Customer Reviews

If You Walked In My Shoes

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In Charlotte, North Carolina, Leon Farrell finally persuades seventeen years old classmate Coreen Holmes to allow him to walk her home from school after several weeks of pleading. However, in an isolated locale, Leon rapes Coreen. She gives up the child for adoption.

When Frieda Davis turned twelve she had her first period and everything changed in her adoptive home. Instead of tucking her in her bed, papa rapes her. He continues to molest her until at seventeen Frieda ran away from home vowing to one day confront her biological mother.

Almost thirteen years later Frieda has made something of herself, but now stalks Coreen from afar learning that her mother led a wonderful life married to Bates Treadwell and having raised two stepsons Glen and Eric with him. As Coreen continues to do good deeds to improve society, Frieda sets in motion a plan to destroy her.

This reviewer cannot think of anyone who can write a better contemporary poignant drama than Gwynne Forster consistently does. Her latest tale borrows its title from a famous Native American saying "try walking in my moccasins" as the two lead females will learn what it is like to be the other. The story line is character driven but never dips into soap opera territory as the cast seems genuine and the ending realistic. Ms. Forster once again provides one of the most astute yet entertaining tales of the year, which is why I am a fan.

Harriet Klausner

I was very dissapointed when I read this book. The writing is very disjointed and the characters not developed -just plain stale. Their actions make little sense, and, frankly, I didn't care what they did. This book tackles such a serious subject and I find it hard to believe that such a story could be told without the reader becoming engrossed. Wish I had a better report......

The prologue for IF YOU WALKED IN MY SHOES alerted me that there
would be a day of reckoning. Coreen Holmes was raped by one of
her classmates when she was seventeen years old, and her die was
cast. Thirteen year old Frieda Davis was sexually abused by her
adoptive father, a fate which continued for four years; until
Frieda fled into the night.

A much older Coreen Holmes Treadwell is on the brink of fulfilling
her dream as the president of the International Society of Social
and Welfare Agency. For the past 29 years she has dedicated her
time to social and welfare issues. And for that same period she has
lived behind a façade, with the fear that her darkest secret would
be unveiled. But how long does a secret remain a secret? Coreen's
fear is manifested when her past walks into her present.

Frieda needs closure to her past; her adoptive parents are deceased
and she needs to know her roots. Also embedded in her heart is the
drive to fulfill a vendetta against her biological mother. But will
her vindictive intent produce an outcome more devastating than her
past?

IF YOU WALKED IN MY SHOES is a dramatic story about two women
emotionallydamaged by violent acts, and the aftermath that
reverberated throughout their lives. The destiny of these women was
propelled by outside forces at a time when neither was mature enough
to accept the outcome. And while each chose a different way to deal
with their past, somehow that difference had an element of sameness.
Premature in their judgment about one another, things become clearer
when they share the opportunity to walk in each other's shoes. Ms.
Forster methodically highlights the emotional anguish of the
characters and the havoc the repercussions caused in Coreen and
Frieda's lives, yet it is the very havoc that served to strengthened
them. (RAWSISTAZ Rating: 4.5)

Reviewed by aNN
of The RAWSISTAZ™ Reviewers

This is the riveting story of how keeping secrets can come back to haunt you. Coreen Holmes Treadwell for all appearances has a successful career, loving marriage and a wonderful relationship with her stepchildren. But her life hasn't always been so "perfect", as a young girl she was raped and wound up pregnant. Coreen is hiding a painful secret. A secret named Frieda Davis. Frieda Davis is the daughter that Coreen never knew. As a child, Frieda suffered years of abuse from her stepfather, which has made her bitter and determined to find her birth mother, to make her suffer as she has. She puts together a plan of vengeance that will ultimately change their lives forever. This book is one that stays with you long after you put it down. Gwynne Forster has written a story that will make you think and touch your heart. I give this book 3 stars!
Reviewed by Shay C
PeoplewholoveGoodBooks

In this story, Coreen's daughter seeks to get revenge from Coreen beause of the bad life her daughter had (she gave her daughter up for adoption).The story line and the actions of the characters and their thinking makes no sense at all. They are so unrealistic. It is a terrible book.

I have neared the end of this book and feel total disgust for all of the characters in this book. This is a very serious topic that deserves so much more than is given. I hope to finish this book tonight only because I hate not finishing a book. I want to empathize with Coreen but at the same time I want to smack her and tell her to stop talking to herself and talk to her husband. The ongoing theme throughout this book "noone can find out my secret" was retold so frequently it became ludacris. I understand that people blame themselves when tragedy's such as these occur in their lives but really how can she be a service to others in the same predicament when the mere mention of the word adoption causes Coreen to have a break down.

Coreen's talking to her self is so redudundant and her and her daughters' logic is so flawed. I have no sympathy for her or her daughter. In the middle of the book I thought to myself the crazy apple does not fall far from the tree.

...and with that thought I stopped reading.

