Customer Reviews

Just Too Good to Be True: A Novel

5 star:		(62)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Brady Bledsoe is the apple of his mother Carmyn's eye. Since the day he was born she has been the devoted single parent who has managed to keep Brady on the right path especially since he wants to pursue playing pro football. A savy businesswoman of a prospering beauty salon and day spa in the ATL and a loyal christian to the man above, both have committed themselves to being a member of the "Celibate Circle" at church. Carmyn have some past secrets that involves her son that will be revealed. The question is will he forgive her transgressions?

Now that Brady is a senior at Central Georgia University he has been getting much attention on and off the field from sports agents, coaches, teammates, and fans. A candidate for the Heisman Trophy, he has not let his success go to his head or has he?

Brady meets Barrett Manning a transfer student he falls head over heels for, but Carmyn is not liking her one bit. She thinks Barrett is not who she proclaims to be or is she? Will the real Barrett Manning please stand up.

Just Too Good to Be True: A Novel is a good read that I enjoyed. Its a story full of secrets, lies, relationship between mother and son, and football. Its a little different for E. Lynn but exceptionally good all the same. A biblical verse that comes to mind while reading is "Train up a child the way he should go and he will not depart from it" and it was very well portrayed in this story. A handsome character from his previous books makes an appearance in this novel as well. This book is just too good to be true. Well done Mr. Harris.

Tangerine, Reviewer
Reader's Paradise Book Club

I eagerly purchased this book looking forward to another page turner from Mr. Harris, what I got instead was a book full of people who need psychiatric help. Camryn's obsession with her son's celibacy, to the point where she was lying to herself was just sick and weird also her son's need to pretend that he was perfect was also weird. WAAAYYY to wrapped up in each other's lives to be healthy. Mothers like that raise sons who are incapable of having relationships with anyone else without having Mommy call the shots. Ugh, I can't even finish it, I just put it down. I'll try the next one, but I'm done with this one.

Brady Bledsoe and his mother Carmyn have the perfect mother and son relationship. Carmyn is a single mother who owns several beauty salons and is a faithful church member. She is devoted to her son and shares his dream to become a professional football player. Brady has shared the same values as his mother, including joining a celibacy circle at church. Because of his hard work and dedication, Brady is now in his senior year in college and is a lead contender for the Heisman Trophy and a spot in the NFL. Things soon get complicated for Brady when a beautiful cheerleader named Barrett has her eyes on him and his potential multi-million dollar future. Will Brady be able to stay out of Barrett's clutches? Meanwhile, Carmyn is trying to keep Brady's eyes on the prize. Carmyn is also trying to desperately protect a secret that she has kept from Brady his whole life.

Just Too Good To Be True is an electrifying novel by E. Lynn Harris. Harris once again gives readers what they want by delivering a story that's full of drama and emotion. You get a bird's eye view of the wild and exciting world of a college football athlete. Brady is a complex character that you will root for. Although he does make a few mistakes along the way, you will see how Brady is still trying to stay on task for his future football career. You'll also feel for Carmyn as she tries to make amends for her past mistakes. Harris perfectly illustrated the strong mother and son relationship between Brady and Carmyn, which was refreshing. This author's novel wouldn't be complete without his signature plot twists that will have you flipping the pages. Just Too Good To Be True is widely entertaining and heartwarming. E. Lynn Harris has brought a novel that doesn't disappoint and will satisfy his legion of fans and will possibly gain a whole new fan base.

Reviewed by Radiah Hubbert
for Urban Reviews

I love E. Lynn Harris but this book left me lost. There was not a clear ending to certain creators. What happen to his best friend and his mother? Is that a sequel? They just vanished in the end and I thought that was a great storyline. What about the baby and Naomi? I thought that was a great storyline--vanished. Even if I could get a blog at the end telling me to stay tune I would have been happy and this would be a hit. Now I am mad.

