Rating: 
Summary: Lifetime love affair
Review: This novel came highly recommended by one of my favorite people, Brian. Thanks so much for the suggestion. This is my first novel to read by author Diane McKinney-Whetstone but it won't be my last.The love shared between Verdi and Johnson was so deep and strong. After being apart for 20 years these two reunite. Will Verdi leave Rowe who saved her life and go back to Johnson? I won't say. At no time in the novel did I feel sorry for Rowe. He had to deal with the decision he made to leave his wife. The many twist to the story made for a great page turner. The characters were well developed and described. I loved the authors ability to go back and forth in time without confusing me. Blues Dancing is a novel that shouldn't be missed. I look forward to reading Tumbling and Tempest Rising. Diane, I wish you much success and look forward to adding you to my list of favorite authors. Be Blessed.
Rating:
Summary: I Wish I Could Rate This Book TEN Stars!!!
Review: Visual! Sharp! Beautifully written! I loved this story of girl/woman Verdi Mae and her discovery of herself over the course of more than twenty years. The author easily weaves the story lines, time frames and memory in a seamless way that flows like water. Verdi meets and falls in love with Johnson but his need to sooth the pain of his upbringing and her need to explore everything that her sheltered roots have shielded her from leads them to a heroin addiction that threatens to kill all of the promise that their love brings. In what seems like a brutal betrayal, Johnson tears himself away from Verdi who is "rescued" by her college professor, Rowe. Rowe has his own issues, the least of which is his need to control situations and people, most noteably, Verdi. It takes Verdi more than twenty years to learn the truth of Johnson's departure and to come up from her own faith to save herself from the fears that keep her dependent throughout the story. Verdi's behavior is akin to the autistic child Sage who is not able to speak until a near tragedy pushes the words forth that she has not been able to verbalize in more than seven years of life. In the end, it is the special needs child who is the impetus of Verdi finding and saving herself. Read this book. It is so moving. You will love it. C.M. Miller---Author of The Audrey Wilson Mystery Series--- Taxes, Death, & Trouble--- Accrual Way To Die--- Free Throw
Rating: 
Summary: Broavo
Review: I didn't really like it at first. But later on it makes you realize how important the judgments you make can change your life perpetually. I also like the fact that the book dealt with instant probability.
I was pleased to observe that everything worked out at the end for Verdi and Johnson. I did not feel sorry for Rowe at all. He sooner or later had to deal with the choice of leaving his wife for a younger woman. All in all I liked it in the end only later I realized that the book was indeed a good one.
Rating:
Summary: Great read!!!!!!!!!!
Review: Blues dancing was my first book by Mrs. Whetstone but definitely not my last. She used a lot of imagery and beautiful words as she took me to Philadelphia into the lives of Verdi and Johnson. Verdi, the innocent daughter of a preacher and Johnson, the well-educated, street smart son of a poor woman. Verdi and Johnson were from two different kinds of families but nevertheless fell hopelessly in love. They were so in love that they would do anything for one another, even when it came to the use of heroin. They both became addicts together and Johnson left Verdi one day so that she might have a better life. She was rescued by Rowe, one of her professors and admirers, and he saved her from her addiction,left his wife, and married her. But twenty years later, with the help of her favorite cousin Kitt, Johnson reappers in Verdi's life and leaves her with the decision to leave Rowe and be with him or spend the rest of her life thinking about what could have been? This novel was a great read and I highly recommend it to anyone!!!
Rating:
Summary: VERY VIVID PICTURE
Review: Ms. Mckinney-Whetstone has a great ability to make you feel that you are experiencing the events. I have been to Philadelphia before but have never lived there, but I felt I could visualize the places that she described. I loved her ability to go back and forth in time without the reader getting confused. I was intrigued by the story. It makes you realize how important decisions you make can affect your life forever. I also like the fact that the book dealt with second chances. I was glad to see that everything worked out at the end for Verdi and Johnson. I did not feel sorry for Rowe at all. He eventually had to deal with the choice of leaving his wife for a younger women. I wish Kitt could have found true love, maybe in the next novel. I also would have liked to have had more information on how things worked out with the twin sisters (Posie & Hortense). Maybe Ms. Mckinney is keeping us waiting for a follow-up novel in the future. I would recommend this book to all of my friends. I have not read her other books although I own them. I will go back and read them both now, since I know they must also be wonderful. Keep up the good work.
