Customer Reviews

In Sheep's Clothing

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Now, I don't know why these other people been fakin' on giving this outstanding novel 5 stars, like it deserves, but I won't!! Ms. Monroe has once again delivered a knock-out. I have read all her books and they are all wonderful!! "In Sheep's Clothing" is the story of Trudy Bell who lives a boring life working in her dad's liquor store. As the book opens she gets robbed and molested on her last day of work.Trudy soon starts a secretarial job at Bon Voyage travel agency, where she works with a bunch of interesting folks, including Ann Oliver,who she has a love/hate relationship with. They are the only 2 Black people employed there. Trudy and Ann also look a lot alike. There is also Pam, and Wendy who are bad influences on Trudy. They encourage her to drink (Trudy has to, to tolerate Ann) and use Ann's company credit card for her on purposes. It soon gets out of control. Trudy has to deal with her dad Otto, who has a Fred Sanford-like heart condition, her boring man of 10 years James, his mother Mavis who is attached to James' hip and Ann's hot to cold personality. Trudy also has her comical best friend Freddie and her man Lobo, who seem to help Trudy dig an even deeper hole for herself. Trudy eventually steals Ann's identity and starts living the "good" life(with Lobo's help) of fine dining, nice clothes and mini-vacations that she tells Otto and James are work-related retreats. They also don't know Trudy is gettin' her groove on with exotic men, on the trips and eventually in her secret home! Trudy learns that Ann is into some crazy stuff with a Jamacian named Giles. After causing Trudy much drama and treating her like a dog, Ann abruptly leaves Bon Voyage and the country. Trudy really sets it off then by getting an apartment in Ann's name along with all of the credit cards she already had! Trudy's life soon starts spinning out of control. Trudy will soon learn that being Ann Oliver isn't all it cracked up to be, and by the time she realizes that, it may be too late!
Ms. Monroe did her thing on this one, her writing style is truly unique and refreshing. There are a lot of funny parts that will have you cracking up! This book does not dissapoint!

I enjoyed this book and was happy that I ignorned some of the negative ratings this book received. Ms. Monroe touched a topic that is happening so much at this day in age.

She also touched on valuable lessons that everyone should remember - jeaously does not pay and be careful what you wish for.

She did an excellent job and I would highly recommend this book, especially to those individuals who are tempted to steal someone's identity. You never know what you are getting yourself into. Good job Mary.

All I can say is this book was wonderful, thrilling and even heart stopping at times. I won't reveal the details but please, please read this book. You won't be able to put it down!

As always, Mary Monroe hit the target with this one. The characters were vivid and well developed. The plot was well designed and enthralling. She keeps you turning pages to see where the next complication will arise. Out of the blue you never guess it is coming. I could not put this one down and can not wait for the next genesis.

Mary Monroe writes such incredibly good novels. Her latest; In Sheep's Clothing is the story of Trudy a young woman who is at the very edge of being totally dissatisfied with her life, Trudy is equally dissatisfied with her tired long-time fiancé James. James is a simple man who is satisfied with the ordinary.

In the first chapter, she becomes the victim of robbery and sexual assault while working the cash register at her elderly father's liquor store in the hood of South Bay city city, California. South Bay City, a mostly blue-collar city of about 50,000 residents was in desperate need of urban renewal.
Ms. Monroe creates a very believable but extraordinary character in Trudy. Monroe's characters are never ordinary people. They are never predictable. Trudy's widowed father with whom she lived was a complaining sickly man who used his illness to hold Trudy hostage to her dissatisfied life. However; after the robbery; she makes some changes.

In Sheep's Clothing is a rambunctious tale of identity theft, which is a very serious matter. Yet; Monroe gives you a seriously funny novel about how easy it can be to steal someone's identity in this technical society. Trudy uses the personal information of one of her supervisors at her new job to open credit several credit card accounts. She gets deeper and deeper in debt it becomes a habit for her. She gets so tied up in what she can do and be as her supervisor Ann that she loses all sense of reality and almost loses her life. Ann wasn't who Trudy though she was and Trudy found herself in big trouble.

Before the story ends, Trudy has racked up hundreds of thousands in debt but she also had a complete makeover and extensive designer wardrobe. She treated her friends to fine dining and vacation travel. Her life became all she wanted it to be but the moral to this story is that there is no free lunch in America. At some point you have to pay the piper.

I really enjoyed this novel. Mary Monroe doesn't disappoint. Fans of her previous best sellers, God Don't Love Ugly, the sequel God Still Don't Love Ugly and the riveting The Upper Room will be pleased to find that she has returned with another winning read.

