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Let me start by saying that I am a white, non-church-going Yankee woman, who believes in God and loves to read. The reason I tell you this is because the target market for this book is African-American church-going Christian women, who love God and love to read. That said, let me
recommend this thoroughly enjoyable book to everyone.
The setting is a small community in Durham, North Carolina. Theresa
Hopson, the owner of Miss Thang’s Holy Ghost Corner and Church Women’s
Boutique, is having a hard time finding a decent man. Then church mother
Miss Queen Esther introduces Theresa to her nephew, Lamont Green, and
sparks start to fly.
Conflict arises over a blighted parcel of land—the old projects where a
lot of the community members grew up. Lamont Green is trying to get the
redevelopment contract to turn the property into affordable housing for
the community. Jethro Winters, a white man far removed from this
church-going community, is competing with Lamont to develop the parcel
into high-priced real estate.
Along the way, we meet a lively cast of characters: Reverend Parvell
Sykes, the church pastor who received his ordination after donating
$30,000 to one of the bishop’s programs, Mr. Lacy, an elderly gentleman
who, although blind, appears to see everything, Baby Doll Henderson, a
toothless waif who returns to the community after a long absence, and a
host of other memorable people, all of whom serve to enrich the story.
Michele Andrea Bowen gives us a funny, juicy story with plenty of
Scripture thrown in to keep us humble. “Black lingo” dialect, as the
author calls it, is rife throughout the story, which can be enigmatic to
some of us white folk. What comes down to a battle of the Saved versus
the Non-Saved serves to remind us that with God, all things are possible.
