Chocolate Sangria.

by Tracy Price-Thompson Strivers Row, March 2003 $21.95, ISBN 0-375-50665-1

Chocolate sangria ... has a nice ring to it, but would you pair the two? The same could be said of Juanita and Conan, the protagonists of Tracy Price-Thompson's sophomore effort.

Juanita is a light-skinned, green-eyed, teenage girl struggling to gain the acceptance of her peers in the mean projects of Brooklyn. An elderly aunt and uncle raise her in a household filled with love and lies about her real parents.

Juanita shares her joy and pain with Socrates "Scooter" Morrison, a neighborhood boy, who is also suffering from the locals' taunts because of his falsetto voice and wiggling hips. A transplant from the Deep South who lives with his elderly grandparents, Scooter is scarred after witnessing the brutal murder of his father at the hands of his mother. Outcasts together, Juanita and Scooter join forces and manage to survive as lonely, young adults, triumphant over the hood rats who threatened their emotional and physical safety.

Enter Conan and Jorge, two Puerto Rican men with decidedly different agendas. Conan is hardworking, honorable and smitten with Juanita, the green-eyed beauty he watches daily on their morning bus ride. Jorge, Conan's best friend, is a pill-popping, mean-spirited thug with a keen dislike for gringos and gays. Conan is grieving the loss of his twin brother, who was killed in an accident he believes he caused; and Jorge suffers the scars of physical and sexual abuse at the hands of his mother's boyfriend. A purse-snatching on the bus ride one morning end's up changing the lives of Juanita, Scooter, Conan and Jorge.

Jealousy, envy, prejudice and insecurity test the strength of their bonds. If it's true that love makes up for a multitude of sins, then there's plenty here to make up for.

Black Coffee, Price-Thompson's debut novel, explored an illicit romance between soldiers. That portrait of blacks in the military won her accolades for her unflinching characterizations and gritty narrative.

In Chocolate Sangria, she occasionally seems to be reaching for a "literary" feel with lengthy, awkward descriptions, but thankfully, she doesn't get too bogged down. She's at her best with simple language and a frank, contemporary look at love across color and culture lines. There are relatively few surprises as the plot unfolds, but Chocolate Sangria is ultimately a tasty, satisfying elixir.

--Robin Green-Cary is co-owner of Sibanye, Inc. in Baltimore and a writer.