Reviews

Charlotte, Charlotte, Charlotte. Still don't care for her. Curtis never surprises me. I kind of want him to leave her. I guess the dirt they have on each other keeps them together. She is his karma.

laileanah's review against another edition

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dark lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

This is wild.
Toxic as fuck relationships, respectability politcs, misogynoir, this is most definitely NOT romance at all, gaslighting, domestic violence, assault, infidelity, etc.

bettyboop25's review against another edition

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4.0

I'm glad that I finally picked up this book. It was a quick read for me and I can't wait to pick up another one.

shanaetheflyest's review against another edition

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3.0

THIS REVIEW IS FULL OF SPOILERS BUT I PROMISE IT WILL MAKE YOU LAUGH.

Psychopath ex-lover won't get out of the picture

Manipulative man gets back at respectable professor by taking over her home and using it as a trap house

Schizophrenic daughter hates mother, when parents finally get her psychological help, she discovers that the man who's supposed to be her father is not, she accidentally falls down a spiral staircase and dies...she's 5 years old at the time

Young mistress turned wife is sexually assaulted by her estranged husband's play brother who pretends to be an upstanding man, but is really a drug addicted pedophile on the run from the police after he's accused of sexually molesting his own child

Reverend's mistress breaks bad and demands that he give her large sums of money to care for their unborn child, if he fails to do so, she threatens to slander his name in the tabloids by announcing his 5 year affair with her

I got three words for this whole book: What the hell?

janjanjukebox's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Love & Lies by Kimberla Lawson Roby 288/273 pages
Reverend Curtis Black #4

Genre: Cultural > African American; Christian Fiction, Drama, Love, Adult Fiction, Womens Fiction > Chick Lit

Featuring: Sex - fade out, Marshall, Illinois; Messy Church Folk, Fornication, Infidelity, Mental Illness, Criminal Activity, Drug Abuse, Children, Assault - Physical and Sexual, Dual Narrators, Stupidity, Profanity

Rating as a movie: R for sexual content and adult themes

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

My thoughts: page 16 of 273 - This is going to be a breeze. Some books just flow like a show while others take their time.
91 - Rhoda Penmark? Oh my!

This book was pretty fast pace, either that or Death on the Nile made it seem fast paced. This book occurs about 5 years after the previous book. The timeline is inconsistent so just ignore the ages of the children. Curtis and Charlotte Black are one of those couples that make you think, why bother? Charlotte makes makes some poor choices but her friend Janine is idiotic throughout the book. Her storyline could have been a good one but it quickly was fueled by stupidity. 🙄 For example if you receive a collect call from a correctional facility and the options are ¹accept ²decline ³block all future calls, and you don't want to talk to the person, why would you decline, accept, then plan to decline future calls? You could have blocked the first call and moved on. Her entire storyline is how can I drag this situation on and add more drama. Luckily it wasn't as ridiculous as the last book so it didn't hurt as much as it could have. Basically the story was a good mix of quick moving drama and there wasn't a lot of profanity and no explicit sex scenes to get on my nerves. This isn't Christian Fiction in my book unless you think of Tyler Perry as Christian Fiction, I think of it as a Christian Setting.

Recommend to others?: IDK. I think this will be my last book as I think it's a big piece of poo and I only see it being set on fire as the series goes on.

Content Warnings

gabsalott13's review against another edition

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3.0

Another edge-of-my-seat audiobook in The Reverend Curtis Black series! I am going to try to slow myself down a bit on these, since my hardcover copies just came in from the library. Given the fact that I finished this one really in less than 24 hours, I'll list a couple of my knee-jerk thoughts:

1. Despite their chronological maturation, Curtis' children always act the same age. Both Alicia, Matthew, and Marissa have all conformed to a pattern of behavior that is precocious but impressionable, and unreasonably affectionate towards this questionable father of theirs. In Love and Lies, this static behavior seemed especially wrong for Matthew, who should’ve been a moody and unresponsive preteen by this point in his life.

2. While trying to look up a Black family tree to keep my story straight, I was spoiled as to the death of one character in this story. In hopes of not spoiling anyone else, I will just say that I was desperately hoping for them to be killed off...perhaps a sign of Roby's knack for creating annoying characters?

3. Speaking of annoying characters, the Janine-Antonio subplot had me screaming at the audiobook reader in my van, but that was the point, I guess. It breaks my heart that many people really get manipulated, scammed, and hurt by deadbeats like him everyday, but I also don't think deeming all people "with only an associate's degree" heartless, classless criminals is the move either...

4. Before this point in the series, we've never really seen Curtis and Charlotte through a prolonged stint of mutual forgiveness and teamwork in order to fight the “real dangers” in their family. It was strangely fulfilling, and I hope that the older they get in this series, the more we'll get to see of this less argumentative dynamic...

5. Roby is very murky with her distinction between "good men" like Carl and "reformed men" like Curtis, but very insistent on a black-and-white moral authority in her tales. This combination is really incompatible! Similar to my complaints with the last novel, she makes people "bad" by making them mentally ill, broke, scheming, and/or abusive. However, when Curtis has exhibited many of these tendencies, it's hard to see him as one of "the good ones" just a few days after his own missteps. I guess this back and forth is how life is, but it doesn't feel like the author fully recognizes that...moreso like she just gets lazy with her character development.

6. Finally, I feel like I want Roby to get a bit more creative with her various forms of tragedy. Lazy men turn into "crazy men", who stalk and stab and rape until they’re sent to jail "for good!" Doting daughters become precocious and too close to their parents' marital woes for comfort, until they fall down the stairs. Children come under questionable paternity, and mistresses come into the light of day, and then they just DIE to get the issues resolved?!? I don't know if these see-it-coming formulas can last for another twelve books!

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