"First Semester" (Kimani Tru, 250 pages, $9.99), by Cecil Cross II

James "J.D." Dawson didn't want to become another statistic of young, lower-class black men in America -- unemployed, in jail or dead.

By going off to college in Atlanta, he thinks that he'll be able to escape a notoriously rough neighborhood in Oakland, Calif., and move on to a better life.

But Dawson deals with even more harsher realities as a college freshman. He copes with a classmate's death, is robbed at gunpoint and has a sexual relationship with his girlfriend, who discovers she has the HIV virus.

The traumatic experiences test the 18-year-old Dawson's discipline during his five-month stay at the University of Atlanta.

In the novel "First Semester" -- a paperback original from Kimani Tru, a young adult imprint of Harlequin Enterprises -- Cecil Cross II introduces readers to college life, from registration to the first day in class to partying. The fictional tale is based on real-life challenges and consequences to which teens can easily relate.

Even though Dawson's experiences are fun and surreal, he struggles with his studies. To maintain good grades while on academic probation, one of his professors sends Dawson to a tutor, who, predictably, turns out to be the professor's assistant, Katrina. She's a lovely young woman Dawson has adored ever since first seeing her.

The two hit it off, of course, ultimately becoming intimate. But there's one problem: Katrina is still in love with her former boyfriend, an All-American football player and womanizer.

Cross uses the story to focus on the seriousness of the HIV epidemic through the relationship between Dawson and Katrina.

As the plot unfolds, Dawson learns many valuable lessons about life, growing out of his adolescence into maturity, realizing in the end, "You never get a second first semester."

Cross keeps a flowing dialogue with a clever series of one-line cliches. Two in particular: "All progress requires change, but not all change is progress," and "opportunity knocks once, but temptation leans on the doorbell."

To make the story relevant, the Clark Atlanta University alum describes prominent landmarks from his old stomping grounds around campus. He fuses a melting pot of different cultures with lingo spoken by students from around the country -- Chicago, Houston, California, New York and Georgia.

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