Someone Else's Love Story (Shandi Pierce #2) by Joshilyn Jackson

Title: Someone Else's Love Story: A Novel (P.S.)
Classification: Adult Fiction
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Series: Shandi Pierce (Book 2)
Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks; Reprint edition (August 5, 2014)
ISBN-10: 0062105663
ISBN-13: 978-0062105660

Author's Website: http://www.joshilynjackson.com/jj/?page_id=776

Notes: I recieved a copy from the publisher.

Sometimes it takes something drastic in our lives to make us face our worst fears...

Shandi Pierce was in the process of moving into her father's condo with her son when she ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time. The gas station she and her best friend, Walcott, picked to stop at is being held up. Things start getting intense and one of the other customers helps her shield her son and keep him safe. As they go from hostages to being free, Shandi attempts to find out more about the man who helped keep her son safe. She's convinced their paths crossed for a reason. That it's destiny that threw them together as she connects dots nobody else sees.

Years ago something happened to Shandi Pierce which she has chosen to believe resulted in a miracle. Nine months after the incident in question, she gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, yet the doctor declared her still a virgin.They say life's what you make it and the same goes with what you make of the events in one's life. When she realizes that William Ashe, the man who helped protect her son, is a gene therapist, to her everything fell into place and became perfectly clear.

"Do you believe in miracles?"(...)

"Define the term,"he says.

"Like when the Red Sea parted, or when Lazarus got back up," she says. She swallows and looks away."

"No," he says.

It's time for Shanti to face reality and find out what really happened.

Several month's back there was a lot of controversy over a certain dress' color. People were basically divided into two camps-- the blue and black camp and the white and gold camp. Some people even swore they looked at it one moment and thought it one color and then looked at it again and thought it was the other. Experts are trying to explain how this strange phenomena could happen talking of pixel colors and lighting. Regardless of the reason, this book kind of reminds me a little of that dress. How, you ask? Well, sometimes your interpretation of a story hinges on what's going on in your life or what your mood is at that particular time. A picture or story can look different to different people when staring/reading the exact same thing. Many people have commented that this book seems to take rape too lightly while others think that's not the case. I'm of the latter camp. I'll try to explain my stance by telling you about somebody else's miracle...and, yes, it's a true story.


Years ago I met a couple through my church with several children. Their youngest child was in my son's Sunday school class or rather nursery class. While both of his parent were white as well as all of his siblings, he was of a much darker complexion. I asked the mother if they'd adopted him because a large number of couples in our church had adopted children, but that was not the case. That was when she told me her story. Please bare with me because the details are rather fuzzy as this was over ten years ago. Basically the mother had an illness that was curable if she could find a donor who matched her rare blood type. I don't think it was Lukemia, but something rarer and I can't remember what it was she needed. They had tested her children and husband and none were a match. In fact, there was no hope of any future children between the two having the right makeup because of her husband's blood type. They prayed for a miracle.

Long story made short, one night when her husband was on a business trip a burglar broke into their home. Along with stealing various items from the house, he also raped the wife. The hospital attempted to use the morning after pill which was supposed to ensure she wouldn't become pregnant, but nine months later a beautiful black baby boy was born into the world. Low and behold, he was the perfect match for his mother.

Now some of you may choose to see this as a tragic story of rape while others, including his parents and I, see it as a miracle that wasn't exactly delivered in the most pleasant of ways. Now don't get me wrong, what happened was a terrible thing. It's all a matter of how you choose to see it, and that's kind of how this story plays out. It's almost like one of those famous drawings with two completely different images and what you see is dependent upon your perspective. Ex:

(Image courtesy of Google Search)

I personally don't believe the author was trying to make light of what happened to Shandi, and her situation was rather complicated by the events. What I believe the author was trying to do was make you see sometimes things aren't as cut and dry as one might think. I enjoyed the journey of finding out what happened to Shandi all those years ago. I felt the process helped her to finally sleigh all her dragons and face her fears. In the process, she learned a lot about herself and could finally fully move forward with her life. It was nice that while William helped her accomplish what she needed to, she, in turn, helped him. Both were at a bit of a crossroads with the outcome dependent upon whether they could independently face what happened to each of them so they could deal with it.

Overall, I gave this one 4 1/2 out of 5 roses. I loved how the two stories in this book came together with the stories overlapping into one another. I liked how we got two happy endings instead of just one. I also adored how even after reading the book, it made me keep thinking about all that happened and the twist at the end. While there are romantic elements to this novel, I'm forgoing my romance rating scale as its not primarily a romance and by including it in the rating system of true romances it would be unfair. I truly enjoyed this one and feel it would make for an excellent book club discussion.