Series Sunday: Blessings

Series Sunday is a new bookish meme hosted by yours truly, Literary Marie of Precision Reviews. I encourage all of my fellow book bloggers and bookhearts to play along. 

• Read an installment of a series.
• Post a review/recommendation on your blog, FB, Twitter, Goodreads, or Shelfari pages.
• Share your review/recommendation by posting the link in the comments section below.
• Include the title, author, and name of the series so that other Series Sunday participants can add the book to their TBR Lists.

My Series Sunday pick is Bring On The Blessings, the first book in the Blessings series by Detroit's own Beverly Jenkins. Two days after her 30th wedding anniversary, and the day before her 52nd birthday, Bernadine Edwards found her husband in a deceitful position...literally. He was screwing his secretary on top of his desk. Instead of crying woe is me, she found an attorney and filed for divorce, walking away from the marriage with $275 million. It was a blessing in disguise. Then she ran across an inspirational news article about a small town where older people, foster children, and foster parents lived together. That evening while watching the news, she learned of a small town in Kansas that put itself up for sale on eBay. Yes, eBay. The town was in such financial trouble that it hoped to find a buyer to save them. With these two news stories, Bernadine formed a plan.

She purchased the small town in Kansas envisioning a library, health center, recreational center, and most importantly a subdivision of new homes that would house foster parents and foster children. It was the perfect place being that Henry Adams was a historic environment. 

Throughout the rest of the novel, we meet the residents of Henry Adams and fall in love with them. Tamar is the wise grandmother. Trent is an engineer who finds himself working closely with high school sweetheart, Lily--also Bernadine's assistant. Then there are the five foster children. Fifteen-year-old Crystal Chambers is a runaway. Thirteen-year-old Preston Mays has asthma and weight issues. Eleven-year-old Amari "Flash" Steele is a carjacker. Eight-year-old Devon Watkins is a suit-wearing little deacon and seven-year-old Zoey Raymond is mute. Bernadine brought all of these people together and has finally found her home in a place she's never been. 

I can't recommend this series enough. Author Beverly Jenkins is so underrated. It could have something to do with her publishers lack of promotion, or even the corny book covers that are usually chosen for her works. But Bring on the Blessings has one of the best covers I have ever seen from this author. The book left off with some loose ends so I look forward to reading the second and recently released third edition of this series. You should too.

Title: Bring on the Blessings
Author: Beverly Jenkins
Published: January 2009
Pages: 282
Edition: eBook
Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