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deborahs's review against another edition
3.0
I wanted to like this so much, but it was really slow & redundant.
marisaelainegettas's review against another edition
4.0
BLACK AUTHOR READATHON 2021
This is the first book in a series about 4 women who are fired from their job on the same day, and become fast friends. One is a lawyer, one an executive chef, one is an accountant, and the last an HR executive/interior designer. Eventually, they will run an Inn together in New Orleans.
This was a real slice of life book, with a very refreshing romance between a 59 year old caucasian woman, and a 62 year old Black man. They knew each other in high school and have reconnected at their 40th High School reunion.
It’s filled with vivd descriptions of food, a slowly simmering romance, and a good deal of New Orleans history and culture.
I’m excited to read the rest of this series :)
*I feel it important to note that the female MC owns a, in-the-family-for-generations, Plantation-style home (the one you see on the cover). It was built by free black men who were paid.
This is the first book in a series about 4 women who are fired from their job on the same day, and become fast friends. One is a lawyer, one an executive chef, one is an accountant, and the last an HR executive/interior designer. Eventually, they will run an Inn together in New Orleans.
This was a real slice of life book, with a very refreshing romance between a 59 year old caucasian woman, and a 62 year old Black man. They knew each other in high school and have reconnected at their 40th High School reunion.
It’s filled with vivd descriptions of food, a slowly simmering romance, and a good deal of New Orleans history and culture.
I’m excited to read the rest of this series :)
*I feel it important to note that the female MC owns a, in-the-family-for-generations, Plantation-style home (the one you see on the cover). It was built by free black men who were paid.
now_booking's review
3.0
I’m still in an “old love” or more accurately “mature love” sort of mood and this author delivers in writing these stories and making them accessible and sweet and still sexy to people of any age. The premise of this is that when Hannah, a lawyer and wealthy heiress returns to New Orleans after years as a corporate lawyer in New York, she meets her high school study buddy St John, and realizes that there might be sparks. But she’s menopausal, somewhat inexperienced despite having been married with a son, and also has reasons to not trust men. The question is whether she’ll risk her self-protection to trust St John.
My favourite part of this book is the female friendships. Yes I think the meet cute of the 4 friends is not the most plausible but I still like the idea of it and of how supportive they were of each other and how I can see that it’s going to build into an enjoyable series of interlinked lives and a stronger friendship. I think this was especially important for a character like Hannah who had struggled to find and maintain female friendships before that. For me, this struggled a little bit in the execution of some themes. One example is with race and Hannah’s claiming of her black heritage as a mitigation of the privilege she and her family had enjoyed, another is with how child sexual abuse (CW) was handled and finally, with how Hannah’s fear of infidelity was dealt with. It’s not that an awful job was done in tackling these themes, I just felt like it could have been done better and with more sensitivity. I do like that the characters reactions were realistic as was the handling of a menopausal woman entering an intimate relationship and the practicalities of that.
I say this all the time but I’m a huge fan of this author’s work. Yes it’s on the old-fashioned side (even when it’s recently written) but I like it and I enjoy the fantastically OTT stories she tells of aspirational black peoples and the realness of their reactions to the sometimes harsh realities of life. Soooo here for this series!
My favourite part of this book is the female friendships. Yes I think the meet cute of the 4 friends is not the most plausible but I still like the idea of it and of how supportive they were of each other and how I can see that it’s going to build into an enjoyable series of interlinked lives and a stronger friendship. I think this was especially important for a character like Hannah who had struggled to find and maintain female friendships before that. For me, this struggled a little bit in the execution of some themes. One example is with race and Hannah’s claiming of her black heritage as a mitigation of the privilege she and her family had enjoyed, another is with how child sexual abuse (CW) was handled and finally, with how Hannah’s fear of infidelity was dealt with. It’s not that an awful job was done in tackling these themes, I just felt like it could have been done better and with more sensitivity. I do like that the characters reactions were realistic as was the handling of a menopausal woman entering an intimate relationship and the practicalities of that.
I say this all the time but I’m a huge fan of this author’s work. Yes it’s on the old-fashioned side (even when it’s recently written) but I like it and I enjoy the fantastically OTT stories she tells of aspirational black peoples and the realness of their reactions to the sometimes harsh realities of life. Soooo here for this series!
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