whitneydaniell

by: Jayne Allen
Published: Apr 11, 2023
Genre: Fiction, Contemporary, Adult
288 Pages, Paperback
GoodReads Link

Books in this Series:
Book #1: Black Girls Must Die Exhausted
Book #2: Black Girls Must Be Magic

*deep sigh* Still. Hated. It. We’re on book #3 and Tabitha still cannot set a boundary or say what she really means. It is so frustrating to read so much about how she is struggling in new motherhood but, she never speaks up for herself when it counts.

Here are a few of my issues with this book and the series:

• Tabby doesn’t trust herself to make decisions and when she does make a decision, if it doesn’t go in her favor she regrets it and then the cycle starts all over again. From Book #1 she has focused heavily on her career but, at every turn when she put her career first and then something else fell off her plate, she regretted it – see Granny Tab’s death in Book #1.
• Tabby needs therapy but instead, over the course of the series, she simply dumps her problems on the older women in her life; Granny Tab and Ms. Gretchen.
• Tabby is a sometime-y friend and (high-key) she starts the series as if she is jealous of Lexi but ends it as if she is in pity for her. She asks her, “Why” in the context of why she should get married, and Lexi never answers almost leaving the reader to assume that, Lexi herself doesn’t know why she got married.
• Tabby doesn’t set boundaries or communicate expectations when it comes to Marc. Why does a man who you don’t want to be with, have a key to your home? Why is he spending the night? Why are you traveling to Florida to see his ailing father, when you just met his mother?! That man didn’t want you “like that” in Book #1 and nothing about that has changed. In anger (when true feelings come out) has called Tabby all kinds of selfish and told her that she didn’t value family – why is he still in her life like this?! Let that man be a father and move TF on.
• It is never fully explained, what is going on in the Walker household with Diane and Tabby’s dad, and why is that side of her life always left up to interpretation.
• Tabby relies heavily on her job/career to give her purpose and that is so strange to me. She has great friends, and her mother and her relationship have gotten better – why is it that work is the only thing that brings her validation?

Can’t say that I was surprised by how the book ended, makes sense given Books 1 & 2. I still don’t see it for Tabitha Walker but, it was a cute short read. Glad this series is done so that I don’t have to jump back into the madness that is her life and I certainly, don’t ever want to read about Marc again.

One-Word Summary: Boundaries