Black Rainbow

When she met musician Levi Black at a random bar and agreed to have a full week of no-strings-attached sex , Thea Cunning had no idea Levi was actually Massachusetts' number one hot-shot criminal lawyer and her law professor - and the man she has become infatuated with despite their initial agreement.As the semester starts and they stare into each others' eyes the first time since their 1 week fling, realization suddenly kicks in. It is especially hard to bear given the fact that neither of them could shake this feeling off that there might be something more between them.But for Thea, this infatuation can absolutely not get in the way of her goal: learning from the best lawyer in the state to finally get her father out of jail.What I loved about this book:The unexpected twists and turns after the initial discoveryThe characters and their development along the storyThe very varied and meaningful side-charactersWhat I felt needed improvement:The editing. The book was full of mistakes, missing words and incorrect punctuation!Black Rainbow is my first J.J. McAvoy book and the hype around Black Rainbow was exceptional, so I thought I would give it a go. And frankly, there's nothing I love more than a good student/teacher romance - which actually changes into an office romance! Yes, I am a sucker for forbidden romance - what can I say?The characters really did not disappoint. Thea was definitely a very strong and unusual character, as she was black in ever sense of the way: from her ethnicity to her feelings, she oozes black. The only thing that has her lighting up is her sister, who she loves more than anything, and her resolve in getting her wrongfully convicted father out of jail, and out of death row, given that no lawyer is interested in taking up his case. Now Levi was as interesting a character as Thea. He's extremely intelligent, a self-made man and lawyer, with a soft side and great guitar-playing skills.And with killer looks, too. "Looking him over, I noticed he was wearing a simple pajama and a light cotton shirt... but he also had glasses on. Even when he wasn't trying to be sexy, he was sexy."Levi used to be a player, not interested in long-term relationships after his divorce from a cheating wife, but meeting Thea and spending a week with her changes him, and he looses his resolve. Even though she and him agreed on a one-week stand only, he can't stop thinking of her afterward.Now as far as the story is concerned. It was extremely good and full of suspense. Of course, the fact that Thea and Levi's relationship turns out to be appropriate was pretty much predictable from the blurb. But what wasn't predictable at all was both their reaction to the revelation. "Things like this didn't happen to me. I worked hard, had a few hook ups here and there, and then I went back to work. But never n my life had I been so infatuated with someone."When he notices that Thea is actually his student, Levi plays some pretty fucked-up mind tricks, and does what he can to kick her out. Because rumor has it that a few weeks into the semester, Levi usually narrows down the class attendance to 12 students, his twelve disciples, who will follow his heels throughout his cases to gain some practical insight. His dirty tricks include making her a target for other competitive students and dishing out her intimate confessions on her family and past. "Levi Black. You are such a f.ing sadist."Knowing that he still has feelings for her, he believes it's best to get rid of her altogether because he hates the feeling of loosing control. However, Thea has her own agenda and desperately needs to make it through this class - with out without him, no matter how hard he is treating her. And given her stubborn personality, she's pretty brilliant at what she does, so Levi won't get rid of her so soon. Nevertheless, as they work closely on his various cases, it's difficult to tell whose resolve will snap first. "When you find out that someone you care about was hurt, how do you help them? How do you help them after pouring salt into their wounds."So yes, the storyline and the character development here was absolutely great (this also includes the strong side characters). One thing that annoyed me tremendously though, was the lack of quality in the editing (not the writing). I found a lot of grammatical errors - missing punctuation, missing words, two verbs in the same sentence but in a different tense - at every 3rd pageturn or so you would find a least one or two editing mistakes, and especially towards the end. Now given the buzz around this book and the author, and the fact that I was reading a purchased copy (and not an ARC) - I would have expected better editing quality...In the end, the way things fell into place or were uncovered felt slightly too coincidental, which leaves the reader second guessing (even though not for long) Thea's motives. I would have enjoyed an added twist don't urn in the story around just that, and how either her fellow students or Levi/his partner Tristan start wondering if Thea was not evil-mindededly using them. But then again Black Rainbow was definitely awesome and did not lack depth or suspense at any moment or page.I will give this book the full 5 stars rating because the characters and the story were really good, but I would very much advise the author to do some more editing because the mistakes were almost so annoying that they cost this rating a star...

