Customer Reviews

The Virgin Widow (Urban Soul)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There is something unique about Isabelle "Izzy" Trotter; she is a twenty-six-year old virgin. As her wedding day fast approaches, Izzy can't wait to make love to her future husband, Carlton Trace. Carlton and Izzy met while working. Izzy is a bartender at Ciel and Carlton is the successful hotel owner where Ciel is housed. They discover they have a lot in common and their relationship quickly blossoms into love. What is to be the most important day of Izzy's life, turns into the worst day of her life; Carlton is murdered.

Izzy thought she knew everything about Carlton, until she's thrown a curve ball. As his wife, she inherits his astronomical debt and she learns he's been unfaithful in their relationship. His mistress has been charged with his murder, but she claims she's innocent. When Izzy visits Carlton's murderess in jail, they devise a plan, which can help them both. Izzy asks her sister, an attorney, to represent the murderess and the murderess will give Izzy money to pay Carlton's debts.

THE VIRGIN WIDOW clutches onto the reader from beginning to end. First, the crazy antics Izzy is subject to from men who want to take her virginity. Secondly, the outrageous games she plays to get money to pay for Carlton's debt. Thirdly, the twists and turns to uncover the what, who, and why behind Carlton's murder. The plot has a steady flow; the characters are intriguing and sometimes hilarious. For an added treat, each chapter begins with a delicious recipe of an alcoholic beverage.

Reviewed by Sharon Lewis
of The RAWSISTAZ(tm) Reviewers

Izzy Trotter is preparing to marry a perfect man. Carlton Trace is educated, rich, charming and generous. Izzy has saved herself for marriage. When Carl is murdered shortly after their wedding, by the way they never consummated, Izzy discovers her perfect workaholic fiancée has quite a few skeletons in his closet. He is actually deep in debt and has a love hate relationship with his brother.

The plot thickens when Carl leaves everything to Izzy including his debt. Her hot shot lawyer sister Satchel explains Carl's will and begins an investigation. Between the pair they discover Carl has a mistress and a love child. His murderer framed his mistress and tried to frame Izzy. When the drama clears all of Carl's secrets are discovered including the identity of his son and his mother and who murdered him.

I loved the twists and turns of the plot! It was not at all expected or predictable. I wanted Izzy to be stronger. It was really refreshing. I was expecting a "Jesus Piece" by the title. It ended up being more of a thriller.

Reviewed by:
Courtney L. Owens
RWA Bookclub
[...]

Twenty six year old virgin and blushing bride, Izzy Trotter is taken on a jolting roller coaster ride of emotions and scandal after her husband Carl Trace is murdered the night of their wedding. . . by his mistress! Up until his death Carl was the proprietor of the only African American owned hotel in Atlanta, the Shelby. Now it is in Izzy's hands but she has difficulty handling it while shocking revelations about her late husband are brought to the forefront. It appears as if the killer emerges from the launch of this novel but we can't be so sure. There seems to be a new twist revealed in every chapter which is unlike any piece of fiction I have ever read so it certainly held my attention. This twenty first century murder mystery is fast paced and unexpectedly exciting! The debt Carl leaves Izzy with is astounding so she makes a deal with his wealthy mistress behind bars, who claims to be innocent. If she forks over the money then Izzy's sister, high profile lawyer Satchel will defend her. Also, Izzy being a virgin widow strikes the city as enormous news and is plastered all over the newspapers along with Carl's death. Not only do we get to follow her unearthing unorthodox ways to pay off her major newfound debt, but in addition we get to throughly observe her in her interestingly pristine quest to finally lose her virginity. This novel definitely surprised me. It was sitting on my bookshelf collecting dust for months when I finally forced myself to read it. As soon as I started I couldn't put it down! I am kicking myself for not reading it sooner and am now planning to buy every other work by this author.

I'm trying so hard to finish this book. I can read a good book in two days but it's so much going on in this book it's hard to keep up. It's just not a good read.

OK. I have to admit that I don't read very much fiction AND I tend to read books backwards. I started this book at the end and was so intrigued that I ended up going back, and back, and back until I had read the whole thing!

The storyline is definitely an modern urban murder mystery. The main character is a young African American virgin who has fallen in love and married the man of her dreams. On her wedding night, he is killed. In revealing the murderer, you are introduced to a cast of very interesting characters, some who are her friends, some would have been her relatives. I kept thinking that I knew who the murderer was and was totally blown away by the result. Even though I had read the book from the end, I missed it. Nice read for a cold Saturday night. I will look for more from this author.

This book is about Isabelle, a 26 year old virgin. Isabelle is dating Carl, the owner of the Shelby. Shelby is the only black owned hotel in Atlanta. When Carl dies, leaving Isabelle in debt and in fear of the hotel being foreclosed, she has to come up with creative ways to get money. Isabelle first decides to go to Carl's killer and ask her for the money. The killer agrees to give her $75K if she will get her sister, Satchel, to represent her. Satchel is a lawyer with her own practice in Atlanta. The killer's family refuses to give Izzy $75K, but Satchel believes the killer is innocent and agrees to represent her. In the meantime, Izzy decides to get some money from the guy who wants to buy Carl's house. The only problem is that the guy wants her virginity. Izzy refuses to give it to him so that plan falls through. Izzy's friend Mei places her viginity for sale on an online web site. The high bidder offers $44K, but it turns out to be a hoax. Eventually, Carl's killer gets a reduced sentence and Izzy finds love and holds on to her viriginity.

My opinion of the book:

Too much was going on in this book. Every time you turned around some new secret was being revealed. None of the secrets really added to the storyline or my pleasure in reading the book. After a while, I just got tired of reading the darn book.

Another problem with the book is that Izzy wore her viriginity like a badge of honor. If a woman accused Izzy of sleeping with her husband, Izzy would immediately state: "I'm a virgin." The newspaper even had headlines announcing her virginity. Also, any person that came to the bar seemed to ask about her virginity; it just got to be too much.

Another problem is that the legal aspects of the book were just wrong:

Repossession - seizing personal items (movable items) Foreclosure - seizure of real property (the seizure of a hotel would be a foreclosure, not a repossession as this author kept stating.).

Warrant - an item used to seized items or people. In this book, the author stated they had to get a warrant to get Carl's bank records. In actuality, if the manager was going to give them to them, they needed a subpoena since they weren't really seizing them, but getting them through
a court order

Conflict - a lawyer cannot represent someone if their representation will adversely affect the interest of a former client or if they have a bias that would impact their representation of the current client. Satchel is the victim's wife sister; she had a conflict and should not have represented the killer. When the judge ordered her off the case, this order was suppose to extend to her entire law firm. In addition, Satchel told Izzy information given to her by the killer--this blatantly violates attorney/client priviledge

The private investigator - in the book he worked for both the police and private citizens; this would not happen in real life. He can't be a police officer and a private investigator. He could be a security guard and a police officer, but not an investigator. It was unrealistic to think this would be allowed.

Federal crime - the killer went to a federal penetiatiary--why? What federal crime did she commit

Blah Blah...

*****This book is okay, but just know that you will get tired of the storyline after a while