A video review of An Inconvenient Friend

AN INCONVENIENT FRIEND - Have you read this book?

It may be 2011, but it's not too late to read the best of 2010!

AN INCONVENIENT FRIEND by yours truly, Rhonda McKnight was voted the best of the best for 2010!

It's always nice for your work to be acknowledged as the best. An Inconvenient Friend is #14 on the list of best Christian/Faith Based Books by the Sankoka Literary Society. Click the link Black Pearls Magazine.  to see the entire list.

Here's what others are saving about the book (content below is an excerpt from the original review. Please click on the website for the review to read the full review):

AALBC - Reviewed by Idrissa Uqdah
Is This What Friends Are For?

This novel is a great follow-up to McKnight's debut novel, Secrets and Lies. The protagonist, Samaria Jacobs returns as a nurse set on seducing still another rich but married doctor. But this time, she's the star of the show and the author has completely developed this character as more than a heathen and a home-wrecker. Drama, Drama, Drama; this story is full of it and I loved it!

APOOO BookClub - Reviewed by Jennifer Coissiere


I enjoyed this book from cover to cover. For a moment, I had a look into the mind and life of “the other woman.” Even though I do not condone another person coming between a husband and wife, I understood the reason Samaria did what she was doing. I recommend An Inconvenient Friend to readers of Christian fiction or inspirational fiction.


Amazon.com - Reviewed by Cheryl Francis

I loved this book!! Rhonda McKnight is a great author and I look forward to reading more books by her! I found this book at the Black Expressions website. I looked at the cover and thought it looked like a great book. The woman on the front looked to me like a nice church going woman--boy was I ever wrong!


Samaria Jacobs has a married lover named Gregory Preston who is a doctor. She said she understood how the cheating thing worked and there were two categories (P.7) "The first was what I called "something different." .... "The second category, and the one I preferred to be, was the new model". She met Gregory at a sports bar. She didn't think he would be interested but she pushed him because he was upset over a patient. She got him and had him for six months. She wanted to be more than just the woman on the side. (p.25). He did help her with her bills, but of course she wanted more.


Gregory's wife Angelina had a feeling that something was up. He was getting a lot of phone calls at odd times and worked more hours. She would also find lipstick stains on his collar and smell fresh woman's perfume on him. Samaria got to be good friends with Gregory's wife because she joined a church group and got involved in a big project. She even made up a fake name-Rae Burns.


No good can come out of getting so close to your lover's wife. She wanted to find out more about her so she could do everything she could to get Gregory closer to her, but then she started to really like Angelina. Samaria is a cold hearted woman. I can't believe the lengths she went to in order to try to tear Gregory and his wife apart.

You need to read this book to see how it ends.

And so do you! Please get your copy today. You won't regret it. Visit me at my website to read an excerpt and for links to order the book. http://www.rhondamcknight.net/

Press Release: AN INCONVENIENT FRIEND

For Immediate Release July 1, 2010

Contact: Leah Hubbard

404-944-7232

waabiz@aol.com

Christian novel introduces a modern day “Samaritan Woman”

A marriage in trouble, a man-stealer with a plan…sounds like fertile ground for lots of drama in a novel, but how do you tell the tale and still deliver the message of faith, hope and redemption the way “Christian fiction” is supposed to? In her second novel, An Inconvenient Friend, author Rhonda McKnight, shows us how. She believes the Bible itself was full of messy drama, but God’s messages of love, hope and redemption resonate throughout.

In the book, Samaria Jacobs is the ambitious anti-hero that readers will love to hate. She’s a social climber with a truck load of debt that she believes will magically disappear if she finds the right man to write a check. Like the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well in the John, chapter four, Samaria brings a host of emotional baggage to her relationships. Her mother’s no Claire Huxtable, her father abandoned her when she was six and she’s been nursing a broken heart for eight years. Samaria’s skewed view of the world drives her actions and hideously taint her values. In fact, her actions will keep your stomach in knots. This is “Christian fiction” at its edgiest. It’s a tense, seductive story about two women, one man and high stakes.

