Customer Reviews

One Day I Saw a Black King: A Novel

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

One Day I Saw A Black King is a wonderful story about how love and time softened two battered hearts. John King and Connie Rodgers share similar history. They were both abandoned and learned through trial and error how to survive. John lives by running from town to town extinguishing any ties he made while there. Connie runs from man to man leaving a piece of herself with each one. Now these two are slowing down. They know how to survive, but not how to live. Being with one another showed them that they do actually want some stability and maybe even love in their lives; however, for them to move forward, they must confront their pasts and deal with the pains that catapulted their flights and trauma.

J.D. Mason takes her time and unfolds this story. She sagaciously threads cadence, characters, and plot together and creates a searing tale of repentance, deliverance, and acceptance. I was mesmerized from the first page. The characters and story lingered in my mind long after I finished reading the book. You've got to read this book. You'll love it.

Life was never kind to John King or Connie Rogers. John, a drifter by circumstance, claims his home is his car and the road is his paradise. Marvin Gaye's "Lets Get It On" is his mantra. Connie is a child of the streets. Forced to live on the streets of Denver, Colorado as child, Connie had and continues to have a hard road to toll.

One Day I Saw A Black King by J. D. Mason is her second novel of individuals down on their luck and living with the hand they are dealt. Mason opens the door to John's car and out steps a black king. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language defines a king as a male sovereign; one that is supreme or preeminent in a particular group, category, or sphere. Is this the same king that Connie comes into contact with? Both characters are running from their pasts. John's past is rooted in Texas and haunts him daily. With a little mysticism, Mason has captured John's spirit and desires. Hauntingly, Connie's past is right there in Denver, never allowing her to forget or to move on. When these two lost souls come together is it out of need, lust or is it pure romance? Is Connie the woman that finally grabs a hold of John never to let go?

Mason has incorporated excellent secondary characters with exciting dialogue that add depth to the story line for a better understanding of how and why John and Connie came to be. The novel opens with an atrocious event and ends with a satisfying conclusion. The story is heart wrenching, touching and the characters are fully developed. This is an excellent novel of individuals attempting to overcome their past and live for today and for the future.

Reviewed by Dawn R. Reeves
APOOO BookClub

The story begins wonderfully, and will have you captivated from the beginning. Connie and Reesy are two sisters whose mother, Charlotte, walks out on them in pursuit of a man, never to be seen again. The girls enter the foster care system, and are separated, only to find each other years later. Reesy, the youngest, is adopted by well-to-do parents while Connie is given to unfit foster parents, being molested by Earl. She is forced to live on the streets, doing what she can to survive, i.e. prostituting, after the repeated molestaton. Connie is discovered by Eddie, a restaurant owner, while digging through the dunpsters out back for food. The two develop a beautiful mother-daughter relationship and Eddie becomes the mother and guidance that Connie needs. As she matures, Eddie moves away and Connie is forced to fend for herself and grow into a woman. Along the way and through trying times, Connie is faced with herpes, the birth of a daughter, and finally finds a man, John, who is struggling with his own demons. This is just a taste of what the book is about, it is indeed a must read. Read the book to find out about John's demons, its worth the purchase.

John King's life can be compared to anything except royalty. Born
under tragic circumstances, he literally punched his way into the
world. The midwife who delivered him believed he was a demon child
and nearly succumbed to voices telling her to kill him as he was
being born. Raised by a grandmother who detested the sight of him,
John is forced to flee Bueller, Texas when he is fifteen years old
with too many unanswered questions of how he came to be. Life for
him is one city after another, too many temporary liaisons and an
emptiness that threatens to consume him.

Connie Rogers and her sister were deserted by their mother when
they were twelve and eight years old. Her sister was adopted and
Connie was placed in the foster care program. At the age of fourteen
she flees the foster home and lives on the streets of Denver
surviving by any means necessary. Her reality is that she exists
because someone needs a doormat on which to walk. Numerous one night

encounters have brought more heartache than a young girl should have.
When the faces of all the men she has known merge into one face that
haunts her, she seeks a way to save herself.

King's travels places him in Denver at a time when he is tired of
running from his demons and his past. John's and Connie's meeting is
not monumental because, while both know how to survive, neither
knows how to live. As a reader I hoped the hard times they'd endured
did not make them believe heartache is all life had to offer them.

ONE DAY I SAW A BLACK KING is Connie's testament to a wayward John
King who stirs unfamiliar feelings in her. The story is haunting and
sometimes joyless as it pulls you into the lives of the characters.
All of the pieces are in place for this one, the storyline is
exceptional, the characters are real, and the pace is on target.
Though the secondary characters have their own story to tell, Ms.
Mason expertly uses them to enhance the flow of this story. Much more
than a story about survival; this is a story about standing toe-to-toe
with life and learning how to live it. I felt this story in the
recesses of my being and I did not close this book unscathed. This is
an excellent look at the endurance of the human spirit and the second
step toward Ms. Mason establishing herself as a gifted writer.

