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NOT EVEN IF YOU BEGGED - Francis Ray St. Martin's Press January 2008 |
SYNOPSIS: Widow Traci Evans happily sits in on meetings with the lovely ladies of the "Invincible Sisterhood" solely because they reached out to her first. A loner, Traci feels for the first time she belongs. All of the official members are sweet older women who have lost the love of their lives, their husbands. Unknown to them, Traci is more angry than she is grief-stricken because her husband died in the midst of cheating on her with another woman.
MAINSTREAM FICTION |4| Dianthia Lemons
REVIEW: The Ladies of the Invincible Sisterhood are women one would be proud to know. To be a member, one has to be a widow who overcame, a woman who had lost a great love but who refused to let that loss dominate her life. Maureen started the group after the loss of her husband. Nettie, Maureen, Betsy, Donna, Ophelia, and Traci, meet regularly to share and give support to each other and they take trips. Traci is the youngest and an honary member of the group. These foxy sisters are very supportive of one another and have decided to get Traci the hook-up since she is still so young. Maureen decides she has the perfect man for Traci but it turns out that Simon Dunlap is not only handsome and single, he only has eyes for Maureen. What Maureen doesn't realize is that her son Ryan is Simon's fraternity brother and that Ryan has his sights on the heart hardened Traci Evans. Traci and Ryan give into their long attraction to one another and Maureen realizes that age is nothing but a number where love is concerned.
The setting is in upscale Charleston. The Invincible Sisterhood are educated retired professionals and they have raised their children in modest surroundings. Most of them worked hard and accumulated the lifestyles they now enjoy and the story continuously lets the reader see the reward of due diligence. It also reminds us that we all have those relations we'd like to forget. The characters are well blended and the story flows from one character to the other with the interlocking events well defined.
NOT EVEN IF YOU BEGGED, steps into the popular subject of young man, older woman. It has always been acceptable for older men to date and marry younger women and nothing is said. However when younger men started pursuing, dating and marrying older women, it was considered robbing the cradle and not just two people in love. Older women had to adjust to feeling desirable after menopause and the insecurity of thinking that once he tires of her, he'll discard her. Older women are sexy, successful, active, beautiful, graceful and definitely desirable. Instead of being discarded or growing old gracefully, older women are now able to find love again and have successful relationships without feeling insecure.
reviewer@romanceincolor.com | 13th March 2008