Wildflowers

July 27, 2009
LeFlore's expressive prose captures the diverse and eloquent perspectives of the soulfully satisfying Davis women who gather to help L.A. PR whiz Chloe recover from the painful loss of her miscarriage and her brief, disastrous marriage to con man Gregorry Robinson III. Chloe returns home to St. Louis to lick her wounds; waiting for her is her struggling artist mother, Joy Ann, and her sisters—Eve, who's dating a selfish boyfriend, and Fawn, who's supposedly happily married but is contemplating a torrid affair with her minister. Other women in the Davis estrogen tree have plenty of problems, too, from health issues (some grave) to more fun-of-the-mill matters of finding their way in life. LeFlore delivers an unmistakable message of solidarity, revealing how conflicts, when confronted together, provide solace and opportunity for growth.

August 15, 2009
A family of strong-willed African American women bands together to face some harsh realities.

Heartbroken and frightened after being abandoned by her mentally unstable husband of just a few months, Hollywood publicist Chloe Michaels heads to the one place she will always be welcome: her mother Joy Ann's small home in St. Louis. Staying with Joy Ann, a bohemian painter still struggling to get by, helps Chloe put her own problems in perspective. Oldest sister Fawn leads the pampered life of a doctor's wife but inwardly lusts for her new pastor. Middle sister Eve is unhappily shacked up with the loutish Dale. Aunt Carol Jane is eating herself to death worrying about her daughter Ceci, a hard-partying single mom who displays no interest in dealing with her drug and alcohol habits. Billye Jean, Carol Jane and Joy Ann's sister, has a womanizing old coot of a husband and a middle-aged junkie son who lives on the streets. As Chloe tries to heal and plan a better future for herself, long-simmering family secrets bubble to the surface, bringing with them tensions and resentments going back decades. This leads to verbal fireworks, tragic losses, illegitimate babies and, eventually, prayers and forgiveness among the ladies. The men are for the most part weak-willed scoundrels, although Chloe meets a retired NBA player named Lance who shows some promise. LeFlore (Last Night a DJ Saved My Life, 2006, etc.) sometimes tries to do too much, and the many interconnected characters can be hard to keep track of, but this emotionally raw tale shows an authentic respect for female strength and black tradition.

Cathartic melodrama with some spiritual grounding.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

August 1, 2009
Tired of waiting 12 years for her true love to declare himself, 35-year-old Chloe Michaels succumbs to a whirlwind romance with another man. Within months, she knows she has made a mistake in marrying him but is too proud to admit it until a miscarriage and escalating violence drive her from L.A. and her successful business back home to St. Louis. In her hometown, she finds comfort, confusion, and tension among the strong-willed women of her family: her sisters, Eva and Fawn; her mother, Joy Ann; and her aunts, as well as the memories of family matriarchs. Old hurts, including color complexes, bubble to the surface, and old secrets are loosed as the visit uncovers a host of problems: cheating and being cheated, a cancer scare, failing careers, money woes, self-doubts, troubled children. Each chapter is told through the perspective of a different woman, offering a spectrum of personalities and intertwined relationships as the women come to self-realization and an appreciation of their family ties.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)