Reviewed by aNN Brown
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

One Day I Saw A Black King
by J.D. Mason
Lest we forget the compelling nature of a good story where poignancy meets poetic prowess, and when angst transforms to accept accord, literary tranquility can always define the aforementioned without missing a beat. Quickly on the heels (and none too soon) of her last book (On The Eight Day She Rested), author J.D. Mason has given us another just like the other one with her newest release, One Day I Saw A Black King. Character-driven stories with personnel strong in conviction, clarifying setting to determine tone and tenor, this is a story with all of the elements indicative to keep you riveted in your choice to read this book. It's audible with just the right decibels to let you hear the author depict why she can write to be heard through her characters.

This is more than just a common thread of thought uniting the discourse of this novel. Mason's book weaves an incredible but believable tale of people journeying to empowerment, casting aside the constraints of freedom, and the confidence to love again. It's about love lost, love imagined, and love gone wrong. Therein you will find the author delving into and interweaving the rudiments of child molestation, adoption, child abandonment, prostitution, and all the trials identifying with protagonistic characters, Connie and John.

John, the product of a mother raped and subsequent disfellowship from the familial fold by a guilt-ridden grandmother, is forced to start life on the run. A mother he never knew is the fodder to credence to explore the past to understand the future. Connie, a taciturn and bitter child was wise beyond her years as her mother abandoned her and a younger sibling. Forced in the life of prostitution, she too endeavored to find sanctity in a world unforgiving and less accepting, but manages to live to learn what it truly meant to love unconditionally.

Despite its slow beginning and without concrete bonding leading up to the crux of the story, the author in lieu of opting to give immediacy to such strong characters, decided to craft a detailed storyline to illustrate several points of view to give the story foundation one would definitely appreciate as the real story unfold. This work coupled with her debut novel, will solidify J.D. Mason a safe rung on the ladder to the top, proving to be on equal footing with her peers with this sophmore effort. Read this book and you will see why I give it five stars and wished for more!

The book One Day I Saw A Black King grabbed my attention from the moment I started reading it.

I loved the way the author took me back in time to visit the character John King's family history. Some heavy secrets are revealed which explains why John grew up to be a handsome, yet untrusting and lonely man.

Second, the character Charlotte made me want to smack some sense into her! How could she abandon her two young girls, Connie and Reesy, for a man? They are separated--Reesy gets adopted into a wonderful family while Connie struggles with rape and homelessness.

After many failed relationships for both Connie and John, I am relieved that they have found each other. They both realize that they love each other and are working to fix their internal issues. Connie and Reesy have found each other after many years, but their relationship is anything but close.

Wonderful story! This story will continue in a second book. I can hardly wait for it's release!

Once I read the title "One Day I Saw a Black King" I knew I was in for a fantastic read and I was not disappointed. I am not going to give away the story, but I will say this novel actually moved me to tears. J.D. did an excellent job developing the characters and showing their tragic and humble beggining to help the reader understand what made them to be the man and woman they were as adults. Reading the plights of Connie and King at times were difficult but also joyful when they were able to fight their internal demons and learn to love each other as is. This was a realistic love story, that did not show prince charming riding in on a white horse to rescue his princess. I was about real life situations that can beat you down and build you up. I give kudos to J.D. I see her writing just gets better and better. I am now a die hard fan and I am anxiously awaiting her third installment.

I read many books for enjoyment and rarely do "enjoyment" authors have the writing skills of the technical authors or literary authors. When reading this book, I could feel the emotions of the characters and never once did I have trouble imagining the persona of any character in the book. This author is an excellent writer.

Pros: Good writing, intriguing storyline
Cons: John's past suffering at the hands of Agnes was not explained in enough detail. Connie's pain at the hands of her mother and Earl Graves also was not explained in enough detail.

Summary:

Connie and Reesy are left my their mother. Connie and Reesy's mother basically chose a man over her children. Reesy was immediately adopted, while an older Connie stayed in the system. The Graves took Connie into their home and Mr. Graves begins to molest Connie. Connie runs away and lives on the street, eating out of garbage cans and occasionally prostituting herself. Connie is eventually taken in by Edwina, the owner of a soul food restaurant.

John King (Tate) is the product of a mentally challenged man and a 13 year old mother. John's mother dies in child birth. John is raised by his mother's mother (Agnes). Agnes blames John for taking her daughter (Mattie) away from her. As a result of this resentment, Agnes loves John from a distance. One day, John catches Agnes with her sister's husband and Agnes puts John out. John is 17.

Many years later, John and Connie get together. Their story is one of the unloved learning how to love each other.

The writing in this book is excellent. I felt like I knew the characters - their faults, their strengths, and I really started to want things to work out for them. I felt like I was rooting for the underdog! This wasn't a quick read because I felt myself wanting to slow down, take my time, and just really enjoy the experience. I withheld one star, because I felt that the ending left me hanging a bit. I could guess what happened, but I wasn't sure.

I know the title of this review is trite, but it's true. ONE DAY I SAW A BLACK KING is a beautiful story, which is hard to come by these days. The story isn't only about the relationship between John and Connie, it explores the hold that the past has over each of them and their respective journeys to lay ghosts at rest. A wonderful read!