title: Dating Games: A Novel
author:  RM Johnson 
description: Johnson's latest (after Love Frustration) is an urban soap opera of sex, drugs, crime and deceit-and even true love-weaving together the dramatic, if predictable, story lines of various Chicago denizens. Livvy Rodgers, a nurse's assistant and single mother of twin 17-year-olds, is struggling to make ends meet as well as to get over her elusive and bad-hearted lover, Carlos. Daughter Hennesey is a sweet honor student headed for college with a full scholarship; smart-mouthed twin Aliz cares for little but money and sex. Manly, kind Rafe Collins is fresh out of prison for a crime he didn't commit and stuck in a job as an auto mechanic for his old criminal pal, Smoke, who's using the fancy car dealership as a front for drug dealing. Cutting between different points of view-but always keeping a cool, almost journalistic distance from his characters-Johnson charts the heartbreaks and hopes of each of them. Livvy may have finally found a good man in Wade Williams; Rafe takes a shine to Henny but not before Aliz tries to rope him in; Wade befriends Rafe; and Henny and Rafe get their chance but it's a bumpy road, as everyone's lives cross and recross, binding them all together. Livvy's quest to find love and security, Rafe's struggle to escape the clutches of Smoke and make a decent life and Aliz's misguided attempt to steal her way to luxury all come down to a violent denouement. The final chapters strain credibility, but this is a solid drama from well-known author and Essence bestseller Johnson.<br />Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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  The Wonderous Dating Game
  
  By J M Mason
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Copyright @ 2019 Julia May Mason
  
  Book Cover Design by Charles W. Jones
  
    
  
  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or
  used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the
  publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
  
    
  
  Printed in the United States of America
  
  First Printing, 2019
  
  ISBN: 9781652824503
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Dedication
  
  I dedicate this to all those I’ve dated through the years, and all those folks
  I saw making dates for others their business, even when they had no business.
  The road to love has been paved with mishaps, giggles, tears, and wonder,
  wondering why I ever thought that dating was a good idea. The dating was
  sometimes worse than a breakup.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Chapter One
  
  Watching several seasons of The Dating Game on television with much laughter
  and wonder when I was younger, didn’t make me an expert on dating by any
  stretch of 