I give it a 4.5 rating because it was almost perfect. Reviewed by Idrissa U of PeoplewholoveGoodBooks.

Mary Monroe delivers another phenomenal story with In Sheep's Clothing. Her character's always make you feel like you know them. Written in true Monroe style. This is the story of Trudy who appears to be living a mundane life. She lives with her dad who doesn't seem to let her breathe without knowing about it. She is engaged to James which is only because that is what her father wants, she starts a new and exciting job at a travel agency where she starts to meet the "REAL WORLD". Then somehow she steals her supervisor's identity and things get hairy from there. If you are a true fan of real AA fiction you will pick this book up. Well done.

Interesting but slow, for the first time I am disappointed in Monroe. I have always said that Mary Monroe was my favorite female author (I would say author in general but I love Eric Jerome Dickey) but this one was not her best. I looking for it to be intense like "The Upper Room" or "Gonna Lay Down My Burdens" but it wasn't. It did nothing for me I forced myself to finish. If you are a true Monroe fan than you'll understand my disappointment in her.

For Trudy Bell, life has become boring and monotonous. She is living with her father, working in his store as a clerk, and dealing with his dependency on her. She has also spent the last ten years involved with a man who is about to marry her. Although James Young is considered a good catch and her father approves of him wholeheartedly, Trudy feels the passion is missing from their relationship. She is in a rut and desires change from the dull humdrum of being plain old Trudy. After being robbed at gunpoint and sexually assaulted while at work, Trudy decides that enough is enough. It is time for some changes. She finds the courage to tell her father and fiancé that she has decided to take a job with Bon Voyage, an exotic-sounding travel agency.

The day Trudy steps into Bon Voyage, her life changes forever. She meets the only other Black employee in the agency, Ann Oliver, and immediately develops a love/hate relationship with her. Ann epitomizes many of the qualities Trudy wants in her own life. Ann's sophistication, lifestyle, and successful business aplomb are all seductive to Trudy. However, Ann is considered the office bitch and treats Trudy horribly. When a situation presents itself for Trudy to get revenge, she does. She starts out by just using the company credit card in Ann's name to purchase lunch for herself and a friend, but the power she yields with a credit card in someone else's name is like a drug addiction. The more she uses it, the more she has to have. Pretty soon Trudy finds herself stepping into Ann's life as well. Trudy's actions have her best friend, the only person she has confided in, fearful that she'll go to jail. Noticing the transformation in her, James is unsure where their relationship is heading and her father is a little on the nervous side.

Mary Monroe does it again in IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING. She took ordinary, everyday people and circumstances and turned their stories into a captivating page-turner. Ms. Monroe delved into identity theft and gave it a little twist. She showed that entering a life of crime is not necessarily because of the need to be greedy. People living unfulfilled lives can just as easily slip into a life of criminal activity. The characterizations in this book were excellent. I actually experienced Trudy's pain and loneliness, and even identified with her desire for a more stimulating life. The secondary characters were just as memorable, adding just enough vibrancy and humor. Ms. Monroe has a unique gift in her storytelling abilities to draw every reader in, no matter the subject, and IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING is no different.

Reviewed by Brenda M. Lisbon
of The RAWSISTAZ™ Reviewers

I was so disappointed in this book! It's a very slow read and you spend most of your reading awaiting something to occur. I have been bored for the majority of the book. I am a reader who attempts to finish what I start. I have been reading this book since December 23, 2006. It is now, March 2007. If you purchase this book, buy it used. Better yet, you can have mine!

After a traumatic robbery and assault in her father's liquor store, Trudy Bell decides it's time to make a change in her life. She soon lands a job at Bon Voyage travel agency as a secretary...and she is excited that her life has taken an exciting and glamorous turn. Then she meets the wicked Ann Oliver....HNIC at the agency, and the resident Evil Woman. When she attacks Trudy's already battered self-esteem, Trudy is seething. Then she is issued a company credit card in Ann's name to purchase office supplies....and it doesn't take Trudy long to realize that the credit card could serve a dual purpose; she take exact her revenge on Ann, and have a fabulous time doing so. Thus begins Trudy's double life....one as lower middle-class Trudy with a life full of predictable and demanding men...and one as the fashionable Ann Oliver whose life is full of exotic locales and even more exotic men. But when Ann betrays one of those men, Trudy may find that this is one bill that she simply cannot pay.....

A rather shallow, predictable story that had potential that was never realized. The characters lacked depth, and the overall story developement just never seemed to occur. My first novel by Ms. Monroe, and rather disappointing.





DYB