Things are quite sour in the life of Katie Jeffries Cannon Smith Robinson Croomers. At the family's Labor Day picnic, husband number four surprises her and the guests by announcing that he is leaving her, moving to California, and he expects for her to care for his sons until he can get himself together. A few days later, she shows up at her job as a call center supervisor and is fired for under performance. Katie has gained a lot of weight over the years and has to listen to her mother berate her about her weight and choices she has made in life and in men.
Katie deals with her plight by cooking mouth-watering meals and baking fabulous, calorie-rich desserts, which she feeds to her sons and her wounded soul. People rave about her desserts and her friend Donna tries to get her to go into the catering business but Katie wants no part of going into business with Donna. In fact, Katie is happy just having her own personal pity party. Besides cooking, her other form of escape is the Internet chat rooms. She meets new friends who do not judge her and have a great influence on her. One special cyber friend is MastrThief who helps her believe in love again, then increases her loss of hope when her illusions about him are shattered. Katie, though, is persistent in not giving up on finding Mr. Right on-line. She meets and dates several gentlemen from the chat rooms. Some are nice and others leave something to be desired.
This debut novel by Cris Burks is well written, witty, interesting and intriguing. The book is easy to read and the flashes back and forth in time are easy to follow. The characters are well developed and have a realness to them whereas a reader could easily relate to them. It seems as if the author had to have lived this experience in order to write this novel so vividly. This book is highly recommended.
Jeanette
APOOO BookClub

Overweight and in an unhappy marriage, Katie tries her best to put on a "happy face", especially when she is around her family. After being humiliated at a family gathering by her husband's announcement that he is leaving her, Katie decides it is time to make some changes in her life. Thus, SilkyDreamGirl begins.
Katie's wit and sarcasm kept the book moving, and at times made me laugh out loud. The supporting cast of characters were developed just enough to enhance the overall plot and keep it flowing. As Katie transitions from an unsatisfied wife and mother to an internet junkie she uncovers buried secrets, deals with past hurts, develops new friendships and learns important lessons about lessons about the nature of true love. All the while, her online experiences begin impacting her "real time" life. The secondary characters in the book add to the plot and all its drama.
SilkyDreamGirl is a humorous tale about personal growth and empowerment. If you are looking for a book with a positive message and laugh out loud humor, pick this one up.
Reviewed by Stacey Seay

SilkyDreamGirl is the story of Katie Coomers: an overweight woman with low-self esteem whose fourth shaky marriage causes her to start doing things she never dreamt she'd do. There's plenty of overeating going on, surfing chat rooms in a quest to find a satisfactory relationship, and drama-filled encounters with unforgettable characters who challenge Katie to define who she is and who she wants to be. This wonderful debut novel is well-written, endearing, has twists and turns, and is thick with hearty chuckles. Furthermore, novelist Cris Burks is adept at writing descriptions and creating laugh-out-loud metaphors which should provide readers with an enjoyable experience as opposed to having them plow through a story filled with overused clichés and adverbs. One aspect that could have made this great novel even greater is increased dialogue between the characters so that we can get to know them through showing versus telling. In summary, SilkyDreamGirl is a reader's delight, and a welcome new voice to the world of African-American fiction.

This book is captivating from the get go. The name is very well chosen - it is the name the protagonist Katie uses for herself in cyberspace. The author has a fantastic way with descriptions and is drop dead hilarious. Her characters come alive and the plot is excellent. The reader empathises with Katie, who is filled with despair after her husband leaves her. She finds comfort in eating and balloons out even more. Then she seeks and finds some measure of comfort in the chat rooms of cyberspace. At the end of the story things are definitely looking up for Katie and since I'm a sucker for a good ending this was great.

I do believe there are many people like Clarence walking around. Those who pay a lot of money with the promise of making so much more. They are taken in by scams time after time and just can't wake up.

Watch out for this author!!!

Also check out "What Goes Around..." and "Beneath the Surface" by Paula Aird.

Why doesn't anyone care about Katie? Cris Burks has done an outstanding job of depicting the Katies of the world--women whose friends, husbands and other family members take for granted in the extreme. Katie's that reliable pair of shoes or ragged sweater that one loves enough to keep around but not enough to take care of or to mend. My favorite Katie-hater is Donna, Katie's 'best friend.' She constantly insults and hurts Katie under the guise of being frank for Katie's own good. I think that Donna and Mamma Jeffries, Katie's mother, really do love Katie, but they abuse her, simply because Katie's no good at playing the game of survival of the fittest. At least not in the beginning.
I love it that Katie's boys, even her oldest son, are crazy about her. They know that she's a jewel, and treat her accordingly. The scene between Katie, her sister-in-law and the boys had me laughing so hard that I almost choked!
I really do like everything about SilkyDreamGirl, and I can't wait for Cris Burks next offering.