2007 Emma Award – Favorite New Author
2006 Romance in Color Reviewers Choice Award – Favorite New Author

 

The Hip-Hop Debutantes Trilogy

2008 Emma Nomination – Favorite Hero Rated RAWSISTAZ Reviewers Favorites

Sweet Sensation, March 2007 Genesis Press ISBN-10: 1-58571-206-X ISBN-13: 978-1-58571-206-9 Format: Trade Paperback When a former DJ turned hip-hop super producer reunites with… Fredrick "Flex" Towns III found out that the former love of his life has been keeping a 12-year-old secret from him and tracks her down to find out the reasons for her deception. The only thing is, he didn't expect old feelings to resurface once he got there. Saying that he only wants to marry his ex so that he can protect her and do the right thing by his daughter is the easy part. Believing it in the face of his growing feelings turns out to be a

 little bit more difficult. Can he get over his sense of betrayal and learn to trust again?

A former female rapper turned spoken-word artist…

The last thing Deidre "Sweet Dee" James wants to do is confront the past, especially when the past is the sexy dark-chocolate man who demands that she do the right thing and become his wife. Just when she thinks she can deal with a fine and irresistible ex who is heavily immersed in the hip-hop lifestyle she no longer wants a part of and a daughter who wants to be the next child rap star, violence from their past explodes back into their lives. Will she be able to keep herself from running away again and stick around to work things out with the man she now knows is the love of her life?

Love and romance get a hip-hop remix and sparks fly!

Gwyneth Bolton brings readers into the exciting and sometimes dangerous world of hip-hop with her newest book SWEET SENSATION… I've gotta tell you I loved the attitude and spirit that are apparent throughout this storyline. It's full of all the culture and enthusiasm I remember from when hip-hop first became so popular... Flex and Deidre may not have been together over the past decade but it's obvious the feelings are still there. They have issues - both past and present - that need to be addressed and there's no shortage of heated moments between them. Congratulations Ms. Bolton on yet another fabulous story!
~ Chrissy Dionne Romance Junkies, 5 Blue Ribbons

Sweet Sensation is a mesmerizing story that seems to develop and take on a life of its own right before your eyes… I could go all day telling you about this story. It is highly recommended for oodles of reasons. It is a sensational love story, the sex is off the hook HOT and the layout of the story is just awesome. On a side note, I must state that I did not necessary agree with Sweets decision to keep her daughter from her father, but I understand that fear will have you do many things. In the context of this story, it served as a wonderful foundation to bringing this family and this love story full circle allowing something that we all need at one time or another: Closure.
~ Eleanor Shields Black Butterfly Review Group, 5 Stars

Sweet Sensation is one of the BEST hip-hop romances ever written. It has all the elements of hip-hop -- love, sex, violence, revenge, lyrical flow and money. Bolton has penned an eloquent all encompassing love story that highlights the importance of family. Sweet Sensation is embedded in the world of hip-hop music and will touch your heart, develop a love of rap music, and rise to bestsellers list in no time.
~ Monique Bruner Real Page Turners, 5 Stars

I highly commend Gwyneth Bolton for creating a wonderful tale that shatters the stereotypes surrounding the hip hop generation. Despite the fact that SWEET SENSATION follows the general rules for romance, it is a unique story that offers a few surprises. The hero and heroine are multi-dimensional, quirky, and imaginative and the supporting characters add depth and texture to the story. I enjoyed that there were numerous positive male characters, the social commentary, and the fact that the story highlighted the human side of hip hop artists. SWEET SENSATION is likely to appeal to a broad audience of readers. Fans of traditional romance will enjoy it, but fans of street fiction, and even Generation Xers will appreciate the up-to-date feel of the story.
~ Stacey Seay The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers, 4.5 Stars

Instead of another 'hip-hop' book filled with violence, sex and drugs, Bolton's latest surprises with the sweet story of Flex, a scrawny, preppy high school boy who becomes a sexy music mogul. Readers will root for him to reclaim his former love.
~ Robin R. Pendleton Romantic Times Book Review, 4 Stars
 

Deidre rushed in the back door to her home, dropped her bag of groceries on the floor and rushed to the phone. She had no idea how long it had been ringing and she wanted to catch it before the answering machine picked up.

