London Reign

by A.C. Britt

LONDON REIGN IS ABOUT AN ANDROGYNOUS TEEN WITH A SECRET, BATTLING TURMOIL OF THE INNER STREETS, PHYSICAL ABUSE FROM FAMILY, WHILE BEING IN A STEAMY LOVE TRIANGLE. LONDON REIGN DEALS WITH SEXUALITY, RELATIONSHIPS, MONOGAMY, GENDER ROLES, LOVE, LUST AND BETRAYAL.

Genres: Queer, Young Adult, Transgender

224 pages, Paperback

First published September 11, 2007

About the author

A. C. BRITT was born in Boston where she currently lives. She began dabbling in writing poetry and short stories at a young age, using the art form as an outlet to express her emotions. While attending Columbia College in South Carolina, where A. C. BRITT obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Work in December 2001, she’d penned her novel, LONDON REIGN; immediately deciding to nurture and cultivate her talent.

While working full-time as a direct care worker for troubled youth, in addition to finding permanent housing for the homeless, A. C. BRITT was signed to GHETTOHEAT® in 2007, representing proudly for the gay and lesbian community; while composing great works to the world at large. A. C. BRITT has penned PARIS SKY, and recently completed the sequel to LONDON REIGN.

Reviews

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel called London Reign by A.C Britt is a crazy, intense ,sexy adventure. This book is about a gay sixteen year old female named London that has a secret that gets revealed in the wrong place at wrong the time.
London lives with her parents in Boston and has to deal with not only emotional but physical abuse everyday of her life from her alcoholic father. London starts falling for a girl name Lexi. Lexi was more like a hit and run type of thing for London, she never wanted to settle down and didn't even think about it. As she said in this quote, "But the idea of me loving someone,scares me." This quote makes me wonder why she doesn't want to fall in love, probably because she hasn't been in love before. But soon that all changed when Lexi told her how she felt for London. So London decided to give her a chance.
Soon after that London got kicked out of her house and had no choice but to move to Detroit. That's when she meet a girl name Mercedes and they ended up having a relationship. But that went down hill when the secret that London didn't want to reveal got told. Mercedes and London broke up and got back together. Although Mercedes and London are together, Mercedes wants to seek revenge on London. So she does everything in her power to.
What caught my attention and connected to the most was when London's mom kicked her out of the house. The only reason why she got kicked out was because her father wanted her out. I connected to that because I seen that happen to someone close to me.
This book for me I would say would be the most realest book I have ever read. This book had my eyes and fingers glued to the pages. I didn't want the book to end. The fact that there's a lot of secrets being revealed and fights mixed with revenge, all the drama is just good.
I would recommend this book to mature teenagers that are interested in reading about sex , lies , secrets , falling in love and revenge. This book I would say is similar The Coldest Winter Ever and Confessions Of A Video Vixen. If you loved those books and wanted more, than you can expect that from this book. I guarantee that this book will have the young mature teens non-stop wanting more.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'd been wanting to read this for a long time, and was disappointed not to like it better. London is definitely an engaging character, and the situations in which she found herself were all too real. But the sloppiness of the writing and editing really got in the way of the story for me. For example, the tenses often jumped around inexplicably. And the shift from 3rd-person narrator to any of the various 1st-person perspectives seemed at best unnecessary. The book deals with several serious issues faced by teens, and it may speak to some who don't often see themselves in fiction. That's all the more reason I wish it had been done better.

[Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book overall. I've been really interested in trying to track down and read books for/about teens who are transgender or gender variant and this was one of the books I came across. The story starts following the main character, London, an AG (aggressive, a term for a lesbian/dyke--generally in more urban communities--with a very masculine gender presentation) when she's 16, but follows her for several years, so she is more of a young adult than a teen by the end of the book, so I wasn't quite sure initially whether to catagorize this book as "teen" because it kind of walks the line.

I like the story though and the way it explores some themes such as misogyny/feminism, gender, relationships, alcoholism and surviving violence.

I haven't read a ton of Urban Fiction, but I understand that sexual, domestic & street violence are pretty prevellent in this genre. This was definitely the case with London Reign. Worth mentioning, though, because there are a few scenes that could be triggering to someone who has experienced these types of violence.

I think it could have benefited from a bit of copyediting and stronger editing hand because it was a little rough around the edges, but it's put out by a fairly small independent press called Ghettoheat that seems to be run by a pretty smart, tallented, rad group of people and I'm excited to read more of their stuff.

[Renee Cronin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I couldn't put this book down the moment I started reading it. I appreciated that this book wasn't just about a lesbian and took us into a world dealing with gender and roles. I loved this book and was not disappointed at the end.
I look forward to reading more books by this author and maybe even a sequel to this one! Good read!

[Takisha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good Book, did not like how it ended!