By Robin D. Stone
Essence
2/04
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When we last left Venus Johnston the plucky heroine of Trisha R. Thomas's best-selling first novel, Nappily Ever After, she had dumped her fine, fresh-out-of-med-school fiance, Clint Fairchild, and cut off her high-maintenance processed do. It's two years later in Thomas's third novel, Would I Lie to You? (Crown, $22), and Venus, now a marketing director in D.C., is engaged to software entrepreneur Airic Coleman. But neither is eager to set a wedding date, and Airic doesn't complain when Venus travels to L.A. to launch a publicity campaign for a trendy West Coast clothing company. Complications arise when Venus meets and falls for hip-hop mogul Jake Parson, who at 26 is ten years younger and used to getting what he wants. Will Venus choose Jake over Airic? Or will she fly solo--again?

With the intimacy that won over fans and sold nearly 50,000 copies of Nappily (which Halle Berry is adapting for the big screen), Thomas has written an endearing sequel that will please her readers. For the thirtyish Thomas, who lives near Los Angeles with her husband, Cameron, and their three children, revisiting Venus after her second novel, Roadrunner, was like connecting with an old friend.

Thomas tells author Robin D. Stone how she managed to pick up where she left off:
"Venus is never far from me. When I started writing Would I Lie to You?, it was like, 'Hey, girl, I'm back!' I'm also working with Tina Gordon Chism, the scriptwriter for the Nappily movie, which keeps me close to Venus.

"It's fun watching Venus grow. She's like many thirtysomething women I know. She's still trying to figure out what's right, what's wrong and what will get you the success that you've been told you deserve,

"I always have five or six stories working at the same time--ideas that I just can't shut out. But I think I'll end up writing about Venus again."