A Change Had To Come [Paperback]

Gwynne Forster (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Popular author Forster (A Different Kind of Blues) charts the course of a young African-American journalist, her love life and her eye-opening trip to Africa. Leticia Langley is a lucky young woman fresh out of college: not only has she landed a job as a food columnist at Washington, D.C.'s The Journal, she's been quickly promoted to features reporter. Meanwhile, however, Leticia's voluptuous best friend, her two-faced cousin Kenyetta Jackson, decides to make a play for Leticia's current crush. While Leticia's discovering Kenyetta's betrayal, she's also overcoming distrust of another potential love interest, Journal colleague Max Baldwin. An assignment about the roots of obesity in African-American women takes Leticia to Nigeria and Kenya, resulting in a renewal of her career prospects and passions, as well as the novel's best passages. Though hardly unusual to the genre, Forster puts a fanciful, prerecession gloss on Leticia's media world that keeps it several steps removed from reality. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Dafina; Original edition (October 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0758225628
• ISBN-13: 978-0758225627
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,787,714 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

ABOUT GWYNNE FORSTER
Gwynne Forster is national best-selling and award-winning author of seven novels of general fiction, thirty-one romance novels, and eight mainstream and romance novellas. All of her mainstream novels and several of her romance novels have been featured in Black Expressions Magazine. When Twilight Comes, her first mainstream novel, was featured on the magazine's cover, and it also remained on the Essence Magazine list of best sellers for several months. Her latest mainstream novels, A Different Kind Of Blues and Getting Some of Her Own were published in October 2007 snf 2008, respectively to excelledt reviews. Publiher's Weekly called A Different Kind of Blues "An ode to life...wise and wonderful..."

Among her many awards and forms of recognition, Gwynne is most proud of her election in 2006 to the Affaire de Coeur Magazine Hall Of Fame and of the Life Time Ahcievement Award conferred by Romantic Times Magazine in 2007. The following novels were nominated by Affaire de Coeur Magazine for 'Best romance novel of the year with African-American Hero and heroine: Ecstasy, Obsession, Naked Soul, Fools Rush In, Swept Away, Secret Desire, Scarlet Woman. Winners of the award were: Beyond Desire,Ecstasy, Naked Soul, Fools Rush In, and Swept Away. Readers of Affaire de Coeur Magazine named Gwynne one of Top Ten Favorite Authors for the years 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2006, and one of five outstanding achievers (1998). Rendezvous Magazine voted Secret Desire "Rose Bud of the month" for November 2003. The 2001 Gold Pin Award from Black Writers Reunion and Conference went to Beyond Desire.

Double Day Book Club and Literary Guild selected Beyond Desire and used the book to start the Black Expressions Book Club. Romance In Color internet site gave its 1999 Award of Excellence to Against The Wind and voted Gwynne Author of the Year. The site voted Flying High runner-up to best romance of the year 2003 and gave it Honorable mention. Romance Slam Jam 2000 nominated Gwynne for the Vivian Stephens Lifetime Achievement Award. Romance Slam Jam 2001 gave Gwynne an Emma Award for her novella, "Learning to Love" in the anthology, Going To The Chapel. Romance Slam Jam 2003 nominated Blues From Down Deep for an Emma Award as best mainstream novel. Gwynne lectures extensively on fiction writing, and on making the first sale.

A native North Carolinian who grew up in Washington, D. C. , Gwynne holds bachelors and masters degrees in sociology, a master's degree in economics/demography and has additional graduate credits in journalism. As a demographer, she is widely published. She is formerly chief of (non-medical) research in fertility and family planning in the Population Division of the United Nations in New York and served for four years as chairperson of the International Programme Committee of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (London, England). These positions took her on official business to sixty-three developed and developing countries.

Gwynne sings on her church choir, loves to entertain, and is a museum hopper, gourmet cook and avid gardener. She enjoys classical music, opera, jazz and blues with her husband with whom she lives in New York City. She is represented by the Steel-Perkins Literary Agency, 26 Island Lane, Canandaigua, NY 14424. Reach Gwynne at P.O. Box 45, New York, N.Y. 10044; E-mail [e-mail]; Web page - http://www.gwynneforster.com -. Blog: http://gwynneforster.blogspot.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars RAW Rating: 3.5 - Carving Your Own Niche, October 17, 2009

By 

The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers (RAWSISTAZ.com and BlackBookReviews.net) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Change Had To Come (Paperback)

In much of Leticia Langley's earlier life, she allowed herself to be defined by others and circumstances. Since her mother was an outcast from the family, she was too. The relative she was closest to was her cousin Kenyetta, who didn't really have her best interest at heart. Graduating from college with honor, albeit a little late in life, Leticia decides to make some much needed changes as she pursues what she wants out of life. A new job, a new attitude and a new look, gets Leticia's confidence to spike, leaving a jealous cousin and an unwanted suitor in her wake.

Leticia lands a job with The Journal as a food columnist, but immediately sets her sights on a higher position. However, this ambition puts her in direct conflict with the paper's top journalist, Max Baldwin. Having been burnt by love in the past, he stays his distance from the impressive Leticia who seems to worm her way into his life anyway. Although Leticia never dated, she finds herself being pursued by someone whom she is not comfortable with and eventually she begins to notice Max in a whole new light. Her cousin, however, is determined to get ahead of Leticia using any means necessary.

In A CHANGE HAD TO COME, Gwynne Forster writes a convincing story about a young woman who is empowered to change the way she and others see herself. For Leticia, it came with physical change as well as a change in her state of mind. The metamorphosis was like that which a butterfly experiences. Forster paints a wonderful picture of carving your own niche in life and being comfortable with self while you do it. As a contrast, Forster uses the cousin as an example of how low self-esteem and jealousy can work in one's life. Forster's dialogue and approach to the love story appeared to be suited for a much older audience. In this advance reader's copy, the conversations were often stilted, the few love scenes were awkward and the passion was lukewarm. Despite this, Forster still tells a pretty good story.

Reviewed by Brenda Lisbon
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not one of her best..., October 14, 2009

By 

Devan E. May "DMAY" (Arkansas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Change Had To Come (Paperback)

I am not sure if it was the dialogue or what but this was not one of her best works, I actually skimmed it to the end because I just couldnt finish it...I can say however that the story itself had a good point to it but it wasnt what you have become used to from Ms Forster....This is not a hot and steamy love story but it is a story about finding ones self and being true to ones self. Like I said the point of the story was good but the dialgue and the way it was written was and is not that easy to follow....

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Very, very slow read, December 16, 2009

By 

Ms Lady "Blessed and Highly Favored" - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Change Had To Come (Paperback)

I was very disappointed in this story. It was very disjointed and there were numerous story lines. The back cover indicates that the main character's change in outer appearance is so important that it changes her life. There is very little about this change other than one shopping excursion with a cousin and a couple of more to buy one dress each time. And the author frequently points to a long silky hair weave instead of the main character's short unmanageable hair as essential to being beautiful...what about beauty with OUR natural hair?????

The cousin, who has an affair with a married man for years, also grabs the main character's love interest for a relationship that doesn't work out. The main character is reunited with her family, but then again not really. The main character falls for a co-worker and they begin this impersonal, dispassionate relationship. The characters bump over their issues so many times you want to slap them and beg for an end to this story.

It was a long winding road to nowhere. The characters were underdeveloped and I was unable to identify with them. The language was formal with words like vituperative and nugacious. I am so glad I finished this book I couldn't wait to give it away. A total and complete waste of my time!!!!!