Young-Minded Hustler

by Tysha

The determination Shy McGee has to protect her family mirrors that of a mama bear protecting her cubs. When the police kill her husband, Melvin, in the presence of their young son, Shy becomes a single mother trying to raise boys to men. At seventeen, Prince is young, angry and focused on claiming his birthright and reign as king of the hustle on the streets of Youngstown, Ohio. Shy has his back.
Cherise and Shy are best friends. The only life lesson Cherise has taught her son Raequan is how to run hustles to get what he wants out of life. Cherise and Raequan grow tired of watching the McGee family prosper while they remain at a standstill.
When Prince and his identical twin brother Jayden come under gunfire and the wrong brother takes the hit, Shy fights to find out who the mastermind behind the incident was.
When Shy learns of the deceit perpetrated on her twins, it will be discovered just how far Shy is willing to go to protect her Young Minded Hustler in training.

288 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2012

About the author

Tysha is a native of Youngstown, OH and grew up on the same gritty streets she speaks of in her urban tales. Her first published work, BOSSY is featured in Street Chronicles Girls In The Game. Tyshas novel, THE BOSS a story of a female hustler, was released in February 2008 through Urban Books. She has also has Keepin it in the Family, her contribution to the Around the Way Girls 5 anthology. Look for the Christian Fiction anthology; Even Sinners Have Souls, Too with a short story titled, Ghetto Luv coming May 2009. "

Reviews

[Hyacinth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was crazy good. I haven't quite wrapped my head around this book's genre but this one was a great into to the gritty and grimy of the urban world. Melvin was a man on top of the world. He loved his wife and his twin boys. After that, it goes to the dogs. Cherise and Raequan were a cold piece.I loved the relationship between Prince, Jayden and Quincy, even little Princess seemed realistic. A lot of the drama I did not see coming. I have a whole new appreciation for Shy though. I don't even know how I happened upon this book, I just know I'm glad I did,

[Stephen]

young-minded hustler
New York City libraries have lots of "Urban Fiction" (it has its own section) so I thought I'd see what it was like. I just grabbed this one at random. It's kinda how you might expect from the title a blurb - a story of drug dealers and their family. Prison, police, corruption. The code of the streets. Drug dealing, double-crossing. The plot was a fairly standard soap-opera-ish, crime series type affair (with twins, as a hook for this particular one). There are a lot of female characters, including the lead - an urban mother with teen sons, which I'm guessing may be, roughly, the dominant demographic of the intended audience. To me, it felt like a crime-themed romance novel.

There's quite a moral ambiguity here - many of the drug dealers are depicted as essentially good. The police, and other public employees, are also mostly good, hard-working and are even sympathetic to the "good" criminals. The good guys and bad guys are very clearly delineated, just not along lines of legality.

In fact, that's one of the most jarring things about the novel - the protagonists, even if doing bad things, are sympathetically portrayed, with good motives; the villains only have bad characteristics and the very basest of motives. And these are often overly explained, sometimes in slightly stilted dialogue. That got a bit much at times.

One interesting thing was that the author put references to her and her books, and also her sons and their music careers into the books. They didn't actually appear, but characters referred to them. It was kinda amusing.

There was a bit of poor editing toward the end of the book - one set of events was described in contradictory ways; there was some weird repetition. Looming deadline? Not a big deal.

I'm not drawing too many conclusions from this one book, and doubt I'll be exploring much further. Still - interesting.

[Shonda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book it was a page turner but i didnt like how it ended

[Sheryl Boyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book! It held my attention from beginning to end.

[Amyr · Rating 4 out of 5]

well written, dope plot, good read all the way.

[Natash · Rating 5 out of 5]

really good read, first time reading a book my this author. I would love to read more.

[Tonikia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good read, started out a little bit all of the place,but after chapter 4 it was Great!