September - October 2004

Another Man's Wife
by Shonda Cheekes

Men and women test the limits of love and devotion in this sexy and suspenseful first novel that evokes the familiar emotional honesty and moral complexity of real life.

Newcomer Shonda Cheekes makes her contemporary debut in a hip, wonderfully wise story about letting go and moving on.

When Yaniece Fenton married Jarrin Miller, she thought it would last forever.  But five years ago, her husband of fifteen years walked out on his family without a backward glance.  Since then, Yani and her two children have played a waiting game, certain that he was coming back.  Now, with the help of her friends and her sister Asia, Yani is finally over her "love hangover" and ready to get on with her life.  At a party, she meets Alex Chance, a prominent New York businessman who's looking for a relationship with a woman who isn't out for everything she can get.  Their powerful attraction leads to a whirlwind courtship and a fairy-tale-like wedding.  But their happy ending is threatened by Jarrin's sudden reappearance, which forces Yani to face the truth about her marriage--and the life-altering choice she will have to make as another man's wife.

With generous helpings of affection, humor and romantic suspense, Shonda Cheekes has created a story that crackles with wit and the riffs and rhythms of modern life.  Alternating between the first-person outlooks of Yani and Alex, Another Man's Wife captivates readers with this sassy tale of brothers and sisters on the move and searching for love and fulfillment.  Imbued with this author's fresh, unique voice, it is a provocative and seductive look at relationships in the twenty-first century.

About the Author

Shonda Cheekes is the author of Lessons Learned, which was published in Blackgentlemen.com, a short story anthology.  She lives in Pembroke Pines, Florida, where she is at work on her next novel.