Review: Tainted Black by Shanora Williams

I found out about TAINTED BLACK through another blogger friend who was sharing this out of the world review posted on Facebook.  After reading that, I had to jump over to Goodreads to find out about this book.  1.  The cover sucked me in.  I knew this was a story about a girl sleeping with her best friend’s father.  And based on the cover, I was saying “Go for it, sister!”.  2.  I was intrigued by the blurb.  What would draw a young woman into a relationship with her best friend’s father?  I needed to know.

Chloe met the Black family when they moved in across the street from her when she was twelve.  She too was new in town and was desperate for a friend.  So when she noticed a little girl, she made her way across the street and introduced herself.  She became close with the Blacks, because they were the family she wanted.  So different than what she had at her home.  They loved Chloe and made her part of the family.  And when tragedy strikes, family should stick together.  Chloe is there to help both Theo (Mr. Black) and Izzy pick up the pieces, both of them recklessly dealing with grief .  During one particular night with Theo, as she tries to haul his drunken ass back into the house fatherly Mr. Black falls away and leaves her with a Theo who sees a nineteen year old girl as much more than his daughter’s best friend.

I know there was a line that was crossed and I’m sure if this were real life and one of my sons had an affair with their best friend’s parent I would have a completely different point of view.  BUT….I loved Theo.  Yes, there was a 20 year age difference.  Yes, he used Chloe in the worst way when he was drowning in grief and alcohol.  But the man truly loved the woman Chloe had become.  He wanted only the best life could offer her, including someone to cherish her.  And he knew, despite how much he loved her, that he was going to have to let her go for his daughter.  No matter what else happened, him being willing to give up (pretty much) the love of his life in order to keep a relationship with his daughter spoke volumes about the man.  He wasn’t a saint and he could eff up big time, but he had a huge heart and, like Chloe, made it damn near impossible not to love him.

Chloe was stuck in some pretty impossible positions throughout the book.  Secretly crushing on her best friend’s dad for years,  then being destroyed after their first “encounter” before she left for college.  Coming home to help her ailing father, dealing with her mother’s abandonment of her family, and coming face to face with Theo again.  And finally dealing with the swirling emotions of what she felt for Theo, the guilt she felt for hiding it from Izzy and the unknown of how she was going to move on when all this ended.  She was such a strong character, shouldering a lot of guilt over her parents, Theo and Izzy.  But she found a way to keep moving.  To keep pursuing her dreams.  To live her life, even if that wasn’t the life she originally saw herself having.

The book didn’t end the way I would have wanted it.  It left me a little sad and wonder why things couldn’t have been different, but in the end, the characters did get their HEA that was best for them.

This is a book that some won’t like.  The subject matter will immediately turn them off.  But if you’re on the fence, I suggest taking the leap and picking it up.  Despite who they started out being to each other, this is a beautiful love story of what you would choose between your happiness and that of those you love.