A Belle in Brooklyn: The Go-to Girl for Advice on Living Your Best Single Life
By Demetria L. Lucas
BOOK DESCRIPTION
As the go-to girl for relationship and dating advice, this real life Carrie Bradshaw and (former) editor at Essence magazine shares the what-to-dos and what-not-to-dos for fabulous single living.
With a popular blog and an Essence magazine platform, Demetria Lucas has become a relationship guru to millions of young women with plenty of simple, direct advice. According to Lucas, most women are too focused (and stressed) on the difficulties of meeting Mr. Right to enjoy the experience.
A Belle in Brooklyn celebrates the joys of singlehood, encourages personal development, and offers tools to help women increase their odds of finding a suitable mate when they are ready for one. With advice garnered from personal revelations, expert interviews with other relationship and dating gurus, and hundreds of interviews with her Male MindSquad—a committee of thirty men from varying backgrounds who answers the tough questions about sex, dating, and relationships—Lucas helps women enjoy the single life…with or without the perfect guy.
People Are TALKING About A Belle in Brooklyn:
"Demetria's is a voice you can trust. She doesnt pretend to know it all, and who among us are actual experts of love, but shes an adventurer who takes notes. Consider her debut a necessary compass while navigating hostile and friendly dating terrain. — dream hampton
"A Belle in Brooklyn is fun, sexy, witty and captivating. Picture it as your no-holds bar girlfriend telling you a series of real life stories over cocktails. In the midst of her telling the dating stories that seem to only happen on TV, she drops golden gems of wisdom you apply to your life only if applicable. From page one you’re invested. Not because every detail about her life is relatable. Not even because you desperately desire advice on how to find love, which this book is not. You’re invested because the writing is just that damn good. Lucas shows us what Black women look like who live perfectly happy single lives. And she proves love is always attainable." —Vibe Vixen
"Lucas gives it straight no chaser. She provides brutally honest bits of her personal life–from a frightening sexual assault by a “friend” to laugh-out-loud/this-can’t-be-real-life moments (Suge Knight? Comedy.) to those so familiar and almost indescribable pangs of like, love and lust. Oh and for aspiring writers, the story of how she came to the job she has now is very interesting and noteworthy. Want to be great? Get in those 10,000 hours. Read up on your Malcolm Gladwell if you don’t catch that reference." — Madame Noire
"In this delicious memoir, Demetria takes us with her as she journeys through the complex terrain that comes with being a young, black, single woman who unabashedly claims all her stuff. “Belle” is a rollicking good read by a very hip sistuh with an old soul, and a sharp wit." — Marcia Ann Gillespie, author of Maya Angelou: A Glorious Celebration
"[A Belle in Brooklyn] is a fun, yet practical dating advice guide. Lucas is candid, confident, and curious, challenging common notions about dating and relationships. I fully support any means that helps promote open, honest and fearless conversation between men and women." —Hill Harper, author of The Conversation
"A relationship columnist who has devised rules black women should abide by when seeking a date. She advises them not to think about the dire statistics and well-publicized odds against them. Instead, focus on the possibilities." —Washington Post
A Belle in Brooklyn is like a warm hug and firm-but-thoughtful counsel from that girlfriend you trust unconditionally—honest, straight-no-chaser anecdotes and advice that implores each of us, whether single, looking or committed, to stop wasting time and live the right here, the right now, at this very moment, as if it’s urgent. Read it and be inspired.—Denene Millner, co-author of the New York Times bestselling Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man
"Warning: A Belle in Brooklyn isn’t about dating politely in the legendary New York City borough. Rather, it’s more like a torrid tale of two cities—or seven, from the City of Angels to Hotlanta, or any of the other towns the itinerant Lucas landed in with gusto and pen in hand... Lucas opens up her life for the greater good of her readers. You don’t feel as if you’ve accompanied her to a private exam; it’s more like you’re hanging out at an intimate girlfriend’s gathering." —ESSENCE
"Full disclosure: I dig Demetria Lucas. Not in the “if we were in 4th grade, I totally throw paper at her in homeroom” way, but I appreciate her voice, admire her work, and hope to emulate the way she’s built herself into a brand. Also — and this may be slightly sexist, but I’m going to say it anyway — she’s one of the most self-aware women I’ve ever met. She seems to be completely aware of her strengths and weaknesses, and the level of forthright self-assessment she exhibits in her blogs is extremely rare and commendable. It may be an act, but if so, she deserves a f*cking Oscar." — Very Smart Brothas
"You get so caught up in the light, airiness of the delivery, that you don’t realize that it’s the spoon full of sugar that helps the medicine go down; because she surely calls us ladies to the carpet! She never condemns the reader, but she brings a consciousness to what can be considered as counterproductive thoughts and actions." — XI Magazine