Rating:
Summary: Part II, please!
Review: Ms. Dianne has yet to disappoint me with her lovable characters. After reading "Tumbling," I just had to rush back to the bookstore and purchase this one and, again, I am left smiling and feeling all high and tipsy after getting to know these characters. Truly a great love story!
Rating:
Summary: blues dancing
Review: this is a very exciting book it is superb, the way that the author takes you from one period of time and place to another and you feel like you are really there Her way of describing people, places and things are very vivid and simplict it is written with great taste and adventure
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable
Review: I've read Tempest Rising, and Tumbling from this author. I enjoyed the first two, and enjoyed this one as well. The storyline was believable, and I felt like I was back in that time period.
Rating: 
Summary: Dianne's got the blues
Review: I really looked forward to reading this book because I like most of Whetstone's other novels. I had this idea that the book would be warm and cozy and for the most part it was. The rhythm was very bluesy and slow, and most of all inviting. The problem was the story line with the underdeveloped subplots. For example there is the whole exploration into the twin sister's relationship, but the author leaves it wide open. She should either went all the way with what happened between Hortense and Posie or left the odd but loving connection between Verdi and Kitt as it was. Otherwise I really enjoyed the characters. I thought that they were well developed-at least as much as they needed to be without the reader losing sight of the real story. The flashbacks worked as well; they never lose the reader. Oftentimes because Verdi was so weak and didn't typify the average heroin addict it caused me to wonder if her character wasn't a little underdeveloped when it came to the drug. However I think that Whetstone does a marvelous job of showing why and how she ends up in the situation. The one thing that I thought she could have done better though is to have there be more of an immediate struggle with Johnson introducing her to the drug. Otherwise, Rowe and Penda were well done. The language sparkled as it was very high, but the author could stand some polishing on sentence structure. Otherwise I enjoyed the blues.
Rating:
Summary: Love of a Lifetime
Review: Verdi has a comfortable life with her love, Rowe a professor at her former university and a good job, as a principal in a special needs school. She also has family her Aunt Posie, cousin/sister/best friend Kitt and her daughter Sage who at 7 has yet to speak but Verdi thinks she will with help. She loves Kitt as her sister and Sage as her daughter and Posie as her mother and spends time with them whenever she can. Rowe, who's much too cultured and dignified to hang with the likes of Kitt and her crew and believes Verdi should follow suit. Verdi loves Rowe even with all his stuffiness; after all he is the one who saved her from the pits of hell. She even feels like she owes him for all he and his estranged wife did for her. How did Verdi end up with Rowe? That's part of what Blues Dancing tells. In the early seventies, Verdi Mae, a southern bell of the middle class and daughter of a well to preacher and his wife, convinces her parents to let her go to school in Pennsylvania. She assures her parents she'll be fine and besides her mother Hortense' sister Posie and her daughter Kitt will be there to watch out for her. Verdi Mae come to Philly in the early 70's, sex, drugs and militant politics are all new and exciting to her, she gets a proper introduction to them all by the love of a lifetime, Johnson. The love she and Johnson share is total, smothering, enveloping, the end all be all to both of them. Johnson becomes son to Verdi's Aunt Posie, dear friend to Kitt. Everything is beautiful. Until Johnson's personal pain becomes too much for him to bear, so much that not even is love Verdi can save him. He finds a new lover to fill him and introduces "her" to Verdi as well. They descend to hell together with the same intensity as their love sent them to heaven, until Johnson says, no more, leaves Verdi grasping for his back and falling into the arms of Rowe. Twenty years later Johnson comes back to town. Though he's been several times before he and Verdi did not see each other at Verdi's insistence. Kitt is anxious to make them see each other this time. Verdi refuses, she doesn't want the comfort she now enjoys to be disrupted by the pain she must face by seeing the love of her life all over again. Kitt takes a page out of Posie's book of love and makes it happen. The aftermath of that meeting affects the lives of the entire family and their circle. Blues Dancing is excellent. A love story, a story of redemption, obsession, addiction and so much more. McKinney-Whetstone gives each character a voice so clear that the reader can understand them well, understand their motives, understand their struggles. This family, Verdi, her parents Hortense and Leroy and her cousin Kitt and Aunt Posie and their relationships with each other evolve, twist and turn throughout the story and this family as well as Johnson and Rowe all grow as a result of their living, interacting, suffering and loving. McKinney-Whetstone gets better and better.
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