Recommendation Friday

This week I’m recommending one of my favorite books that I’ve read this year, a book that completely blew me away.

Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson

Mary B. Addison killed a baby.

Allegedly. She didn’t say much in that first interview with detectives, and the media filled in the only blanks that mattered: A white baby had died while under the care of a church-going black woman and her nine-year-old daughter. The public convicted Mary and the jury made it official. But did she do it? She wouldn’t say.

Mary survived six years in baby jail before being dumped in a group home. The house isn’t really “home”—no place where you fear for your life can be considered a home. Home is Ted, who she meets on assignment at a nursing home.

There wasn’t a point to setting the record straight before, but now she’s got Ted—and their unborn child—to think about. When the state threatens to take her baby, Mary must find the voice to fight her past. And her fate lies in the hands of the one person she distrusts the most: her Momma. No one knows the real Momma. But who really knows the real Mary?

In this gritty and haunting debut, Tiffany D. Jackson explores the grey areas in our understanding of justice, family, and truth, and acknowledges the light and darkness alive in all of us.

I haven’t read a book this amazing in a long time.
I wasn’t sure how I would like this book when I started it. I was sent an unsolicited copy from the publisher and it didn’t really sound like a book I would pick up for myself. But let me tell you, I owe KT Books big time for sending me this book. It’s so outstanding. It blew my mind. I couldn’t put this book down.
Allegedly is so incredibly well written and has such diverse and complex characters. I couldn’t relate to Mary but I felt like I could connect to her in a weird way. I’ve never been through any of the things that she has but I felt connected to her. I think it was the fantastic writing that made an unrelatable character seem like she could be the reader’s best friend.
This book had me in tears one chapter and screeching at the top of my lungs the next. It was such a roller coaster of emotions the entire book and I loved every second of it.
Overall, this book is well worth the read and I highly recommend it. I loved every second of this book and Tiffany D. Jackson has quickly become one of my favorite authors.