“This is not just about a conniving mistress,” McKnight says. Mistress stories have been done a thousand times. “It’s a journey toward sisterhood and it addresses the things women will do to themselves and each other in the name of getting or keeping a man.” Samaria Jacobs is not the only hurting woman with a voice in the book. Angelina Preston, the Christian wife of Samaria’s lover, struggles to keep her marriage together while trying to overcome the pain of a infertility. A parallel for the women is that both have controlling, emotionally abusive mothers. McKnight says, “Their mothers have defined and shaped who they are.” In Angelina’s case her mother’s coldness causes her to seek out female friendships, while Samaria avoids them. The two form an unlikely and inconvenient friendship. “I hope mothers raising daughters examine themselves after reading this book to make sure they don’t make the same mistakes,” McKnight says.

McKnight hopes An Inconvenient Friend gets women thinking about the things they do to each other. “Even in the church we have women who desire the pastor or other men in leadership. This man stealing and lack of respect for our sisters has to stop.” And because one of Samaria’s problems is unforgiveness, McKnight hopes people who are in the same place will see themselves. “I hope they would pause and reflect and perhaps think about the next step to get beyond unforgiveness. “There is a connection between our behavior and our unresolved emotional issues,” McKnight says. Like her debut novel, Secrets and Lies, McKnight believes that An Inconvenient Friend exemplifies the power of faith and hope in overcoming personal pain and the power of forgiveness to set us free.

About the author

Rhonda McKnight is the owner of Legacy Editing, a free-lance service for fiction writers and Urban Christian Fiction Today, a popular Internet site that highlights African-American Christian fiction. She’s a member of Faith Based Fiction Writers of Atlanta. When she’s not editing projects, teaching workshops about writing or penning her next novel, she spends time with her family. Originally from a small, coastal town in New Jersey, she’s called Atlanta, Georgia home for twelve years. An Inconvenient Friend is available wherever books are sold.

To interview McKnight or for more information, contact Leah Hubbard at 248.342.8806 or waabiz@aol.com or contact Rhonda at her website http://www.rhondamcknight.net/

Click Here to Order the Book

ISBN# 978-1601628640

An Inconvenient Friend by Rhonda McKnight

About the Book

I've been completing quite a few online interviews about An Inconvenient Friend so I decided to put together this short question and answer session about the novel. Click to listen.

Available wherever books are sold on August 1, 2010. Learn more about Rhonda at www.rhondamcknight.net and scroll down to read and/or listen to chapter one.

An Inconvenient Friend by Rhonda McKnight

Now the first chapter.

Click below to listen to Part 1 of the excerpt.

Click below to listen to Part 2 of the excerpt.

An Inconvenient Friend

By

Rhonda McKnight

Chapter 1

I stepped into the classroom marked “Women’s Bible Study” with a mission in mind that had nothing to do with Jesus. I was going to get to know more about my man’s wife and use what I learned to steal her husband. This place they called holy ground was about to become a battleground. The plan – “Operation Steal Greg.”

“Is this classroom C?” I made sure to add just the right mix of airhead and sweet church girl to my voice. The door was clearly marked, but I had to say something, because I was late and all the real church sisters were already seated and staring.

A plump chick in her late thirties jumped to her feet like someone yelled happy birthday and she was popping out of a cake. “Yes, sister, come in. Have a seat,” she said swaying an open palm in the direction of the chair she’d vacated.

I smiled, tight, took two steps to the left and away from the over eager beaver. “Thanks.” I crinkled my nose and pointed. “I’ll take something over there.”

Big girl looked disappointed, but my choice of seating was strategic, so I wasn’t giving in to sad puppy eyes. I flicked a lock of my hair over my shoulder and did a visual sweep of the occupants. Twenty or so women were dispersed throughout the room in small groups that reminded me of cliques in the high school cafeteria. I could tell they were the kind that chewed you up and spit you out like the mystery meat that followed Tuesday’s spaghetti.

Since they were staring, I put a little extra motion into my well practiced jig. Forty eyeballs followed the rhythmic gliding of my hips as I made my way to what I thought would be the perfect seat to make observations; the vacant back row. I rested my Dolce Gabana handbag on an empty seat, picked up the Bible that lay in wait for me, and as a final gesture for the royal nosies, wiggled down into the chair and crossed one knee over the other.

