Terry McMillan

Funny, sad, tragic, and every page is appealing. Each character is well-drawn and it's not long before it feels like I know them personally. Like many siblings, the sisters are so different from each other with each having a unique view of what is regarded as the right thing to do. The differences between living in a "nice" neighbourhood or in "the 'hood" plays out in much of this family drama of mixed races. The main character, Betty Jean, was my favourite, a grandmother who brings up her show more daughter's children and suffers the most from her dysfunctional family. This was my first book by McMillan but there will be more. show less

I appreciate a romance that is acerbically funny rather than cloying and this one gets bonus points for a main character and her romantic interests who are middle aged and dealing with all the life issues that go with it. The characters, their relationships, and the events felt real and not too improbable and the dialogue was snappy. I enjoyed it so much that it mostly overcame the usual fatal flaw of having been written in first person, present tense. Normally, I’ll DNF those immediately, show more but I was actually able to forget the style and fall into the story for the most part.

Audiobook, borrowed from my public library. Audiobooks read by the author tend to be pretty hit/miss, but MacMillan did a terrific reading, especially with the dialogue. show less

This book is really ZERO stars. It comes off as a cash grab for Terry McMillain to have source material to make a Waiting to Exhale II.

Let's start with how all the good guys go to shit, shall we?
Gregory Hines passed away at some point either before or during her writing this, so she wrote Marvin out the book (he gets murdered buying a Xmas tree in a gang shootout, wtf?). After being married to Gloria for 15 years, you know she back to being a wreck like she was pining for her gay baby daddy show more back in the day. Her getting to happy is gaining back all the weight she lost after he dies and having her deadbeat ass girlfriends jock her constantly about it.

James (you know the guy that was married to the dying white woman in the first book that swept Bernie off her feet respectfully) is now ia con artist with a very alive and black wife, who has ran through all her money while Bernie is a pill head. That's right,her getting to happy is being a mainlining junkie circling the toilet bowl of ex's because, get this, she winds up taking John back after his trash wife leaves him and their mulatto kid behind.

Robin is still circling the bowl in love on the shallow end of ex's as well, since her getting to happy is returning back to Michael (you know, she could have had a V8 the peen was so tiny) because he loses weight. I'd rather she go back to flip flopping with Russell trifling ass (who is also floating around, same as before, attempting to be something he aint).

Savannah finally gets a husband that ain't tied to somebody else, and her getting to happy is dumping him because after some years she's bored with him. So now, at age 50, she wants alone time after bagging and tagging her man. That's her getting to happy.

Doesn't help that Whitney Houston died by the time this was released (and she was in talks to star in the sequel) so I'm expecting Savannah to die off in Book 3.

This is a redundant snooze fest slash complete desecration of characters we know and love from the 90s. Pass right on by it, unless you like the weak, dull, boring, neverending explorative narration that has underwhelmed all of Terry McMillan's books since How Stella Got Her Groove Back. This one is worse than A Day Late and A Dollar Short, and that one was a stinker. show less

I Almost Forgot About You is the sassy, funny, sometimes touching story of Dr. Georgia Young, an optometrist with her own practice in San Fransisco. In her mid-50s, Georgia is twice divorced with two daughters. Her current "romantic attachment" is to ogling the TV image of Detective Goren on Law & Order: Criminal Intent. In other words, she is currently single. Georgia decides to take a little stroll down memory lane and reconnect with past lovers. She wants to see where life has taken them show more and perhaps, for some, to see if there is any spark left between them. The arc of the novel takes her on quite a trip and she learns a lot both about where her beaus are today but also gets to clarify some events that occurred in the past and to lay them to rest. I highly recommend this book.

(Review based on complimentary Advance Reader copy.) show less