Bring on the Blessings Book

Well, I do have to admit that at first I had a hard time putting this book down. It's because I am a social worker and I was really excited to see how the author managed the characters she'd created.

Then I had a hard time putting it down because I just couldn't believe that the book wasn't getting good anywhere. The elements were all there: Millionare divorcee buys a historical african-american community to revamp it and use it as a treatment site for especially troubled foster kids.

What's not to love?

I'll tell you what became very apparent: I know too much about reality and the author.... didn't.

I know it's very difficult to create believable, likable characters with the realistic issues that come from the kind of character histories she created. Still, she fell unbelievably short of the mark. Her writing skills were not up to the task.

She had this idea that just loving and accepting these poor kids was all it would take to transform them into well-adjusted human beings. Yes, to a point, but there's way more distrust, manipulation, and fighting that goes into it. I've worked with these kinds of kids and I don't think she's ever met one in her life.

That's not the only reason I had a really hard time swallowing the story she gave me and how it played out. Despite having some great elements and starting with some great characters in the town, there never really seemed to be a conflict. Any conflict was quickly resolved by money and the characters all continued on their merry ways without a hiccup. Everyone in town was miraculously unified in all ideas about child-rearing and managing conflict except for the two very obvious bad guys who were trying to scam them all without anything nearing success (because if they'd been even close to successful in scamming them, it would have felt less trite). In all, the structure of the story felt more like a merry-go-round rather than the dramatic build of conflict before the resolution at the end that I enjoy.

Yeah. The overall impression I got was that the author--whose writing norm seems to be the equivalent of cotton candy--tried to take on a meatier topic using her cotton candy writing skills. Better luck next time, Beverly, but maybe you shouldn't publish the books until you get it right.