Caribbean L 30 ife, September 13-19 2019
ReShonda Tate Billingsley Rochelle Scott
Don’t ignore your
big dreams!
“More to Life” by ReShonda Tate Billingsley
c.2019, Dafina Books
$15.95 / $21.95 Canada
272 pages
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
“Keep this to yourself!”
That’s the way big dreams start: don’t
tell anyone, because telling makes them
more delicate. Sharing makes it hurt
more when what you want doesn’t happen.
As in the new book “More to Life” by
ReShonda Tate Billingsley, it’s even worse
when your dreams are ignored.
Even by her own admission, Aja James
had everything a woman could want: a
handsome husband, Charles, who loved
giving gifts. Two wonderful children. A
beautiful home, fine furnishings, a full
closet, a new car.
And yet, during an Islands birthday
vacation with her three best friends –
paid for by Charles, of course – 45-yearold
Aja realized that she never had what
her soul needed.
Once, she’d showed promise as a painter
and it was her passion. She was good at
it but, as she realized at the island resort,
nobody listened when she said she wanted
to paint forever. Her high school guidance
counselor and her parents shooed
her away from it. Her husband and children
called it “a hobby.” When Aja said
she wanted to open an art gallery, her
friends didn’t take her seriously, either.
So, like the good wife she was expected
to be, she put her own needs aside to take
care of Charles and the children. She
painted when she could, which was rare
because her time was spent looking for
lost socks and lost golf clubs and doing
what her family demanded of her.
And then Aja met a strange Island
woman who told her that she needed to
walk her own purpose, words that struck
her to the core. Finally, Aja knew what
made her feel so unsettled, and she went
home to face her future.
But was it with – or without – Charles?
Aja’s best friends thought she was crazy
to give up a good man for the unknown.
And the house and the lifestyle, too?
Insane! Ah, but just thinking about a
quiet art gallery and an easel made Aja
smile.
Could she really do it?
Dreams deferred. Is that the story of
your very existence? If so, then you’ll
love having “More to Life”… more or
less.
More, because author ReShonda Tate
Billingsley offers fans another novel that
reads as though she’s spent a month
spying on their lives and calendars, and
anyone who’s ever lost a dream or shelved
one indefinitely will feel a kinship with
Aja. That character, as well as the rest of
Billingsley’s cast, feels familiar, almost
personal, and mostly likeable, although
the situations they’re placed in (here’s
the “less”) are really too over-the-top.
Suffice it to say that there’s a Big Event
inside this tale that abruptly alters the
entire course of the story, adding unnecessary
drama to a situation that was
arguably better and more relatable without
embellishment.
Still, if a dream is like a butterfly in
your hands, or if you’ve ever moved to
seize a what-if, then this book will read
like a diary for you. Start “More to Life”
and you won’t be able to keep it to yourself.