One bad work experience and a lay off is all it takes for Bryce’s life to change forever. Not only has the course of his life changed, but he has changed the direction of the lives of everyone around him. Those closest to him have no idea how much their lives will now be altered due to the decisions Bryce is making. When his rap career begins to take off, it doesn’t take long at all for the negative influences associated with that lifestyle to pull him in and ruin what he hoped would be a life of grandeur.

Ardent Grandeur, by Lynnette M. Clement, traces the career and unfortunate life choices of young Bryce. From the first moment in a recording studio to his last, Bryce is unable and, for the most part, unwilling to control his urges and say no to the many temptations around him. One by one, he brings pain and suffering to his family and the women in his life. Try as he might, Bryce falls time and time again.

Clement’s book, Ardent Grandeur, reads like a soap opera. Moving very quickly through the years, the author takes readers on a ride from the beginning of Bryce’s rap career to the tragic events that change his life forever. Written in the present tense, Clement’s work pulls readers into the lives of the characters and, at times, makes the story even more personal by turning to the reader with what feels like a second-person point of view. Bryce’s story is one readers will find fascinating and tragic and simultaneously horrifying.

While Ardent Grandeur has the makings of a wonderful realistic fiction story with a main character readers will find enthralling, there are some writing choices I could not move past. Long stretches of dialogue read more like a screenplay with little variety in sentence structure.

I found myself hoping with each subsequent chapter that Bryce would learn from his mistakes, make things right with his loved ones and stop repeating the same painful and damaging mistakes. He is one of those main characters I find exhausting because I was so emotionally invested in his character that I felt all the pain and suffering. Bryce was so authentically tragic. Ardent Grandeur is an absorbing urban fiction novel that will be hard to put down.

Pages: 242 | BN ID: 2940162735069