Basketball Jones [Paperback]

E Lynn Harris has once again knocked me out with his work! "Basketball Jones" was so good it was hard for me to put it down, and I was sad when I reached the ending!!
Aldridge "AJ" Richardson and Drayton "Dray" Jones have been secret lovers since AJ tutored Dray in Algebra back in college. Dray goes on to have a successful NBA career and AJ is still in his life, as a secret of course. Dray can't imagine his family or teammates finding out he is gay. So AJ goes along with keeping the relationship a secret, even when Dray takes a wife to quiet questions about his relationship with AJ. Aj deals with it becasue he loves Dray and Dray takes very good care of AJ financially. AJ happily follows Dray around the country just to make his "man" happy.
Unfortunately, there is someone who knows about AJ and Dray and they will stop at nothing to either get paid or expose the sordid affair of a married NBA star and his gay lover.
This book is 100 % a must read and a compelling story about love and how far someone will go to keep secrets.

I bought Basketball Jones around 5pm the day it came out and finished the book that night. I could not put it down! Basketball Jones is definitely a must read!! E Lynn is such an amazing author and captures the reader from start to finish. Basketball Jones is an intense story of two men in a relationship with many twist and turns

I love how E Lynn novels are the perfect mixture of classy with a raw touch and Basketball Jones is just that. Trust me, this is well worth the money and you WILL NOT be disappointed!! Good Job E Lynn!!

-Cory

Cons: The best way to make readers feel sympathetic for a character is to make us like the character. Unfortunately, I couldn't stand Aldridge James. Regardless of whether he was out of the closet or not, he was still dating a married man who was on the down low, so whenever he was mistreated, all I was thinking was "So what?" and rooting for the nemeses (and yes, there were several).
There was also a lot of irrelevant talk about Michael Vick and a conversation about "I Love New York" that slowed the pace of the book. I know it was meant to make the book more realistic and have timely conversation, but considering that Vick case is old now, it just seemed like reading last year's newspapers. However, I did enjoy the talk about Obama, although the election is over and he's in the White House now (yay!).
The blackmailers were extremely predictable, and I was hoping that it wasn't the obvious, but it was, so that was rather disappointing. And it took 237 pages and 8 lines down before AJ finally said what I'd been thinking all along.
There was also a heavy amount of snide comments about white women to the point of being tacky (ex. "really tough b***h for a white girl").

Middle Ground: If you're into books filled with drama, scandal, blackmail, fashion, and talk about attractive butts, this is definitely the book for you. I'm not really into gossip so some of it was a little too talk show for me.

Pros: I like the way E. Lynn Harris writes, from dialogue to setting up the scene to the pace of the story. I read this book in two quick days and didn't want to tear myself from it because there were enjoyable parts. Although disgusted by Jade's goal, I enjoyed her outgoing attitude. I liked reading about AJ's mother and sister, and of course the surprise character at the end made me smile a little. I REALLY think I'd have liked this novel more if Dray wasn't married with a child on the way. That part alone repulsed me. I think this would've been a great novel to talk about the problems with gay athletes, and that was touched upon, with Dray's paranoia. For that, I liked the novel, but I didn't like any of that sneaking around DL stuff. It just irritated me. However, there are some topics that are hard on the eyes and ears but that need to be discussed, so for that, I have to give Harris much respect for bringing up these controversial and graphic topics.