Review: Gloriously Authentic
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 29, 2013
This is my disclaimer: I absolutely did not want to read this book. I had read Unsuitable Men and fell in love with the characters. They were in a happy place in their lives and so was I. But lo and behold Nia comes out with Maybe Never, and my gut reaction was that she was going to by some tragic event break them up and just screw up my vision of their happy ending. Boy was I WRONG!!!  I will be the first to admit that she did something that I did not think could be done. (This by the way is one of the hallmarks of a great author) She made a GREAT story even better. It was so good, I had to stop reading.Here is what she did: Tracy and  Brendan are in a good place. Tracy has leaned to better curtail her theatrics and antic and in fact we see that she has grown a great deal. Brendan has matured as well.  Brendan has the ability to look past all of her defenses, and antics, and internalizations and see the real woman that she is.  Yes, Tracy is work, but she is worth it.Nia literally transplanted me into the lives of her characters. I have never been to New Orleans, but through her vivid imagery, I was there. I could feel the heat and humidity melting the makeup off my face. I have been to New York and I felt I was in the back seat of Brandon's car as he waited in traffic (We had a good long talk in that traffic too).  In my mind I saw myself as a bystander in their lives especially in the bar..LOL ( you have to read the book).Nia painted a picture of vulnerability and susceptibility in both characters that left me wanting more. Left me anxiously awaiting the next word, the next sentence, the next paragraph so I could see how they resolved their troubles.I thought one time I was going to climb into the story and beat the living crap-ola out of Brendan, his issues are so authentic, and so palpable , that it was scary because I did not want him to drop the ball on this one.  I was cheering so hard for him.So ok, I said all that to say.... I loved it, I loved it, I loved it. I am the type of reader that will allow the story line and imagery to take me inside the book and I was there with them every step of the way, growing, changing and evolving.... Hats off to Nia on a job well done!