Review: Reviewed for Scandalicious Book Reviews
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 26, 2014
See the full review at Scandalicious Book Reviews...http://www.scandaliciousbookreviews.com/2014/02/26/review-bounce-by-k-m-jackson/Bounce by K.M. Jackson was one of those books that completely took me by surprise.  I wasn’t sure what I expected out of the story, the plot summary pretty much sums it up but I will tell you what I was not expecting.  Its heart wrenching and inspirational and this story touched me on so many personal levels that it left me dumfounded.  It is a genuine real-life portrayal I think every woman should read and Sabrina Jacobs reminded me why I am so proud to be a woman.  In all our glory, we truly are the stronger sex and she is no exception!  Yes, her resilience is continually tested, but she stays true to herself and even through her toughest moments of trying to figure out who she is in the midst of an identity crisis, she never wavers in her core beliefs and she never cheapens herself.  Her emotions are real, raw and honest ranging from depression to anger and written so superbly it is heartfelt.  She doesn’t lower herself to any random vengeful acts even though I was personally encouraging her visions to live out Angela Bassett’s role in Waiting to Exhale. That woman became my personal hero when she started a little bonfire with all of her cheating husband’s possessions, but I’m supposed to be above that type of behaviour, right?  Someone pass the gasoline…Sabrina Jacobs is a woman who has her life together.  She is happily married (at least on her part) to her college sweetheart, a former NBA player who is a celebrity in his own right with his successful sports talk show.  Sabrina is an incredibly intelligent woman who has worked her butt off as a financial analyst in a male dominated company where she is about to be promoted to partner and she has two happy, healthy, beautiful children at home.  And in one fell swoop, silicone enhanced Bimbo Barbie brings her world crashing down.  I will admit that I give Sean a teensy bit of respect for being man enough to admit to his affair, to her face.  But this man, who has been the center of her world, is now enemy number one and she rightfully throws his cheating butt out the door.“Do these shoes make my guilt look fat?”Guilt.  An emotion that rules many of us.  Guilt, because sometimes your career takes precedence over your children.  Guilt, because you missed that extracurricular activity you promised you would attend.  Guilt, because a nanny has become a pivotal female presence in your children’s lives.  Guilt, because you don’t want your marriage to fall apart and your children to grow up as a product of divorce.  Guilt, because you cannot accept your husband’s repeated apology and don’t know if you can ever trust him again to put your family back together. And finally, frustration, for being the broken woman you swore you wouldn’t be. What follows is a lot of profound soul searching on Sabrina’s behalf.Shedding her working mom image, Sabrina must learn to navigate the carpool lane as a Stay At Home Mom and learn to play nice with the social climbing, two-faced, backstabbing financially elite Stepford wives that make up the PTA.  Sabrina can close muti-million dollar accounts but she is out of her depth with these women and the chatter of her broken home.  Sean is desperate to reclaim his family and is relentless in his pursuit.  It’s probably the main reason I was able to like the guy.  He doesn’t quite grasp the emotional scars he has caused Sabrina or the continual pain he unknowingly still inflicts, nor does he understand why his apologies aren’t enough to get her past the betrayal.  His continual stance on “I have apologized for this, how much longer are you going to hold this against me” made me want to grab him and shake him.  If that isn’t enough to juggle, her children’s younger and incredibly good looking French teacher is pursuing her and the thought of dating again makes her nauseous.  I cannot tell a lie, I really, really wanted her to hook up with the French hottie but Sabrina is not rash or spiteful in any decision while she tries to get her life sorted.  Sabrina hails from a family of resilient women and she has an incredibly close and supportive relationship with her sister Janice who also brings her own dynamic to the story.  I loved Sabrina’s humorous internal musings over the unbelievable and over the top competitive and outright catty nature of the women she must now indulge and I cried every time her heart broke just a little more.  Sabrina is a strong and independent woman and she just might show a few of those Stepford wives how it’s done.All Sabrina wants is to restore the happiness she once had with Sean but she eventually comes to realize that the past cannot be recaptured and she will have to find her new happily ever after in the here and now.  My own mother raised me to never depend on a man, to always make sure that if I needed to walk away from a relationship, I could take care of myself and not stay because I had no other choice.  It seems that Sabrina’s gram had some similar wise advice of her own to pass down…“Never give more away than you are prepared to lose.”