Getting to Happy

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 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 show more 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 must admit I was somewhat apprehensive about reading Terry Mcmillan’s sequel to her bestseller, Waiting to Exhale. This book picks up the lives of girlfriends Bernadine, Robin, Savannah, and Gloria fifteen years later. Let me say this, a lot has changed!

We start out with Savannah who has a fulfilling job but a boring marriage. Robin we find to be as self consumed and man crazy as we left her in Waiting to Exhale. Robin’s now fifteen year old daughter, Sparrow, is her voice of reason. Sparrow is a quirky teenager with an old soul and despite their monumental differences her and Robin have a great mother daughter relationship. It was good to find Gloria basking in happiness with her husband Marvin and son Tarek. Later both their show more lives take a turn for the worse. We discover our beloved Bernadine in a broken state and the pieces of her life are shattered and scattered everywhere. Among the online dating adventures, discovery of a porn watching cheating husband, addiction, death, and children that are growing into their own lives these ladies do discover some, Happy.

It was so exciting to get into this story and just revisit the lives of these ladies again. Reading this novel was like catching up and reuniting with some old girlfriends. Even though we don’t find them as resilient as we did in Waiting to Exhale, we do see the ladies will to persevere. Terry really tapped into real life with this one she did not try and make it sugary sweet. When the ladies laughed I found myself laughing and when tragedy struck my heart sank with theirs. This novel was simply “real” to me.

*I listened to the audiobook version of this novel. show less

Same women from Waiting to Exhale - 15 years later.

Oh, how it feels like I am reading the story of a bunch of my own girlfriends. I feel the pain, excitement...although disagree with some of their decisions.

I am always going to pick up a Terry McMillan book when in doubt...because she always tells interesting stories with heart.

While McMillan is one of my favorite authors, I have to say I was disappointed at this sequel of Waiting to Exhale. While it was interesting to see what happened to each of the main characters I though the author was too heavy-handed. Lacking any subtlety the reader is told what authors and poets to read, as well as who to listen to musically. It was as if she were challenging Oprah to influence our reading. And don't get me started on politics, there should be no black Republicans, since "Democrats = Good." I just wanted to read a book, not be preached to. My estimation of Ms. McMillan has come down a notch with this title.

I'm not a big Terry McMillian fan but having read Waiting to Exhale as my introduction into African American fiction when I was 12, I couldn't pass up an opportunity to check in on Robin, Gloria, Savannah and Bernadine.

The first thing I thought was the beginning was pretty depressing. All about no- good men and the one "perfect" man in the book gets killed off. It's like you could feel the anger and the bitterness seeping of the pages. I tried to ignore it, but the more I read, the more I felt it. Then somewhere in the middle, the tone of the book changed and then the book got boring and predictable. In the end, I was just glad to be done with it and appreciated being able to re-visit some ladies who changed my life.

Overall, I wasn't show more disappointed although the dialogue was a little stiff ( and boring) and some of the relationship just didn't ring true ( mainly the Robin/ Sparrow and other mother/child ones felt forced). If you were a fan of the WTE ( movie or book), than I recommend this book show less

It was great catching up with Bernadine, Savannah, Robin, and Gloria again. this book had me pulled in and trapped from the first page. The various issues, drama, sadness, and motivators are all things we, as women, face each and every day. There was enough heartache to go around but there was also beauty and love and undying loyalty and happiness. In the end, there was happiness. I finished knowing that no matter what happens in life, getting to happy us all in what you do with the life that is given to you.

This is the sequel to Waiting to Exhale, but you don't necessarily need to have read that to follow this. I did, but I think I read it right around the time I read When Stella Got Her Groove Back, so I don't remember it. Still, I followed Getting to Happy easily.

This picks up 15 years after Waiting to Exhale and is set in 2005. It's about what happens after the happy ending that Gloria, Savannah, Robin and Bernadine found in the first book.

There are divorces and death, new loves, old loves and, of course, friendship. I don't want to say too much about what happens--and to which woman--because experiencing each surprise is the best part. But suffice it to say that these women all have indomitable spirits and can overcome everything.

I show more loved the four women in this book (Gloria probably most of all, but they're all amazing) and I hope they come back in more books. show less