Anatomy of a Plot - Black Gold

Femi & Jessica!  -------------------A young, unassuming couple gets swept into international       intrigue by an           unscrupulous conglomerate Lecture hall - Cà Foscari University,
Venice, where the couple met.
Black Gold was an interesting read. Cerebral at times, emotional too, but an accurate portrayal of life at all times! Themes that held me throughout the novel were:

Jessica Rhodes & Femi Adeola
     The interracial marriage —the joy of being free to choose, the pain of the disruption of relationships, of outgrowing one’s family, and of missing loved ones who no longer understand who you have become. The pain of knowing you cannot go back, that “Home” is no longer your home.

    The unsettling environment of “the first ‘real job,’” of being easy prey for the pawn movers, and knowing there is little you can do to protect or defend yourself.
The plot centers around how two brilliant but impulsive university students find each other from opposite sides of the globe, and how these naive “babes in the woods” navigate the treacherous waters of the corporate world while keeping their relationship intact. The pacing of the storyline fits with the topic—no slow slogging parts! 
A waterfront view of Lagos
where the blackmail scene is set The characters —Kudos to the author, the characters walk off the page, from Femi and Jessica to the cigar-puffing corporate CEO, and the confused parents who grieved, watching their son walk away with his foreign bride.
The writing —I find the writing excellent. Sam is able to draw word pictures that make a reader “see” the image the author has in his mind. Although the reader might sometimes feel distanced from the action on the page, almost as if he were in the narrator’s head, now and then the author drops the reader right in the center of the emotion of the characters. For example, the scene depicting Femi’s shock when he realized the job he had was not the one he had signed up for—the moment he became aware of his precarious situation, the sudden realization of how unscrupulous his boss was, and how he could do nothing to stop the train he was on. That scene was palpable! The editing was also excellent—no typo distractions or grammar confusions. I appreciate a clean read.
Reviewed by
Carol A. Brown
Retired Educator | Midwest USA
                                             Movie Book Trailer - Black Gold
               

Rosie Amber  
Roses are Amber Book Club“I like the trouble this interracial marriage caused when the couple met Femi’s parents and I enjoy the scenes set in Italy; the author’s knowledge of the country make them believable. He also puts his poetic ability to good use and there are lots of examples of this in the descriptive sections.” 


Venice - Home of Cà Foscari University“Black Gold is chock-full of lyrical imagery and metaphors. Frequently, the result is beautiful.” - J.W. George | Author
“The language is flowery and evocative. Every scene, every setting, every action, every emotion, is described in luxurious detail, with perhaps more similes than I’ve ever encountered in a single novel.” – Dave Saari | Retired Aerospace Engineer

A Novelist with the Heart of a Poet
Augustine Sam - Journalist | Author | Poet“Literature must be relevant to its times. It must be both timely and timeless. It must resonate with the people and the period in which it is set, and contribute to the discourse, political or otherwise, as well as put events in their proper historical and social contexts. It is my belief that fiction, used properly, can be a very effective vehicle for expounding on real-life issues. And they don't necessarily have to be politically correct.”