Try that, I thought, noticing more than half the occupants in the room were overweight and hard pressed to cross any extremity over the other.

I turned my attention to the woman behind the podium whom I figured must be the Bible study teacher, if that’s what you called the presenter at a thing like this. The only study groups I’d attended were for school. Church wasn’t my thing. I had never quite figured out the purpose for it all and as far as I could see most of the hypocritical, nasty, back biting Christians I worked with everyday hadn’t either. Nah, I’d taken a pass on the church thing – until now.

“Hello.” The teacher met my gaze. “I’m Sister Green. Welcome to women’s Bible study.” Then, with an uncomfortable cough, she dropped her eyes to the book she was holding.

So much for introductions.

“Let’s go to the sixteenth verse and if you would Sister Hawkins, read down to verse twenty-one for us,” Sister Green continued.

A wiry woman not too far from me stood to her feet and began reading, “So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful…”

I tuned her out, after all that wasn’t the reason I was here. I craned my neck left and then right looking for the person I’d come to see, but she wasn’t here. I’d only seen Greg’s wife once, from a distance, when I’d lurked outside a charity event he’d slipped and told me they were attending. Angelina Preston had long hair that fell in an angled bob down her back. No one’s ‘do’ fit the bill from where I sat, and because I was in the back I couldn’t see any of their faces. I hoped I hadn’t wasted an evening coming to this gathering of stuck up, sanctimonious, women for nothing. I snapped the Bible closed I’d had open across my knee and began tapping my heels impatiently. Just when I was about to call it a wrap, the door opened.

Angelina Preston swept into the room looking like an African-American corporate Barbie doll in a chocolate St. John suit, Jimmy Choo sling backs and matching handbag. I let my mental calculator go to work. The woman was wearing close to a thousand dollars worth of gear and that didn’t include the rocks in her ears or the one that for sure was weighing down her left hand.

I squirmed in my seat. I wanted to curse, but remembered I was in a church, so I bit my tongue. Talk about a bad sister. I uncrossed my legs and watched Angelina glide across the short space and slide effortlessly into a seat, her featherweight hair billowing like smoke behind her. She turned to the women on her left and right, offered them a few words and a quick smile through perfect teeth and looked to Sister Green.

“Sister Preston, we’re glad you’re here. I’ll turn the lesson over to you.” Sister Green moved away from the podium like someone had told her there was a bomb underneath it. From the awkward way she had been conducting herself before Angelina showed up, I could tell she wasn’t one for public speaking. Her role as teacher really had me wondering about the church thing already.

Angelina stood and peeled off her jacket as she made her way to the front of the room. “Good evening, ladies.”

Her voice matched her corporate persona. It had that Demi Moore husky quality that was great for business, but also sexy to a lot men in the bedroom. “Hmmm, something else to hate about her,” I murmured under my breath.

“Thank you for excusing my tardiness. It couldn’t be helped. As most of you know, I’m on the board for the Department of Youth and Family Services and thanks to the media, you’re probably also aware that we had a child death last night that necessitated an emergency board meeting this afternoon.”

“How is the family, Sister Preston?” One of the women asked. A solemn pallor had fallen over the room. I vaguely remembered hearing something about a three-year-old foster child dying from an unexplained fall. I shuddered at the thought.

“I’m sure you’ve seen the new reports. The family is outraged, understandably, but I’m not able to discuss the case.”

The women seemed to understand that. I had no idea Angelina was affiliated with child welfare. What thankless work for someone who – well – didn’t have to work at all.

“We can pray for the family after the meeting.” She closed the subject neatly. “Let’s pick up where we left off last week.”

“Sister Preston.” Big Girl stood and careened her neck in my direction. “We have a guest.”

Darn, I didn’t need anyone pointing me out. I was trying to be incognegro, but it was not to be so. Angelina wasn’t going to be rude and ignore a sistah like her predecessor had. She tilted her head ever so slightly and her mouth eased into a smile that was full of sincerity. “I apologize for not noticing. I’m Angelina Preston, the women’s adult education coordinator for Greater Christian Life. Welcome. Please tell us your name and anything else you’d like to share with the group.”

