Customer Reviews

My Angel

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

If you're looking for hot spicy scenes, as the cover may suggest, this is not the book for you. However, this may be a book you will enjoy if you're looking for a story that is good, different, allows you insight into the characters, and a smile at times. I almost "passed" on this book but decided to order it after reading the excerpt on the author's web page.

Matthew Turner is a loving, self-sacrificing son and husband until his wife, spoiled, immature, and materialistic, decides that she no longer loves him and wants more than he can provide. Simone Porter is a loving, self-sacrificing daughter with a demanding, controlling mother who selects then "guides" her to the correct career path, the perfect husband, the perfect weight, etc. Each has one loving parent who accepts them unconditionally wanting only their happiness; but each has a parent the reader would gladly throttle.

Matt and Simone meet, literally by accident, late one night. She assists him after he has been involved in a terrible "accident"; continually visits him in the hospital while he remains in a coma for a little more than four months; gives much needed and appreciated emotional and moral support to his mother; and becomes his "Angel." In turn, he becomes her biggest champion; helps her with her self esteem and self-image issues; assists her in her workplace; supports her in her desire to assist others; and is there for her when needed. They help and encourage each other to grow stronger personally and individually as their friendship blossoms.

This story is about so much more then just their developing relationship. It includes several family issues, multiple social issues, trust and control issues, a little suspense, lots of drama, plenty of emotion, and a few surprises. Matt and Simone are very likable. Most frustrating, inconsiderate, and/or repugnant characteristics are thoughtfully presented in secondary characters. This book is a fast, engaging, easy, and enjoyable read.

I was bored with this book by the 4th chapter. It's an okay book but it you get it from the library that would be much better than buying it.

The characters were shallow, weak and annoying. The romance between the main characters was strained and not well developed. I finally tossed the book to the side without finishing it.

The heroine was perfect as was the hero. Their parents were atrocious humans. I never knew racism could be so FUNNY! I should've been offended by the hero's father, but I couldn't help but loving his awfulness. Good, dynamic characters-there was no evil ex or perfect family systems. They were the perfect couple (especially when he rescues her when she's drunk). AWWWWWWWW!

In spite of My Angel's racy (and misleading) cover, the love story of Simone Porter and Matt Turner is so refreshingly unpretentious that it overcomes any flaws in presentation style and emerges as a story that fits the phrase of being "a diamond in the rough."

Simone Porter meets Matt Turner when she saves him after a car accident. While he's in a coma, she stops by to check up on him and strikes up a friendship with Matt's mother.

Now if Simone seems like a bleeding heart from that short description alone, it is because Simone is a bleeding heart.

In fact, Simone isn't your standard modern heroine. She's a softie; perhaps even a doormat. Her domineering mother bullies her about everything and she raises nary a peep. That is, until she meets Matt who is nearly as much of a softie as she is.

What follows isn't the new standard romance formula wherein the super confident and sexy heroine meets the equally super confident and sexy hero and they hop into bed and proceed to have hot, blazing, adventurous, athletic sex for one hot night (or weekend) within the first 3 chapters.

Nope, that's not what happens in this story. If a potential reader is looking for that kind of formulaic romance, a reader might want to look elsewhere. Because in My Angel, Matt and Simone actually take time to get to know each other. Not only do they get to know each other, but also their families and friends. They even get to have some professional on-the-job interaction too.

And they grow into better people from knowing each other. It is subtle and undramatic but the character growth of Simone and Matt happens gradually as they become more involved with each other.

For some readers, the pacing might seem boring and slow moving and to be honest, I couldn't blame them for thinking that way.

But for me, the pacing was a nice change from the fast hookups that seem to be the new norm of romance novel. It was nice to see the heroine and hero go through the process of getting to know each other, become friends and then become lovers. And frankly, I rather liked that Simone's biggest problem (besides her blood curdling mother) was learning how to not be a doormat. And I like that Matt's biggest problem (besides his racist dad) is that he took an awful long time to tell Simone how he felt about her.

There are definite flaws in the novel and most of those flaws stem from the fact that it could have benefited from a better editor. The writing is a bit unpolished; the sequence of scenes was jerky at times; some subplots could have been dropped altogether (namely, the one with Simone's brother Charles); there are characterizations that could have used more subtlety (Simone's boyfriend, Alan, comes to mind); and the end is way too short.

The above flaws are things that an editor could have helped the writer with to smooth out the story, but still, a writer has to have a story to start with and in spite of those flaws listed above, I enjoyed this story a lot. Yes, the presentation could have been better, but the main characters and their interaction with each other and also with some other key characters such as Matt's family, his friend Josh, Simone's sister and her girlfriend Karen created an engaging and unassuming love story that kept me interested.

