Ann, Not Annie, is tired of her normal existence and has vowed to turn things around by dating the hottest guy in school, Jacob Waters. Easier said than done since Jacob isn’t even aware of she exists. But when a chance encounter in an empty hallway changes everything, Ann finds all her dreams coming true and she is well on her way to living the perfect life she’s always wanted. But appearances aren’t always wanted. But appearances aren’t always what they seem and Ann is going to have to face not just cold hard facts, but also her past.
As a person who suffers from anxiety and depression, this book spoke words I understood. It is never easy to lose someone and everyone takes it differently. Ann, the main character was so distant from everyone. She didn’t trust anyone and felt like she was in the world alone. To Ann, losing her father took everything from her. Her mother was always drunk, her older brother disappeared and she was responsible for her younger brother. All she had was detention and her best friend, whom she rode to school with daily.
Things slowly started to change around her. The guidance counselor took an interest in her, her best friend was acting weird and never available, and then there was Jacob. He was someone so far out of her league but a dream to be around. And he showed interest in her. She remembered him as a guy her older brother hung around. So when he asked her out, she immediately said yes, even though there was someone else who was close by that made her feel more than she ever had.
This book is more than a novel. It’s healing. It’s helps you to think of other people and realize that everyone goes through something, everyone has a story and how you can heal your own. It teaches you how bottling up your feelings stops the process of healing. This book is a much needed novel in the world we live in now. Definitely a must read!
Check out Sage Steadmans other books under MmHmm Books.
As I hear the stories and then find out this movie is about to be made into a book, I pull it out my TBR, out of order, and begin to flip the pages. Yes I had the hardback book, and it made it that more important to me as I flipped the pages in reality. I am shaking as I am writing this, because this book is so realistic, so powerful.
This may be a work of fiction, but its not. Its the reality of being black in America. Being in poverty and feeling like you have no choice in your life decisions. In having white friends who go by everything that the media says, because their comfort is more important than our lives.
The “mean” girl as she called herself, she has played on in some movies and in real life was “that” girl. I have been a fan of Gabrielle since the first time I saw her on a movie, I have always looked at her with admiration gives stories about being and becoming the her that we all see lives her life to the fullest. She doesn’t go in order from younger stories to adult stories, but her life as it comes to her. She talks about getting raped in a Payless, stress of fertility issues, the dating and marriage conflicts, and being a figure in the public eye as a step mother and a black actress. She talks about multiple friendships, relationships and people she has been uplifted by.
In her stories, Gabrielle Union tells her accounts of all things in her life and the meanings she got from them. Some are funny, some are terrifying but they are all genuine and real. You can feel the emotion in her tone of voice where she needed to walked away, or she choked back a tear. She held nothing back as she gave account to all her stories.
As Gabrielle ends her book talking of her friendship with Sookie and her battle with Breast Cancer, I am in tears, as we don’t all get a chance to enjoy life, because we are too busy trying to fight it. To busy trying to live it and beat it.
Dani if you’re reading this, I am going to pester you for book two. Your writing is amazing and what an great debut! Yal check it out if you haven’t yet. Its on Amazon, I will leave the link below. To me now, the necklace is a sign of power and a deeper understanding of me. Its my connection to remember whats true. Your book reminds me that its never too late to be great, when its something you were built for.
any artist. If its something in the media, he will address it. If he thinks your album is whack, no matter who you are, he will tell you. He has no problem speaking his mind and going after what he wants and I needed his words to interrupt my mind. To tell me the magic that made him who he is.
Tiffany M. Arnold 