Tajuana "TJ" Butler

Villard

0-37550-605-5

October 2001

(4+) Wayne Jordan

Contemporary Romance

PLOT SYNOPSIS: 

A recent college graduate, Nina Lander moves back in with her parents while she tries to find a job, only to become increasingly frustrated with her father's treatment of her mother and her mother's acceptance of it, and becomes involved in her own relationship with a charming but unfaithful rookie NBA player.

REVIEW: 

At the end of HAND-ME-DOWN HEARTACHE, the heroine of the book, Nina Lander, reflects on the two men in her life, and finally comes to a true understanding of what love is:

Maybe my father was right—with Maurice I didn’t understand the meaning of love.  I always thought it meant that I had to fight hard for what I wanted, or that it was the feeling at the pit of my stomach that propelled me to do whatever it took, no matter how crazy, to obtain affection.

But being with Leo and feeling his calm in the midst of my personal storm helped me to better understand love.  I grasped that it is unconditional, it is nonjudgmental, it is offered without force.  It’s like that old saying, “If you love something, let it go.  If it comes back to you, it’s true love; if it never returns, it was never yours after all.”

HAND-ME-DOWN HEARTACHE is Ms. Butler’s sophomore effort, and one that demonstrates that she has grown with this effort.  Ms. Butler’s forte is her ability to creates genuine and down to earth relationship and friendships.  But what is special about her writing is the sensitivity with which she handles her central characters, and the relationship in their lives.

HAND-ME-DOWN HEARTACHE is Nina Lander’s story.  Nina has grown up in a home that not only lacks love, but one in which abuse has control her mother for years.  For years, Nina’s father has been abusing her mother – physically in the early years, but now an emotional and verbal abuse that has reduced Mrs. Lander to a shadow of her former self.  A woman who’s only goal in life seems to be to satisfy her husband…a quality we see slowly emerging in Nina in her relationship with Maurice.

Maurice, her lover, is the typical macho man.  He’s a ballplayer and he believes that Nina is there to make him happy, and for a while she allows this to happen.  There are several scenes that show Maurice’s manipulation of Nina’s feelings, his insensitivity, and more that a hint of the potential he has to be physically and emotionally abusive.

While I was reading the book, there were times when Nina angered me, and like her girlfriends I wondered why she wouldn’t leave the jerk, especially when there was a man like Leo waiting for her.  But that is the reality of Ms. Butler’s writing, and by extension the reality of the world in which we live.  There are many woman like Nina’s mother and Nina, who are trapped in relationship such as these, and because of their warped understanding of what love is, they are unable to get out.

Fortunately, Maurice breaks of the relationship, and Nina finds comfort in the arms of an old school mate, Leonard Jones.  Unlike Maurice, Leo is a sensitive caring man, and a true hero, and he loves Nina.  He makes her laugh, he’s fun to talk to and he satisfies her in bed, but her obsession with Maurice makes her behave irrationally, and she almost loses Leo when she returns to Maurice’s arms.  Leo is the perfect man.  His silent confidence and his willingness to forgive are two of his most appealing characteristics, and readers are sure to fall a little in love with him.  He’s the kind of man I’d want to be!

HAND-ME-DOWN HEARTACHE is also about self-discovery, and it’s only towards the end of the book that Nina faces up to the facts of her life, and finally takes control.  She realizes that she is a talented beautiful woman who deserves the best in life.

There are so many other levels to this wonderful book, but these the readers will have to discover for him/herself.  Ms. Butler writes a tale that is sure to satisfy her fans and gain her many more.  HAND-ME-DOWN HEARTACHE is a very special book, and one that I’ve added to the books of 2001 that are on my keeper-shelf.

wayne@romanceincolor.net (14th October 2001)