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She was going to tell Curtis soon that she was taking a
sabbatical, but she had to wait because of drama: their
daughter, Curtina, was having some sort of pre-teen phase
and Curtis’s sister, Trina, was sick.
In the meantime, Charlotte coped by drinking vodka.
Twelve-year-old Curtina’s parents were always treating her
like an infant.
They never let her leave the house whenever she wanted and
she had strict bedtimes, even on weekends. As for hanging
out with her friends, forget it. Her parents even took her
phone away! It was so unfair and it would be much worse,
had Curtina not caught her mother drinking.
Blackmail was a good thing. Secrets were even better.
The phone call that Curtis Black received from his
brother-in-law was one he never thought he’d get.
It had been decades since Curtis had seen his sister, Trina.
At eighteen, he’d left home, escaping an abusive father,
abandoning Trina and their mother with an angry, bullying
alcoholic. Leaving had been self-preservation; Curtis had
been planning an escape for years by then and he hadn’t seen
Trina but a handful of times since. Now her husband had
called to tell Curtis that she was dying.
That brought back every bad memory Curtis had. Was it too
late to replace them with answers and better kinds of
memories?
All good things, as they say, must come to an end and, alas,
that includes characters and book series. In Better Late
Than Never, it also goes for the Curtis Black family.
But fear not – author Kimberla Lawson Roby doesn’t send
readers away with a whimper in this book. No, this novel
goes out with a gentle bang that includes the scandals you
need but not the profanity you don’t. That gives this novel
– the entire series, in fact – a curious soap-opera feel,
but churchy: everybody in the Curtis Black series has some
sort of mess attached to their lives at some point or
another and it’s oh-no delicious but God forgives and so,
eventually, does everybody else.
If you’re not familiar with Curtis Black, don’t start here;
go back to Book One and dive in. You’ll be happier that way.
If you’re a fan, though, Better Late Than Never is
the end of the line, and how could you miss your chance?
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