Parry "EbonySatin" Brown What Goes Around

What Goes Around

Parry "EbonySatin" Brown

One World, Jun 2006, $13.95

ISBN: 0345469453

Seven years ago, Catherine Hawkins fought a custody battle against Terry Winston, but the ice queen lost and he has raised their twin daughters since. While she has gained power and wealth she uses her loss as a motivator though she could not care one iota about the brats. He married Jackie and with his daughters, their offspring and her twin sons from a previous relationship, Terry is the father to five delightful children sharing a happy, well-to-do lifestyle in Dallas.

In Los Angeles Dr. Ahmad informs Catherine that she will need dialysis treatment for her failing kidney and placed her on the national donor recipient list that money cannot expedite. She knows the perfect match lives in Dallas and she plans to harvest one of the kidneys of her daughters. Catherine arrives at the girls' prom to decide which one can be manipulated. Alisa tells her biological mom to go pound sand while Ariana agrees to donate a kidney. Her parents especially Jackie are outraged, her twin irate, and her stepbrothers disappointed by her kind act.

This is a terrific family drama made further intense by purposely stereotyping Catherine as the queen of mean, a person everyone hates more than Scrooge. Parry "EbonySatin" Brown uses subplots like downsizing that some will say are unnecessary, but they establish Catherine's reputation to new readers. Interesting the tale hinges on the relationship between the biological mother and her natural daughters yet it is Jackie whose reaction out of love and protectiveness makes this a fine one sitting soap operatic story line that contemporary family drama fans will cherish. Perhaps the only flaw is those like this reviewer will have to find the previous Winston-Hawkins war, THE SHIRT OFF HIS BACK.

Harriet Klausner