Cheryl Robinson It’s Like That

It's Like That

Cheryl Robinson

NAL, Jan 2006, $13.95, 368 pp.

ISBN: 0451217462

In the Detroit area, Porter Washington falls in love with successful car designer Winona Fairchild, a single mother of two, teenage Carlton and preadolescent Portia. He wants to marry Winona who admits she loves him too, but she rejects his proposal. He reason is simple he deserves better than to spend his life with someone suffering from HIV, something she has informed him of, but hides from her children.

Meanwhile her ex husband encourages Carlton to join the professional golf tour once he graduates from high school; this goes against Winona's wishes as she wants her son to go to college. However, she knows she must come to grips with telling her children about her past, especially about her sister, and do something with the persistent man she loves. Not able to do it alone, she turns to a self-help book with a journal Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Life; 40 Days to Change Your Life, but cannot get Porter the least bit interested in it as he has some issues too.

The sequel to IF IT AIN'T ONE THING is a deep character study that focuses on two people in love, but with a myriad of baggage that makes commitment seem impossible. Winona is a fabulous protagonist who refuses to allow HIV to stop her, but also has plenty of other demons to contend with from her past. Though his issues are less stated, Porter is estranged from his parents refusing to speak to them as well having to decide on a musical opportunity in California which means no more Winona. Though overwhelming with so many personal problems, Cheryl Robinson provides a beacon of hope that loving relationships are key to many of life's hand grenades.

Harriet Klausner