Christy Award winner!To hear Beatrice Agnew tell it, she entered the world with her mouth tightly shut. Just because she finds out she’s dying doesn’t mean she can’t keep it that way. If any of her children have questions about their daddy and the choices she made after he abandoned them, they’d best take it up with Jesus. There’s no room in Granny B’s house for regrets or hand-holding. Or so she … Or so she thinks.Her granddaughter, Evelyn Lester, shows up on Beatrice’s doorstep anyway, burdened with her own secret baggage. Determined to help her Granny B mend fences with her far-flung brood, Evelyn turns her grandmother’s heart and home inside out. Evelyn’s meddling uncovers a tucked-away box of old letters, forcing the two women to wrestle with their past and present pain as they confront the truth Beatrice has worked a lifetime to hide.
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I picked this book up at my local bookstore because I like to take chances on new authors and I like to support them. Writing is a tough job. I’m so glad I did! Author Robin W Pearson’s debut novel is incredible. I couldn’t put it down once I started reading.
Set in the present day south, Pearson tells us about the Agnew family. The good, the bad, and the ugly yet does it in such a way that you can’t help but love them. Her characters are so well developed that you will be sure they are real. I suppose they are real in our minds. They are flawed, they go through difficult times, but they always rally around each other. And Granny B. I’d love to meet her, although I’m sure I’d get kicked out of her house more than once.
This book is raw, honest, and compelling. It’s definitely worth a re-read. I can’t wait for Book 2!!
A Long Time Comin’ is an outstanding debut by author Robin Pearson. The characters are so real they seem to step right off the page and into your heart. This is Southern Fiction at it’s best. I recommend it highly.
This is a story I have a hard time reviewing! It’s a great book, but there were some elements I struggled with.
First, though, the good: This book had some excellent characters! I loved watching the grandmother/granddaughter relationship grow in here, and seeing them work through their own struggles and try to help each other at the same time. Some of the things featured here are ones that many would be able to relate to, and I think that made the message even more compelling. I also loved the setting—almost all books I read feature white characters, but that wasn’t so here, and the African-American culture came through very well in these pages. I could hear the characters speaking through their word choices, and I really enjoyed that!
I did struggle with some of the content in here, though. Since this book deals with two different affairs or almost-affairs, part of it was to be expected, I guess. One part I didn’t enjoy was the one or two subjects brought up over and over in the course of conversation (body parts and hints at marital subjects). With that, though, I wonder if it isn’t the normal way of speaking for that particular cultural group, but since it isn’t acceptable in my culture, I didn’t enjoy it. There was one particular scene that I really didn’t enjoy—when a young boy got stuck in his mother’s closet and heard things he wasn’t supposed to hear—but at the same time, I can imagine it happening.
Little things, I know. But they did taint the whole somewhat for me.
The good part is that this book is quite good! I loved the way the author told the story; it flowed along very well, and for the most part, aside from one or two scenes where I thought the time gap wasn’t explained quite enough to make the start of the scene go well, it was a very well-written book. It’s not one I’ll forget anytime soon!
I requested a free review copy of this book from the publisher, and this is my honest opinion of it.
3.5 stars
“There are so many things that can happen to a person, things that other people can’t understand – even the person involved sometimes doesn’t understand.”
And the one person who has the ability to explain it all is nearing the end of explanations.
When Evelyn Lester arrives at her grandmother’s little house, she is unprepared for the stream of unfettered words that the crotchety old woman spews out of her mouth. Granny B isn’t exactly mean, but she can seem that way to those who don’t really know her; she knows a lot more about life and death than most people, but she sure doesn’t crave any sympathy; she has lived a lifetime of ups and downs, but is finally ready to admit . . . . that grace took a “long time comin'”.
What a lovely journey along the raw edges of a family, where pain always hovered just beneath the surface, and secrets lived and breathed much longer than the truth. What matters most is that in the end, a mother’s sacrifce and determination to give her children what they needed the most, gifted them with a legacy that they are finally able to recognize and understand.
This is an incredibly thought-provoking woman’s fiction book!
I was caught up in this story from the very beginning. The characters are so well written that I could see them and their mannerisms right before my eyes.
The author has done an amazing job of writing the dialogue and spelling the words the way people in the south would pronounce them many times. In fact her spelling slowed my reading down immensely. After a few days I got frustrated that I wasn’t making more progress in the story and switched to the audio book.
The narrator did a marvelous job! I started by following along in the print book and that’s when I really understood the accuracy of the spelling. Her accents for the different characters made me able to picture these people as they interacted with each other.
The story had me thinking long and hard about how families interact with each other and how choices made by each person affects the whole family. It amazed me to recognize the long reach that there is when one person keeps a deep secret. The author did a wonderful job of bringing this truth out for the readers to see it.
