A Chocolate Affair - fiction reviews - Review

Black Issues Book Review, Nov-Dec, 2001 by Simone Kelly

A Chocolate Affair by Sheila Copeland BET Books, October 2001, $15.00 ISBN 1-58314-234-7

In the follow-up to her debut novel, Chocolate Star, Shelia Copeland takes us on a voyage to Hollywood--home of glamour, sex and drugs. The thought of entering this world terrifies Keisha, the compassionate homemaker who wants everyone to be as happy as she is with her NBA star husband, Eric. It's Eric's move to the Los Angeles Lakers that throws Keisha into a world in which she must learn to adjust.

Knowing she is separated from her friends, Eric encourages her to become friends with his teammate's wife, Jade. Jade scoffs at the idea of being the perfect housewife and fights a constant battle between motherhood and her careen Her sharp tongue gets everyone's blood boiling. Fortunately, Keisha is reunited with her friend Topaz, who is now a multiplatinum R&B artist. Keisha makes it her mission to help Topaz rebuild her family and reunite with a lost love.

Although readers may expect for wealthy and famous characters to be shallow, Copeland develops memorable personalities and weaves an engaging tale of infidelity, lost loves and sisterhood. While A Chocolate Affair is a smooth read, the one flaw with this novel is that the characters' problems are solved too easily. Coincidences are too frequent, which caused suspenseful scenes to be predictable and unrealistic. If Copeland had allowed for more things to come together in a subtle way, the book would read more like a novel and less like a soap opera.

Simone Kelly is an up-and-coming writer working on her debut novel, At Second Glance. She is currently working in the internet industry and living in Westchester, New York.