My Angel is definitely a diamond in the rough story. I recommend it with the reservation that the presentation is unpolished, but it is still worth a read for those of us who still like romances that aren't just about the sex.

I have read numerous I/R novels for the past couple of years. One thing that I have noticed is the tendency to make the African American heroine a cynical, difficult, emasculating and oversexed stereotype that constantly fights against her growing feelings for the hero. The heroes are too good to be true. Handsome, rich and sweet they are patience itself in the face of constant rejection. They keep coming back for more ill treatment because the heroine is "the one". Why they come to this conclusion is anyone's guess, because these women are constantly emasculating them.

This book was different. Ms. Skelton gives a bird's eye view of an unlikely friendship that slowly turns into something else. With realistic obstacles on both sides, it made for a compelling read. While sometimes the dialogue was a little stilted and the secondary storyline of Matt's ex-wife was not necessary, I thought that overall the good points out-weighted the bad ones. I liked these characters. I understood their motivations and why they fell in love with each other. If you are looking for lots of "hot" sex scenes, this is not the book for you. But if you are looking for something sweet, pick it up.

I liked this book for two reasons: sex wasn't the focal point and the twists and turns throughout.

I liked the characters, the dialogue, the storyline.

Very happy with it.

Simone Porter has tried to live up to her mother's expectations all of her life. Listening to the constant battering of her mother saying she needed to lose weight, change her job, and find a husband. Simone even agreed to date a man her mother hand picked for her.

Alan was an ok guy Simone thought but she just couldn't fall in love with him. He began showing his possessive side when Simone went to the hospital to visit a man she knew nothing about.

Driving home from Sunday dinner at the Porter's, Simone witnesses a horrendous act. The vehicle in front of her was ran off the road on purpose with the intent to kill. Matthew Turner would have died if she didn't run down to the wreckage and keep him conscious by talking while the ambulance arrived.

Matthew had hit rock bottom, his wife just left him for another man. The divorce was final but he could not help still loving Wendy. He gave her everything she could ever dream of, just for her to stomp on his heart by having an affair.

Matt remembered Simone from the wreck, he called her his angel; she is the reason he came back from the coma he was in for four months.Matt heard her voice and knew it was not his time to go. He had to meet her, little did he know his broken heart would mend instantly after meeting this beautiful woman that saved his life.

Ah but in this story its not that easy falling in love. When you have two parents that are racist even though they may not admit it aloud. Simone with her honey colored skin and Matt with his cream colored, it seemed like the whole world wanted to keep them apart because of their race. Matt's father Marty hated Simone from the moment he saw her at the hospital checking on Matt, he swore she only wanted something. But Rebecca accepted her with open arms continuously thanking her for saving her son's life.

Debra Porter, Simone's mother whoo goodness she was a force that could not be reckoned with. I believe she would have disowned Simone if it was not for her husband Joe being the grounded one. Joe took a liking to Matt from the very beginning, knowing that it would throw Debra into a fit of rage.

What happens next is mind blowing! There is a twist to this story that I thought could happen, then waited and waited to see if it would, then what I wanted to happen didn't. BUT something much more interesting did.

What happens with Simone and Matt? Can Simone still stay with Alan knowing that she doesn't love him, just to appease her mother? Or what can Matt do about Wendy that keeps showing up wanting to talk? There are so many people in Simone and Matthew's lives, will they ever be able to part the waters and make it to each other's embrace? You must pick this story up to find out.

Ms. Skelton has a way with words in this story, who knew you could use the word didgaeat in scrabble? I laughed all through this story with the playful joking back and forth between the characters. I also felt their emotions when crap hit the fan! This is a great story about two people that are in love but don't want to admit it, but when they do its like an old time family feud. I was skeptical in the beginning because there were so many people fighting for attention but around the third chapter I was hooked. I had to read every chance I had. Ms. Skelton is awarded 5 tender loving hearts from me!

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I found this book to be simply wonderful. The story had me hooked from start to finish, just could not put down, until I finished the last chapter. The author does a wonderful job of bringing Simone and Matt charters to life, as well the secondary charters in the book. This book had me laughing out loud as Matt and Simone's relationship progressed form friendship to true love. It is real keeper.

This book deals with real life love relationships combined with family drama on both sides. Simone and Matthew both learn to stand up for themselves and both find true love. This was a great story and you will not be able to stop reading this story until you finish it.

This book was very sweet, and very real. However, if you don't like delayed gratification, it probably isn't the book for you. It takes quite sometime to get to the "juicy bits."

And, you could quite possibly find yourself wanting to run your fingers through Mr. Tall and Handsome's dark, curly hair.