Review: End of the Line – Summer M Newman

Latesha Thomas is a beautiful, young African-American woman who lives with her handicapped father. She is in her final year of university and they are having a hard time making ends meet. She decides to start a matchmaking service to make a little extra money, though she has no experience and it turns out to be a disaster. She does, however, meet a client, a handsome white man named Peter Elsworth. The sparks fly immediately, but there’s a huge problem. Her father, and his mother, are vehemently opposed to an interracial relationship. This leads to tremendous conflict, but their love will not be denied. They grow closer, yet the closer they become, the more the tension rises. In time a secret connection between their two worlds become clear and this adds another dimension of conflict and complexity. But love is color blind and they are irresistibly drawn to one another.

Series:
Release Date: October 22, 2013
Publisher: Secret Cravings Publishing
Source: Provided by Author/Publisher via Manic Readers
Reviewer: Michelle
Rating:

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Reviewer’s Thoughts

The End of the Line is an interracial romance between Latesha Thomas and Peter Elsworth. Both characters were disappointing because they were unrealistic and one dimensional.  Peter has a master’s degree in English but decided to become an electrician.  His self-esteem issues reduce him to being a really nice, boring guy.   He waits to do whatever Latesha tells him.   Latesha is a college student majoring in English. There is no logic to the pattern for her behavior and not even the angst of having a first interracial relationship can explain her actions and choices.  Peter and Latesha have absolutely no chemistry.  They go back and forth between Latesha making a decision to pursue a relationship, remain friends, or discontinue all contact.   She is consumed with caring for her widowed, wheelchair-bound father and supporting their household.  Her main reason for uncertainty is due to her father’s belief that she will be viewed as a “Black Whore” for Peter.

A really good plot can make up the difference for characters that are sort of uninteresting and flat, but this storyline did absolutely nothing to shore up this book.  Their first meeting is centers around Latesha casting a hate filled look at Peter and him conveniently being interested in her matchmaking service.  Latesha is fired from a tutoring job and this firmly puts it in Latesha’s mind that Whites and Blacks shouldn’t mix.

This is an opinion shared by her father and Peter’s mother.  Both parents stage a series of dramatic interventions to keep Peter and Latesha apart. Peter’s mother threatens to disinherit him, and Latesha’s father threatens to shoot himself.  The corny antics continue on and on ad nauseam….even to the point of Peter and Latesha being Romeo and Juliet in a play.

This book was a combination of negative stereotypes, awkward dialogues, and trite scenarios.  After reading this book I just had to find out more about the author.  The author is Jim Power a White male that was inspired to write this story after learning more about African-American history.  I think it’s honorable that he would want to write an interracial romance.  My hope is that the author will be open to talking with interracial couples to inform his books rather than choosing to sit down and write a fictional novel solely based on historical facts he dug up.