Customer Reviews

Up at the College

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

What would you do if your husband of more than a decade suddenly comes home and says he no longer loves you and wants a divorce? If you felt that your husband was the love of your life, you would probably scream, cry and ask God why. Not Yvonne Fountain Copeland, she just looked up to God and asked him for help in handling this bad situation with her "better than thou" soon-to-be ex-husband, Dr. Darrell Copeland who dumped her for his arrogant new girlfriend. Yvonne has one person to turn to for help in giving her strength to overcome the pain of seeing her life change at a moment's notice. She has God to help her maneuver through her trials and tribulations.

Another thing about God is this; when he shows up, he shows off. Yvonne did not have a lot of time to mourn the loss of her marriage before she meets Curtis Parker, a college basketball coach who is a bachelor enjoying his lifestyle. He falls in love but until he gets right with God, he will have challenges in trying to win basketball games and dealing with the spiritual warfare his soul is fighting.

UP AT THE COLLEGE is an okay read. What started as a fast read immediately slowed down with heavy continuous drawn out dialogue. I felt I was being preached to. Unlike Michele Andrea Bowen's other books, this one could not hold my interest. For those who love a good romance they may be able to overlook the slowness it took to tell this story.

Reviewed by RM Jackson
of The RAWSISTAZ (tm) Reviewers

I had an expectation of a wonderful, God-filled love story between Yvonne Fountain and Coach Curtis Parker, but was slightly disappointed with the "ghetto fab" descriptions of Mr. Booth's suits and church service scenarios, and the "Shenay-nay" factor! I hope that Ms. Bowen will expand on the primary characters in another novel. I found Marvin and Trina and Marquita and Rico to be quite interesting (or at least an interesting storyline development). The book had me hanging on up until the last five chapters and then....the basketball game was over.

I will continue to look forward to Ms. Bowen's work.

This is likely one of the worst books I've ever read. While I appreciated the attempt at a Christian-based story, the language, the plot, the characters are all so stereotypical that it made it hard to read this book and to take it seriously. It came off a bit preachy and I felt it presented the most negative picture of HBCUs, Black life, Black men, and Black church life. This is one poorly written work of fiction. If you must read it, and I don't really recommend you waste your time, get it from the library.

The author of Church Folks and Second Sunday, Michele Andrea Bowen, offers up another novel set in a church environment with Up at the College. Yvonne Copeland is newly divorced from a tyrant of a husband she never could please. Now she has a new life, her teen-age daughters are happy, and she has a new position as a design teacher at HCBU Evangeline T. Marshall University aka Eva T. in Durham, North Carolina.

Curtis Parker is a basketball coach at Eva T. and has yet to settle down with the right woman. He knows she should be in church and his mother and the other women in his family are praying to that end. He knows if he steps to Yvonne, a righteous woman, he needs to come correct. Is he up to the task? Meanwhile, there are evil doings among the other basketball coaches and college administrators in the area that are intent on ruining Eva T's winning streak and thereby jeopardizing Curtis' job.

The cast of characters include an owner of a strip club who is in love with a God-fearing woman, husbands that are cheating on their church-going wives at the strip clubs, a senior citizen stripper, corruption and gambling among the athletes, cronyism and politics in regards to tenure, and a minister who cannot make up his mind which of those tight-wearing skirt church sisters he wants.

All the while I was reading UATC, I was trying to pinpoint Bowen's style, trying to define the genre and what I have come up with is "overly saturated churchified." Whereas CF and SS had many laugh-out-loud moments, this book seemed to push the envelope in the humor department. The jokes were forced, over-the-top slapstick, which failed to elicit any real enjoyment from me. Everything was meant to incite laughter; the way a person looks, their mannerisms, their flaws but it was just too much. The characters became caricatures and that became a turn off as well as giving a narrative on just about every person. Additionally, it seemed every other paragraph had a scripture, even where it did not apply, making this offering preachy, and like the humor, over-saturated.

I enjoy stories set in the south and I liked the flavor Bowen brought to the Triangle area of North Carolina in the atmosphere of HBCUs and churches were black folk have a special culture of their own. However, I would like to see the author return to her roots of her earlier books.

Dera Williams
APOOO BookClub

I loved Bowen's previous books, and read them over and over. I had high hopes for this one, and found myself disappointed. I expected a story about people of faith, and didn't get one. Instead, I found a tract with a few snippets of story in it. It doesn't belong in the same category as Church Folk and Second Sunday.

Yvoone, newly divorced looks for a new turn on life as she returns home to NC. She meets a man that interested and Blah blah. This book was just okay for me. It wasnt boring and it held my attention but I expected more.

I have her other stories and I thought that this one was ok. First of all, I will not go into details about what the story is about as other reviewers have already done so.

What I thought about the book that there were some funny parts to the story. The dialogue was interesting...as I was reading I kept thinking do people really talk like this that are supposedly educated...Negro this and Negro that...I know that this story is based in a southern college town but still...I just don't know about the dialogue.

AS for the main characters and there were many...Curtis, Yvonne, Maurice Yvonne's cousin and his wife Trina, the pastors at the various churches...the gentleman's club, the President of the college that was a thug want to be and his henchmen. They were some funny folks. Also do people really dress the way that she desribed in bright suits, etc...UHM...ok read, had it's funny moments. A lot of religious moments, a lot of anointing, etc.

I wanted to know what happened to the characters after the game that the team won. Did Jethro's wife leave him? DId Yvonne and Curtis marry? Did Trina and Maurice conceive another baby after the game as she was prediciting? DId Ms Mattie get saved and marry her deacon? Is the president still the president of the college? Did Marquita leave her cheating husband Sneed? Did the superfly character that owned the Gentleman's club get with Veronica? So many questions. I guess I have to wait for the sequel. Thanks

Yvonne Copeland finds faith in God when her husband decides that he wants a divorce. She moves back to her hometown of Durham, NC where she gets a teaching job at the local college. She also meets the very handsome basketball coach Curtis Parker. He's everything she wants in a man, but there's one major flaw: he's not saved. Curtis has not made up his mind about his faith. and he's not so sure if he can put his faith in the Lord. All he knows is that with Yvonne by his side, nothing else really matters. As Curtis struggles with his belief in God, Yvonne is gaining more and more strength in God. Will these two be able to take the walk of Faith or will Curtis decide this is not for him?

Even though it was not a fast paced read, Up at the College by Michele Andrea Bowen was still a decent read. It took a little time for me to get into the book and really start gaining interest in the story itself. The characters were kind of bland and the majority of the plot struggled with predictability. However, I do think that the author did a good job with referencing how people deal with faith.

Reviewed by Jackie
for Urban Reviews

Loved loved loved her first two books. I was so excited when I found out she was writing another one. I preordered it and all. The anticipation when I first received it was bursting. However, what it turned out to be was a big disappointment. Unlike the first two books, this book was forced, not funny at all, and just seemed pointless. What happened to Ms. Bowen? I don't know, but I hope whatever it was doesn't happen again. Of course I would buy another of her books because I just feel like this one was a fluke and not what Ms. Bowen is truly capable of.

Still a fan...

I was very disappointed in the book. After having read the author's previous books, I had long been anticipating her next work. Although the overall story was good, there were entirely too many unnecessary details given that had absolutely nothing to do with the story being told. It was as if the author was attemping to fill the pages. Then at the end of the book, when I was expecting more information or details, there weren't any. It kind of ended abruptly for me. I like Ms. Bowen, but I really wouldn't recommend this book.