Valerie loves Tony; but she has spent the past three years pretending otherwise because she had serious doubts that their love could survive all of her flaws and fears. Regardless, Tony knows Val is the only woman who could ever make him happy. When she agrees to marry him, she believes they can build a life for their young daughter that is better than how Val was raised and more realistic than what Tony has always expected. She trusts him to accept her and to always be her partner.
Unfortunately, the drama and destructiveness from her past inserts itself into their world in a way that Tony can't accept. No matter how hard she tries, Valerie can't shake the fear that maybe love does not conquer all; and the couple must discover whether they are really able to survive through anything.
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Review by Destiny Rose Book Reviews
ReplyDeleteWhen a Man Loves a Woman he gives his Heart. This is a well-written contemporary romance that defines the places inside the heart that grow through love, that heal with forgiveness, and become stronger with compassion. The past tore Val and Tony apart. Pride got in the way. But he is the father to her daughter and Val needs him. Eventually, they learn to embrace the good and move forward together in life.
The hopes for happiness that Tony and Val have are put to the test. Mistakes happen and life sends them difficult trials to overcome. The difficult past and family troubles always seem to haunt Val. It’s hard for her to let Tony inside her private feelings, to trust him with her doubts about herself.
But she is strong and Tony has a good heart.
This is more than a story about romantic love. It is about family, of letting go of past hurts and hard words, and rising above hardship to become a better person. The other characters in this story reveal much about the harsh reality and destructive drama that played out in Val’s life.
She is lucky to have Tony. He loves her completely and is devoted to making their family work.
Review by Library Mosaic
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this book and thought it deals with an interesting and important theme.
The characters in Time for Tenderness are very well-written and came across as realistic. Val has a few issues and insecurities but she still manages to be strong and determined when she needs to.
Tony is great as well. He’s patient and loving and great for Val.
Plotwise, Time for Tenderness develops nicely and, as I said, deals with interesting topics as Val’s attempts to overcome her past and reconnect with her family. I think the author did a great job with these characters and story.
The book is well written and interesting and I think fans of contemporary fiction will definitely be able to enjoy this book.
Review from Goodreads User
ReplyDeleteIf you want a story about a man who truly loves his woman, this is it! It is sometimes difficult to find strong, dedicated, and affectionate Black fathers and partners in romance novels, but Tony embodies all of these traits. He is far from perfect, but even in his mistakes he seems like a realistic version of what lots of women are looking for. Valerie is an equally strong character. She is a devoted mother, but you see so much more vulnerability and self-doubt in her, which leads to a great story about the power of love to overcome a negative past.
At the same time, this is not just a romance. It is also a story about a father's love for his children, and how no one's story is ever one dimensional. Melvin's character certainly made me question my opinion about some of these "absent" fathers we hear so much about. Seeing how hard he worked to rebuild his relationship with his children was a touching sub-plot that made this story relatable and enjoyable. I loved it!
Review from C.J. Mackenzie's Reviews
ReplyDeleteI really liked the characters in this book, especially Tony. He was great, affectionate and, most of the time, able to understand Val. He makes a few mistakes as well, of course, but I still think he was great and brought out the best in Val.
Val is a good character as well. Despite her past, she’s strong. She doubts herself sometimes but I think that’s only normal given her story. Val has a lot to deal with and this book is all about her struggles to let Tony in and learn how to deal with her past and her family.
I enjoyed this book a lot. It is very well-written and deals with an interesting topic.
If you enjoy a realistic, contemporary romance you might enjoy this book.
Review by CoCo Fierce
ReplyDeleteThis was my first time reading anything by this author and I was pleasantly surprised. “A Time for Tenderness” is a very contemporary coming to age romance. The story starts off with Valerie and her daughter Sherry. Valerie is a woman struggling with her demons of the past mainly her mother (Olivia) and her cruel manipulative ways. Olivia has caused untold damaged to all of her kids. I won’t give too much of the story a way but Olivia reads like she could have starred in Mommy Dearest. This story travels through the growth and changes and relationship Val endures with the father of her child Tony. Torn apart by misunderstandings and trust issues Val has to learn how to open her heart to love again not that with her mother this will be an easy journey. All the characters including the sister Monica have to learn how to “become.”
