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ONCE UPON A PROJECT - Bettye Griffin Kensington Dafina/Fiction May 2008 |
SYNOPSIS: From the author of "If These Walls Could Talk, Nothing But Trouble," and "The People Next Door" comes a captivating and insightful new novel about four mature, sophisticated friends, whose reunion triggers life-altering changes for each of them.
MAINSTREAM FICTION |4| Dianthia Lemons
REVIEW: Pat Maxwell, Grace Corrigan, Susan Dillahunt, and Elyse Reavis are four women who while growing up became the best of friends. They called themselves the Twenty-Two Club and this name evolved because most of them had been born on the twenty-second of the month but in different months. After they graduated and began their own lives as friends do, they drifted apart and are reunited by a reunion for The Theodore Dreiser Housing Projects, spear headed by Pat Maxwell. The ladies get together before the reunion to catch up on their lives and what's been happening after all these years. Susan has the secret of her breast cancer that she has shared with no one except her husband. She knows that her husband no longer desires her because of the deformity left by her lumpectomy. She has yet to share her heartache with her friends. Her marriage is faltering but she runs into an old flame and realizes the flames are still burning.
Elyse is married to Franklin who was older than her from the very beginning. She is frustrated that he no longer wants to spend time with her and is tired all of the time except when he wants to go bowling with his friends. Elyse is in the dark about the real reason until the reason rears it's ugly head. Grace is a successful twice divorced executive who is still looking for love and decides to settle for less. Even though the sex is good, the man is definitely not a keeper. Pat Maxwell was forced by her parents to as a teenager to give up the love of her life, a young man named Ricky who has after all these years become successful. Pat is still in love with him after all of this time but Grace needs to let Pat in on a secret.
These ladies all experience life changing incidents that brings them pain, sorrow, release and in the end happiness.
The setting of a housing project in Chicago was an excellent choice. It gives the reader a different view of what the projects were like and what they represented. Families wanted better for their children then and now. The projects represented a stepping stone in the community not a lifetime sentence of poverty.
Bettye Griffin did a great job with the story line and the characters. Each character had her own well developed story going on inside the story and everything flowed evenly. Even though the characters were mature, they have ongoing issues that are a part of life. Health issues, sexuality, socialization, body image, finding love and making sure they are secure financially. Ms Griffin has a story that was worth telling and is definitely worth the read.
reviewer@romanceincolor.com | 30th May 2008