ONE DAY I SAW A BLACK KING - J. D. Mason
St. Martin's Press
September 2004
SYNOPSIS: Ever since he was fifteen, John King has been on the run from the ghosts of his past. Drifting from place to place, John never settles down in one place or with one woman. That is, until he rolls into Denver, Colorado, grooving to Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On" and meets Connie Rogers.
MAINSTREAM FICTION: (4) Tricia-Anne Blades
REVIEW: J.D. Mason has produced an emotionally compelling novel in ONE DAY I SAW A BLACK KING. She shows the reader that when
life hands you a lemon, you can make lemonade or you can suck that lemon and live on the bitter juices that flow from within.
This is a story of two lives, separate states but nonetheless running parallel emotionally. Like star-crossed lovers their paths meet lending
to a process of healing that none could have before imagined.
John King has been emotionally scarred from the womb. He has battled with rejection from the time he understood life, but could understand the
reasons why men and women whispered about him behind his back. He understood to the core of his being what it meant to be outcast. Although a
haunted wanderer, John is able to find and make peace with himself and others. A compelling character, the ghost can no longer haunt him.
Emotionally scarred, battered and torn is the character of Connie. Herein lies a young woman who has built walls so high, not even the fairy
tall prince can climb them. Her journey has left her bitter, and not willing to trust anyone or anything. She opens herself to the one ray of
hope and it is this ray that enables her to have a future. This character bears the burden of every abused woman who ever lived but the author
shows that even though broken and tattered, bloody and filthy, one can still rise from the ashes and soar.
ONE DAY I SAW A BLACK KING is an excellent read; so emotionally compelling, once I got started I could not put it down. The reader
becomes absorbed in the lives of the characters, cries when they cry, hurt when they hurt, laugh when they laugh. Truly an engaging novel!
tricia@romanceincolor.com (1st December 2004)