Tracy Price-Thomas

Villard/Strivers Row

January 2002

0-37575-777-5

(4+) Nathasha Brooks-Harris

Contemporary Romance

PLOT SYNOPSIS: 

While battling sexism, self-doubt, and the powers that be, Sergeant Sanderella Coffee fights an uphill battle to attend the Army's prestigious Officer Candidate School - but her affair with a married drill sergeant may threaten both their military careers.

REVIEW: 

Readers who are looking for a book with a different flavor will be well-served to check out Black Coffee by new author Tracy Price-Thompson. BLACK COFFEE beautifully tells the story of a young woman, Sanderella Coffee, a military officer and her exploits with love, HIV, sexism and family.

Sergeant Coffee is a beautiful dark-skinned woman with high ambition. When the book opens, she is a soldier who desires to survive the grueling Officer Training School program and become a commissioned officer. However, as aptly depicted in the book, that isn’t an easy thing to do. The trials could make the strongest person waver and give up, but Sergeant Coffee is from Brooklyn and she calls upon her tough, homegirl grit to pull her through. While in the program, she encounters racism, sexism and every other kind of “ism” one can think of. Oh, it throws her for a minute, but she regroups and makes it through.

However, it’s not that easy. She encounters many conflicts and obstacles along the way. One of them comes in the form of the tall, dark and handsome drill sergeant Romulus Caesar. Her heart stops when she eyes her fine superior. She wants him badly, with every fiber of her being. She fights him hard for a long time, but something clicks inside of her and she succumbs to his charms. That’s when the problems begin because she finds out that he’s not all she thinks or hopes. To make matters worse, he is married and in the military, that’s a punishable offense that can cost offenders their careers.

The roller-coaster ride begins and their relationship through enough drama to create a new soap opera.

BLACK COFFEE is a novel replete with strong characters, snappy humorous dialogue and a realistic plot. Many of the scenes are rib-tickling funny—especially those with Coffee’s family at home in Brooklyn. Those scenes will take readers back when they read about Bid Whist and Tonk games, the crazy uncle, the snaggle-toothed, non-cooking, auntie, the trifling in-law and the array of colorful characters. Likewise, there are some scenes that will bring tears to the eyes because of the passion and emotion with which they were written.

This novel is refreshing because it explores another side of romance from another point-of-view. Price-Thompson, a retired Army officer, put her experience to great use and penned this great novel. Hers is a hypnotic voice that will draw readers into the story from the first word and hold them captive until they are finished reading the book. Her voice is lush and exciting with a humorous edge. Her storytelling skills are all that and then some as it is a pleasing blend of traditional and hip, around-the-way girl prose. In retrospect, BLACK COFFEE is a pleasant read from a brilliant new author. This reviewer looks forward to more works from her hopefully in the very near future. Most assuredly, readers will as well. When it comes to writing a good novel with that Brooklyn edge, Tracy Price-Thompson is ahead of the pack!

nathasha@romanceincolor.net (15th February 2002)