SOME THINGS I NEVER THOUGHT I'D DO

Regina Burns, recovering crack addict, is turning her life around. Out of rehab, she takes a job in Atlanta to rescue her family's home from foreclosure. She finds an apartment in West End, a neighborhood where everyone looks out for everyone else and where there is no crime. She is blessed with an aunt who makes psychic predictions, the attentions of a blue-eyed brother who believes in reincarnation, and a liberal dash of black feminism. Narrator Angela Forrest has a smooth, cultivated voice with a flexible range. Her reading of Regina is multidimensional; however, she offers little differentiation between minor characters, and nuance is lost to stereotype. It doesn't take a spiritualist to predict the outcome--still, an engaging romance deserves a happy ending. S.J.H.
(c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB/ MAR 04]