Carter Diamond, Part One: Before the Cartel He Stood Alone

Carter Diamond Series #1

by Ashley Antoinette, JaQuavis Coleman, Cary Hite (Narrator)

A prequel to Ashley and JaQuavis' New York Times bestselling Cartel series, this story follows the rise of notorious gangster Carter Diamond, taking listeners through his days on the mean streets of Michigan to him becoming the biggest drug lord Miami has ever seen. Before the cartel was ever created, he stood alone.

Genres: Urban, Crime, Audiobook, Fiction, Drugs, African American

3 pages, Audio CD

First published September 2, 2012

About the author

ASHLEY ANTOINETTE COLEMAN is one of the most successful female writers of her time. The feminine half of the popular married duo, Ashley and JaQuavis, she has co-written over 40 novels, including the bestselling Cartel series. Several of her titles have hit The New York Times bestsellers list, but she is most widely regarded for her continuing racy saga, The Prada Plan. Born in Flint, MI, she was bred with an innate street sense that she uses as motivation in her crime filled writings.

Picking up a deal with publishing powerhouse St. Martin's Press while simultaneously inking deals at Warner Brothers Studios and NBC/Universal, Ashley shows no signs of slowing down. She is currently hard at work on a new book series and two television pilots.

To keep up with everything Ashley Antoinette follow her...
twitter @novelista
Instagram @ashleyantoinette

Reviews

[♥Milica♥]

CARTER DIAMOND THE MAN THAT YOU ARE!!! I love Carter, he's amazing and he sticks to his principles. The audiobook was fun, the narrator brought everything to life, and it didn't feel like a novella at all. Can't wait to get to part 2.

[Tonikia]

Love this book!! The only reason why I gave it 4*s was because of some typo errors, but other than that the book was AWESOME! I love a book that will take you back in time!!!!

[Me'Tova Hollingsworth - Bethley]

Most would have probably complained that the story was too short and too pricey for its length, but if you are a true Ashley Antoinette fan, then you will read any of her work at any cost. Like most, I had the pleasure of reading The Cartel series before Carter Diamond, so I pretty much knew the story. BUT if you want to read some more indept details of how it all began, then Carter Diamond is for you. Ashley paints a very vivid picture of how some of the major players from The Cartel series got their start (i.e. Polo, Estes, Tryan & etc). You actually get to meet Carter Jones' and Tryan's mothers, and you get to experience first hand what type of people they are; whereas in The Cartel, you only read stories or they were just briefly mentioned. The only major complaint that I have is that there were way to many grammatical errors for a senior writer with such a superior penmanship. With that being said, I rated this book 4.5 stars. I will be moving on to the sequel, so that I can see how well Carter Diamond stood alone and held his on before there was a Cartel.

[♤Tonya Johnson♡]

I love these authors, alone or together. The stories are always great!!

[Tonikia Bailey]

Very good read!!!

[Samantha Tyler]

I loved this book.

[Diane Rembert]

This prequel to The Cartel series takes you back to how Big Carter got his start. It confused me for a minute, but once I continued to read, all of the pieces started to come together. The page count may be few, but the information is powerful.

Unfortunately, I had to give it 💎💎💎💎, because of some errors found throughout the book. Please do not let that discourage you from purchasing this short story from the minds of @ashleyantoinette and @realjaquavis.

[Kat]

GOOD BOOK

[Amanda]

This was a very short, quick read. It does share some insight into the humble beginnings of Carter Diamond. Since I listened to the audio version, I avoided the typos and grammatical errors that many other reviewers have mentioned, thank goodness!

[Trina]

Good book...quick read

I enjoyed the book. Kept me reading and I finished it quickly. Must read Carter Diamond 2 to see what happens next.

[Buck]

I love the fact that Ashley & Jaquavis takes us back to where it all started...I was into the book from start to finish lovin every bit of it understanding more of how things happen the way they did in the beginning...Yes it was a short story, it tells u on the cover an yes it may have a few editing errors but if your a true reader u would get past that..anyway I caught myself all in it when Carter did what he had to do no doubt..and I know that f*ckin loso had something to do with it...Great Job ur still my #1 Authors...

[ChloeShondra Robertson]

I read the Cartel first before reading the short ebook series. I love how it explain how Carter became who he became in the streets. I really hate how Carter did Tonya cause she stood by his side when he didn't have nothing. Also he was too young to be fooling around with Taryn,but I guess age doesn't matter. I was pissed at Tonya for not saying anything about her pregnancy and stealing that man money. Great story...

[Aisha]

Good book it was to short and it leaves you hanging that's why I gave it 4 stars.

[Shà]

Interesting

[☠︎︎༒︎✞︎ ѕℓιм ☠︎︎༒︎✞︎]

Carter diamond

I enjoyed this book. :D even though it was short. I like myself some Carter Diamond lol! I never thought his story would be interesting but it is (:

[Nene]

Great Read

[Denise Gilliam]

This was a good read short but good. I can see how Carter got his start in the game. I'm really hyped to see what happens in part 2.

[Keona Pitt-Scott]

I love all of The Cartel books, and to read how it all started for Carter!!

[Deenyk]

Carter Diamond is already starting to be someone I love 😩 The story is flowing so smooth already, and I feel Ashely pulling at my heart strings 🥹
4⭐️

[Eriel Lawson (YT: ErielBrea)]

I started Cartel a while ago , this didn’t really answer any questions about Carters life prior too so I think you can get through the series without reading this one.