I wasn’t sure how introductions were handled in church, so I stood to my feet and stated the lie I’d prepared for this moment. I hesitated for a second, wondering if I was supposed to call myself sister. But then I realized Angelina hadn’t put “sister” in front of her name, so I nixed it.

“Good evening, ladies. My name is Rae Burns. I’ve been coming to the church for a few weeks now. I live in Roswell. I’m single and I work as a healthcare consultant.” I plopped down in my seat, shocked that perspiration had dotted my top lip.

That coming to the church a few weeks part was not true. Tonight was the first time I’d stepped foot in this church or any church that hadn’t been for a wedding or funeral. I was thinking with nearly two thousand members that no one would know this was my first visit. I was obviously wrong, though, because a few of them looked between each other, comparing mental notes, shaking their heads that they had not seen me at their service. I ignored them. I only cared what one woman thought and that was the one who was looking directly at me.

“We’re glad to have you with us, Rae.” Angelina’s delivery was warm, sincere. “We hope that this evening is the first of many journeys into the Bible with us.” After an appropriate pause for welcomes and nods from other women in the room, Angelina resumed her discussion of the lesson.

I resumed my studies also. From her appearance to her public speaking skills, the way she threw her hair over her shoulder and the classy way she held her swan-like neck. Every word, every movement, every thing about her was so polished. Her persona seemed to be perfected to convey one resounding message. I am the hotness with a capital “H”. Don’t mess with me.

It was starting to get on my nerves, because I was going to mess with her and I hated the fact that I was starting to feel intimidated. I mean as far as looks, she was predictably what I expected. A doctor’s wife – classy. A handsome doctor’s wife – beautiful. But I did notice one thing that I wouldn’t have guessed, not based on Greg’s old southern money, Louisiana upbringing. Angelina wasn’t from the south. This surprised me, because the southern gentlemen usually married the belles who understood them, but northern she was.

I had studied a lot of accents. She spoke that clipped English that well-to-do black folks from up north chirped in their superior northernly way. My guess was this diva was from Jersey or Connecticut. Greg and I had never talked about it. The one thing he was unwilling to talk about after his romps with me was his wife, which was a big “why” for me. Why no complaints like most married men? The complaints were what usually soothed their dogged guilt. His lack of flack about the Mrs. made me wonder how Greg soothing his? Surely he had some.

Angelina Preston was attractive, classy, well bred, and my guess would be educated. But obviously, as my mama always told me, all that glittered wasn’t gold. Her husband was in my bed.

I let out a long sigh. I was no fool. I understood how the cheating husband thing worked. Most men didn’t leave their wives, because they actually loved them or something like that. Chicks on the side, I had learned early on, fell into one or two categories. The first was what I called “something different.” This would be a woman that was completely different from the wife; usually a real freaky-deak who probably traveled with handcuffs and a portable pole. She was willing to do the things wifey had never done or didn’t respect the Negro enough to do anymore. But she was a distraction. A way to make the man feel better about his boring home life.

The second category and the one I preferred to be was “the new model.” That was simply a younger version of the current wife. From my experience, more often then not, the younger version was more common, at least amongst the upper middle class men I spent my time with. Their wives didn’t stroke them in the right places anymore. First and foremost, the ego and then…well let’s say most of the married men I’d dated didn’t think they were getting enough sex. I liked being the new model. It held more promise. After all, who was going to actually leave their wife for a freak? You couldn’t take a freak to a business dinner or a charity affair, but you could take the new model anywhere and everywhere and that’s what I had in mind. My future.

I squinted for a better view. Now that Angelina was really close up I could see the similarity; same complexion, bone structure, height – heck, did we get our hair wrapped at the same salon? I thought, patting my shoulder length tresses. Add ten years and fifteen pounds and I was already Mrs. Gregory Preston. I clucked my teeth. I didn’t like what I saw. The woman was darn near perfect, which meant this might be more difficult than I’d originally thought. But I was up to the challenge. Nothing in life that was worth having came easy and getting my claws into a successful surgeon like Dr. Gregory Preston would be worth whatever I had to go through, including this boring study lesson. Besides, starting over with another man was out of the question. I needed big money, soon, or I was going to lose everything I had.

