Official Review: And I Trusted You by Jamela
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yalonde
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Official Review: And I Trusted You by Jamela
[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "And I Trusted You" by Jamela.]
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And I Trusted You is a fiction book, but more specifically it can be classified as an Urban Fiction book.
The theme of And I Trusted You is how relationships between significant others can effect lives and possible stressful situations that can take place in these relationships.
And I Trusted You is a compilation of six short stories that I assume are from African-American characters. The author never specifies that the characters are in fact African-America, but for some reason I get the idea that I am correct (plus that is what is on the cover of the book). The six stories are situations that can occur in relationships that can cause problems (i.e., abuse, outsider interference in relationships, the cheating, a sociopath boyfriend, and rape).
And I Trusted You does not have one specific storyline. In fact, it has multiple storylines since it is six different stories compiled into one book. Each story is pertaining to issues that women may have to go through in their life in regards to their relationships with husbands and/or boyfriends. Some of the stories are suspenseful and some are predictable.
As I read And I Trusted You, I kept thinking that this book would be a good reading requirement for women in counseling or some form of support group. I was able to relate to the stories and often times found myself putting myself in the shoes of the main character. The book gave me hope in respect to my marriage and provided me insights in regards to situations that could occur. I found myself wondering what would I do if the situation happened to me. I also found myself wondering if I would be strong enough to respond to the situations as the main characters responded. All in all, the book caused me to reflect on myself as a wife.
I did not enjoy all the grammatical and spelling errors. Each story contained a grammatical or spelling error. The author’s use of quotation marks to not only show when a character is speaking, but also when the character is thinking, drove me insane. I was still able to read and enjoy the point of the stories with these errors.
Another flaw I found in the book was that there was no variation in character voice for the main female characters of each story. The main female character in each story had a different name, but if I didn’t know the name of each main female character, I would have thought it was the same person throughout each story.
I normally complete a book within a few days, three at the most. Since this book consisted of six stories, I believe it caused me to take a little longer to complete the book. As I finished a story, it felt like finishing a book. When reading a book with one story, I continue to read due to the added suspense at the end of each chapter. That did not happen in this book because each chapter was a new story.
Overall, And I Trusted You was interesting. The fact that each story seemed that it could actually occur in real life is what caused it to be so interesting. This was the first book in over twenty years that I have read in this genre so I hope I am giving the book justice by my review.
From what I can gather, I believe the author’s opinion regarding relationships is that women may have to suffer through many different types of situations in their life as it pertains to their romantic relationships. She offers a form of guidance through the situations through the outcomes that occur in her stories. I do agree with her stance on relationships and she does offer perspective to others that may be going through or may go through situations similar to the stories.
The issues that the author brings up are not real, but they are real. What I mean is, the stories may not be true stories, but they could actually occur in real life. I completely agree and I appreciate the fact that the author brings these situations to light for others to reflect upon.
All in all, I rate And I Trusted You 2 out of 4 stars. (Actually, if possible, I would give it 2.5 stars). The grammatical and spelling errors and lack of character’s variation in voice caused me to give the author an average score. The stories were interesting, but at times predictable. With a little editing and adding a personality to the characters, the story could possibly be a 3 star book.
***
Buy "And I Trusted You" on Barnes and Noble
Share This Review
The theme of And I Trusted You is how relationships between significant others can effect lives and possible stressful situations that can take place in these relationships.
And I Trusted You is a compilation of six short stories that I assume are from African-American characters. The author never specifies that the characters are in fact African-America, but for some reason I get the idea that I am correct (plus that is what is on the cover of the book). The six stories are situations that can occur in relationships that can cause problems (i.e., abuse, outsider interference in relationships, the cheating, a sociopath boyfriend, and rape).
And I Trusted You does not have one specific storyline. In fact, it has multiple storylines since it is six different stories compiled into one book. Each story is pertaining to issues that women may have to go through in their life in regards to their relationships with husbands and/or boyfriends. Some of the stories are suspenseful and some are predictable.
As I read And I Trusted You, I kept thinking that this book would be a good reading requirement for women in counseling or some form of support group. I was able to relate to the stories and often times found myself putting myself in the shoes of the main character. The book gave me hope in respect to my marriage and provided me insights in regards to situations that could occur. I found myself wondering what would I do if the situation happened to me. I also found myself wondering if I would be strong enough to respond to the situations as the main characters responded. All in all, the book caused me to reflect on myself as a wife.
I did not enjoy all the grammatical and spelling errors. Each story contained a grammatical or spelling error. The author’s use of quotation marks to not only show when a character is speaking, but also when the character is thinking, drove me insane. I was still able to read and enjoy the point of the stories with these errors.
Another flaw I found in the book was that there was no variation in character voice for the main female characters of each story. The main female character in each story had a different name, but if I didn’t know the name of each main female character, I would have thought it was the same person throughout each story.
I normally complete a book within a few days, three at the most. Since this book consisted of six stories, I believe it caused me to take a little longer to complete the book. As I finished a story, it felt like finishing a book. When reading a book with one story, I continue to read due to the added suspense at the end of each chapter. That did not happen in this book because each chapter was a new story.
Overall, And I Trusted You was interesting. The fact that each story seemed that it could actually occur in real life is what caused it to be so interesting. This was the first book in over twenty years that I have read in this genre so I hope I am giving the book justice by my review.
From what I can gather, I believe the author’s opinion regarding relationships is that women may have to suffer through many different types of situations in their life as it pertains to their romantic relationships. She offers a form of guidance through the situations through the outcomes that occur in her stories. I do agree with her stance on relationships and she does offer perspective to others that may be going through or may go through situations similar to the stories.
The issues that the author brings up are not real, but they are real. What I mean is, the stories may not be true stories, but they could actually occur in real life. I completely agree and I appreciate the fact that the author brings these situations to light for others to reflect upon.
All in all, I rate And I Trusted You 2 out of 4 stars. (Actually, if possible, I would give it 2.5 stars). The grammatical and spelling errors and lack of character’s variation in voice caused me to give the author an average score. The stories were interesting, but at times predictable. With a little editing and adding a personality to the characters, the story could possibly be a 3 star book.
***
Buy "And I Trusted You" on Barnes and Noble
Latest Review: "The Road To Comfort" by Becky Lower
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crazyreader12
- Posts: 31
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Hi yolande- I have reviewed several books where grammar and spelling just turned me off. I often wonder if anyone edited the book or proofread. Sounds like an interesting book but like you I would want variation in voice.