It was great to see the author building the characters and how their love for each other developed. My only problem was the editing. Words missing, bad grammar. Was distracting.

Small rant: So, I got this book for 99 cent and it's been sitting on my kindle for months. Deciding that it was worth reading, I popped it open (I'm not sure if anyone else buys random 99 cent books and let's them hover in the titles section...) and woah!I'm normally particular about IR, it is a difficult slope one that many authors black and white should not transverse, especially when the heroine is a woman of color. I've noticed lots of authors have capitalised on having a beige girl with light eyes or a biracial heroine as a method of pleasing black women thus making more coinage but this book...Let me tell you, I'm not a goodreads emoji, book boyfriend type of person, but I'm officially smitten with both Levi and Thea! And she's actually tall and brown and seems kinda well...black (Thank heavens)!My gosh, where to begin. It started bizarre for me, with a fling. I normally hate flings at the front of a romance, hate sex before the characters meld unless an annoying secret baby or dead spouse or old friendship is involved, strangers especially in the interracial category normally get no dice, because I'm tired of black women being made tawdry while some innocent porcelain-skinned girl is giving her virginity to a billionaire somewhere off in booklandia. But the device that normally reaps annoyance in my case, because it doesn't allow natural chemistry totally worked in this particular novel.And then there is Levi, oh gosh! He's sensitive strong, edgy sexy witty and can handle Thea. He's wealthy but doesn't buy crazy items or swoop them off to unbelievable locals, sleep around or act like a total nutcase. He's jealous within reason, real issues involving age, position of authority and race are brought to the fore. He's totally in it, he's willing to take risks for love, he's just a wonderfully developed character with dignity, respect and good supporting characters around him. I felt the same way about Thea, she's a person who carries other people's burdens on her back, and does emotional heavy-lifting that makes her feel authentically black, as a black woman I can say this, she felt like many women I know, willing to sacrifice everything for those she loved, her family. Levi understands this, loves her for it, loves her hard and in an untamed way, often putting off old traits and attributes he has in relationships to assure and comfort Thea. This isn't a weak simpering heroine, this is a woman who lives in a world that makes being a woman hard as heck and he presses down just enough, pushes her upward, carries some of the load and doesn't make a huge deal of it. They have so much chemistry and are totally loveable. Speaking of which, the sisters of the book his and hers are so bomb.com and even the baby of the story acts its age, no special tricks (a silly detail but how many precocious babies are in romance- like so many).This couple works, Levi's natural fears and inclinations make sense, Thea's natural fears and inclinations make sense. If you are a romance writer read this book and take notes on character development. I understood everyone, Atticus and Vivian, Selene and so on...it was just terrific and hot and not smutty because there was so much love behind everything. There was also romance and sweetness and beauty and wonderful book references.I recommend this book to anyone, especially IR lovers with BW heroines, for the people who can't handle BW heroines okay, whatever you have to admit this is a pretty darn good book.For people who are really into envisioning the characters I'd say it's a little difficult to see their features heroine and hero, she gives you just enough space to see things you want in the characters faces, but the hero always reminds us how beautiful the heroine is.Warning: Some of the love scenes are a little awkward as language goes, not sure some of the comic book words like, "slam" are effective, had to knock off a star for that.I might check out more books by this author, if Bethan has a book I'm gonna check it out. Wonderful Black Rainbow!

I must really praise J.J. McAvoy for including POC girls in her story, not only has she done this numerous times, but they are also the main characters too! It's so rare that brown girls can read/watch something where the main character looks like you, does not play into negative stereotypes and could actually be a positive role model. So thanks J.J.I really enjoyed how this book was written with the changing male/female perspectives. It's not often you find a romance written in a male POV that doesn't use clichés. I also have to shout out the characterisation of Thea, as she is a well educated feminist black girl who is also sex positive. How rare is that in the literary/real world?The only negatives I can think of, is that there are a few grammatical errors that I picked up on. But, I felt that I could over look this just because the characterisation was on point, as was the plot.Some people on here commented that some of the legal aspects were a bit unrealistic, but I can't really attest to how realistic it was, as I'm not American, so I don't really know all that much about their legal system bar watching the odd episode of 'Suits', (but that's so dramatic I can't even).Any way, this book flows nicely, making for a good lazy Sunday read, which I often do pick up and reread when I'm in a book slump. 5/5

This is honestly one of the best NA books I've ever read. Well developed characters, an amazing plot, good writing- highly recommend you read this one!

