One House Over

I always love Mary Monroe but the way this novel ended was just wrong. Why would she leave us hanging to find out what happened between Joyce and Odell? Is there a continuation of this saga or will their demise be featured in another of her neighbor's series? I think we know what probably happened and that is Joyce was so desperate to have Odell that she excepted Betty Jean and Odell children and tried to continue to love Odell. All of the characters were truly dysfunctional, but it is rare that you get a chance to read an in-depth story about the 1930's in such a real way. The reference is to slavery was rare when you do a story from this period, but it was surreal. I must say no matter what that Mary is an exceptional storyteller, and this is what makes her novels so interesting and fresh. She is always in touch with real life people that you can identify with. Yvonne was truly different from most women of this era who had good looks but low self-esteem and settled for a poor excuse of a man like Milton. She felt safe with him because she believed that he would protect her and allow her to be herself, but she was afraid to confront herself and reach for more out of life. Milton was a low life jerk who was always looking for an easy buck and a way to get a dollar without working. He appeared stupid but, in the end, he showed Odell just who was the jerk. The way he blackmailed Odell was slick but dangerous. Odell appeared to be a honest man who was dealt a bad life, but he found a way to rise up from humble beginnings and become successful but then he began to think with the wrong "head" and found himself in a barrel that he could not get out. Joyce was the saddest. She was rejected by everyone even her parents and she thought when she married Odell that she had hit the jackpot because he showed her some attention and affection that she never had but Odell had ulterior motives. Sometimes you can never see the forest for the trees. I would have given this novel a 5 star, but it was just too drawn out and it could omit at least 100 pages because he covered all of their thoughts and conversations which we did not need to know. I'm still fan of Mary and I will just continue to read more of her novels. This one was not at the top of her best work.

Talk about drama! I swear guys are dogs! I felt sorry for & hated the main characters in this book. Overall a good read.