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FROM THE ASHES Kathleen Suzanne/ Jeanne Sumerix Genesis Press January 2000 (3) Melanie Schuster |
Contemporary Romance |
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PLOT SYNOPSIS: |
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REVIEW: |
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FROM THE
ASHES
is a story that challenges the reader from beginning to end. The challenge is
not in the reading, but in the believing and for me, the essence of romance is
believing the story that the writer creates.
This is a story that the authors believed in very much; the love they had
for the story is evident in the care and the detail that they put into the
story. And the story is a good one;
it draws the reader in right away with its description of a huge fire that
destroys the heroine’s childhood home. It
keeps you turning the pages and a compelling mystery unfolds.
The authors set a brisk pace and do not let you down as an intriguing
cast of characters unfolds. Paige Turner is a gorgeous
African American plus sized model who has returned to her family home in the
northern part of Michigan. Within
hours of her return, a suspicious fire home destroys her family home.
She has no idea whom she should trust—someone is after Paige for
reasons she cannot fathom. The only
person she can count on is Lincoln Cross, a handsome Native American firefighter
who saved her the night of the fire and who has made his interest in her quite
obvious. Lincoln Cross is drawn to
Paige for reasons other than her sparkling personality and outward beauty—he
knows somehow that Paige is his soul mate, the other half of his heart.
But before he and Paige can build a life together, he has to get at the
root of the mystery that surrounds Paige. And
that will mean disturbing some long kept secrets about his own family… Kathleen Suzanne and Jeanne
Sumerix have written an intriguing mystery and given it a healthy dose of old
fashioned romance. Living in the
state of Michigan, I can also attest to the fact that they have indeed captured
the essence of our beautiful and complex state.
The secondary characters are engaging and not intrusive—they help carry
the action well. My only
reservation about the book is the fact that I could not see why it was necessary
to say that the heroine was African-American.
It did not enhance the story and was in fact, the only unbelievable
aspect of the book. I did not
believe for one minute that Paige was a ‘sister’—telling me that she had
mocha cappuccino skin was not enough to make me feel
her, if you know what I mean. I am all for all kinds of
multiculturals and I have dated way too many people of other races to be
offended by the idea of people from different cultures falling in love.
I simply did not get the feeling that this woman was actually black.
There was nothing about her that remotely suggested that she was a proud
black woman—the few times that her thoughts indicated that she had any
feelings about her heritage they seemed programmed or synthesized as thought she
was parroting something she had overheard. The other problem I had with
the book is that there were only two other African-American characters in the
book and they were the bad guys. I
had a very uneasy feeling about this. Perhaps
the authors simply did not consider this when they were writing the book, but it
would have been nice to see that Paige had some friends or relatives that she
could count on that were the same color as she.
We are not all plus sized supermodels or villains—there are kinds of
folks of color out there that fall somewhere in between.
That is frankly why I read multicultural romances and why I love the
genre so much. I like reading about AKAs and Kappas, about Morehouse and Howard,
about collard greens and pound cake, and about strong, accomplished men and
women of all levels of education in all kinds of careers.
And I don’t mind reading about a villain here or there as long as there
is a strong hero or heroine to neutralize him—I’ll ‘fess up here—I like
happy endings and things tied up neatly which is another reason I read romances. As a straight romance no chaser, I would give FROM THE ASHES a (4). As a multicultural, I’d have to give it a (2) which would average it out to a 3. But JUDGE FOR YOURSELF. Read this book and see what you think. One of the things that will keep this genre strong is new ground, new treatment of topical issues and more excellent writing. And of course, reading as many new titles as possible. So get off to a reading start in 2000 and make sure FROM THE ASHES is on your list. |
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27th December 1999 |
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