LaShonda DeVaughn's writing is powerful and entices the reader into every chapter from start to finish. She touches on issues that we can relate to everyday living in your typical hood. A Hood Chick's Story is a great novel for her debut writing. -  Latoya Rowell

"A Hood Chick's Story" by LaShonda DeVaughn was an urban novel of a young woman growing up in the hood.  It showed her lifestyle and why she and her brothers turned to things such as drugs, killing and fighting.  She displayed many very powerful charastics in Tiara.  The most powerful one was loyalty.  Loyalty until she was crossed.  Tiara also showed love, determation and strength not to give into anything she didn't want.
End the end LaShonda showed you how the vicious cycle can be repeated over and over again.  All this due to the choices we make everyday.  A good story to read.  It's motivating and  powerful. Thanks for sharing LaShonda - SBS BOOK CLUB

We're all accustomed to the 15-second sound bites that typically lead off the evening news, highlighting the latest episodes of inner city turmoil, but rarely are we granted real access to the true logistics of street life. Such insight is an invaluable tool in seeing the plight of urban drama in a more empathetic light, and A Hood Chicks Story provides the reader with just such access.
     DeVaughn's tale is centered on the tumultuous upbringing of Tiara James, born into a life of dysfunction and uncertainty. The product of an alcoholic father and co-dependent mother, Tiara witnesses numerous episodes of her father's abusive behavior toward her mother, which grows progressively worse until she finally decides to take the kids and leave. Along with her older brother Tre, the three of them relocate to Boston, where Tiara thinks their lives will finally improve. Sadly, she soon realizes that dreams of a better life in the hood dissipate more quickly than morning dew in the first rays of dawn.
     Never fully healing from the scars of her abusive marriage, Tiara's mother hooks up with loser after loser, further jeopardizing the transplanted family's stability, until Tre, at all of 13 years of age, asserts himself as the man of the house and begins selling drugs to put food on the table. Tiara herself gets involved with a street baller, Derek, who eventually becomes her true first love, providing for her in ways that she could have only previously dreamed. Life once again appears to be on the up and up - but the de facto prison of the ghetto has always been difficult to escape.
     Before long, incarcerations, killings, and beatdowns become the norm, and Tiara, try as she may, seems destined to remain transfixed in the trappings of hood life. The power of hope can never be underestimated, though, and, in her own words, Tiara ultimately realizes:
I'm just another chick in the hood with a story to tell - but I promise, I won't give up..
     Where many street sagas are shameless exploitations of urban grit, violence, and hustlenomics, A Hood Chicks Story shines with true heart. With the redemptive touch of A Color Purple, DeVaughn's narrative displays how innocent souls can overcome even the greatest adversity through the power of resilience and sheer will. 
     Despite being placed in circumstances beyond her own control, Tiara's fighting spirit refuses to be squelched and stops at nothing to break the same chains that would easily enslave the more faint of heart.
     Moreover, a la The Coldest Winter Ever, A Hood Chicks Story provides the reader with a more introspective look into the dynamics of urban blight, properly citing such problem areas as alcoholism, broken homes, and the familial legacy of domestic violence as key factors in fostering the neglect, teenage pregnancies and criminal activity that inevitably follow.
     Much like her protagonist, Tiara, LaShonda DeVaughn is a debut author with a story to tell - and the literary world will soon stand at attention to hear it. - APEX REVIEWS

Life in the ghetto takes a tremendous toll on the strongest individual. No matter how hard you try to walk a straight path, sometimes there’s simply no way out. Street fame, betrayal, unescapable violence ... this is A Hood Chick’s Story.
   Tiara, AKA T was born to lead, a trait that became inevitable when assembling her own crew. She learned the game from her ruthless brother, Tre and added her own brand of swagger to perfect it. Together with Ke Ke, Renee, Karen, Shavon and Tamika they smashed any opposing clique running up with drama, making them feared and well respected throughout the city of Boston.
   Becoming entangled with her first love Tiara begins to slow down, realizing that happiness can be more than just a dream. But the hood is unpredictable and full of deception, a lesson she learns first hand when one of her closest road dogs reveals her true colors.
   Tiara’s life takes a downward spiral when death hits close to home. From there the drama doesn’t stop, the pain deepens as more friends turn shady and more of her loved ones are taken way too early by violence.
   I was more than impressed by LaShonda DeVaughn’s compelling novel. Just when you thought things were looking up for Tiara her road twisted with more devastation and agony, the type of despair capable of making one question their reason for living.
   A Hood Chick’s Story is an original piece of street lit bound for success. Five outta five dollars from - Da ReVew

In A Hood Chick’s Story by LaShonda DeVaughn, Tiara’s life mirrored that of lined-up dominoes thumped by an unknown passerby. From heartbreak to death, she went through it all. Because of substance abusing parents, Tiara was forced to embrace her crew of girlfriends as family and ran the streets like they were their homes. With an older brother, Tre, who had a reputation for selling drugs and being a stick-up kid and a younger brother, Sharod, who needed guidance, she found herself constantly torn between two extremes; wanting to be a positive role model for Sharod and maintaining respect in the streets. When love finds her soul, its unrelenting lesson made her attempt to live a more mature, legitimate lifestyle. Just when things started to get better, she found the street’s magnetism too strong to ignore. A wave of lies, betrayals, and murders claimed her tranquil shores and pulled her deeper into all that she was struggling to stay away from. Would all the events that devastated her world make her a statistic? Or would she maintain the motivation to overcome the hood?  - APOOO

In this hood tale we meet Tiara James a chick that every huslter dreams to have on their arm. She is a dime piece for sure but don't let
the prettiness fool you because she and her crew are all head busters.
  But just when Tiara thought that her life is going good, she is betrayed by the two people she thought cared for her. And with death
around the corner and new hustler trying to push up on her, she is backed into a corner and has to decide what her next step will be.
  I think that this new author did a very good job with this story and I
can't wait for part 2 to drop.
Beautiful One 4stars - Real Divas of Literature