Touched For The Very First Time (Book Review: Better Than Okay, Jacinta Howard)

When I first read the synopsis for Jacinta Howard's "Better Than Okay,"  I thought it would be a light-hearted story about two friends who turn into lovers. Wrong. The story, in its core, is of the friends-to-lovers variety but it is much darker. Destiny and Michael play the two friends who turn into lovers, but their path is much more convulated, and it is an emotional roller coaster. I must admit that I was kind of side-swiped by it. But Howard has a great ear for dialogue - they both sound so authentic and likeable characters that you are instantly hooked in their journey. And I didn't even realize that these characters were African-American until maybe a fifth into the book: they just are people that live and breathe and love.