The Night Before Thirty (36 page)

TAJUANA “TJ” BUTLER
is the founder of Lavelle Publishing and is also a writer, poet, and public speaker who discusses women's issues. She is the author of the novels
Sorority Sisters, The Night Before Thirty, Just My Luck,
and the number one
Essence
magazine bestseller
Hand-me-down Heartache,
in addition to the poetry collection
The Desires of a Woman.
She attended the University of Louisville, and she lives in Kentucky. You can visit her website at
www.tjbutler.com

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places,
and incidents are the products of the author's
imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance
to actual events, locales, or persons,
living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2003 by Tajuana Butler
Reader's guide copyright © 2005 by Tajuana Butler and Random House, Inc.
Excerpt from
Just My Luck
copyright © 2005 by Tajuana Butler

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Strivers Row/
One World Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group,
a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

Ballantine, One World, Strivers Row, and Strivers Row colophon are registered trademarks
of Random House, Inc.

This book contains an excerpt from Tajuana “TJ” Butler's forthcoming book,
Just My Luck.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Butler, Tajuana.
The night before thirty: a novel / Tajuana “TJ” Butler.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-307-53892-5
1. African American women—Fiction. 2. Americans—Bahamas—Fiction. 3. Female
friendship—Fiction. 4. Cruise ships—Fiction. 5. Young women—Fiction. 6. Birthdays—
Fiction. 7. Bahamas—Fiction. I. Title.

PS3552.U829N54 2003
813'.54—dc21 2002044942

One World Books website address:
www.oneworldbooks.net

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