Southern Women’s Fiction at its best!
One Granny B and one name sake granddaughter, Evelyn Beatrice, learn from each other as Evelyn helps Granny B right some wrongs before it’s too late. But first, Evelyn has to figure out how not to be thrown out of Granny B’s house!
This story is interwoven with letters that took years to be delivered and some that were just now written…yet, there is still truth that Granny B holds onto with the power to right deeper wrongs.
This debut novel is well-written in southern dialogue. It is a challenging read, with no fluff and no side tracking. Throughout the book, there were a couple of incidents that could have stood with a bit more explanation. The book hits the mark on how sin can hold onto you and eat you up if not reconciled. It is a story of how God changed a woman and thus, changed the present and future generation.
This book is appropriate for mature teens and adults. There are no overly descriptive intimate scenes and there is no bad language except for the term used for an unwed mother’s child. This is not a sweet, happy ending type of book. It is raw in how the children in this family were treated by a non-Christian mom who is hurt and bitter…yet there is redemption.
This book would be a good book club read, as it would provide some great discussion. There are discussion questions provided in the back of the book.
I thoroughly enjoyed the beginning of this novel but struggled a bit through the rest. However, I stuck with it and I’m glad I did. Overall, I really enjoyed reading this one!
Evelyn is trying to figure out if her marriage to Kevin is over so she decides to visit her mother, Lis (Elisabeth) to think things over. However, shortly after arriving there, she discovers that her Granny B (Beatrice) has leukemia so she goes to stay with her instead. Granny B had a rough life and raised her seven children under very tough disciplines. There are things that both of them need to work out and they figure out a way for Granny B to tell each of her children about everything without her having to travel everywhere to see them. Interspersed with the current storyline are stories from Granny B’s kids when they were younger.
The dialect used by Granny B and the kids when they were younger seems to be a very local NC dialect but was believable.
A great debut novel!
This book delves honestly into the kinds of generational scars that many Christian fiction books shy away from. Quite frankly, I’m surprised — in a good way — that a Christian publisher dared to go there. Good on them, good on Pearson.
Hard-headed Granny B, the MC, is dying, and her favored granddaughter, Evelyn, attempts to piece together the long-held secrets of her grandmother’s life. Her motivation is to bring healing to her family and, possibly, to her own household.
The story kept me guessing, kept me reading and kept me in the vividly described Spring Hope, North Carolina, home of Granny B.
If you’re looking for a Christian novel with real themes, this is a read you may enjoy.
I listened to this through Hoopla and I really enjoyed it, being let into these characters lives and discovering throughout the book new little details that helped you understand the characters and some of their decisions even though I may not have agreed with them. It was a perspective shifting book. Loved getting to know Granny Bea and her family, imperfect though they are.
This book, y’all!
One of the best I’ve read in a long time. It felt like home, like I know these people.
I related so much with Beatrice(Granny B) and I could see the relationships I’d had with my own grandmothers in the relationship between her and her granddaughter, Evelyn.
God’s grace is on full display from beginning to end in this well written novel, and I can’t wait to see what the author comes up with next.
I highly recommend!
A story of family dynamics, end of life, beginning of life, and rebirth, all with eyes on the Agnew family. We get to meet them up close and very personally.
We begin with a story of infidelity, and end up with a funeral, but there is a lot in between, and yes, it is shared with us, and through all the trial the tribulations we see an intense love of the Lord.
Yes, we are all sinners, and here we see some head on, but there are a lot of hardships, and we see a fierce love of a mother here.
I felt a sense of loss when I turned the last page, I wanted more time with this family
I received this book through Edelweiss and the Publisher Tyndale, and was not required to give a positive review.
The kind of book you’ll want to savor while you sip sweet tea. I loved this multi-generational story, and how events of both past and present shape the characters of this novel.
This novel is about a strong elderly woman who finds out she is dying and needs to get closure before leaving the earth.
However, it is not quite that simple.
Granny B aka Beatrice has always kept secrets, kept people and family at a distance and provided a tough exterior.
It was not an easy life, but she managed fine as a single parent or so she thinks. The kids grew up and seemed alright.
Now….. as time is winding down she will have to let her family know the truth.
Granny sees her granddaughter Evelyn heading down the same path and is determined to make sure this doesn’t happen!
Life is just too short for anger, regret and hate.
I loved Granny B. .
She definitely is a hero in my opinion!
A stunningly beautiful story… The lyrical weaving of family narratives, past and present, is masterful―certainly to be compared with writers such as Sue Monk Kidd and Barbara Kingsolver… Buy this book. It gripped me… from page one.
I was truly amazed by the detailed introductions of the characters, the development of the story, and how Mrs. Pearson wrapped up the book.