sisters (or family) just don’t care for each other. There’s always a reason. Usually, a logical one. Sometimes not so much but it doesn’t have anything to do with a curse or “a demon”. That’s just how it is. There’s always gonna be that one person in your family that you can either take or LEAVE.

Rating: 5

[Harlequin Books]

Miniseries: A Keysha and Friends Novel

[Nahomi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was very intense. I loved how it ended having a really valuable lesson, that a lot of us have to learn. I really liked how Viviana ended realizing who her fake friends were, and who her true friends were. She put everything a side because deep down she knew what was right. Maya was filled with great moments, which almost all involved Viviana, Misalo, and Keysha, and her family. Every memory they all had was either sad, or was a special reason why it was happening. Life has ups and downs but it all has a meaning to it. But it all was great about this book, it was a great book, with a great meaning. :))) And it had a lot of times that they had you having that feeling that you wanted to just keep reading without stopping. But what I didn't like was how it all ended with LaShaunda because it was just so quick, but overall it was a really good book.

[Hsiau Wei · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book tell the story of Maya and Viviana, two cousins who is fighting for Misalo. Misalo is Maya’s boyfriend but due to conflicts, they have been drifted apart. Viviana is attracted to Misalo and with Maya’s conflict with him, she saw it as her opportunity to get closer to him and trying hard to get his attention. Viviana have always blamed Maya for the death of her beloved father. She feels that Maya have taken away her happiness and now it is her turn to do the same to her. Viviana is a rebellious girl. She have mastered the skill as a pick pocket and befriended someone from the wrong side. She doesnt realised just how bad it is until she leave the house and follow her friend to a place that she called home. It was then, she realised just how bad her decision was and make her count her lucky star on things that she have before.

This book is leaning towards the young adult genre with teenager’s crush as the main conflict of the story. Though it is not what I usually read, I was rather attracted to the story plot and doesnt mind continue with the reading till the ending of the book. What I find it interesting to read was that the author have written a good piece of story that carries a good message for the younger generation; blood is thicker than water. No matter what it is the misunderstanding or argument about or how big a mistake one have make; family are the most important thing and the most forgiving as what happened to Maya and Viviana. Despite all the nasty thoughts and action that Maya and Viviana have done to each other, they seems to be on the lookout for each other.

[Dakota ★ · Rating 5 out of 5]

*POTENTIAL SPOILERS. DON'T READ IF YOU DON'T LIKE SPOILERS.*
This book was really good and I don't have anything bad to say about it except for the fact that the ending was kinda weird. The summary on the back of the book states that Vivian gets herself in a drastic and dangerous situation and Maya is the only person that could help her, but when you get to that part in the book, nothing happened that indicated that Maya was helping her cousin. One would assume that Maya ends up going out into the night, looking for her cousin and bring her back home, but that didn't happen. Instead, Vivian called home. Yes, she called Maya, but it wasn't like Maya went out and got her instead. Second, the whole thing with their grandma sitting the two girls down and telling them about the demon that cursed their family was kinda random and felt thrown at the end of the story. Third, I'm glad that Maya and Vivian were able to work out their differences and start acting like a real family, but once again, that felt thrown in there too because of how quick Vivian forgave Maya. Fourth, the whole thing with Maya and Misalo was pretty quick too. They went from just being sorta friends and on rocky terms to Misalo dropping her off home and them kissing and hugging each other. Other than all of the things that I've mentioned, this 3rd book was really good and I enjoyed AND recommend people to read this series.


P.S. These are just my personal thoughts and opinions on the book so everybody, don't try to take it to the heart.

[Asia · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was an ok book but there's no real reason for them to keep arguing and at the end the whole bad demon thing didn't really need to be there

[Faousiyat · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just want to try this book because I have hear a lot about it

[BookQUEEN · Rating 5 out of 5]

lol started the books backwards

[Izzy · Rating 4 out of 5]

i think it is a great book