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Summary: Passionate and breathtaking!
Review: (originally posted: October 28, 1999)Diane McKinney-Whetstone has done it again... taken her readers to Philly, evoked every sensory organ, and personally introduced us to vivid characters with personality. Mrs. McKinney-Whetstone is such an excellent storyteller! Blues Dancing is a beautifully written novel of passionate relationships between friends and family. By passionate, I'm referring to the deep and loving heartfelt emotions... and a bit of physical intimacy. Verdi and Johnson display such strong passion for one another during a time when the major focus of the Movement was violence. During their college years, they become friends and inevitably lovers. I enjoyed reading how they were so much a part of one another that you couldn't tell where one ended and the other began... that's some DEEP love. While swimming (and nearly drowning) in the depths of this passionate love story, I had to put the book down a few times to literally catch my breath. Blues Dancing took me back to a place I never wanted to leave... who knows, maybe I'll smell the sweetness of butter!
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Summary: Loved it!
Review: The characters in this book are so real they come right off the page and the story lines blend beautifully. I enjoyed this book thoroughly! C.M. Miller, Author---Taxes, Death, & Trouble Accrual Way To Die Free Throw
Rating: 
Summary: ooooooh...
Review: ...to have the kind of love Verdi and Johnson shared. As a college student and preacher's kid, Verdi was naive and away from home (small-town Georgia) for the first time in the big city of Philly. But, she had the love of her first cousin, the street-wise Kitt. Kitt's mom is the twin sister of Verdi's mom. Verdi and Kitt grew up totally different but became closer than sisters. It's that love that helps Verdi get through her hard times in Philly. During her transformation in college, Verdi meets Johnson, an idealist radical who has a heart of gold, but knows not how to use his intelligence. They become an inseparable couple until drugs intervenes. The story starts off in present-day PHilly (Verdi is in her 40's) and goes back forth to her early years in college. Ms. Whetstone did a great job in keeping the past and the present separate, but was still able to find a common thread. I was never once confused. The love that these two had for each other was unmatched and unmistakable, but they couldn't see past each others problems. True, Johnson's problems resulted in the naive Verdi's downward spiral, but towards the end we realize that it was his LOVE for her that allowed her to 'move one with her life'. All of these years she felt that he left her to wallow in her drug-addicted lifestyle. I don't want to give a way the book, but we find out later that Johnson loved her more than he loved himself. At any rate, Verdi was "rescued" by her college professor who left his wife for the young and sweet Verdi. The professor, Rowe, was domineering and felt that had it not been for him Verdi would still be an addict (that was may evident by his continued 'search' for needle tracks in her arms some 20 years later). He always felt she would fall back into her drug addict ways and he thought she "needed" him to survive. Sadly, Verdi herself felt she needed him to survive, to breathe, but that was so far from the truth. I have loved all of Ms. Whetstone's books and this one is no exception. I LOVE the way she writes and the way she tells a story. I hated when the book ended. Speaking of the ending, I wish she could have explored what happened to Rowe the professor...I was quite disappointed with the way she ending his part of the story. There were so many different and wonderful relationships in this book I was left wondering if there will be a sequel. Please Ms. Whetstone, can you let us know what happens to Verdi and Johnson, Kitt, her mom and Kitt's daughter (who by the way,at seven years old, had just spoken her first words towards the end of the book). I wrote all of this to say that I LOVE THE BOOK! All of her novels are excellent! I'm waiting on the next one!!
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Summary: McKinney-Whetstone does it again!!!
Review: The relationships in McKinney-Whetstone's books are always so complicated, yet so easy to identify. The story flawlessly weaves past and present with flashbacks that enhance, rather than hinder the storyline. I always wait in anticipation of her next novel.
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Summary: Variable Verdi
Review: This was an excellent book, and now I must go read Tumbling and Tempest Rising, and whatever else Ms Mckinney-Whetstone writes. I was particularly moved by her skill at depicting the humanness of her male characters. Rowe and Johnson, with all their strengths and weaknesses, are burned into my memory. And this leads to the only slight, slight, slight problem I had with the book. I was not exactly sure I understood Verdi's motivation at all times, in fact, not nearly as well as I did Sage, who is only a minor character.
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Summary: if she only knew
Review: This book was. . . . what can I say. . . . very interesting. I wanted Verdi and Johnson to get together so badly. I felt like they were made for each other. Rowe was too possessive for me. I'm not gonna say he didn't love Verdi but to many love is beautiful and free, not obsessive and abusive. And abuse come in all sort of way. People can some something so beautiful and make it perverted by becoming too obsessive with it. I probably would have did the same thing Kitt did. It amazed me how Rowe felt like he all of a sudden needed to stop by Kitts house, the day Johnson and her were gonna meet. The first time unknowingly. Someone whom he could not stand. I would not have let him inside. He would have had to wait on the step for Verdi. I like how every one led you to another part of suspense. To me they were soul mates from the beginning. I love the book and can't wait to tear into the next one.
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Summary: A Great Love Story
Review: I truly loved this book and McKinney-Whetstone's very lyrical words and developed characters. This story of love, betrayal and reuniting with a lost love kept me enthralled. Some of the plot endings were predictable (Sage) and some were not (Rowe). Verdi was very dependent on men (Johnson, Rowe and Leroy), Rowe was pompous (the nerve of him) and Kit was an "around the way girl", LOL. The twins were interesting, however the relationship between and Posie and Leroy was left unresolved and the hint as to whether Verdi and Kitt were actually sisters was not complete. Hm, could another novel be in the works to resolve these issues? I say go for it! The writer took us back twenty years and beyond for the reader to understand the characters' behaviors. This will be on my list as an all time favorite! Go Diane!
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Summary: Faith, Forgiveness and Love
Review: This book had it all! I take my hat off to Diane McKinney-Whetstone. This was the best of the three that she has written. It was so refreshing to read about true adult love. There was none of the teenage, playing games romance that we read in a lot of African-American fiction novels. This story had a few turns to it that were a little difficult to comprehend. However, the love between Verdi and Johnson is what you always dream of having for yourself. I felt so sorry for Verdi that she didn't come into her own for 40 years, but she got there and I cheered her on all the way. I really believed that faith and spirit kept Verdi and Johnson unmarried to others for over 20 years. They were meant to be together. Rowe had a lot of demons that he needed to deal with and he was not dealing with them which in turn fueled him to keep control over Verdi for so long. He needed to heal himself and let Verdi heal herself. The love scenes between Johnson and Verdi were like FIRE! I can see why my best book buddies rated this book so highly. Diane, I hope to see more from you in the near future, because you definitely have a gift to share with the world.
Rating:
Summary: Blues Dancing - Excellent
Review: This is an excellent tale of young relationship that eventually matured into adult relationship - with lots of twists and turns in between. One of the great lessons in this story is how one should not look to his/her mate to complete themselves. One should feel totally complete and happy alone, before they attempt to make someone else happy. Diane McKinney-Whetstone is an excellent writer. I can always see the scenes in my mind as I read her stories.
Rating: 
Summary: An ok book..
Review: This book was an overall ok read. The thing that bothered me the most about this book is the relationship between Verdi and Rowe.I found it disgusting that Rowe just stepped away from his marriage to get involved with a collge student. By the end of the book, I felt sorry for Verdi. She never had a chance at real true love because she allowed herself to be stuck with Rowe. She didn't even have a chance to have kids. Johnson came back much too late in the story. I do like Diane's other novels.
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