Chasing Destiny

This novel was a nice departure from his previous novel "Genevieve," that I didn't favor. The overall plot of the book held my attention from the beginning to the end. However it had certain parts in it were the dialogue dragged on and it could have been edited and gotten more to the point. EJD does not soothe the writer and give them what they want, but instead, cleverly twists away from the norm creating a controversial tale. This book is similar to the movie "Crash", the movie that showed how several different lives crashed into one another over a day or two in Los Angeles by just a few degrees of separation! The creativity was in how he managed to link all of these people together.

I love the way he incorporates current events like show more Hurricane Katrina and characters from previous books into his current works of fiction. The main character reads the billboard that's asking for information on the murderer of Lisa Wolf you instantly get a flashback to his novel "Drive me Crazy".

The ending was a bit abrupt, but tied up nicely. This is certainly Dickey's redemption... he came back strong with "Chasing Destiny" and as always I look forward to more by him. show less

As always, EJD has provided an engaging and well-written story. This book was, plain and simple, fun to read. It's a very interesting story, but the way in which he weaves the various (peripheral) characters into a single plot is well-done. While he juggles a lot of characters, he gives them sufficient background for you to understand them and their motivations.

This is definitely worth your read.

I have a lot to say about this book that I'm not going to finish. In no particular order:

1. I thought about creating an "urban" tag for this book because that's what these kinds of books get called, but I decided against it because I don't like "urban" as a euphemism for "black". I may create an "african-american" tag.

2. I wanted to read something by EJD because he's so popular.

3. I picked Chasing Destiny because MY name is Destinee.

4. I did not enjoy reading this book. The sex scenes were pretty good, but they didn't make up for everything else.

5. Why didn't I like this book? There are a few reasons. As a nerdy white person from Seattle I had trouble hearing the voices of the characters in my head. Also, it felt like EJD didn't edit show more anything from real life. It's a novel! Skip the boring parts of conversations!

6. I may give another EJD book a try. Any recommendations? show less

Could not find anything to read so picked this up. I enjoyed his writing and the story was excellent. A bit graphic and an unfamiliar side of LA. Not sure if all the stuff could have happened in just 2 days.

This was a good book. However, EJd has diverged from his original witty romance novel tone. This book was a cross between a terry woods novel and a Zane novel. The sensulality in his books has definitely progressed to almost erotica. Still love him though.

Was a fun light read, I finished it in one day. A little convoluted, the drama was a bit much. I kept thinking maybe he watches too many soap operas.

However his sex scenes are hot! Which is always a great addition to the crappiest of books.

Really good book. Once I started it, I couldn't put it down. I always had to know what was going to happen next. The ending was not what I had in mind, but it was nonetheless a really good book. The best that I have read in a really long time.