Heart Of Kings

by Fanchon Stylezz

Taliyah Russo seems to be living the perfect middle class suburban life: supportive parents, good school, devoted friends…but appearances can be deceiving, and when her family’s dark secrets come to light, the façade of perfection crumbles. Taliyah leaves Long Island to live with her grandmother in Red Hook Brooklyn, where she meets two mysterious, treacherous but alluring men who vie for her attention. Avery spends lavishly on her, wooing Taliyah with designer clothes, fast cars, and expensive jewelry. Demarco offers a sympathetic ear when she needs to vent.

Caught up in the middle of a twisted love triangle, things get explosive when Taliyah ultimately makes the decision to recklessly ignore the rules of love and keep them both. Turning to these men for the love and support she feels her family has withdrawn, she is quickly pulled into a sordid underworld of drugs, theft and prostitution. As her life spirals out of control, Taliyah searches desperately for a way out of her increasingly perilous situation. A dangerous face-off between the two men results in tragedy for Taliyah. Will she survive to find freedom and love, or is it too late?

214 pages, Paperback

First published April 6, 2014

Reviews

[Tina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Taliyah Russo thought her suburban life was the personification of perfection; unfortunately, like many times in life, appearances can be deceiving. When faced with an overwhelming secret that her family has been keeping from her, she needs to forget about her comfortable lifestyle in Long Island and move to Brooklyn and live with her grandmother. In Heart of Kings by Fanchon Stylezz, Taliyah has a lot of trouble adjusting to the new changes and to her family’s reality. With only one friend to help her, the girl falls into the luxurious trap of designer clothes, fast cars, and expensive living when she meets two men, one that appears to be her salvation, her knight in shining armor and the other the person that she can be herself around, and that will always listen to her. Taliyah has never been interested in men and the attention they gave her and now she has fallen for not one, but two apparently perfect men. As the story unfolds, the inexperienced suburban teenager will find herself lost in a world of damnation masked under material benefits and shallow rewards.

Heart of Kings is an emotional roller-coaster, taking readers from the innocence of young Taliyah to the cold-hearted person she becomes once she is involved in things beyond her comprehension. Fanchon Stylezz wrote a powerful journey of trust and deceit, love and hate, family bounds and loneliness, a story that once you start reading you will not be able to let go. As Taliyah's journey moves forward, even though there are moments when you envision the ending, you can’t help but wish for a happy ever after for this young lady, who, without the help and understanding of a loving family, lost track of who she was and most importantly, who she wants to become.

Apart from its literary value, the book is a wonderful life lesson for us all, no matter our age or place of birth; it shows us how things can go wrong only because you once had a few seconds of bad decisions and can’t figure out how to get back on track. It is a lesson on the importance of family and the deceiving facades of love and wealth.(Reviewed for Readers' Favorite)

[Timia J Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am going to do a thorough review on my Youtube channel but all in all it was an interesting tell. It was a head spinner. I moved through it quickly. I have so much to say about it but I will leave that for the review!

Fanchon you did a good job! Hope their are more stories to come!