This is my first book by this writer, and I picked it up because the dust jacket promised a "read" about family, faith and football...a winning combination, I thought. This story was good enough to stick it out to the end, but frankly, I found the main characters fairly unlikeable. The mom of one of the most talented major college football stars of 2005 has a public image of perfection and success. She has hidden a less perfect past and present from her son, and some of her secrets and deceptions seem quite unfair to him. The son, who has promised to be pure, has given in to a couple of temptations, which he hides from mom and the sports world which has taken an interest in him. The family's best friend spills a couple of their secrets foolishly to his new lover, and that gives an unscrupulous sports agent real leverage against the player. Kind of caught in the middle of all this is an overage hooker/cheerleader sent to seduce the player into signing with her adulterous boyfriend/agent. If you are interested, as I was, in learning some things you hadn't known about the pressures in big time college football, you may like the environment in which this novel is set. However, I just didn't really root for the characters I think the author wanted me to support. They are not evil, but it is hard to equate hypocrites with "heroes" either. And the final few pages seem rushed and inadequate to wrap up the story lines. The character I cheered for the most was a guy that mom dated, who ran a sandwich shop, and a man from her past who made a non-hypocritical success out of his life. The football presented here, while bearing little resemblance to reality, was more interesting than either this family, or the faith its members were supposed to possess.

This book was just ok to me compared to the others books that I have ready by E. Lynn Harris. I thought the story line was a good one.. but "just too good to be true". The characters didn't seem very real to me. A little too far fetched in my opinion. On a scale from 1 to 10, I would give it a 7.

It was just to good to be true that Mr. Harris was back and i know y'all know what i mean when i say back. I met Mr. Harris while he was doing a workshop here in dallas. He told us about this book and also mentioned that the character was not gay. i wasn't shocked by the character not being gay but i was shocked by the lacking of the storyline. Another thing that was going on a lot in this story was that the straight male characters were describing each other as if they were checking them out or even gay, especially Brady. So are you sure he isn't on the low Mr. Harris?

the book seemed so....episodic...if that's even a word. basically it seemed as if it was written in episodes like a script. the relationship with Camryn and Brady although, strong was a bit on the not so healthy side. i loved the respect he had for Lowell and the fact that he stepped in to be a step father. that was powerful and i wished i saw more of that with our men in today's society. The it was said that Rena wanted to apologize for what she did to Camryn a*k*a Niecey but that wasn''t the way she approached her. she was bascially acting as though she was going to expose Camryn which didn't coincide with what Woodson said at teh end.

Barrett's character was so unreal. the things she did made Brady seem as though he was a dumb jock. he had no common sense whatsoever to see what this woman was pulling. i don't understand how she could be registered in school without them catching on to her and Kilgore's game. i just find the entire story line to be unrealistic. the story really has no closure, what happened to Delmar and his stripping, his mother, Kilgore was he indicted, Kellis did she find a man, did he choose Basil as his agent, did Nico get time or what? i just felt it could've been a little more neater in the closing.

the story had a lot of potential but lacked that E. Lynn Harris shock factor that we have all come to love. i still respect Mr. harris as an invaluable author and look forward for the other books that are on the way. i think he said he had like 9 releases all coming out really close together. i hope they give us what we have come to expect with E. Lynn not saying they have to be gay because they don't all we need is the drama, divas, jocks, arrogant pretty people and mayheim that you normally bring to the forefront

It was an okay read. It's not as good as most of his other books but I would still recommend it if you're just in the mood for reading. Definitely not bad enough to give up on him so I'm still looking forward to his next book.

I will start off by saying I am an avid fan and reader of E. Lynn Harris but this book was just not on point. I did read it in a day but not because it was a page turner. It was slightly suspenseful but nothing like a typical E. Lynn book. An old character does pop up here and there but nothing that true fans would appreciate. I'd say borrow this book from a quick and easy rainy day read.

The book seems to drag out, although there were some interesting highlights, not my favorite E. Lynn Harris book, but worth reading