The blackbirds /

Best-selling erotic-romance writer Dickey (Naughtier Than Nice, 2015) wields his typically evocative style in this empowering story of four women friends. As they celebrate each of their birthdays, Kwanzaa, Erika, Indigo, and Destiny draw on life lessons from the past as well as family secrets to help them realize their dreams. Kwanzaa meets an unusual new man while recovering from her involvement with a cheating ex-fiancé. Erika falls in love with Destiny's father while struggling to overcome cancer. Indigo balances her Nigerian family's expectations for a formal courtship with her boyfriends' betrayals. Destiny works several jobs while attending school and trying to forget a terrible incident. The characters' situations, especially Destiny's rape and subsequent social-media shaming, mirror stories in the news, bringing relatable voices and feelings to difficult issues. Dickey's creative and explicit sexual scenarios distract at times from the compelling stories of his strong women characters, and the novel is long. But readers will stay with it to see how these endearing women endure and survive.--Alessio, Amy Copyright 2016 Booklist

Best-selling author Dickey tells the story of four best friends who struggle with their relationships, romantic and otherwise. © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Four friends, nicknamed the Blackbirds, push each other to live their best lives as they navigate life and love in Los Angeles. As the book begins, four women are on the cusp of a jump from an airplane. We see not only their fear, but their willingness. Their joy. Their deep-seated trust in one another. This is how Dickey (Naughtier Than Nice, 2015, etc.) introduces the Blackbirds. Together, they are a fortress of mutual love, respect, and support. Cycling through each of their birthdays over the course of a year, the novel interweaves four points of view as relationshipsnot just romantic, but familial and platonicare built, fall, and change. Indigo, the pride of her Nigerian parents, must make an advantageous match worthy of her heritage, leading to conflict and new possibilities. Nerdy Destiny, always in the shadows, balances an old secret with a new relationship. Meanwhile, Ericka, divorced and in remission from cancer, acts as big sister to the much younger trio but needs guidance in her own life, particularly when it comes to a complicated attraction to Destiny's father. And Kwanzaa is bitter and lonely after ending a six-year relationship, having learned about her fiance's cheating in the worst way possible. Within fewer than 10 pages, all four women spring to appealing life, regardlessor perhaps partly becauseof their flaws. They have one rule: "Always build each other up. No crabs, no barrel, never pull each other down." They may gibe, but they support each other through all the weirdness they encounter. In this sensual tale, words stoke the body and the imagination. With prose that is both witty and current, Dickey chronicles the pothole-filled journey four modern black women take to find love. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.