BETWEEN LOVERS

Eric Jerome Dickey

Penguin

0-52594-603-9

July 2001

(4) Shirion Shropshire

Contemporary Romance

PLOT SYNOPSIS: 

A Los Angeles-based writer still trying to get over being dumped seven years earlier by his former fiancTe, Nicole, who fell in love with another woman, unexpectedly finds himself caught in an intricate love triangle when Nicole suddenly comes back into his life, reopening feelings of anger, hurt, and unforgettable passion

REVIEW: 

Wow!  All I can say is, “Did he have to go there?”  Eric Jerome Dickey went out on a limb with this one.  This is a story about characters you love to hate, and hate to love. 

BETWEEN LOVERS is as serious as it gets.  After reading the jacket of this novel, I was almost afraid to read it.  I spoke to some of my fellow readers and found that we all had similar responses.  Many of them had put the book aside, waiting for an adventurous moment to read it.  However, me, my curiosity was peaked.  I couldn’t wait.  I cleaned my house, sent the hubby and kids on a trip to the movies, and settled down for the ride.

When the first line in a book is “I’m naked”, you’ve got to know you’re in for a few surprises.  The narrator of this book is an L.A. based writer.  (Is it a coincidence that Mr. Dickey is also from L.A.?)  His fiancée, Nicole, lives in Oakland with her female lover.  If that doesn’t peak your interest, how about this?  The narrator’s books have an uncanny way of reflecting his real life, his life with Nicole.  Makes you want to say “hmm”.

Nicole is very inexperienced sexually when they first meet.  Or, so it seems.  She was born and raised in the Bible belt.  She was taught that sex was a necessary evil. However, the narrator changes all of that.  Sexually, they are extremely compatible.  Intellectually and emotionally, they are also well matched.  With his encouragement, Nicole becomes adventurous and is willing to try many things.  There are times when she thinks he’s was too experimental.  They have done things together that she’s never imagined.  Does she experiment with him to keep him?  Is it for love?  Or is it Nicole’s secret fantasies that are truly being fulfilled?

In his efforts to get her to open up sexually (and satisfy his own fantasies), The Narrator releases deep desires from within Nicole that she can no longer deny.  Shortly before their planned wedding, Nicole decides that she has to fulfill these desires before making a lifelong commitment.  She stops the wedding and moves to Oakland to be with her female lover, Ayanna.

The narrator is so deeply in love with Nicole that he’s willing to give her the time she needs.  His logic is that he and Nicole are in love.  They are soul mates.  Ayanna didn’t have the connection with Nicole that he has.  He has known Nicole for longer and they have helped each other through some painful times.  He is a man and Ayanna would never be able to give Nicole what he can.  She couldn’t give Nicole children and a woman was not anatomically correct to give her everything that she needs.  Or, so he thought…

I thought that the Narrator’s take on the situation was totally crazy.  It was unbelievable that any man would wait around for a woman to finish getting her kicks, with another woman, when he wasn’t directly involved?  This story is told from his point of view.  Even though I personally thought he was nuts, the story was told so smoothly I began to accept it all.  Nicole, for me was in a word, “selfish”.  She was in “hog heaven”.  She has two people who love here dearly, each offering her what the other could not.  With this “arrangement”, she is content.  Both the Narrator and Ayanna are willing partners in this love triangle.  Nicole is able to pick when and whom she wants to be with and sets the rules for both relationships.  The girl was something else!  When she begins planning a ménage a trios, I was truly finished with all of them.  However, like the sucker that I am for a well-told story, I read on and so will you.

The story focuses on the point when this love triangle comes to a head.  The characters have to make hard decisions about their life’s direction.  Eric Jerome Dickey provides insight to these characters and the chosen lifestyles.  The scene where Nicole and her mother have a confrontation will bring you to tears.  Although the relationships in this story were twisted and strange, they were somehow believable.  This story of self-discovery and acceptance has style.  I disliked most of the characters, but I was still hooked on the story.  I began to wonder how must is fact and how much is fiction.  BETWEEN LOVERS is strange, emotional, sexy, and wild, but most of all it is real.

By the way, I’m sure some of you are wondering why I keep referring to the male character as “The Narrator”.  Well, Mr. Dickey is so slick (and talented) that I read the whole book before I realized that he never identified the man by name.  This book was written in the first person, which had to be tough.  But doing so without naming your main character was crafty.  I was so engrossed in the drama that I didn’t realize he wasn’t named until I began writing the review.  I went back to the book and skimmed through the pages and it was nowhere to be found.

8th August 2001