Jackson, who self-published his first novel, Destiny's Cry
, returns with the story of an inspirational speaker's mental anguish and its eventual alleviation through God and true love. Golden-voiced Jermaine Hill seems to have it all—fame, riches, beautiful women who can't wait to bed him, an "onyx-black" Escalade—but in fact he's so depressed he can't stop thinking about killing himself. He's still mourning the nine-year-old loss of his two best friends in a car crash, and he can't get over the irony that fame can bring isolation and emptiness. Light at the end of the tunnel comes in the form of Candace Clark, the gorgeous freelance writer who's arrived in Hollywood to profile Jermaine for a small but promising African-American magazine. Their budding romance is predictable and formulaic, but the plotting perks up when their relationship is exposed by Chantal Dixon, the tabloid gossip columnist who hires a detective to trail the couple and ends up capturing Hill's suicide attempt on camera. Jackson fails to follow through on the potential of his story line: Hill's near-instantaneous religious epiphany feels rushed, not to mention designed primarily to get him into Candace's arms for the inevitable happy ending. Clichéd scenes, stock characters and amateurish writing make this a novel better appreciated for its Christian message than its uninspired storytelling. (Jan.)
