Love, Honor, and Betray

October 11, 2010
In Roby's eighth update exploring the family of the righteous Reverend Black (after 2010's Be Careful What You Pray For), life at the Deliverance Outreach ministry of Mitchell, Ill., is relatively calm (except for a sneaky chief financial officer; never trust a CFO named Raven), but the minister's household is suffering. Most notably, his frustrated wife, Charlotte, is furious that he's taken in Curtina, the daughter that came from an affair. Charlotte doesn't believe she can love Curtina the way she loves Matthew, the teenage son the couple share. Roby's rendering of Charlotte rekindling her own affair, with an old now-married flame, and her one-night stand with a secretive man is a hoot, and fans of faith-based series will no doubt relish these sinful shenanigans. But readers will find it hard to empathize with a woman who bears such fiery resentment for a toddler ("Curtis would either get rid of that little brat or find himself in divorce court"), and also wish Roby had endeavored to make her eventual redemption less predictable.

October 15, 2010

Eighth in Roby's Reverend Curtis Black series, this time featuring Curtis' clueless third wife, Charlotte.

Despite his checkered past as clerical babe magnet to the entire Chicago-land African-American community, Curtis has emerged unscathed and wealthier than ever as pastor of his own megachurch in ex-urban Chicago. His family, wife Charlotte and their son Matthew, enjoy all the perks of Black's success, including entrees to Ivy League schools and shopping sprees at Tiffany. However, another viper (the couple's domestic road has been a rocky one as regular readers will know) lurks in the gold-plated nest. Curtis' lover Tabitha, stricken with AIDS, dies, leaving her two-year-old daughter Curtina in her baby-daddy Curtis' care. The affair with Tabitha was Curtis' payback for Charlotte's adultery in a previous installment. (That liaison resulted in a child, now deceased, whom Charlotte tried to pass off as Curtis' own). Charlotte, predictably, doesn't consider them even. She resents Curtina's presence in her household and insists that Curtis consign her to one of Tabitha's relations. Curtis' refusal to abandon the girl starts the cycle of revenge affairs spinning yet again. While carousing in a Chicago jazz club, Charlotte meets Tom, with whom she trysts drunkenly in a sleazy motel. As their marriage disintegrates, Curtis is tempted by a number of predatory females all too willing to be wife No. 4, including Raven, the church's CFO, and a hot-to-trot parishioner named Sharon. Charlotte enjoys a passionate Palm Beach weekend with Michael, an old flame re-ignited via Facebook. Just when Matthew's involvement in a high-school hostage situation seemingly reunites the couple—now remorseful, Charlotte is even trying to act motherly toward Curtina—Michael's estranged wife Sybil, and Tom, who has his own agenda, threaten to expose her betrayals. The pace, slowed by too much stilted dialogue and clunky exposition, accelerates in the last pages, preparing the way for the next novel.

Schadenfreude is the only enjoyment readers could derive from watching these spoiled characters repeatedly self-destruct.

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November 1, 2010

This is number eight in Roby's Reverend Curtis Black series, and life is still complicated for Curtis and Charlotte.

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