I was initially quite excited to read this book for two reasons: 1. My very own 10 year reunion is coming up shortly; 2. I’m also from the deep South–Louisiana to be exact, which is pretty close to Mississippi in terms of nearly everything including culture and attitude.

As I began reading, I was into the story but it didn’t take me long to realize one thing–this author is not from the South, and her perceptions of us seem to be based on stereotypes. For example, the characters in this book are
I was initially quite excited to read this book for two reasons: 1. My very own 10 year reunion is coming up shortly; 2. I’m also from the deep South–Louisiana to be exact, which is pretty close to Mississippi in terms of nearly everything including culture and attitude.

As I began reading, I was into the story but it didn’t take me long to realize one thing–this author is not from the South, and her perceptions of us seem to be based on stereotypes. For example, the characters in this book are supposed to be around my age. I’ve never heard anyone from my grandmother’s or even GREAT grandmother’s generation refer to their children as “young’uns”, much less someone from my generation, as one character in this book does. There are also a few people that don’t speak with proper English, and I couldn’t help but be slightly offended at this. Down here we may have a few people that speak that way, but it’s definitely not the majority of us. The South is not the only place that has ignorant people.

I also wish I could have been told before I started reading it that this was a Christian fiction novel. Not that this fact in and of itself would have stopped me from reading the book; I am a Christian and read all types of genres. But if I would have known, I wouldn’t have thought it so weird that God and prayer were mentioned so many times, and very heavily the closer you get towards the end. Like I said, this is expected if you’re reading a Christian fiction novel, and I just didn’t know.

I actually didn’t like any of the characters in the book. Tim and Priscilla were the only ones I could stand, and even both of them did things I’d like to smack them for. I just really didn’t get some of the decisions the characters were making, and by the end of the book I didn’t feel anyone had gotten what they wanted or needed or changed for the better.

I know it sounds like I didn’t like anything about the book, but I did rate it two stars because I could relate to the overall message–we all like to think that we’re far from the person we used to be in high school, but how many of us can truly say that in our heart of hearts. Maybe the addition of ten years doesn’t necessarily make you a grownup.
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