Hand-me-down Heartache
A Novel
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- 5,49 €
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- 5,49 €
Publisher Description
New, from the author of Sorority Sisters, a novel about a young woman navigating the sometimes rocky terrain of family, career, and relationships.
After graduating from college, Nina Lander moves back in with her parents as she temps and tries to secure a "real" job. She isn't finding it very easy to break into television broadcasting, and her parents' strained marriage has made living at home even more depressing. But when she meets Maurice, a promising basketball rookie, Nina feels as if she's found the one. She is determined to make the relationship work, despite evidence that Maurice isn't always faithful, which hurts Nina but doesn't surprise her. Her father cheated on her mother, and her brother cheats on his girlfriends thus she has low expectations of the men in her life.
When Nina's chance encounter with Leo, a high school classmate who's become a successful rapper, sends Maurice into a jealous rage, it is not long before Nina's friends are urging her to let Maurice go. Even though she finds her dream job as a sports reporter for a local television station, Nina still can't keep Maurice out of her mind. To complicate matters, Leo seems to be everything Maurice is not. Nina must decide between a man she loves who treats her wrong and a man who is willing to do everything right.
But all of this takes a backseat when her mother falls ill and Nina puts her life on hold to take care of her. As both mother and daughter examine their relationships with the men in their lives, and as Nina's mother finally confronts her husband about his mistreatment of her, Nina finds the strength to break the chain of heartache.
In Hand-me-down Heartache, author Tajuana TJ Butler has crafted a heartwarming novel about the strength of relationships among women, be they family or friends.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Butler's second novel (after Sorority Sisters) deals sensitively with the impact of domestic abuse on an African-American family and the choices made by a young woman dealing with issues of self-doubt while seeking acceptance in her relationships. Nina Landers has just graduated with a B.A. in journalism and dreams of becoming a broadcast sports announcer. Until she lands a job and can afford her own apartment, she returns to Atlanta to live at home. There she discovers that all is not well between her parents: her mother Juanita's attempts to please her husband, Smitty, only result in her being the target of his rage. Nina and her brother, Brice, must finally acknowledge to each other that the relationship between their parents has worsened, and that Smitty's behavior is out of hand. Meanwhile, at a party with her good friend Janelle, Nina meets Maurice, a Georgetown graduate and basketball player soon to be drafted by the Miami Heat. She falls hard for the good-looking star, believing that he is everything she wants in a man; she is even willing to explain away his subsequent infidelity and temper. Eventually, she is forced to face up to reality and decide just who she really is and whether she has been foolish to ignore the attentions of another, more loyal, suitor, a rapper she has known since high school. Building on the successful formula of her first novel, Butler continues to focus on the lives of sorority sisters as they make the transition from college coeds to young women dealing with life, the job market, love and relationships. 11-city author tour.
