Review: Latrivia Nelson---Where Are You!!!!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 11 30, 2012
OK.  Now, will the real Latrivia Nelson please stand up???  I haven't read other reviews for this book, so I don't know what others are saying, but I feel as though I've missed something.  I always hate to give an IR book a poor rating because there aren't that many really good, meaty ones out there.  But, what gives?  I'll tell anyone that based on my reading of Ms. Nelson's previous books, she is an extremely talented writer.  That being said, I just could not enjoy this book.  I will not go into details about the story because there would be spoilers.  Therefore,  I'll just state what I did or did not like about this novel.  Let me start off by saying that there are some things , IMHO, that a black woman just would not do.  Pair her up with a white man, and, well, there are some things that would not even fall within the realm of "I'll think about it."  While this story started out OK, and might have had potential (with the political career angle), it just turned plain weird.  The plot was so beyond far-fetched, I just shook my head, rolled my eyes and said, no f-ing way!!  A work of fiction does not have to be 100% believable for it to work for me; however,  often there are some very practical limits (with the exception of fantasy, paranormal, etc., that should be observed.  I cannot conceive of a circumstance where an up and coming black woman would even consider Sully's "proposition", especially since he and Charlene "Charlie" had not seen each other or been together for many, many years.  That Sully would have remained single and in love with Charlie for over 11 years is beyond my ability to suspend my disbelief.  That Charlie was never curious about whether her donated eggs were ever used--nope, can't believe it. There were at least a dozen more instances like these that  I almost decided not to finish the book.  Nevertheless, I trudged through it.Another unpleasant surprise is that I didn't really even connect with Sully and Charlie as a couple or as separate people until near the end of the book--and that is very unusual in the books I've read by this author.  I just wasn't invested in them or their future together---and where was the romance???  The writing wasn't bad; however, the plot line simply tanked this book.  There is very little that I liked about it.  I have read all of the books in the lonely heart series and loved every last one of them------except this one.Hopefully, the next book will be as excellent as the first 3 in the series.