Great read! Looking forward to reading more by this author! I highly recommend this book and author to all!

I feverishly tore through this book to get to "the blow up" to be left hanging! I'm so mad right now.

Odell is is a foul manipulator.
Joyce is deliberately dumb, naive and low self esteemed.
Betty Jean knew what she was doing from the start. Her and her sister are foul.
The only person I have any empathy for is Yvonne and I think she is into some sneaky stuff too.
Milton is a gambling snake, but he's just doing what any desperate dum dum would do.

This is all a mess. An entertaining messy mess. I will be picking up Over The Fence soon.

I received an ARC from Kensington Books/Dafina via Netgalley

I have read many of the author’s books and was thrilled to receive this book. The book was an ok read. The characters were well written and the book held my interest. Some of the storyline was slow, but it kept me wanting to read more. I look forward to reading more of this series. Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC of this book. Although
I received the book in this manner, it had no bearing on my review.

This book provides a fascinating look at life in a small-town community for a young African American couple. Joyce is the only child of an older couple. Her father owns and runs the local store. Both her mother and father are concerned the thirty-year-old Joyce will never find a man to make her happy and her life complete. They remind her of this regularly—as well as reminding her she is tall and gangly and not really what you would call a “looker”, though she is presentable enough. Joyce meets Odell, a new stocker at her father’s store. Odell immediately sees a ticket out of what looks to him to be a life of hard work with little to enjoy, compounded by poverty. He and Joyce marry and get on with life. Odell and Joyce Watson find their new neighbors, Milton and Yvonne Hamilton, just the thing they need to help them begin to step out and enjoy life, the good times and fast living, their inner wish. Soon the Watsons and Hamiltons become enmeshed in each other’s lives. Just how far should they go to live their lives to the fullest, just how man secrets in their pasts should become common knowledge?

I wanted to like this book, but I could not. I am not sure about Odell, who came across as sleazy and weak, blaming others for his problems. It got on my nerves how Joyce’s parents never really had anything good to say about her, from her looks, to her height, to her likes and dislikes, to her inability to find a man. I also found it difficult to watch Joyce put up with this as often as she did, though the small protests were nice. I do not know, but perhaps that is the way women like Joyce acted during the depression era. What really got to me was the ending. I dislike cliff hangers and try to stay away from them as often as I can, but sometimes they do slip in. I do not understand why authors do this, but they do often enough, though it does not make me enjoy the books any more. This is an interesting book, but not sure if it is one I will remember as particularly one I liked. I received this from NetGalley to read and review.

For Odell and Joyce Watson, life is good. Good, that is until their new neighbors, Milton and Yvonne Hamilton, make life exciting, perhaps not in the best way. The Watsons discover that the Hamiltons are much more dangerous than expected, invading their lives in many ways, and they find that the carpetbaggers are a threat to their prosperous life.

Mary is a storyteller that has wonderful characters.

I'd looked forward to this but ultimately found it dispiriting and disappointing. Joyce should have been a more sympathetic character, especially since Odell is so rotten but somehow she wasn't. This would have been much better if it had been edited one more time. I ultimately DNF. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

I was thrilled when I saw this title on Netgalley. I had enjoyed her work in Breaking Ice and God Don't Like Ugly. So I thought I hit the jackpot when I got approved to review this title. To say the least I am disappointed. Not only did I not take to ANY of the characters but I found myself getting pissed off from the outset. Instead of highlighting passages that I loved I found myself writing notes about my frustration. So sad I really wanted to really like this one.

Where should I begin with One House Over by Mary Monroe? Based on the star rating I've given, there's obviously somewhere to start... It's just whether it should be with the good or the bad.

So let's just start at the beginning...

Once upon a time there was a woman named Patrice, who longed to read Mary Monroe's work. After reading and hearing how stellar her work is in God Don't Like Ugly and the series that follow, Patrice was ecstatic to see she'd been approved for Monroe's latest through Netgalley. What could be a better way of rounding out Black History month with a period piece about a prosperous black couple who have everything going for them during the 1930s when the depression was ripping at the core of the country? These two, O'dell and Joyce seemingly not phased by the hard times, financially at least.

One House Over was exactly what Patrice was looking for... until it wasn't.

That's where I leave the fairytale behind as well as the 3-person because this is about to get real.

So...

We're introduced to Joyce first in One House Over who is educated and works as a teachers aide in a school for colored children. She lives with her parents who are the proud owners of a colored grocery store. Because they had her late in life, Millie and Mac often pressure Joyce with getting hitched. Yet, they can't help reminding her in the same breath of how homely she is and she shouldn't be too picky. I mean really...

The references to Joyce being unattractive just becomes too much after a while. I mean EVERY character makes sure to never let Joyce, Odell (her husband), or the reader forget that she's not pretty and could possibly look like a devil spawn.

Wait!!!! Don't get me started on Odell.

Odell initially describes his self as a hustler from the beginning. While he's employed as a stock boy for Joyce's parents, Mac and Millie, he meets Joyce. He woes her and you know... the rest is history.

But not really... that's when the story really begins.

I feel that One House Over is riddled with mines that could blow any efforts I have of remaining spoiler free in this review so I will tread carefully. What I was hoping for was a good period piece, great writing, mixed in with a juicy story line. Instead I got a host of characters I could not hate more... and I mean EVERY SINGLE character was shit. To top off those shitty characters, the story line was fattened with drama or unsavory characters in an effort to make the plot seem thicker, more dense, then it really was.

AND what sucks the most for me, and hurts my heart to say, is that I actually hated the writing. Monroe is a seasoned author so I had high expectations for her. It's not fair to be this thin with your fans. It's not fair to shut out potential new fans such as myself. There were so many missed opportunities to make One House Over rich and a worthwhile read. Instead we get the cliched handsome man meets troll woman. They live a happy life until they don't. Then enter a sleazy, bootlegging couple that can knock them off their high-horse and... what a high-arrogant horse it is. And instead of me rooting for anyone to come out on top, I was secretly hoping for the demise of every single person encountered in this book.

Odell is either bipolar or Monroe is not sure if she wants him to be seen as a villain or devoted husband. That was frustrating enough...

LET ME STOP HERE. My review is turning into a rant that has no direction, similarly to One House Over.

I'll end by saying... I was definitely not happy with Mary Monroe's latest. Maybe I set the bar too high. Maybe I'm the problem. Maybe I'm the glass house, one over throwing rocks when I really shouldn't be. Regardless, I appreciate the review copy and am still looking forward to reading the God Don't Like Ugly series. But one house over is seriously not enough space for me to get away from my disappointment in this book.

Copy provided by Kensington Books via Netgalley

Certainly an interesting book but not really for me.