Review by Holly Bernier -- Kalayla by Jeannie Nicholas

[Holly Bernier]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Kalayla" by Jeannie Nicholas.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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Kalayla by Jeannie Nicholas is a story of three people: Maureen, her daughter Kalayla, and Lena. The story takes place at the beginning of 1999. Lena owns an apartment building where she also lives. Maureen and Kalayla live in the apartment building as well. Lena wears only black because she lost her twin sons in the Vietnam War. She also has two other sons, the oldest of whom is a businessman. She doesn't know where her fourth son is. Lena's husband, Joey, died a year before her twins.

Maureen's mom had her life all planned out for her. She wanted her gorgeous daughter to marry a boy named Tim O'Brien, whose father owned a family law practice. Maureen is an artist and has other plans for her life. She meets a boy named Jamal, and they fall in love and get married. Maureen's mom disowns her; not only because she married Jamal, but because Jamal is black. Maureen and Jamal get pregnant with their daughter, Kalayla. Life didn't turn out how Maureen had hoped. Her life became very hard after Jamal died in a crash while racing cars with his brother. Maureen is now working three jobs to take care of herself and Kalayla.

Kalayla is a strong-willed young girl with a very smart mouth, which gets her in trouble a lot. When Maureen and Kalayla move into Lena's apartment building, she sees how much Kalayla is left alone while her mom is always working. She feels the need to help Kalayla out, and to find something constructive for her to do. Kalayla doesn't like Lena being so protective of her and "messing up her life."

There are a lot of facets of these characters. I like the way the author wrote the story, with each of the characters talking through their perspective. It made it an enjoyable read. The characters' personalities shined through and I could picture in my mind what the characters were feeling. There are many twists and turns with other family members, and situations that each of them endures. This book has a little bit of everything: love, marriage, death, friendship, abuse, prejudice, lies, and coverups. I enjoyed how Lena took Kalayla under her wing and did things with her while her mom was working hard to make ends meet. Lena wanted her to be safe and not get into trouble. I also liked how Lena tries to teach her better ways to deal with her anger and frustration of everyday life. Lena puts up with a lot of backtalk and sarcasm from Kalayla, but never gives up on her.

There wasn't anything I disliked about the book. There were no grammatical or spelling errors to speak of, so I believe it was professionally edited. There was a situation where Lena's husband, Joey, gave her alcohol and pills and then takes her to a strip club. He makes her watch sexual encounters, as well as tries to rape her, although there was nothing described in detail. Kalayla, in her normal dialogue throughout the book, used borderline profanity, like sh*t, ass, and pisser, but it wasn't meant in a vulgar way; it was her sarcastic personality, which wasn't offensive but humorous. There were, however, a few profanities that were offensive that some readers may not like.

What I liked most about this book is the message it sends, which is that you don't have to be blood-related to be family. I also liked how it conveyed that even after tragic events in life, you can get through them and move forward. I like how these strong females, although not always doing the right thing, learn from their mistakes and persevere. I enjoyed this story very much and am happy to give it 4 out of 4 stars. Anyone that enjoys family stories, overcoming tragedies in life, and making your way through them will like this book. Because of the sexual references in a club and an attempted rape reference, in addition to a bit of profanity, I feel this book is for readers 15 years and older.

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Kalayla
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[Bradley Shelvie]

It's wonderful seeing everyone having a perspective on this book in all reviews I've read. Nice review here