Rating: 
Summary: I Ain't Mad at Ya!!!!!
Review: A beautifully written book. Decisions, Decisions. Max has ISSUES and besides he's SPECIAL!! Great decision Samone. YOU GO, GIRL! If after four years Max don't get it, then just maybe he'll get it on the way home. MOVE!! Samone's endured enough, and Max you are "OOPS, OUT OF TIME" is the way I see it!! Jon Everette was a man after my own heart. You just gotta respect him. You want it, you go get it. That what I say!! I ain't MAD at ya, Samone Lewis!!! life is just too short.
Rating: 
Summary: Love Can Be Complicated!
Review: Again, Margaret Johnson-Hodge has done it. "The Real Deal" is witty, funny and touching. Provacative in a sense that love really does not have a color, time or space of when to appear and take over. This book proves that. The search for love sometimes doesn't require a search at all is and always has been in front of our face staring at us waiting for realization. Love only needs a chance to grow if we give it the space it requires and the chance it's asking for. I highly recommend "The Real Deal" and "A New Day" for anyone who is looking for earthy, witty, funny writing.
Rating: 
Summary: an ok story but could had been better
Review: all i want to know is what happened to jon and samone..i mean i kept turning pages but i didnt read nothing else. i was so disappointed because it sounded like a really good book. and to find that a lot of things didnt do as well as it should had. i didnt care about the abortion part...because it was weak. i mean come on...poor max knew she was pregnant but what? im confuse..and then jon loves this woman unconditionally and then what? he leaves a woman who respected him and spent time with him for her selfish behind. i mean i was confuse...yeah love is blind...but it doesnt have to be stupid and jon love for samone wasnt strong enough to convince me that he loved her unconditionally and vice versa to samone. i just wish it had more details in it than how it just was left like that...blank.
Rating:
Summary: It was great!
Review: Being a New Yorker the fact that this book was set in New York was great(easier to imagine the scenerey because I live here). The plot, the reaction of Symone at the 1st thought of going out with a white man is so real...been there done that(still doin it.)! But really the book was so realistic I felt like I was Symone. It was suspensful but not drawn out to long. It was excellent.
Rating:
Summary: PERFECT PEOPLE NEED STAY AWAY
Review: For the rest of us regular folks who have struggled with love, doing the wrong thing versus the right thing; for those of us who loved too long and did not let go of somebody soon enough. For those of us who ran away from a good thing until there was no place else to run, and managed to turn around and accept the goodness that was in front of us, then read this book. I read some of the comments before I read this book and then again after. Realized those who couldn't stand the main character, who seemed real irate with her were either perfect people who never got anything wrong, or was on their way to some Jesus like state, loosing what makes us human in the process. Every book ain't for everybody, but this books sure nuff was for me. And I just wanted to say you Ms. Hodge go on telling your stories cause there's folks out there like me who knows exactly where you're coming from and absolutely loved, understood and appreciated all that you had to say.
Rating:
Summary: Good Writing
Review: Good Writing and A Strong Main Character = a good rea
Rating:
Summary: GREAT STORY
Review: GREAT STORY, FAST READIN
Rating: 
Summary: What was the Deal in this book?
Review: How in the world do you explain investing 4 years of your life with someone and just because they are not ready to cross the line of marriage when you want them to, you get spiteful and go and have an abortion. How is it that you are so ungrateful to the fact that even though you are not married, Max is totally devoted to her, caters to her every whim, faithful to her, and she still isn't satisfied. How do you justify Max being dumped by Samone and not trying to fight for her after all of this time, and not confronting her regarding the pregnancy that was there until the day she goes to the abortion clinic. No man wants to see his unborn child be aborted regardless of the motives. It seems to me that these two people gave up on fighting for their relationship. In comes Jon and all of a sudden Samone can now find true love. She seems to have turned it on and off, just like water. I didn't enjoy this book nor did I care for the way she made Max seem weak.
Rating:
Summary: Where's the Substance?
Review: I am a fan of Sandra Kitt. I was hoping "The Real Deal" would be similar to her work, but it's far from it. This book lacked substance. We don't get a lot of character detail; so, we don't know what they're doing or why they're doing it. The principle character in the story is Simone, who is African American. She is somewhat selfish, indecisive, and just a little rough around the edges. Simone is obsessed with Max, also African American, who she has dated for a while. However, he doesn't care much for the idea of committing to her through marriage, which is what she truly craves from him. In the meantime Johnathan, who is White, and completely in awe of Simone, is waiting in the wings. Simone, on the other hand, isn't the least bit interested, or so it seems. Max is her one true love, or obsession. Something happens that divides her and Max even further apart and she ends up turning to Jon, who truly seems to have fallen hard for her. She eventually appears to fall for him, but things start getting complicated after that. Each person involved in this triangle doesn't seem to be satisfied with what they have. I'm not exactly sure if Simone was actually in love with Jon, or if she was just using him as a fill in for the person she really desired. I don't even know if I would call this a love story because I kept missing the love. Even the person you thought would be true to the relationship was involved in the game of ping pong partners. I just found it hard to like any of the principles in this book. Maybe the author should have spent a little more time working on developing the characters. After finishing the "The Real Deal" I'm not sure if there was supposed to be a happy ending or not. I found myself asking, "So, what happens now"?
Rating:
Summary: A BIG DISAPPOINTMENT
Review: I couldn't wait to read this book, wish I had. The characters were not believable. I have never introduced a boyfriend as my "lover", I'm still puzzled by that one. If you have read Sandra Kitt's The Color of Love or Close Encounters, you are going to want to skip this one, it doesn't compare.
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