Street Level: An Urban Fairytale

by Karyn Langhorne

Book Overview

Ex-gangbanger Thea kicked thug life to the curb when her testimony put her ex-lover, the brutal kingpin Jango, in prison. Now she's giving back to the streets she came from, running her own business... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 006074782X
• ISBN13: 9780060747824
• Release Date: June 2005
• Publisher: HarperTorch
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 4.2" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Originally Posted on Romance Junkies in 2005

For Thea Morris, having visions and feeling propelled to act on them is more than just a job-it's a way of life. Sure, she may hang a neon "Psychic" sign outside her door; after all, Thea and her best friend, Chandra Grayer, really do run a business called Gangsta Psychic out of the first floor of the house they live in. With Thea's very real visions about the future, and Chandra's no-nonsense attitude, the two women have built a niche for themselves in a community that's too close to poverty and gangs for comfort. The only problem with the set-up is Thea's deep-seated desire to act on her visions. If a psychic flash brings thoughts of a beating, of a drug deal gone bad, of a gang of baddies determined to bring death and destruction to a rival group-Thea feels it's in her nature to act upon the God-given vision and do something to help her fellow man. Armed only with Maurice, her gun, for protection, Thea sets out into some of the meanest neighborhoods in town to save those who might still have a chance of survival. Now Thea has more problems than just taking care of victims, because this time she might become one herself. Jango, a former Crew gang-leader, is out for revenge-especially on the woman he once thought of as his, who turned out to be a traitor to his cause. Now Thea's fighting for her life, fighting to save the youth on the streets, and fighting her attraction to a new man in her life. STREET LEVEL offers the tag line of "an urban fairytale," and the label is a good one. Good versus evil, drug dealers versus the FBI, psychics versus everyday average people, and the strength of a mother in the face of danger to her child, are all part of this engaging novel. Kudos to Ms. Langhorne for a book that looks into the cultural side of African-Americans and shows that just like with any race, there is always good, and there is always bad. With this action-adventure romantic tale, STREET LEVEL hits home on every level.

Ode to Maurice

Okay, I ventured from my normal reading genre last year to try out Karyn Langhorne's A PERSONAL MATTER. I found her writing to be crisp, her characters life-like, and her storytelling abilities impeccable. All this in a romance novel, a genre I don't usually read. Well, Ms. Langhorne is back and better than ever with her genre-bending masterpiece, STREET LEVEL. Loved it! Loved it! I was sold the moment "Maurice" graced the pages, making this unlikely (object--you have to read the book to know what I'm talking about) a character. In a romance novel? Wow. The characters had the right amount of upper crust sensibilities, or street level credibility, depending on who Ms. Langhorne brought to the stage. At the heart, STREET LEVEL is about a reformed gang-banging female ex-con, Thea, and her paranormal ability to see things unseen to most. These abilities bring her to the aid of an elite, wealthy, and mysterious man, out late in a part of DC he shouldn't be in, getting the head-or-gut treatment from some local thugs. Vanishing into the night after saving the mysterious man, Thea believes she'll return to business as usual. Of course, that ain't happening. Soon, she's running for her life, while also providing guardianship to a angry but intelligent teen boy, trying to escape payback from a long-ago lover out for revenge. Sistahgirl Thea had dropped the dime on her brutal ex-lover, Jango, sending him to prison years before. Now he's out, and out to get her. Where to turn? The mysterious man she'd saved from that late night head bashing. Their journey together of survival, self-awareness, and redemption is some of the flat out best writing you'll encounter on the pages of a novel. Thea's evolving relationship with the teen boy is both heartwarming and real to the bone. Langhorne captures teen angst so well I can imagine her bopping her head to Jay-Z and Mike Jones, Mike Jones, Mike Jones while she writes. My admiration and respect for Ms. Langhorne's bodacious writing abilities rose several more notches after STREET LEVEL. To pull off what she did in this book, which was so different from the type of book she'd already completed with A PERSONAL MATTER, was courageous and remarkably impressive. Call me a fan for life. Wonderful, wonderful novel. Cop it.

exhilarating dark paranormal romantic suspense

In DC the vicious 52nd Street Crew led by prison escapee Jango, a local fief, rules the neighborhood through violence. Currently the gang is mugging Guy Brooks until former Ranger Thea Morris led here by her psychic skills rescues the battered victim. He calls her his angel, but she says she is a Ghetto Cinderella who needs to leave before the cops arrive. Jango is coming for Thea while she protects a child from him and his crew and searches for the boy' missing mother. Her goals are to send the abusive gang lord back to prison and reunite mother and son. Her visions paint a deadlier landscape that contains no happily ever after as she and Guy appear inside Jango's torture chamber. She concludes that to protect the man she believes she loves she must keep him at all costs out of her showdown with Jango, but Guy refuses to heed her pushing him aside as he needs to be at the side of his princess. This is an exhilarating dark paranormal romantic suspense with the emphasis on the action that culminates in a contemporary gender bending High Noon. The story line leaps from one action scene to another while readers never quite catch their breath as we root for the fabulous protagonist, whose prime ally is Maurice the 9 mm to defeat her evil adversary. As the author did with A PERSONAL MATTER, Karyn Langhorne provides a strong deep urban tale that this time looks at STREET LEVEL life. Harriet Klausner