Playing Hard to Get Book

From the Essence© bestselling author of Take Her Man comes a chic page-turner starring the 3Ts—Tamia, Troy, and Tasha—three New York City "It Girls" whose lives are about to be turned upside down...

Gorgeous, sophisticated, and successful, Tamia is a sister that can't be stopped. With her career as an attorney on the rise, and her millionaire boyfriend about to propose—Tamia has it all. But then she meets Malik, a sexy Harlem brother who pushes all her buttons, and makes Tamia second-guess everything in her life. Love struck for this bad boy with a cause, Tamia's on a mission to convince Malik to stop playing hard to get and come along for the ride...

Meanwhile, since she married a pastor, Troy has gone from smokin' hottie to Bible-quoting church lady. Everyone thinks Troy is happy until some dirty secrets turn Troy's life—and marriage—upside down...

As the wife of a pro basketball player and mother of three, Tasha has traded her fabulous big city life for the suburbs. Bored and starving for some action, Tasha's desires spin out of control, and she finds that being the new "It Girl" has its drawbacks...

Funny and soulful, Playing Hard to Get is a novel of passion, friendship, and finding yourself without losing everything you love...

Praise for Grace Octavia

"Funny and sexy." —Essence® on Take Her Man

"Octavia weaves an extraordinary tale." —Romantic Times on His First Wife

Publishers Weekly

Returning to BAP (Black American Princess) best friends the 3Ts--Tamia, Tasha, and Troy--Octavia (Take Her Man) presents a satisfying New York story of friendship, romance, and getting the hang of adulthood. All three begin with relationship problems: Tamia has found success and happiness as an attorney, but she's troubled by her going-nowhere affair with Charleston, a wealthy malpractice lawyer; Tasha, now a married mother of two, harbors worries about her high-profile marriage to New York Knicks superstar Lionel; and Troy, now first lady of Harlem's First Baptist Church, is discovering cracks in her marriage that she's uncertain can be healed--at least not by prayer. Predictably, the sticky challenges bring the "Classy Girls" closer than ever, even as fulfilling solutions seem just out of reach, edging them closer to disillusionment and dismay. When she sticks to the narrative, Octavia gives Sex and the City a smart Afrocentric update, but she interrupts her story too often with distracting (though occasionally funny) self-help-style asides ("25 Classy-Girl Rules of Class Action") and glossary-style footnotes. (July)