“Hello.” She panted the word out and tried to catch her breath at the same time.

“Dee Dee, girl, you’ve got to see this. Turn your TV to Music Television. They’re talking about you.” It was her mom calling from New Jersey. “What are they talking about me for?” She went into her den and turned the television to the Music Television channel. She sat on her kente cloth-covered futon and took off her shoes while she waited to see what her mom was talking about. One of those what ever happened to them shows was on and Deidre sucked her teeth. The producers for that show had been after her for months to get her to do an interview and she’d turned them down.

The beauty of being a female hip-hop artist in hiding was that for the most part no one came looking for you. Every once and a while there was a special on television about hip-hop and it devoted five minutes or so to women. When they were persistent enough to find her in the Midwest, Deidre just declined. Ever since she’d done the Source Awards, she’d received all kinds of requests to talk about the status of women in hip-hop and she’d turned them all down.

The realization that she should have never performed had hit her quickly. So, she did the only thing she could do in the aftermath—pray that the interest in her would die down. Besides the fact that she found most of the what ever happened to them shows corny, she knew that the Music Television special wouldn’t help her maintain her low profile and had declined the interview. It looked as if they hadn’t needed her cooperation to do a show. They were giving her story based on old interviews, archived photos, music videos, and performance footage. They played up every bit of the drama and controversy in her life. They had a field day with the fact that she was a former debutante who graduated from a prestigious black women’s college and she became a hot and steamy rapper down with a crew gangsta rappers. They also played up her tumultuous relationship with former deejay and super producer Flex Towns.

They had pictures of her coming out at the Links debutante ball in Teaneck New Jersey, pictures of her pledge line for Zeta, and her graduation picture from Spelman. Clips from her videos were interspersed with old shots of her and Flex attending various parties and premiers while they were a couple. It was weird seeing herself made up as Sweet Dee with jeans, hooded sweatshirts, bandanas, and shades. At least she had clothes on, which was a lot more than she could say for contemporary women entertainers.

As the montage of clips and photographs ran, a voice-over asked the question, “How did a Black American princess go from debutante to hard-core gangster rapper?” They also spouted off a series of observations about how intriguing it was that most so-called gangsta rappers were actually middle-class black kids who had no idea of what life in the hood was like. None of that bothered Deidre. It was old news. The media had done a number on Sweet Dee years ago when her second album dropped. The controversy surrounding her less-than-gangsta beginnings had actually made for huge record sales back then.

The program worked to sensationalize her life story to the tenth degree. However, the old footage and tabloid-style retelling of her life story was not the problem. The problem was the new footage they were showing. The black Barbie-like host with bleached blonde hair spoke in a pseudo reporter tone that came across as more gossipy than factual.

“Ms. James declined our offer to interview her but our people found her living as a little known poet and instructor at a community college in Minneapolis with her daughter.” They showed footage of her leaving Minneapolis Technical and Community College and getting in her SUV.

Deidre smarted. Can they give out that kind of information on television?

“While Sweet Dee, nee Deidre James last performed in public two years ago at the Source Awards, we were able to obtain footage of her going about her life as a former rap star. Here she is picking up her daughter from an after-school program. And we here at Hey, What Ever Happened To...? find it really interesting that Sweet Dee’s daughter looks a lot like super producer and record label owner Fredrick ‘Flex’ Towns.” Deidre’s mouth fell open and her eyes sprang wide. The jerks even went so far as to take a recent school picture of Kayla and place it side by side with a picture of Flex when he was a boy. They had the same oval-shaped faces, the same dark chocolate eyes, the same button noses, the same serious expressions and half smiles on similar lips. The resemblance was undeniable. She gripped the arm of the futon with one hand and clutched the phone with the other. “Oh, my, God. They don’t have the right! Who gave them the right?”

“Needless to say, we here at Hey, What Ever Happened To...? now know why Sweet Dee, nee Deidre James, has been hiding out all these years. We wonder if Flex Towns knows about his striking resemblance to Sweet Dee’s love-child?”

Shocked, Deidre turned off the television and leaned back into the futon. One hand still held the phone and the other covered her mouth. “Oh, baby, what are you going to do? You have to tell Fredrick now. I just hope that you can tell him before he hears it from someone else. Or, God forbid, he sees it on this show.” Lana James’s voice broke through the fear-laden haze that had started to cover Deidre’s mind.