An Inconvenient Friend is available August 1, 2010 wherever books are sold.

Learn more about Rhonda at http://www.rhondamcknight.net/ and www.facebook.com/booksbyrhonda

An Inconvenient Friend by Rhonda McKnight

ABOUT THE BOOK


In Secrets and Lies, Samaria Jacobs tried to seduce Dr. Jonah Morgan. Now she’s back in An Inconvenient Friend. Her creed is “If at first you don’t succeed, try…try…again.”

Samaria Jacobs has her sights set on Gregory Preston. A successful surgeon, he has just the bankroll she needs to keep her in the lifestyle that her credit card debt has helped her grow accustomed to. Samaria joins New Mercies Christian Church to get close to Gregory’s wife. If she gets to know Angelina Preston, she can become like her in more than just looks, and really work her way into Greg’s heart.

Angelina Preston’s life is filled with a successful career and busy ministry work, but something’s just not right with her marriage. Late nights, early meetings, lipstick- and perfume-stained shirts have her suspicious that Greg is doing a little more operating than she’d like. But does she have the strength to confront the only man she’s ever loved and risk losing him to the other woman

Just when Samaria thinks she’s got it all figured out, she finds herself drawn to Angelina’s kindness. Will she be able to carry out her plan after she finds herself yearning for the one thing she’s never had . . . the friendship of a woman?

The book is available for pre-order by clicking HERE.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rhonda McKnight is the owner of Legacy Editing, a free-lance editing service for fiction writers and Urban Christian Fiction Today, a popular Internet site that highlights African-American Christian fiction. She’s a member of Faith Based Fiction Writers of Atlanta. When she’s not editing projects, teaching workshops about writing or penning her next novel, she spends time with her family. Originally from a small, coastal town in New Jersey, she’s called Atlanta, Georgia home for twelve years. Visit the author online at http://www.rhondamcknight.net/.

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An Inconvenient Friend by Rhonda McKnight

An Inconvenient Friend, coming August 1st.

It seems like just yesterday Secrets and Lies was released and suddenly I was plunged into the world of being a published author. Exciting, exhilarating, exhausting ...all rewarding.

The first time I saw my novel in finished form it arrived at my house in a box with two others that I'd ordered from Barnes and Nobles.com. I knew what the cover looked like, but I didn't know what the final book would look like, feel like, the page count, all those details. So when it came and I held it, I had the answers to all those questions. I got on my knees and said, "I'm published." I cried. I thanked God. A life long dream had been fulfilled.

Well now I embark to cross over yet another threshold. The published get more published. My sophomore novel, An Inconvenient Friend will be released on August 1st. It's about one of the characters from Secrets and Lies and while it's not a sequel, I think the readers of Secrets and Lies will be very interested to find out where Samaria Jacobs turns up next. Here's a little about An Inconvenient Friend:

Samaria Jacobs has her sights set on Gregory Preston. A successful surgeon, he has just the bankroll she needs to keep her in the lifestyle that her credit card debt has helped her grow accustomed to. Samaria joins New Mercies Christian Church to get close to Gregory’s wife. If she gets to know Angelina Preston, she can become like her in more than just looks, and really work her way into Greg’s heart.

Angelina Preston’s life is filled with a successful career and busy ministry work, but something’s just not right with her marriage. Late nights, early meetings, lipstick- and perfume-stained shirts have her suspicious that Greg is doing a little more operating than she’d like. But does she have the strength to confront the only man she’s ever loved and risk losing him to the other woman?
Just when Samaria thinks she’s got it all figured out, she finds herself drawn to Angelina’s kindness. Will she be able to carry out her plan after she finds herself yearning for the one thing she’s never had . . . the friendship of a woman?
 
Here's the book video:




Click Here to Read an excerpt and pre-order your copy today at Amazon and Barnes and Nobles.

I appreciate the support and I'd love to here from you on the Guest book at my website http://www.rhondamcknight.net/

Blessings,