Customer Reviews

Rivers Of The Soul (Indigo: Sensuous Love Stories)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
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Rivers of the Souls is a soul stirring love story. Antoinette "Toni" and Jerome were high school sweethearts who went their separate ways after high school and through fate, crossed each other's paths twenty years later. But was that love really lost or were Toni and Jerome just going through the motions?

Twenty years seems like a lifetime and things have changed tremendously with their families, friends and themselves. While this story explores Toni and Jerome's emotions at the changes and needs in their lives, it also examines that of their friends and families. Buddy and Snoop are Jerome's friends from back in the day and Val and Trace, while married respectively to the aforementioned, are friends of Toni. Toni's father is remarried to meddlesome May and Toni's sister Adrienne is a free spirit living in Los Angeles. The relationship between Toni, Adrienne and May is touched upon but you feel that there has to be more. And of equal importance is Aunt Pearline who spouts her own brand of wisdom. The secondary characters are very important to this story as it gives the novel its completeness.

Leslie Esdaile has crafted a touching story utilizing metaphors, foreshadowing, detail, debates and loose ends to leave you hanging to await the sequel. This is not a neatly packaged romance novel where everything is happily ever after because when completed, you have no idea what the future holds for the characters. Excellent story!

RIVERS OF THE SOUL was an exceptional read. It was a humorous, painful journey through one's soul. The main characters Toni and Jerome have been in love with each other for twenty years and their envious friends and their own personal insecurities destroy their budding relationship. The novel takes place with the characters meeting each other twenty years later, but before they can truly be together they must take a soul searching journey into their hearts and minds and purge themselves of all the bagga ge and dirty laundry they have been carrying around. On this journey they find out that many of their friends are jealous of them because of what they think they have accomplished. This was a profound and enlightening novel, and I guarantee you will enjoy it tremendously and it will be a conversation piece for many years.

Is it true that your first, REAL love is your only love? Well, maybe not for everyone, but that certain was the case for Jerome and Toni.

Toni is still reeling from a bad divorce and a husband who didn't have a clue what the word 'respect' means. After doing everything she possibly could to keep her marriage together, Toni has been forced to throw in the towel and call it quits. When she returns to her roots in Philly, she finds that more has changed than just her marital status. Friends who she thought she could count on suddenly get funky on her. If not her homegirls then their husbands. A single woman among married ones tend to 'kick up a lot of dust,' and unreasonably, some of her friends seem to be seized more by fear than sympathy.

On Jerome's end of town, things are rapidly going from bad to worse. Again, here is another person with a spouse who doesn't know, nor wants to know the meaning of respect. Jerome has realized for a long time his marriage is over, but for the sake of his children, he is determined to stick it out. When that no longer becomes an option, he learns some hard and fast rules about friendship and making it on your own. He also learns that angels can come in the most unexpected forms, and that sometimes, it is okay to let someone help you.

When Toni and Jerome reconnect, it is all they can think about. However, Jerome is convinced that his blue collar living will never be good enough for Toni's business accomplishments. Toni is convinced that no longer being the slim-goody she was when she and Jerome were together, there is no way he would or could, ever want to be with her. Waiting for these two to wake up and smell the coffee is wonderfully nerve-wracking. Through their separate journeys to a new awareness of self and others, Toni and Jerome learn some valuable lessons in life, friendships, family and love.

I enjoyed every minute of this book. While there is some drama, it is quiet drama; realistic, everyday living, drama. One of the things that I most appreciated about this book is that Ms. Esdaile shows that you don't have to be a perfect size 8 to find love and that not every man is LOOKING for a perfect size 8. Some men find a fuller woman sexy and yes, BEAUTIFUL. WAY TO GO MS. ESDAILE!!! Ms. Esdaile develops her characters so believably, flaws and all, that you feel like you know these people. You care about them. This book brought a tear or two or three to my eyes. I can't wait to read the sequel, which I understand is due out [sometime}...this year. I look forward to reading some of her other works. If they are anything like this, I am sure I will enjoy every one of them!

Rivers of the Soul does not have readers anxiously looking
for drama. Instead, it entices them to slowly read each page
savoring the essence of everyday living while looking into
the hearts and minds of real people who are dealing with
missed opportunities.

Antoinette and Jerome were planning to share forever, but Toni
leaves for college, Jerome leaves for the Air Force and life
rewrites the script.

Fast forward 15 years later; Toni is just returning home
to rebuild her life, she's lost everything; her independence,
her husband, her finances, her figure and her spirit. Her
only bright spot is her four year old daughter.

