Throwback Thursday is my weekly feature which I created to post a review that I've written from the past. Every week I will post a review that I've written prior to my blogs existence. I'll be sharing both the books that I think you'd enjoy and the books that I should warn you against wasting your time on! ;-)
I chose to post the last J.D. Mason book I read because I enjoyed a few of her other books in the past. They were better than this one, but You Gotta Sin to Get Saved was still pretty good. Ms.Mason storytelling makes you think about how crazy and messed up the world is. It made me thankful not to have that drama in my life! These characters are screwed up and believable ..totally unfortunate. Like drama? This may be a good one to check out! ;-)
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Release Date: April 1, 2008
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 368
Source: Library Borrow
Genre: AA Fiction
Original Review Date: October 3, 2011
Rating: 3 bookmarks
Synopsis: Charlotte Rodgers has always wanted too much. Too much love, too much attention, and had too many big dreams. It was how she ended up abandoning her two daughters, Connie and Reesy to chase after a man and the promise of a dream life. But Charlotte never anticipated how her world would be irrevocably changed. Now, twenty-seven years later, her whole world shifts yet again with a letter from one of her daughters. And the past is about to bust wide open.
Reesy has always been obsessed with something. Obsessed with finding her birth mother. Obsessed with her sister’s life. Obsessed with her own adopted daughter never finding out that Reesy is really her aunt. With a neglected husband, who is unknowingly drifting further and further away, a sister who is trying to escape her well-meaning clutches, and a daughter becoming more and more curious about her true parentage, finding the mother she always dreamed about seems to be an answered prayer to Reesy. That is until Reesy is brought crashing back to earth to find that her perfect life is in tattered pieces.
Connie has always expected too little. Too little from the man she’s been living with for years. Too little from her modest jewelry business. And too little from her relationships, or lack thereof, with her daughter, mother and sister. And too little from herself. Until she discovers she is pregnant again and decides that this time she is keeping her baby, sending her life and her relationship into a tailspin. And rediscovering the mother who left them behind is the last thing she wants.
Thrown back together again, in a maelstrom of shocking truths, Charlotte, Reesy and Connie will discover on their journey to forgiveness and redemption that you just might have to sin first in order to be saved.
I chose to post the last J.D. Mason book I read because I enjoyed a few of her other books in the past. They were better than this one, but You Gotta Sin to Get Saved was still pretty good. Ms.Mason storytelling makes you think about how crazy and messed up the world is. It made me thankful not to have that drama in my life! These characters are screwed up and believable ..totally unfortunate. Like drama? This may be a good one to check out! ;-)
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Release Date: April 1, 2008
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 368
Source: Library Borrow
Genre: AA Fiction
Original Review Date: October 3, 2011
Rating: 3 bookmarks
Synopsis: Charlotte Rodgers has always wanted too much. Too much love, too much attention, and had too many big dreams. It was how she ended up abandoning her two daughters, Connie and Reesy to chase after a man and the promise of a dream life. But Charlotte never anticipated how her world would be irrevocably changed. Now, twenty-seven years later, her whole world shifts yet again with a letter from one of her daughters. And the past is about to bust wide open.
Reesy has always been obsessed with something. Obsessed with finding her birth mother. Obsessed with her sister’s life. Obsessed with her own adopted daughter never finding out that Reesy is really her aunt. With a neglected husband, who is unknowingly drifting further and further away, a sister who is trying to escape her well-meaning clutches, and a daughter becoming more and more curious about her true parentage, finding the mother she always dreamed about seems to be an answered prayer to Reesy. That is until Reesy is brought crashing back to earth to find that her perfect life is in tattered pieces.
Connie has always expected too little. Too little from the man she’s been living with for years. Too little from her modest jewelry business. And too little from her relationships, or lack thereof, with her daughter, mother and sister. And too little from herself. Until she discovers she is pregnant again and decides that this time she is keeping her baby, sending her life and her relationship into a tailspin. And rediscovering the mother who left them behind is the last thing she wants.
Thrown back together again, in a maelstrom of shocking truths, Charlotte, Reesy and Connie will discover on their journey to forgiveness and redemption that you just might have to sin first in order to be saved.
I ended up reading this book for my book club, this was selected by the majority to read. I wasn't thrilled this was picked because I found out that this was the 3rd book in a series. For one thing, I don’t like coming in at the end of a story, so I wasn't happy about that. I remembered reading the first book, One Day I Saw a Black King a very long time ago but I didn't recall the details. Nor did I want to reread that or even read the 2nd book because I know J.D. Mason’s writing is heavy and there is no way I could take 3 of her sad books in one month. Because I’m committed to reading all the books, I went ahead and read the 3rd installment.
I end the end I was glad I went ahead and read it. There really was no need to read the previous 2 books (thank goodness). There was enough detail and back story that you could figure out how things became how they were. The three daughters in this book were done so wrong by their mother it’s sad. Charlotte abandoning Connie and Reesy at a young age left them both emotionally damaged. They both have tons of baggage that they carry and it shows in how they handle their relationships and life in general. The same goes for Cammie, the youngest that Charlotte had years after she left the older two kids. Even though Connie and Reesy were abandoned, it was like Charlotte did them a favor by leaving them. They found better situations, people who cared for them. Cammie on the other had was raised by Charlotte, which in my opinion, really leaves her more worse off than her sisters.
Charlotte really is a nut case. She is abusive and mean and just hateful. I guess that was learned behavior based on how her mother treated her compounded with her experiences with men dumping on her and abusing her…but I kind of feel that she brought on those situations by being just plain dumb and arrogant.
Even Connie’s “boyfriend” John has major issues with commitment among other things. Reesy’s husband also has his own situation of feeling left out to deal with. Not to spoil the story for you, so I’ll just say her husband takes drastic measures to feel wanted and it blows up in his face.
The book was written well and was a fast read. Just beware there are some very violent scenes in this book. To top that off, everyone in this book is messed up…don’t expect anyone to be the voice of reason here. The state of these characters is really sad. Although the ending was kind of open, it did leave some small sliver of hope for these people. I want to believe they all got their happy ending…except Charlotte of course.
Happy Reading,
~Tamara
Charlotte really is a nut case. She is abusive and mean and just hateful. I guess that was learned behavior based on how her mother treated her compounded with her experiences with men dumping on her and abusing her…but I kind of feel that she brought on those situations by being just plain dumb and arrogant.
Even Connie’s “boyfriend” John has major issues with commitment among other things. Reesy’s husband also has his own situation of feeling left out to deal with. Not to spoil the story for you, so I’ll just say her husband takes drastic measures to feel wanted and it blows up in his face.
The book was written well and was a fast read. Just beware there are some very violent scenes in this book. To top that off, everyone in this book is messed up…don’t expect anyone to be the voice of reason here. The state of these characters is really sad. Although the ending was kind of open, it did leave some small sliver of hope for these people. I want to believe they all got their happy ending…except Charlotte of course.
Happy Reading,
~Tamara