Don't get me wrong, it was a good read, it lacked a bit in the story line for me though.

What a fantastic read!This was my second read by JJ McAvoy and i want to read and devour everything shes now ever written! She just manages to get me hooked in her words so easily i never want to leave.This is the story of Levi and Thea who meet accidently one night in a bar going on to have a 1 night stand... that moves onto a week long stand... what happens when their paths cross again in the most unexpected place you could imagine?!?!Emotions.. conflict.... angst and above all else some love thrown in.Love how all the characters are in this book... would def recommend to everyone to read.

Black Rainbow by JJ McAvoy3 stars!!“You are not a black rainbow. I see every one of your colors. You may have been one once, but you sure as hell aren’t one now.”This was my first read by JJ McAvoy and it won’t be my last, despite the rating. This book had the potential to be a four star read easily but for me my reader enjoyment was spoiled by a book littered with editing and proof reading errors. Normally one or two I can let slide but this book had so many it became a distraction and totally spoiled my enjoyment of what was turning out to be a great story.Thea was a strong character on the outside, she was a budding lawyer and was in law school at Harvard and was determined to succeed and she certainly had the heritage to make it. She had the best professor in the business and needed in to his group the twelve disciples. Every year Professor Black wheedled his class down to the last twelve standing and those twelve went to work at his firm and learned first hand how to become a lawyer. It was an elite group and she needed it more than the others. She was fiercely determined and vowed to succeed by any means necessary. She had that tenacity to succeed and I could see her making a fantastic lawyer, she had that fight.“To me, she is The Shark because she eats her young.”Levi Black made a great male lead in this book, he was cocky, he was arrogant…fantastic traits for a lawyer especially a good looking, smoking hot one!! I loved him with a passion. He had never lost in the court room, another string to his bow and of course another boost to his already huge ego, but he could back it up. Professor Black was intense; he didn’t take fools lightly and was determined to skim the crème de la crème from his classes. While he was a hard a**e he was fair to those that put in the time and effort and showed him they had ability. He wanted to help them succeed.I do love my court room books and to see the workings of court cases behind the scenes and their trains of thought was highly amusing and interesting to say the least. While I thought that the author used some artistic license in amongst these court cases it didn’t bother me at all, I thoroughly enjoyed what I was reading and read it for what it was.I loved the way the author defined her characters, we do not have the stereotypical leads here. As I said above, Levi was the cocky, arrogant git, but underneath he had that vulnerable side and romantic side and wasn’t afraid to show it, he put himself out there despite the consequences. For him, what he felt for Thea had never happened before and despite the initial tooing and froing, he realised that this was something worth fighting for and he put his neck on the line to get it. Thea on the other hand didn’t really show any emotion at all, at least not in the beginning. She was extremely closed off, but she had her reasons. She had her goals and nothing was going to stop her from obtaining them, not even the distraction of a smoking hot professor…until that distraction becomes an all-consuming obsession.I loved the relationship that Levi and Thea had; they complimented each other brilliantly and were just what the other needed. Their relationship was believable and I was championing for them to succeed. Sometimes you just meet the right person at the wrong time but sometimes the wrong time can become the right time if you want it hard enough.“Star light, star bright, the many stars I see tonight, I wish I may, I wish I might, keep this girl for the rest of my life.”I am not going to go into the plot at all, because there are some twists and turns that you need to experience for yourself. This book was perfectly balanced with wit and humour throughout along with the hot and steamy and the twists and turns. It made for a page turning read.“This could be my first loss, I thought bitterly to myself, as I watched her walk away.”As I said above, if it wasn’t for the plethora of errors this would have easily been a four star read, but I did really enjoy the story none the less.