{"id":5412,"date":"2013-09-16T19:21:29","date_gmt":"2013-09-16T23:21:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sistahsontheshelf.com\/?p=5412"},"modified":"2020-05-07T21:10:48","modified_gmt":"2020-05-08T01:10:48","slug":"the-gerber-series-the-preludes-clear-sense-and-the-sweetness-by-ninamaste-maturi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/?p=5412","title":{"rendered":"The Gerbera Series: The Preludes, Clear Sense and The Sweetness by Ninamaste MaTuri"},"content":{"rendered":"

Publisher\/Date:<\/strong>\u00a0 Lulu.com, Mar. 2011 (The Preludes<\/em>); Nov. 2011 (Clear Sense<\/em>); May 2013 (The Sweetness<\/em>)
\nGenre(s): \u00a0<\/strong>Young Adult, Coming of Age
\nPages:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0 56 (The Preludes<\/em>); 78 (Clear Sense<\/em>); 96 (The Sweetness<\/em>)
\nWebsite:<\/strong>\u00a0 http:\/\/www.ninamastematuri.com<\/a><\/p>\n

The Preludes<\/i>:<\/strong><\/td>\"★\"\"★\"\"★\"\"½\"\"☆\" <\/td><\/tr>
Clear Sense<\/em>:<\/strong><\/td>\"★\"\"★\"\"★\"\"★\"\"☆\" <\/td><\/tr>
The Sweetness<\/em>:<\/strong><\/td>\"★\"\"★\"\"★\"\"★\"\"☆\" <\/td><\/tr> <\/tbody><\/table><\/strong><\/p>\n

Ninamaste MaTuri’s The Gerbera series has all the makings of childhood love, pain and laughter \u2013 and at the helm are Melanie, Adrianna and Nicole, three very unique girls diverged on the path to womanhood.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n

THE PRELUDES<\/em><\/strong> is just the beginning. It takes one back to your early school days: experiencing first crushes, attempting to fit in, and realizing your parents can be either a best friend or a major disappointment. It\u00a0introduces tomboy Melanie, mother\u2019s baby Adrianna and lovelorn Nicole, all wishing for something much needed in their lives. Melanie, with a white mother and black father, would like to accepted and not out of place in her class, being the only brown face with a lopsided Afro, and a cousin who teases her because of it; things begin looking up when her new teacher, with deeply brown skin and wavy black hair, comes into her classroom. Adrianna\u2019s story starts at her mother\u2019s funeral; after the service, the grief of missing her mother is exacerbated by father\u2019s womanizing ways. Nicole\u2019s father, on the other hand, is the shield against her mother\u2019s unhappiness of Nicole\u2019s masculine demeanor, but daydreams of Crystal help soothe her mother\u2019s harsh words.<\/p>\n

The Bottom Line:<\/strong>\u00a0 Although each\u00a0story is told very quickly, The Preludes<\/i> sets itself up well to continue the girls\u2019 journey. While Melanie stood out as a leader, I was enthralled most by Nicole, whose resilience to be herself and her relationship with her father shine. On the other hand, it\u2019s evident Adrianna has a long road ahead of her, and she’s is the one I connect to the least.<\/p>\n

\n

<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n

The trip continues with CLEAR SENSE<\/i><\/strong>, and as the girls are now teenagers, their issues and desires become deeper. The novella reminds you of how intense we all felt about our problems at that age (or so it seems), that we would do anything to have what we want. Melanie\u2019s secret admiration of Tiffany seems to be in vain, because Tiffany thinks the loving gestures are the work of her boyfriend, and Melanie has to concoct a plan to show her how she feels; will she finally get her dream girl? Adrianna has had it up to here with her father\u2019s casual treatment of women since losing her mother, made even more apparent when Adrianna believes she\u2019s found the guy she thinks could be the one. Can she really trust him? Nicole spends most of Clear Sense<\/em> hiding her true feelings for Crystal, and at the same time being a good friend to her. Will her concern of Crystal lead her to something more?<\/p>\n

The Bottom Line: \u00a0<\/strong>Clear Sense<\/i> is a good continuation of the Gerbera series, and we are privy to Adrianna and Nicole\u2019s aches, and Melanie\u2019s antics with her cousins. It’s the more humorous of the series. Yet they all have more growing up to do, though, especially Melanie, who realizes something important in her pursuit of Tiffany. Watching them go through it is worth the transition you see in the next book in the series.<\/p>\n

\n

<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n

The third book in the Gerbera series, THE SWEETNESS<\/em><\/strong>, is just that, but I would venture to add it’s a tad bittersweet. The girls are now young adults, living in the real world with bills, marriage and college on their minds. Melanie, now working hard at a 9-to-5, has a model for a girlfriend and enjoys the perks that come with having a beautiful woman on her arm; too bad it’s someone else she shares sparks with. Adrianna wants to move from her tragic past to a future with Thaddeus, the love she met in Clear Sense.<\/em> It’s the first man in her life, her father, she has to heal her heart with in order to give her all to Thaddeus. College-bound Nicole has found the sweetness with Shelia who loves her unconditionally after Crystal’s absence. All seems to be bright in her life until her mother makes an unexpected appearance. She’s a tough cookie, though, and knows it’s something greater in store than what’s in her past.<\/p>\n

The Bottom Line:<\/strong> The Sweetness<\/em> is the best of the three novellas in that plots are fleshed out and we see a superb progression from the girls’\u00a0upbringing to adulthood. I see Melanie and Adrianna slowly learning how to love. Nicole, though, is the one I rooted for the most because she grew from a broken home and her mother’s abuse to a confident young lady through her father’s love. The Sweetness<\/em> is also the book where characters from each girl’s story merge together. MaTuri promises more in her next book \u2013\u00a0centered around family planning \u2013\u00a0and I’m waiting to see what lessons life will teach these women next.<\/p>\n

Reviewed September 2013<\/strong><\/p>\n

Read the Meet This Sistah Interview with Ninamaste MaTuri<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Publisher\/Date:\u00a0 Lulu.com, Mar. 2011 (The Preludes); Nov. 2011 (Clear Sense); May 2013 (The Sweetness) Genre(s): \u00a0Young Adult, Coming of Age Pages:\u00a0\u00a0 56 (The Preludes); 78 (Clear Sense); 96 (The Sweetness) Website:\u00a0 http:\/\/www.ninamastematuri.com Ninamaste MaTuri’s The Gerbera series has all the makings of childhood love, pain and laughter \u2013 and at the helm are Melanie, Adrianna […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"NEW @ SOTS: The Gerber Series: The Preludes, Clear Sense and The Sweetness by Ninamaste MaTuri http:\/\/wp.me\/p3r7qG-1pi @NinamasteMaTuri"},"categories":[4],"tags":[136,162,197,352,423,515,534],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5412"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5412"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7180,"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5412\/revisions\/7180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}