Guillaume/Jackson/Jenkins/Ray

St. Martin's Press

0-31298-219-4

October 2002

(3+) Jeanette Cogdell

PLOT SYNOPSIS: 

REVIEW: 

In “The Wish” (4) by Francis Ray, Nicholas Darling is the recipient of a modern day fairy godmother.  Joking with his brother that he wished he was married, a woman misunderstood him to say that he wished “he” was married and granted him his wish.  Not wanting to offend this senior citizen, Nicholas thanked her.  Days later he’s desperate to rid himself of the multitude of women hounding him.  So, he gets the fairy godmother’s niece, Andrea Strickland to pretend to be the woman he has chosen to make his wish come true.

Beverly Jenkins’ “Homecoming” (4+) is a second chance love story in which young lovers are forced to face and resolve a past that tore them apart.  Lydia Cooper hasn’t seen Grayson Dane since he deceived her and broke her young heart fifteen long years ago.  On a trip home from Chicago to Detroit, she encounters him at the boarding house where she’s spending the night.  Gray can’t believe fate has allowed him to meet up with Lydia and try and right the wrong he imposed on her.  Seeing her again makes him realize that he still loves her and will do anything to have her in his life again.

Anne Donald is the product of an interracial affair in Monica Jackson’s “The Way Back Home” (3).  Raised by her Caucasian maternal grandparents, who has never forgiven her African American father for her parents’ accidental death, Anne felt out of place in the world in which she has grown up.  After meeting Dr. Trey Frazier, a black empowerment author, she resolves to seek out her father’s family.  They embrace her with open arms inviting her to get to know them.  Trey suggests they spend the holiday together so he can teach her about Kwanzaa.

On the verge of race riots disrupting his school, high school principal, Paul Barrett is grateful for the assistance of Kirby Kayin.  Being the past counselor of the school, now teaching under-privileged children in South Africa, Kirby is confident that she can avert the imminent altercation between the students in the “The Seventh Principal” (3+) by Geri Guillaume.  Paul is very concerned about his school, but he’s also apprehensive about his and Kirby’s long distance relationship.  He wants her back home with him, but cannot ask her to give up on her life’s dream.

Francis Ray does a wonderful job of creating a light and funny story in “The Wish”.  Nicholas is determined to get through the holidays wish-free, but can’t deny his strong attraction to Andrea.   While Beverly Jenkins shows us that she is an excellent storyteller in long as well as short form.  You will fall in love with these historical characters.  Riding on a high from the first two stories, I found it difficult to lose myself in romance novel where societal issues over power the love story.  This was the case with the last two stories. 

Also, there was something crucial missing from this holiday anthology.  There were no visions of sugarplums dancing in my head when I finished this novel.  None of the stories put me in the holiday mood and I have to admit that I’ve come to expect this from a holiday anthology.  Yes, there were a couple of Christmas trees mentioned and even a Kwanzaa celebration, but I wasn’t left with the urge to dig out my Christmas decorations and sing “Jingle Bells” (which doesn’t take much for this Christmas lover).

2002