Jerome, a blue collar worker, is now married with four kids;
each night he comes home from a 14 hour work day, checks on the
kids and stares at his bleak reality. He's been hibernating
for the last 15 years and it's time to wake up. So he makes
a decision that has him homeless and he puts a strain on
all the friendships. But Jerome cannot stop, he needs to live
again and he wonders if this is his second chance. When he
finally sees Toni, he has his answer; she is 'the river of
his soul, he tried life without her and it did not work.
His spirit almost died and turned to dust, she is his
healing water'.

Ms. Esdaile has written one of the most compassionate, real,
down to earth stories I've read in a long time. As a reader,
I could not help feeling drawn to the characters and
feeling as though I too, shared in their personal lives and
experiences. I anxiously await her next release.

Reviewed by aNN

Ms. Esdaile has given us nothing less than her Very Best.
She has weaved a tale of the meaning of sisterhood, friendships, family and relationships and took it to another level. Rivers Of the Soul is an excellent spin on contemporary inspirational romance.
ROTS is definitely a Must read.

Jerome and Antoinette having both suffered through marriages gone bad have found each other again. This is a refreshing story of love that lasted 20 years and was obviously meant to last. Esdaile has a well written story that builds to the expected outcome, but getting there is well worth the read.

Antoinette (Toni) has found that going back home after her divorce, has brought on many changes. The life she wants had with family and friends is all different now. Her girlfriends are all tripping because of assumptions. Her Step mother is trying too hard to be a mother figure. She never thought that she would be in this place, a single mother. She always dreamed that her marriage would be like her parents, but here she is back in Philadelphia with a daughter and no job. Jerome (Jay) was Toni's first love, but now he is married with 3 children and a wife who comes from a high society family. Now that Toni is back home and many years have passed, Will the feelings you have of your first love effect your relationships with friends, family, spouses?? This story is well rounded and all the characters have a specific role, you feel like you are part of the story as you are reading. Ms. Esdaile has really brought this full circle. The relationships between parent and child is brought to a test in this story also, Jay grew up with his mother and father, but now that he is married, he wonders about his parents marriage and he wants morale support from his dad, but can't get it. Toni's parents were happily married and now that her father is remarried, she doesn't see the same spark in him that she did when her mother was alive. You see in this story how the grass always looks greener on the other side, but when you cross the street and stand in front, you see the weeds and brown patches. Rivers of the Soul is written with such depth that you find the pages turning for you on there own. Can't wait to read the sequel to this "Still waters run deep." Great work Ms. Esdaile

Antoinette Wellington and Jerome Henderson and their friends have learned the reality of adulthood and real life circumstances. They fully understand and are learning from each other that the grass always looks greener across the street, but the reality is once you cross the street, you see all the brown ruined spots and all the weeds. Antoinette's dream life has not turned out like she has fantasized, and neither has Jeromes or any of her friends or her sister. This story is a reality check as far as marriage and children and jobs are concerned. Antoinette's heart has always been some place else. Jeromes heart has always been some place else, But everyone is caught up in a situation that they feel they are stuck in. Antoinette has taken the first real step towards happiness but she doesn't really realize it, her decision affects everyone around her, directly and indirectly. Jerome has made a step in the right direction and he knows it... but being the man he is, he didn't want it that way... Karen started a fire that she couldn't put out and it burned down her house. The girls club is disbanding and it is really foolish on their part, because as adults, you don't allow the decisions of your other friends to influence what happens in your house hold. People we are not in high school any longer... look around "kids, jobs, responsibilities" any way what you are holding on to is not even worth it. This story shows all the facets of adult responsibilities and situations that Your mother and father hadn't warned you about. You thought your parents stayed together just because they were so in love, you thought there were no tension and no problems or worrries, that marriage was a real life fantasy. Oh, now you know better... Toni and Jay realize that regardless of how you tread water day to day (going through the motions...doing what is expected... allowing years to pass)... The rivers of the soul keep flowing and no matter what you do... you can't control that. Leslie Esdaile has written a book that is flowing with such "in your face" reality that the pages of this book automatically turn for you... so you keep on reading... Excellent writing.

This book came from deep down in that place where nobody knows your pain but you. This book will make you laugh, cry, and get mad as hell. Leslie Esdaile has taken writing romance novels to a whole new level. This book will show you a positive black man doing his thing for his family. This book is so good it should have been printed in hard cover. I can not wait for the sequel....

Was pissed that I bought this book in the larger form when I could have bought it in the smaller paperback. But I'm an Esdaile fan. So I spent the extra loot. smh. Oh well. You live and you learn. Either way it was a good book. I enjoyed it at least. I'm a fan of writing based in Philadelphia. She doesn't keep all of her writing there though which makes for very nice reading.

It reveals a more believable tale of how our lives can be intertwined. Things aren't wondrous and perfect. But you make the best of the situations you're given. And hopefully love will last as you're finding your way through all the troubles.