{"id":5920,"date":"2014-03-05T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-03-05T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sistahsontheshelf.com\/?p=5920"},"modified":"2020-05-03T22:42:09","modified_gmt":"2020-05-04T02:42:09","slug":"between-right-and-wrong-by-s-stephens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/?p=5920","title":{"rendered":"Between Right and Wrong by S. Stephens"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>Publisher\/Date:\u00a0 <\/strong>Outskirts Press, Sept. 2013
\nGenre(s):<\/strong>\u00a0 Romance, Family, Friends
\nPages:<\/strong>\u00a0 360
\nWebsite:<\/strong>\u00a0 http:\/\/www.authorsstephens.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Rating:<\/strong> \"★\"\"★\"\"★\"\"★\"\"☆\" <\/p><\/strong><\/p>\n

When I first read S. Stephens Am I My Sister’s Keeper<\/em><\/a> in 2005, like Elise, I was going through my own coming out conundrum. I was gay, living with my parents, and taking shelter in my closet. So Elise’s story\u00a0\u2013 attempting to please her parents while struggling with her sexuality \u2013 spoke to me in a lot of ways.<\/p>\n

Now, eight years later, both Elise and I have faced our demons, but in BETWEEN RIGHT AND WRONG<\/em><\/strong>, Elise is still taking on the woes of her family and friends. She allows her sister Lynn to live in her spacious Miami home to get her life in order; provides the always sympathetic ear to best friend, Carmen, a skyrocketing recording artist; and fights to keep her guy pal Wade sane while he goes through some pretty serious legal issues.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Elise’s love life is just as hectic, as she falls back in stride with ex Symphony (her biggest hurdle in the previous novel) and cultivates a fling with an extremely sexy older woman, not to mention the simmering feelings she has for married friend Monica, whose unconditional love held Elise’s through every traumatic event.<\/p>\n

With all this love in her life, as well as a successful career in high-end real estate, it would appear her life is flawless at 32. Yet here’s Elise’s biggest issue: Elise will do anything for the people she loves, but it always seems to be at the expense of finding romantic love. In Wrong<\/em>, I saw Elise fluctuate from crisis to crisis, from woman to woman, and it’s so clear that she can’t trust her heart with anyone. I love that she’s so committed to her family, both immediate and extended, but she hides behind them to escape the love she knows she deserves. I found Elise’s life full but slightly dizzying.<\/p>\n

The strength of Wrong<\/em> is in its cast of characters. I really got to know her extended family all over again, and their loyalty to Elise is commendable. What I love most about them is that they will always tell Elise is the truth, even when headstrong Elise doesn’t want to hear it, because that’s what family does. And each character’s romantic woes\u00a0\u2013 reexamining one’s sexuality, sacrificing one’s to get ahead careerwise\u00a0\u2013 is another fire for Elise to put out, which is a huge chunk of Wrong<\/em>‘s plot. It also moves the book along to a dramatic finish.<\/p>\n

Can I say Elise James has grown in the eight years since Sister’s Keeper<\/em>? I think she knows what love is\u00a0\u2013 she sees it in all forms in Wrong<\/em>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0 yet making it happen and making decisions about who’s best for her aren’t her strongest suits. And even with her devotion to everyone else, she always looks out for self. Nothing wrong with that, per se, but best friend Carmen hit the nail on the head when she told Elise, “There’s this person in you that walks on water, then there’s this other person in you that can move like a snake. Sometimes I don’t think you know right from wrong.” She’s not perfect \u2013 no one is.<\/p>\n

Somehow I think Elise will get it together, though. Either that or I’m expecting another novel from Ms. Stephens.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Reviewed Month 2014<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Publisher\/Date:\u00a0 Outskirts Press, Sept. 2013 Genre(s):\u00a0 Romance, Family, Friends Pages:\u00a0 360 Website:\u00a0 http:\/\/www.authorsstephens.com When I first read S. Stephens Am I My Sister’s Keeper in 2005, like Elise, I was going through my own coming out conundrum. I was gay, living with my parents, and taking shelter in my closet. So Elise’s story\u00a0\u2013 attempting to […]<\/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 REVIEW: Between Right and Wrong by S. Stephens http:\/\/wp.me\/p3r7qG-1xu"},"categories":[4],"tags":[41,195,211,302,407],"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\/5920"}],"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=5920"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5920\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7104,"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5920\/revisions\/7104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}