Casting the First Stone

Rating:
Summary: Casting The First Stone
Review: Before purchasing this book, I read every single review & I was discouraged! I decided to purchase it against all the odds of the other viewers! Just a little friendly advice to those who "ONLY" depend on reviews, "DONT" any longer! It was an absolute page turner & I was happy with the ending! I have been enjoying giving other African American authors a try without the opinions of others & enjoy them much more than ever! If you depend on others for reviews, you may be denying yourself a treat to one of the best books you will ever indulge in! You will enjoy Casting The First Stone, do enjoy :O) All I have to say to Ms. Roby is that "YOU GO GIRL" Keep on enlightening us!

Rating:
Summary: Casting the First Stone by Kimberla Lawson Roby
Review: This book starts off "slow" but explodes into bone tingling excitement. The author carefully leads the reader to wonder if there will ever be an end to the "madness".Eventually there is a long awaited unvailing of the obvious, along with the twist of a couple of unexpected events.

Rating:
Summary: Good
Review: Let me start by saying I did enjoy reading this novel. Sadly this tpye of behavior does sometime happens in God's house. The book started off good, but it gave no background on Tayna and Curtis relationship, it jumped from them dating in college to eight years and a child later in their marriage. What happened in between those years? Tayna, after awhile started to get on my nervous, she was conistantly complaining about what Curtis was and was not doing, she allowed Curtis to walk all over her. One other thing I could not understand, Tayna thought her husband was having an affair, and for two years she did nothing about it, other than complain. Being a preacher wife, Tayna's charactor should have been a bit more agressivie and a lot less shallow. Ms. Roby used the phrase "matter of factly a little to much for me, they are other words that can be used. What was this James person all about? Other than the fact he was divorced, no other details were introduced, which made James charactor rather boring.

Rating:
Summary: pretty good
Review: This is the story of Tanya who is married to a preacher who is a cheater, and fooling his church members. Tanya was at crossroads about what to do about her cheating husband. I felt a little bad when Tanya took it to the next level with James, because she was suppose to be a chrisitan also, and didn't have to stoop to Curtis's level. "Casting the fist stone" gives you a look of some of the bad things that goes on in church these day. I have a friend who don't trust any preachers because of the ones like Curtis.

Rating:
Summary: A good idea done in by bad writing
Review: After reading this book and the earlier works of this author, I can understand why she was originally self-published after being told that she had some talent by publishers she approached. She weaves a good tale, but unfortunately lacks the skills to carry it off. Her editor was not much help; the writing is still amateurish.

I've personally never been a fan of the all-knowing narrator who tells what the characters are thinking, i.e., "she asked, remembering what day it was" or "he commented, obviously shocked to hear that her husband was a minister." As a writer she is supposed to paint a visual picture of the shock, not merely narrate; anyone can do that. I also got tired of sentence fragments beginning with the word "which." She's also quite fond of the word "and."

Another big issue was that of character development. The man Tanya flirted with had no personality whatsoever; I suspect his only purpose was the part he played in the end of the story. I thought the book started out with a bang, with Tanya and Curtis being so happy after his proposal and then fast forwarding eight years to her glaring at him in church. I expected to learn what happened in those eight years to change their feelings via flashbacks, but nothing was explained. It's not as interesting when you have no idea why characters behave the way they do. I thought Curtis was merely a raving lunatic.

In my opinion, this writer needs to learn her craft. I expected to see improvement when she was picked up by a major house, but I guess the editors feel that it will sell, no matter how badly executed it is, and they're probably right. I'll continue to check out her books from the library and hope they get better.

Rating:
Summary: Casting the first Stone
Review: I received this book as a Christmas gift and couldn't put it down. I was finished with it by December 26. I am now reading it for a second time and am beginning to notice a lot of things I wished Ms. Roby would of done with the book. Don't get me wrong, I am not trying to trash her abilities as a writer, for the book was very good. But I wished she had been more in depth and started from the beginning of Curtis and Tanya's marriage. The prologue talks about his proposal and they seemed so happy together. Then the next chapter, Tanya seems to despise her husband and for the duration of the book they just can't seem to get along. You can't help but wonder Whoa, what happened? Then there seems to be a lot of drawn out analyzation of relationships and a deep narration of Tanya's thoughts on almost every other page which sometimes makes the book seem tedious. I wished Curtis and Tanya would have managed to get along during some point of the story. All it seemed like they did was argue and even I got fed up with that so I don't know how Tanya endured it for so long. (laugh) But trust me it was a very good book. I'm just pointing out a couple of factors that would have made it better. Mrs. Roby you be encouraged and continue to sell them novels. Hope to see another one of your books on the shelves of the book stores real soon!