Perhaps it is just me, but I felt this book was a huge let down! I still love 'When Twiglight Comes' by this author.However, this read was seriously redundant, the pace was slow and the story drug on in such a way, that I wanted to drop the book before I completed it! I did push through it.Wanting to pull my hair out along the way.Hoping with each page that I turned the story would pick up, or the author would begin to tie together many of the facts and loose characterizations. EX: Becky Smith,Rudolph or Randolph? Why themain character was hell bent on recognition but in terror of being found out? The odd behavior of Maddie and Oscar? This book could have been so much better had it been well pieced together or edited properly..I don't know, but it contained very relevant content/issues but they weren't explored. The characters were very under developed in my opinion and no one in this book TALKED!? No one seemed mature enough to communicate their hopes,dreams,fears,secrets,NOTHING?? The dialogue was awful. For such a deep topic/issue confronting women, I don't feel that Ms.Forster successfully tied in how Coreen (main character) decided on her career path,and why she desired to ambivalently reach for the National acclaim she did in the midst of her haunting past.It just didn't make sense.Bates (her husband) was a hot mess.He started out being an attentive husband.A listener,a talker and a hard worker.What the heck happened to Bates?? lol... As someone else pointed out, though a long book...it was very boring and I agree...totally disjointed.
I was really expecting so much more out of this story so,I kept reading in hopes that the end would yield a dramatic and realistic ending.I never got it. Are you serious?? Mother and daughter, Glen and Frieda...Bates reaction to frieda and his response to Coreen after all the withholding of secrets over the years??come on now?? People say Christian fiction is unreal, this was unbelievable.
That was some crazy kind of ending.The other reviews go into detail, so I won't. But I wouldn't recommend this book. Not unless you are just a die hard Gwynne forster fan. I must point out; This is not one of her later publications. Maybe...perhaps... she was still developing her writing style in this genre in 2004. At any rate, I feel she definitely struggled with the content and could have told this story in so many more different ways, and gotten explosive and genuine worth from this storyline. This is the second slow story I have read by Ms.Forster. I don't know that I would read another one.

Coreen Homes Treadwill is a woman in distress. Despite a successful career and a family that loves her, demons from her past are threatening her future. At 17, Coreen was the victim of a date-rape that resulted in an unwanted pregnancy, and immediately put the child up for adoption in an attempt to forget the heart-wrenching incident. Years later, to Coreen's dismay, the child she gave up has grown into a woman hell-bent on revenge.



30-year old Frieda Davis is a determined woman on a mission, stopping at nothing to find her biological mother. Instead of a heart-felt reunion, Frieda is out for revenge, and blames the woman who abandoned her at birth for years of sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of her adoptive father.



Meanwhile, Coreen's career takes off, placing her on a public platform, and she fears this recognition could lead to unwanted attention from the child she doesn't know. It doesn't take long for trouble to start in the Treadwill home, and Coreen's rising professional status soon leaves her husband Bates feeling like a failure. Those are the least of Coreen's concerns, as she's constantly haunted by the idea that the child she gave up will soon find her.



Her fears are not unfounded, as Frieda is hot on her trail. Frieda moves forward with a well-orchestrated plan to ruin her birth mother's life and destroy all that Coreen holds dear, beginning with one of her beloved stepsons, Glen. Before Frieda can follow through with her plan, though, she falls in love but quickly reverts to plan B. Unwilling to release the pain and bitterness she's carried for years, Frieda quickly learns that revenge isn't always sweet.



If You Walked in My Shoes forces us to think twice about keeping secrets from those we love. While some sentences seemed weighed down by excessive wording and phrases that remind you these characters are seasoned, the story flows through its few slow spots and is overall, a good read. Each page keeps you wondering how Coreen will handle her situation, and whether her family and career will remain intact once she faces those demons.



By the end, mother and daughter leave us wondering if they'll ever find peace, and their place in life. Foster leaves us cheering for both women in different ways.



Reviewed by Pat Tucker

(...)

Freida Davis is on a mission to find the one responsible for her being in an abusive situation and all the warnings that she received, she ignored and even though she knows that it is wrong to seek revenge, she forces full speed and with all the planning and plotting she never expected to find her ultimate love and where she thought she would be gratified, she stumbles and finds that it is nothing like she anticipated. Glen Treadwell is a self absorbed, over confident, take what he wants with no regard to anyone else, until he slam dunks with Frieda and oops the player gets played in the worse kind of way. Corrine is self sufficient and self proclaimed, through her struggles she succeeds and the skeletons in her closet will come out in the worse possible way, but in actuality when the story unfolds, the worse for Corrine is all in her secret, if she had came clean with Bates and explained what she could not control, she would have spared herself so much grief and anguish, but then Bates is no Saint, he is self proclaimed, above all and unfortunately, he should have told Corrine why he is so judgemental and they would have not had to endure so much anguish. When Frieda and Corrine come head to head and toe to toe, Corrine brings Frieda down a few notches and through this story I really felt for Corrine, 'cause she suffered the most. The characters in ths story all had a story of their own and it all intertwined, but it tells the story that you think you know someone and you believe you have all the answers, but if you "walked in their shoes," you would know better. I think that Gwynne Forster could do a part two to this story, because truthfully Frieda and Glenn have unfinished business, and Corrine and Frieda also. Corrine never heard that her Aunt died wanting to apologize to her... and Star and Eric have a wedding still... The drama is real and the story is spellbounding, cause you don't know what is going to happen and now that Porgy and Lizzette have sealed the deal, they have a story too... Keep writing Ms. Forrester.