[Dia]

I'm looking forward to part 2 of this series

[Claire Blind Reader]

I mean, probably one of the dumbest books I've read. It's a (thankfully) very short glorification of gang culture with 1 dimensional characters and zero subtlety. Which becomes even funnier because the authors simply *had* to describe every interaction and how people felt even if it was obvious. The writing is lazy and uncreative. There's some gross implications around the 16 year old women in this book with some tactfully unanswered questions about how old the men were who were calling these *children* "Jailbait".
Carter, the main character, is not likeable. He flips like a dime as soon as he loses his job and goes into the drug trade, leaving his girlfriend behind and flirting with another woman because "he might as well see what else was out there". Gross man. Boo this man.

It's dumb. I'm not spending more time on it. Waste of time. Go read a better book.

For future me, this book was about Carter Diamond (lol) Gives up on being a good person after a slight inconvenience, goes to Miami to join the drug trade and boink the kingpins daughter, his friend gets shot in a drug deal (shocker isn't it?) and he gets looped into the family business while making eyes at the daughter. That's the whole plot.


Thoughts as I read:

-Lol this is so clumsily written
-Man these gangsters are so cool and smart!
-"The old saying goes, 'make money, take money'" Mhm, truly up there with Aristotle and Plato
-I'm having the same problem with this as I do with media about Mafia gangsters and that is, these guys are scumbags pretending to be cool. So when they make them out as rich, powerful, and influential, I just can't feel it. And these guys aren't even classy like the Mafioso pretended to be.
-"his integrity wouldn't let Him snitch" and easy to manipulate. Is honesty part of ur integrity? Tell Hector what happened!
-hm. Well, I have this one kid whos been with me for years, works hard, and never caused me issues. And now I got a new kid who only brings up how powerful his dad is and doesn't want to do anything. I wonder who stole a bunch of money!
-it took zero pressure for Carter to become a drug dealer.
-the whirling pov is so confusing and unnecessary. We're not getting any insight we couldnt assume by switching perspectives
-"Taryn hadn't been groomed for survival" weird thing to say about your daughter
-"Estes gave them a once over with his eyes" as opposed to using some other part of his anatomy?
-"they were young and moldable" yikes
-wow Carter, I thought you loved your girlfriend in Flint more than anyone else in the world? But I guess Florida is a different universe.
-"he liked that she didnt touch the car door. She just waited for him. She was groomed well." Ewwwwww
-lol the clip of his gun
-"a begging man was a dying man" what?
-yeah seems like carter's just making up reasons to keep the money

[S. Reid]

After discovering this & its sequel available on audiobooks I was looking forward to learning more about the man who'd gotten one to the forehead in the beginning of the book THE CARTEL: CARTER DIAMOND.
Then, after listening to CARY HITE Narrating how CARTER LEFT HIS KNOCKED UP GIRLFRIEND TANYA/TONYA(MOTHER OF HIS FIRSTBORN CARTER JONES)BEHIND IN FLINT MICHIGAN, WHILE HE STARTED A LIFE IN MIAMI FLORIDA WITH A YOUNGER, MULTIETHNIC GIRL IN TARYN, I WAS DONE WITH CARTER DIAMOND!
I ROOTED FOR TONYA/TANYA TO TAKE THAT DOUGH & START LIFE ANEW. HE TREATED TONYA/TANYA (I LISTENED TO THE AUDIOBOOK I DIDN'T READ THE BOOK. SO THE SPELLING TO ME IS UNKNOWN) LIKE SHE WAS A GNAT ON HIS NUTS, DESPITE HER BEING DOWN FOR HIM BEFORE HE'D GOTTEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO GET ON DOWN BOTTOM, WHICH MADE ME NOT LIKE CARTER DIAMOND ALTOGETHER AFTER THAT INCIDENT!
Oh Yeah, CARTER DID NOT GO TO FLORIDA TO ATTEND COLLEGE, AS UNCLE POLO HAD TOLD CARTER JONES; CARTER DIAMOND FOLLOWED HIS FRIEND DOWN SOUTH TO GET IN THE DRUG GAME!

[Robyn Bush]

Name confusion

I enjoyed the plot of the story, but it was confusing to the reader if you weren't paying attention. You were reading about a conversation in one part of the book, then a couple of lines down it was introducing a different person. For instance, Taryn went for popcorn but it the conversation of Breeze and Carter. I gave it a 3 because of the inconsistency from the Cartel book. It stated her brother died when she was 10. Luckily I like the series so I hop book 2 and 3 of the eBook is better.

[Andrial Durant]

I enjoyed the audiobook by Cari Hite. I always wanted more information about the infamous Carter Diamond, father of Carter Jones. Good read and gave me a better understanding of The Cartel Series, wish I had read this book first before the cartel series but even after reading it last...it’s still answered a few lingering questions about the rise and fall of the Diamond-Jones clan.

[Stephanie]

I'm thinking maybe my likes in books are just changing.
This book was OK to me. I know it's just me because I've read other books by Ashley & JuQuavis and I was in love.
I'm going to complete the series-because you don't start something and not follow through.
I will say it was a quick read and that was nice

[Rhonda]

Good short story

It was a good short story. Just too many errors for the number of pages. The wrong name was used too many times which is confusing. But Carter Diamond is interesting.

[Trish Cephus]

Ex,ce!lent!! I want every book by this author. I have read a number of the Cartel books and loved all of them

Great start to this one and I can't wait to read 2 and 3! I want to keep reading another put it down!

[Tyra Racquel]

Carter Diamond

The reason why I’m giving this 4 stars is because it needs to be edited. The confusion between Tay & Breeze was difficult because their name was in places the others should’ve been. I love that this is giving insight of how The Cartel started though.

[Carla]

I Love this whole story. I just wish i would have read this series first b4 the Cartel

This is one of the best books ever. I would recommend this to every one of readying age. I love the detail.