It’s No Secret by Carmen Bryan. Read in 42 days. 259 pages

In this book, Carmen and Nas started off with a great relationship, like everyone else in their younger years. They went through all kinds of up’s and down’s with their live-in situations, they even went through two aborted pregnancies before their daughter Destiny arrived and completed their family. After Destiny arrived, things between Carmen and Nas begin to change. Nas was more in demand with his new album release and was forced to be on the road promoting, which left Destiny and Carmen home alone a lot. It wasn’t long before the distance took a toll on Carmen and caused her to fall into a depression. This lead her to a near death overdose but after a night in the hospital and being threatened that Destiny would be removed from her care if she didn’t pull it together, she quickly recovered. Carmen begin turning her life around and finding other things to comfort her while Nas was on the road. Nas was gone so much, he was called “uncle daddy”. This lead to Carmen hanging out more and meeting other guys, especially when she started getting evidence that Nas was seeing other women when he was on the road. Prior to Nas, Carmen was no stranger to the dating game. So, Carmen took the liberty of dating other celebrity men, including Bubba Chuck aka Allen Iverson after he was released from jail and had just signed with the 76ers. Carmen became hooked on that affair for a hot minute but didn’t let it steer her away from Nas too long. Later she met another celebrity but one that was like Nas’s nemesis. That happen to be Jay Z. Jay Z and Carmen started off as very good friends. It was a year before she gave up anything to him and Jay Z was so smitten that he remained consistent until then. As her and Jay Z became closer over the five years they slept together, rumors started getting back about their relationship to Nas. Carmen continued to play it down for as long as she could. Carmen decided to change her focus. She even enrolled in school and just started doing her as much as she could while also spending time with Destiny. Carmen tried to tell herself she was happy with Nas even though he was still gone often. Whenever Nas came home, they argued but they still could not walk away from each other. Even when Carmen moved to LA to start her own life, Nas was right there. They started making the attempt to bring their family back together in Cali. And although Jay Z and Carmen still tried to see each other when they could, they eventually grew a part. This lead Carmen to believe that she just needed to continue to move on with Nas and they soon got engaged to make this official. However, around the second time they attempted to set a date to get married, Jay Z released a song titled “Is That Your Chick” to take a jab at Nas. Now, after five years, Carmen had to come clean about her affair to Nas because of that song. Soon after, Nas came back at Jay Z with “Ether”. This little war went on with Nas and Jay Z for a few years until they ended the beef on stage at a show in 2005. Nas eventually moved on and begin dating Kelis seriously and they were engaged in no time. However, Nas was still obsessed with Carmen and still having sex with her during his engagement to Kelis. He even went as far as asking Carmen to participate in a threesome with him and Kelis and Carm asked him why, his response was “Because Carm, I want both of my b----‘s at the same time. Carmen was disgusted and told him she was not interested. Nas begin to play mind games to a point his daughter was not invited to his weeding with Kelis, he stopped paying Carmen’s bills and car note. Carmen ended up taking him to court and she was awarded child support and back pay for all her bills. Before then, she was forced to relocate back to New York. This book was one of the juiciest reads in a long time. Other pivotal moments were mentioned in the book, like the passing of Ms. Ann Jones (Nas’ mom), the tragic death of when Nas’ childhood friend, Will, was killed. Definitely a great pick but took too long to get off the shelf and read!