Who Are The Brontes?

We Ain’t The Brontes by Rosalyn McMillan
***
3 out of 5 Stars

Charity Evans and Lynzee Lavender are sisters who are also writers, but their relationship has always been strained due to the sibling rivalry caused not just by their professions, but by the way they grew up. Charity has always been smarter, while Lynzee has always been prettier. Both women are writers. Lynzee is a New York Times best selling author, while Charity has been struggling for years to get there. Despite, one publishing contract after another, Charity has never been able to get the success that her sister Lynzee has. Now, it’s been years since Charity has had a publishing contract and she’s close to financial ruin. On top of that, her marriage is in trouble due to their financial problems. Just when Charity didn’t think things could get any worse, Lynzee hits her with the bomb shell that she had a relationship with her husband years ago, that fathered a child Lynzee gave up for adoption.

Thinking her sister was just being mean old Lynzee, Charity hires a private investigator to find out if this was true. Not only does she find out the truth but she also finds that the rumors of her sister blackballing her in the book publishing world were true. Charity takes her own revenge by writing a tell-all book in a fiction book that sends her and her sister to the courthouse.

The cover of the book intrigued me as did the title. It had me wondering who the Brontes were. The first problem is that there is no mention of the Brontes in the book. One sister’s last name is Evans, the other is Lavender and even the gay friend, Herman’s last name isn’t Brontes. That is the first problem with this book. The second problem with the book is the lack of spell check in it. From the first chapter, there were obvious spelling errors in the book, although the book was nicely typeset. Urban Books is a mainstream publisher, so I was shocked to see the spelling errors in the book and in the beginning, so early on.

I wanted to slap Charity in the story. Time and time again, her sister played her, disrespected her, said sorry and did it all over again. Time and time again, Charity forgave her or went against her gut just for her sister to do it again. After finding out that her sister blackballed her, she still went back to her for help. I understand the meaning of “turn the other cheek” but how many times do you have to turn the other cheek before getting slapped turns into a problem. The fact that she made this character so forgiving was irritating.

Then the husband is confronted and he is allowed to skate past the fact that he had an affair with her sister and never disclosed it. I think she should have allowed Charity to go in on him. Instead, she writes a bunch of scenes where Charity is wrong for not confronting her husband about a child he had with her sister. I also didn’t like the fact that she made Charity mad at the girl that was born between them. She had Charity calling the girl names like, “that little bitch.” She actually blamed the girl for the split in their marriage, although it wasn’t the girls fault. Then there’s the twin boys they have together who are put in adult situations, acting like counselors between their parents.

I will say, the book was definitely suspenseful. It had me wondering if Charity was really going to get dealt with by her sisters lover, what was going to happen at the trial, whether or not she went back to her husband or went with Herman, and what would happen as far as the daughter was concerned. It also gave an insight into the book publishing industry and was a reminder that folks talk. It kept you wondering whether or not you as an author can actually be blackballed in the book publishing industry. It kept you wondering, whether or not stuff like that actually happens. It is a reminder that authors need to be careful who they talk about and whom they talk too.

Overall, it had me asking whether or not people actually live like this. They say that an author writes what he/she knows, have seen or have heard. If this is the case, then the people around this author or her, herself need serious counseling.

I’m disappointed there is no Search-Inside-The-Book feature on Amazon and that it isn’t in an Ebook version. Urban Books needs to step up their game a bit on both the availability of this book as well as the editing of this book.

Overall, I give this book a 3 out of 5!