Film director, Nolan McClain is focused and strategically making moves in his career. He also navigates his romantic life in a seemingly effortless way. He has the perfect formula for success. His well-crafted life gets a shake up when Bridgette Turner moves into his orbit. He just can’t seem to shake her from his mind.
Bridgette Turner, an up-and-coming actress is making the most of her budding career. She is destined for stardom. When Nolan’s romantic interest in her is made known, she’s uncertain that it could be real. In addition to her doubt, her past threatens to snatch anything positive in her future, including her potential romance with Nolan.
I enjoyed the exposition into Nolan and Bridgette’s background. It was refreshing to see both step out of the familiar. The banter between the McClain siblings was in this book as well and is always hilarious. I love the connection and warmth in the family. Yet another hit in the McClain brothers series.
Kayla is a young woman with a bright future. She is in love with Geno and life is good. However, the moniker that her close friends refer to her as “Drama Queen” starts to ring true. One major incident sets off a crazy chain of events. She decides to move her life forward in a different direction and meets Craig. After meeting Craig, she gets more than she bargained for when she becomes pregnant with his baby.
This was an entertaining and quick read. The story was packed with interesting characters and drama filled situations that just spilled over to more chaos. There were some serious moments in the story, but overall, it was a light and funny read. It was a welcomed reprieve from weightier books.
On the heels of her divorce, Jo Walker’s secured station in life is due to child support and alimony payments from her ex-husband Sidney. Although she has financial stability, peace is not always hers to own as she is often reminded by Sidney that he is the sole benefactor of it all. Nonetheless, she focuses on raising their daughter and advancing in her burgeoning career as a jeweler.
Everett “Big South” McClain is a rapper who has sworn off love after his divorce. Casual romantic connections are safe and less complicated for him, until he meets Jo. Like no woman he has previously met, he cannot get her out of his mind. The only issue is Jo is not exactly enamored with him or his status. But Everett proves to be persuasive and soon the attraction between the two heats up. But their relationship is met with resistance from several parties: their former spouses being the biggest opponents.
The story was entertaining. I like the care that Everett showed toward Jo. He was constantly building her up when she tended to lean toward her insecurities. I liked that Jo stood her ground in many instances during her relationship with Everett. The way their connection developed was relatively realistic by showing slight resistance. The only mark I have against the book is that the story could have been a little shorter. However, it was a good story.
Sara Lancaster left Georgia after she is raped. She vowed to stay away as long as she possibly could. However, she is forced to return home when her father becomes ill. With her eight-year-old daughter Alana in tow, Sara’s past meets the present and it’s both bittersweet and hopeful.
Jacob Wyler left Georgia under a cloak of shame. His rich and influential family was brought to near ruin in a trail of unfortunate events. His brother raped Sara Lancaster, his sister Naomi died in a car accident, his father Tom committed suicide, his mother Birdie, normally a cold and indifferent woman, became insufferable.
Jacob sought out work in faraway places as an astrophysicist while simultaneously attempting to rebuild his identity. However, visions of his deceased sister lead him to return home.
In Georgia, Jacob and Sara’s paths cross. Things get convoluted when love develops in the most unlikely of ways.
I read this story as a part of Libby’s Together We Read campaign. This was a very layered story. The theme of forgiveness was evident. I found the building blocks the author used to present forgiveness in the story to be unconventional. I personally found it difficult to grasp the idea of the romantic love that developed between Sara and Jacob. The idea for the concept was explained in the back of the book in A Conversation with the Author.
I do know love can form under unlikely circumstances. However, Sara didn’t want to speak about Daniel, barely wanted to utter his name, or want to see him. Sara’s reluctance and hang-ups about Daniel was still very apparent throughout the book, and rightfully so. So, her falling in love with his identical twin felt out of place to me.
Alana was the bright shining star for me in the book, such a breath of fresh air. She brought everything together. She was the healing source in more ways than one. I also enjoyed seeing the warmth displayed in Sara’s family. Sara’s father speaking only in poems was intriguing. I would have liked to know more about why he chose this way to speak. Overall, I liked this story. It was rich and intriguing.
Angela Strickland has struck out twice at love. She has reconciled within herself that a future where real love reigns supreme is not in the cards for her. She settles fully in her life as a successful hair vlogger. To earn additional money, she rents the other side of her duplex.