Rating:
Summary: Christian
Review: I say this is a must read, Ms. Roby did a very good job. It makes you take a double take sometimes and it makes you wonder if this pastor was called, but who was he called by satan himself. Tonya was a little too good to be true because Curtis would have had something really bad done to him. I guess in the end he got what was coming to him.(nasty,greedy dog) All I can say preachers,pastors,bishops and all those religious leader they have to be watched really close, but all religious leaders are not as Curtis was.(this was a fiction book) Yet and still purchase this book it was worth the money.

Rating:
Summary: somebody slap me i must be dreaming
Review: Whew this book was absolutely OFF THE HOOK!!!!!!!!!! I read this book in exactly two day. Nope nothing got done. I started late Friday night and was finished Sunday by 6pm. It was sooooooooooooo goooooood. It rea;;y peaked my couriosity. I loved it. Where do I begin: Curtis that lowdown, snakedog, nymphomaniac, wanna be preaching, selfish, self centered heathen. I could find a few more choice words but for the sake of readers. The Bible says "many are called but only a few are choosen", and we can agree that Curtis certainly was not choosen. And the schemes and schames he ran we don't know if he was really called. It's really sad when he take the Lord's house in vain, let alone his responsibility as a leader. And to think he was the one who got played on the end. At one point I disliked him then the next minute I hated him. But I kept wondering when was Tanya was gonna wake up. I know she knew something was wrong. I would have suspected something. And when she found out she still tried to protect him. Hew was so demonic. I kept thinking to myself how stupid can you be. Wake up. Somebody slap her. Her own daughter was wiser than her. I don't mean to put her down so much I know it has a lot to do with her being raised but my goodness. I can also relate because I went through a lot in my life and my friends probably were saying the same about me. Angela wake up and smell the coffee. But I was thinking just like Tanya of my commitment to God, my committed to the marriage, the church, would people think it's my fault? Who can I talk to that would really understand? All sort of question were going through my mind, so I can imagine what Tanya was thinking. I can also imagine how she also was trying to protect her little girl and her mother and father. And to think how he lied and lied and lied and lied et cetera. I can remember feeling like Tanya too, listening to my husband when he had to get up the next Sunday to minister to the church on a mens day program (after a long night of physical and emotional abuse). I kept looking right through him and wanting to get up and leave, but couldn't because "what would everybody think", "they might know we're having problems", so I just sat there and stuck it out.

But it was then after all I went through with my husband, and now being on my own I began to learn the value of my relationship with God and my future husband. I made a commitment to work on myself so that when I get married again, things would be different. Oh yes I will get married again. I loved being married. I can hardly wait. I thank God now because he allowed me to go through what I went through and to learn at an early age about things of life. It brings me back to a scripture in proverbs; "many women have done nobly, well, but none have excelled such as I." I gained a lot of wisdom through it all and I'm not bitter, to say the least. As far as my husband - let's just say God is not through with him yet. Sincerely. Keep up the excellent work. It was truly awesome all your books are though. Maybe one day we can do brunch I got a bunch of ideas your readers probably would love to hear. Call me sometimes. Loved to hear from you. I recommend this books to EVERYBODY.

Rating:
Summary: Sad subject, good story!
Review: I was truly sorry to read that the topic matter was of a Baptist Minister with a promising congregation, but the story was good because it could be true. I was proud of the main character, Tanya, for sticking to her guns and looking out for herself and her daughter, because they are who matters. Curtis, who is no-good anyway, got what he deserved. The ending was surprising and had a good finale. I was intrigued througout the entire story and was hoping and praying for James the whole way through. This is a worthwhile book and a good weekender if you want something to keep your attention and is easy to read.

Rating:
Summary: A Page Turner
Review: Casting was a page turner for this reader. Kimberla is fast becoming one of my favorite writers. Her writing style is easy to read and message was so clear, we do tend to worship the messenger and money and power is the root of all evil. The characters were portrayed very realistically. This was quick read because I needed to know what Curtis's problems were. Closure was needed and it was there!