Washington, D.C. and St. Louis, Columbia - Present Day

Renee is married, the mother of two teenage children, and a published author of erotica. Her husband, John, is successful and provides her a life of financial security, but does not satisfy her emotional, sexual, or spiritual needs. As Renee becomes more dissatisfied with her life, she realizes that she has to make a choice between a lifestyle she has grown accustomed to, and beginning again on her own.

Danielle is an LPN and the mother of one daughter named Portia. Danielle likes her men young and good-looking. It does not matter if they do not have a job and are irresponsible, she cannot kick her loving thug-like men habit, plus, her daughter has a tendency to lie a lot; as a result, Danielle’s life is full of drama. When Portia announces that she is pregnant, Danielle is floored, but when she announces who the father is, Danielle does not know what or whom to believe.

Kayla is raising two adolescent girls on her own and is a good Christian woman. Overweight and with low self-esteem, she longs to find a man who will love her for who she is and not just what she looks like. Kayla thought she has found this when she embarked on a four-year affair with her church’s married Deacon, Leroy Brown. It is too good to be true, and it turns out it is, but ending her affair is not as easy as Kayla thinks it will be.

When Renee flies in from Washington to spend some time with her oldest and best friends, Danielle and Kayla, there is a whole lot of trouble going on. Renee, being the leader, sets out to make everything right, but things do not go according to plan.

In TROUBLE LOVES COMPANY, Renee is strong, selfish, and sassy. Danielle is competent but is stretched to her emotional limit, and Kayla is warm, loving, passive, and just too forgiving for her own good. First and foremost, Angie Daniels is a talented writer, her characters' voices are strong, and from the opening page, readers will be drawn into the story. But the choices that these women make wore out my sympathy and my interest in them. Ms. Daniels brings up some serious issues like physical abuse, teen pregnancy, infidelity, and date rape, but in the end they are simply plot points there to only entertain, titillate, and maybe even shock some readers. If part of the purpose of TROUBLE LOVES COMPANY is to have these women, in the end, grow and change, then it failed.

In the spectrum of African-American fiction, there is room for all kinds of stories and to reflect different parts of the black experience. TROUBLE LOVES COMPANY is one of them. This book was in no shape or form to my taste, but I recognize and want to acknowledge Ms. Daniels talent as a writer and her audience for this story. There is obviously going to be another story involving this trio, so there is still more to Danielle, Renee and Kayla’s story.

Nickole Yarbrough