Ryan Boye is in town on work assignment. He’s a corporate career man, who likes to keep things causal in his romantic relationships. He is the epitome of “hit it and quit it” and determines to stand ten toes down in that philosophy.
In an effort to make his stay feel a little more like home, he leases a place and his path crosses with Angela. What he finds is that Angela is not the typical woman he’s accustomed to. His fascination with her is deep and leaves him confused.
Angela may have sworn off love, but what she cannot deny is her attraction to her tenant Ryan. However, she is determined to keep things professional between them. How will things play out between these two?
This was a fantastic love story. Ryan and Angela’s mutual attraction heated up the pages (well audio for me; I listened to the audio version). Alexandria House’s books have been on my TBR list for some time. This is the first book I’ve read from her, but certainly not my last. Her storytelling is phenomenal. I am about to dive deep into her other books. Looking forward to it. I have a lot of catching up to do. I suspect it’s going to be a fun and wild ride.
Sheila Johnson overcame immeasurable odds. When she was just sixteen, her family imploded when her father left their family for another woman. It destroyed her mom. Defiantly determined she would not be caught in this predicament as a woman, she set out to prove just that. However, this singular event shaped Sheila in more ways than one.
Music was her refuge. She became an accomplished violinist and managed to get a full scholarship to college. She was well on her way. Then she met a young, ambitious man named Bob Johnson in college. They began dating and married a few years later. Her life and self-esteem was being shaped and molded by her new husband. His drive and ambition had carried them to great heights professionally.
However, behind closed doors, their marriage became a toxic breeding ground of lies, deceit, and emotional abuse. She had come full circle to the moment of her youth that she was determined not to experience again. When her thirty-three-year marriage to Bob ended, Sheila was struggling to find herself and rebuild life on her own terms.
She walked through shame, humiliation, male chauvinism, and racism to find her sweet spot. She became a philanthropist, entrepreneur, and formidable businesswoman. Sheila has indeed walked through fire and triumphantly come out on the other side.
I am grateful to Sheila Johnson for sharing her story. It is a story of courage, redemption, and fierce determination to keep moving forward.
Impactful moments/quotes from the book:
Sheila was reading in her bunk bed and was climbing down the ladder to come down for dinner.
Sheila’s dad to Sheila: “Just jump, I’ll catch you,” Dad said stretching his arm toward me. He’d never suggested such a thing before, so I was excited. I threw myself off the bunk, grinning from ear to ear-and then smack! I hit the floor hard. Confused, with the wind knocked out of me, I looked up at him.
“That’s a lesson,” my father said. “Don’t trust anybody.”
I started crying. “I trusted you,” I said. But he just turned and walked out of the room.
Sheila: “I wouldn’t want to live through that pain again. But the truth is, I wouldn’t be the woman I am today if I hadn’t gone through it. I walked through fire and survived. I am the salamander.”
Sheila: “My journey here has been arduous, as you’ve read in these pages. But going through those awful times built my character and my strength.”
Jasmine has had a crush on Sean for years. After years of not seeing Jazmin as a romantic interest, Sean shift gears and entertains the thought of exploring something more substantial with her. Before long, they are involved in a full blown love affair. It’s everything Jazmin could wish for, even down to the impending parenthood between the two. But there’s a catch, Sean is married. Even more, he is married to Jazmin’s sister’s good friend, Rayven.
Jah is the edgy, loud, and rude guy in the friend group. He has full knowledge of the affair between Sean and Jazmin. When Jazmin gives birth to Sean’s baby, Jah becomes invested at first to help keep Jazmin and Sean’s situationship from being exposed. Things get complicated when Jah’s heart is held captive by Jazmin and her baby girl. Will this fire between Sean, Jazmin, and Jah remain contained?
I loved the quick pace of the story. Drama filled and hard hitting, it kept my interest. I read this book in less than a week. It definitely has the can’t put down factor. Sean had quite the nerve to be possessive of Jazmin while still being married to Rayven. I liked seeing Jah’s care and concern for Jazmin and her baby girl. It’s the first book in a series of 3. I will be reading the other books for sure.
Nona Davenport left Mississippi angry, hurt, and determined. Running away from everyone she knew, she heads to Chicago. She is estranged from her father and sister due to a betrayal that Nona takes deeply personal.
