This Ain’t No Hearts and Flowers Love Story Pt1

Brooklyn Darkchild
Brooklyn Dreams Publishing Company (2007)
ISBN 9780615169163
Reviewed by Dr. Carol Hoyer for Reader Views (2/08)


“This Ain’t No Hearts and Flowers Love Story” is a witty, sarcastic, humorous story written in Ebonics by the author Brooklyn Darkchild.  Although the underlying theme of abandonment, junkies, drugs, failure and success are not an original theme, the way it is written is unique and captures your attention.

The author introduces us to OB (real name Oscar) and BG (baby girl) later named Princess who are in all rights cousins. OB is born to parents of white and half-white ethnicity, born on the wrong side of the tracks, while BG is born to African-American parents who are quite wealthy.  The author has OB and BG take the usual stereotypical route that most children of junkies take--drugs, wild sex, living on the street and failures.  Through his own determination OB was able to become a sensational dancer that would eventually lead him to stardom. Little did OB and BG know that later in life, almost twenty years later, they would actually fall in love and marry.

Initially I was a little leery about reading this book due to the Ebonics, however, after about three paragraphs I was hooked. The author’s description of the characters, and environment were so vivid that I felt like I was right there with them. I could just imagine the body language, vocabulary and behaviors of individuals in the storyline.

There were only two things I did not like about the book.  I could not find any bio on the author and I felt that the back cover of the book too hard to read due to the dark colors.  Darkchild’s book, “This Ain’t No Hearts and Flowers Love Story,” made me laugh, cry and generally realize what it is like to virtually have to fight for your life against many odds.

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