“Family First
The family that cooks together stays together. The Livingstons are one such family. They own a chain of soul food restaurants, Taste of Soul. Though they are a tightly knit, loving family, they are no strangers to drama.
Lutishia Lovely brings the drama with ALL UP IN MY BUSINESS. But for this reader, the book takes a wrong turn with too much drama stretched all around. And every time drama reared its ugly head, many times without explanation, it was neatly packaged and put away, thus weakening the validity of the drama. There is a lot going on in these pages. Though the synopsis leads one to believe that the book is about brothers Malcolm and Toussaint Livingston, the drama of all family members and a few employees are detailed. I found much of it immaterial.
I would have preferred if the book had focused more on a particular (limited) number of family members and taken the time to develop those characters, their issues sufficiently and brought about a satisfactory and/or complete resolution instead of a bunch of characters and a bunch of problems. Because of that, ALL UP IN MY BUSINESS feels like it didn't quite know what it wanted to be. It is amusing at times and readable, but not truly memorable. Those hoping for a clear resolution at story's end will be disappointed. The first of a series, I think I'll pass.
OOSA Selected Read (Apr)
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Ms Toni wrote this review Saturday, April 30, 2011.
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