Deidre stared blankly into space. She felt as if she had to be in some parallel universe, the twilight zone or something, because there was no way she could have seen what she thought she’d just seen. Is it that easy to change the course of someone’s life? It can’t be, can it?

Lana screamed through the phone, “Dee Dee, did you hear me? What are you going to do? Are you going to try to tell Flex before he hears it from someone else?”

Deidre blinked and then heaved a sigh. She was holding a phone, but she had no clue how to speak. Somehow she found her voice and managed to put together words. “Mom, I... well... I just think it might not be necessary. I mean, how many people watch this kind of thing? I know that Flex probably doesn’t. He’s way too busy to watch this kind of crap. Really Mom, all they did was show a picture of my child and imply that she could be Flex’s. They don’t have any DNA proof and I will deny it until the grave. If Flex should happen to call or inquire, I’ll just tell him it’s not true. Yeah, I’ll just deny it. Yeah, that could work.” She was trying to convince herself more than she was trying to convince Lana.

The tsk and cluck that came across the phone lines spoke volumes; Lana wasn’t buying it any more than she was.
Deidre sighed again.

Deidre could hear the umm, umm, umm, even though Lana didn’t say a word.

“Now you know I’m not one to try and tell you what to do or how to live your life.”

When Deidre heard those words, she knew she was in for it then.

“But Dee Dee, I wouldn’t be a mother if I didn’t point out to you when you were making a grave mistake.”

Deidre leaned her head back on the futon and vowed never to use the I wouldn’t be a mother if... line on Kayla.

“You can be irritated and zone me out if you want to, but I am going to speak my mind. You need to also consider Kayla here. What are you going to tell her if one of her little friends sees the program and shares with her that she may be Flex Towns’s daughter?”

Deidre opened her mouth and closed it. She didn’t have a clue what she would tell Kayla. When Kayla was younger, Deidre had always been able to get around the daddy question with her child by being evasive and vague whenever questions came up. She’d known that the questions would get harder and harder to answer the older Kayla became, but she hadn’t banked on that coming up so soon. She didn’t know what she would say to the direct question, Is rap super producer Flex Towns my father?

Can I lie to my child? She knew as soon as she thought the words that she never could tell an outright lie to her daughter. The fact that she had hidden the truth all these years ate at her soul enough. She wished that she had had the courage to come clean two years ago when she saw Flex at the Source Awards or even twelve years ago when Kayla was born, but she hadn’t and now she had to pay the price.

“I’m not trying to be a pain, and I’m not trying to get in your business, Dee Dee, but I don’t think you’re thinking about all the implications of this. I have no doubt that someone is eventually going to tell Kayla about the show, or she may even see it for herself. I think you want to think really carefully about what you’ll tell her about it.”

Deidre shut her eyes tight and waited a moment before opening then. She was sure that when she opened them, her life would certainly be right side up again. What kind of crazy alternative earth have I been transplanted to? This is not my life.

“Do you really think I should tell Kayla who her father is?” Deidre mumbled the question.

“I think you should tell Kayla who her father is and tell Flex he has a daughter.”

She didn’t need to see Lana James’s face to see the I-told-you-so expression on it. It amazed her that such a non-verbal form of communication could somehow make it through the phone line.

“One thing at a time, Mom. If Flex doesn’t know yet, he won’t die if he has to wait a little while longer. I’m not ready for that conversation. I’m not even ready to talk to my child about this.” It’s wrong, and believe me I know it, but one crisis at a time, please.

Deidre heard a small gasp and she turned to see Kayla standing in the doorway of the den.

Kayla’s jacket was open and her pigtails were sticking out every which way on her head. The girl looked as if she’d been running, and worse, the dried tears that streaked her face and the fresh tears running down it gave her a very distraught appearance. Her eyes were wide and accusing. The usually bright and bubbly mocha-complexioned young lady sported a sad expression that had even burnt out the light in her brown eyes.

“Mom, I’ll call you back later.” Deidre hung up the phone.

She looked in her child’s eyes, saw the unspoken question there, and knew that her mother was right. It was way past time to come clean, at least with her daughter. She just hoped she would be able to face it because there was nowhere to run this time.