While away, she transforms into a different version of herself, a version she settles for but is far from owning fully. She makes a new life, one that is built on the importance of history and truth, which is a contradiction to how she currently orchestrates her personal life. When her father dies, Nona returns home. She comes face to face with her own history; a history buried by denial, lies, and assumptions.
Julia Curtis is a woman with abandonment issues. All of which was brought on by her mother leaving as a child and her sister years later. Now she is tasked with burying her father. One of the first steps of this process is notifying Nona, her estranged sister of over 20 years. As she does, her abandonment issues comes to the surface. Will the sisters rebuild the bond they once shared or will the distance and estrangement between them widen the gap even further?
I wanted to like this book better than I did. I’m not against a slow burn at all, which I consider this book to be. There were too many chapters for it to move so slow. I loved the premise of the story. The multiple narratives in the story had many loose ends. With the different narratives not being tied in, it seemed disjointed at times and became an exhaustive read. It was rich with potential, but didn’t hold my attention. I was ready for it to be over.
Jacob Swinton’s life is coming to a close. He is met with a sense of urgency to write to his son Isaac. He shares his life’s story through a series of letters. The letters; part revelation, part remorse, detail Jacob’s upbringing, his marriage, his divorce, and his beliefs on manhood, etc.
Jacob’s view on life and manhood is challenged when his son Isaac is born. Isaac, an expressive child bubbling over with feelings, did not enter the world in typical male fashion. This serves as the catalyst for the complexities that make up he and his father’s relationship.
Jacob’s letters shed light into the intergenerational divide of societal norms that is so deep between father and son. Although vestiges of growth is apparent in the letters, it struggles against his innate inability to have a demonstrative love towards his son. He is a flawed man ridden with inner conflict that is true to men of a particular generation.
What I appreciated most about Don’t Cry For Me is the authenticity. It shed light on the less than ideal reality of some family relationships.
*****Some insightful and poignant quotes from the book:
November 27th, 2003 chapter “If you still don’t understand why I’m telling you all this, just keep reading. A man’s history is all he has. It says more than his mouth ever will. You’ll see what I mean soon enough. ” ~Jacob
November 28th, 2003 chapter “I stood there wondering how this had happened to me, thinking of all the things I’d do differently if I could live again. It was useless thinking, if course. Nothing was about to change. Not for me. There are no do-overs in this life. Either you get it right or wish you had.”~ Jacob
December 24th, 2003 chapter I always called you boy. When a father calls a boy son, he’s declaring his pride in him. I didn’t feel this way about you, even when you got grown.~Jacob
January 17th, 2004 chapter The more I read, the more I saw myself. Knowledge is a funny thing, Isaac. It informs by exposing. It shows you precisely how much you don’t know.~Jacob
January 26th, 2003 chapter Silence isn’t always quiet though. It troubles a man’s soul, forcing him to admit what he’d rather forget.~ Jacob
February 5th, 2004 chapter Reading taught me that a man’s own life is his own responsibility, his own creation. Blaming others is a waste of time. No one can make you happy if you’re determined to be miserable.
All I wanted was to look you in the face and tell you I’m sorry. I had wounded you beyond my capacity to heal you.
Love doesn’t make us perfect; it makes us, want to be. By the time you discover this, your imperfections have done their damage.
February 8th, 2004 chapter A man’s son is his truth unadorned. When he can look at him and be proud, his fatherhood is complete.
February 10th, 2004 You must learn to uproot unwanted seeds without destroying the entire harvest.
Eleanor Bennett is dying. She lost her husband, her children aren’t speaking to each other, and her daughter is disconnected from the family. This is not how she wants things to end. Eleanor solicits the help of a close family friend, Mr. Mitch, to record her telling the story of her life and for it to be played upon her death.
Byron and Benny thought they knew their mother. After hearing their mother’s story, in her words, everything they ever knew was not as it appeared. They are trying to understand how this newly revealed information will lead them forward.
Although it was quite lengthy and a little disjointed at times (the “seemingly random” characters as well as the constant era changes), it was a good book. It’s a rich story that kept me engaged. Wilkerson strategically brings everything full circle in the end. The journey had many excursions, but the destination was worth it.
FOREVER BOOK FEVER 