LaConnie Taylor-Jones
Genesis Press
$6.99
Reviewed by Anne Ficklin
This is a charming tale of love, trust, and healing – and really, how can I not enjoy a book that starts out with “I’m gonna kill him!”
A.J. Babtiste is a single father who has fallen in love with the unattainable Victoria Bennett who has closed off her heart after a painful and humiliating betrayal by her ex-husband. A.J. is determined to break through Vic’s walls and earn her trust and love. Vic is bravely holding him off and keeping her desire for him in check when an accident gives A.J. the opportunity he needs to gain the upper hand. While the progress is difficult, and a little slow because of Vic’s eight year battle with her anger and hurt (and boy does she have trouble letting them go) things eventually start working out. I really enjoyed a particularly touching conversation between Vic and her mother about three-quarters of the way through, it gave me pause and I found some of the advice could be applied to my own life also.
Taylor-Jones writes with a very smart, compassionate feel, but I would have liked to see much more character development. There was very little physical description given so I had a hard time connecting with the characters because I couldn’t see them. There were also a lot of secondary characters that were only briefly mentioned and then when brought up again we seemed to have missed pieces of their lives so it was hard to keep up with. I had some trouble hearing the author’s voice as well; this is my first time reading a distinctly multi-cultural novel so it was hard to get in rhythm however that was definitely my problem - not the author’s, but it did give me a chance to enjoyably broaden my horizons. I also got distracted by some loose threads in the plot, the biggest of which is the question of whom and where A.J.’s twin girls’ mother was seriously drove me crazy and was not answered until more than half-way through the book. I actually flipped back to the beginning a couple of times just to see if I had missed the answer on the first pass.
All in all this is a sweet, intelligent, heartwarming story and it caught my interest enough that I’m going to look for Taylor-Jones’ first novel about the Babtiste family as well, and that’s a pretty good compliment.
From an early age Anne’s nose became stuck in book, and now after countless books and a few years we won’t count—has happily not found its way back out. While not having any formal training in writing, she does have an intense passion for reading that she is very excited to share with our readers. Anne lives in Southern Nevada with her husband and son.
