Three Sides to Every Story
A Novel
Crown · Print & ebook · October 3, 2006
Growing up in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans, Johnny and Tonya meet in high school and fall for each other.
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- Who it’s for
- For readers interested in romances shaped by incarceration and separation.
- Themes
- Incarceration and freedom, Queer love, Black social and sexual challenges
- Pacing
- Mixed
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Start with this bookAbout this book
Growing up in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans, Johnny and Tonya meet in high school and fall for each other. Yet their romance falls apart when Johnny seriously injures Tonya’s ex-boyfriend in an altercation. Johnny is imprisoned, and Tonya starts dating a rapper who fulfills her dreams of dancing in videos. Depressed and deflated in jail, Johnny comes back to life thanks to the help of Pandora, the prison’s “den mother,” and James, who helps Johnny study for his GED.
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What starts as a platonic friendship between the sexually repressed Johnny and the openly gay James soon develops into a tender love that’s put on hold when James is released on parole. A year later, Johnny is freed as well, haunted by his feelings. Meanwhile, Tonya, no longer with the rapper, has a new dream of reuniting with Johnny. And James, who wows crowds as a legendary drag queen performer, is furious that Johnny hasn’t reached out to him. Their lives soon become a twisting roller coaster—secrets are revealed and assumptions are shattered in ways never imagined. Inviting comparison to E. Lynn Harris, Clarence Nero has created a compelling story about the social and sexual challenges black people face today.
Who it’s for
- For readers interested in romances shaped by incarceration and separation.
- For readers interested in Black characters navigating social and sexual challenges.
Where it sits
| LGBTQ+ Romance | 57% |
|---|---|
| Black Romance | 42% |
| Black Urban Fiction | 34% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Contemporary Romance
- Black Women's Fiction
- Black Erotica
- Authors
- Clarence Nero
- Publisher
- Crown
- Published
- October 3, 2006
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- Incarceration and freedom · Queer love · Black social and sexual challenges
- Reading lane
- Contemporary Romance