Yes this is a romance story but what is different about this story is that it focuses more on the familial aspect and how through struggle and past hurts we must let go and start the healing process.
All in all this story had little to no grammatical errors. This is a very sensual read yet adult read.
Review by CC Clubs
ReplyDeleteTime for Tenderness is a sweet but tragic story about the difficulties of love, relationships, and forgiveness. It took me a couple of pages to figure out where the story was going, but once the plot became clear, I couldn’t stop reading. Author Brynette L. Turner must have done a lot of research on dysfunctional families because the tragedies suffered by protagonist, Valerie, and her siblings, Monica and Jason, because of her father’s absence ring painfully true.
At times, I wanted to yell at Valerie, Monica, Jason and their parents for their decisions as if they were people that I personally know. And you DEFINITELY know a book is good when you feel that close to the characters. However, despite the somber story, Hope and Faith and God ring through clearly, telling the reader that there is hope for us all. That no matter who or what we are, change is possible for each of us.
The best part of this five star book is that Turner has written a follow-up called Monica’s Healing that will continue the healing process of the Weston family. Stay tuned!
Review by Marcia Walkerdine
ReplyDeleteThis is my first story by this author. What is even more amazing is that to date this is the first AA story that I have ever managed to finish reading. So there is hope for me yet.
For me this story was not just about the love between Val and Tony. This was a story of love or lack of love affecting a whole family. One of the reasons I feel I was able to read this book was because I was able to connect to the themes of the book. Lots of parents from the Caribbean handled their families with harshness. Now I did not say every family but some. I saw it in my own family through my dad and in lots of families in the 60s the lack of tenderness and caring. There may have been love but it demonstrated itself in harsh words spoken to tender hearts. The words and unkindness that some parents and incredibly lots of mothers dealt out to their daughters was shocking and is still shocking to me. Because I have some firsthand experience of the premise of the story it kept me engaged.
Tony was indeed a loving black lead; he was kind, tender and loving towards Val and decided to pursue their relationship even when Val had put the brakes on the relationship when she became pregnant with their daughter. Even when they were not together for the first 2 two years of their daughter’s life they were able to share custody and co-exist amicably.
I felt let down by Tony when he tried to force Val to mend her relationships with Monica and Olivia without truly understanding the pain and hurt these two had inflicted on Val. He then related her unwillingness to expose her heart to them for them to further hurt and trample on her as a sign that she was cold, unforgiving and hardhearted and that perhaps if they should have issues in their marriage she would close her heart to him too. Well at this point in the story I wanted to give Tony the beat down of his life, Val had given him more children been the best wife and loving mother a woman could ever want to be and he was making these assumptions about her. He brought unnecessary stress and unhappiness into their lives when it did not need to be there. Like Val rightly said Tony did not trust her to know how to handle her family. She knew her family better than he did and she survived her past and was able to have some sort of life because she kept her distance from them.
The book raised interesting issues regarding black families and how they deal with conflict which kept me reading the book as I could relate to the story.
What I found disappointing about the story was it did not explain why Olivia had become such a bitter, twisted and unloving mother to her children. Apparently she was once a loving woman what happened to her to make her hurt, abuse and lie to her children and cause them to be uncertain about life and their father. How she turned the children against their father was deplorable and the kids hated their father because of the lies she told them.
The story went at a steady pace exploring the various emotional trauma that one woman inflicted upon her husband and her children and was allowed to get away with it. This in turn had a ripple effect and impacted on the partners or prospective partners of the children.
I rated the book 5 stars because it touched and moved me and I know for a fact that the issues that the book raises are true and has happened and continues to happen in black families with devastating results and lifelong scarring with effects that can take a whole lifetime to overcome. It caused me to reflect on the many women I have met in my life whose story this is! Worth a read!
Review by Tabitha Jones (Closet Full of Books)
ReplyDeleteWhat a great sweet book of love and hurt. Val is a very determined and independent mother to sweet baby Sherry.She has a hard time to open her heart up to Tony the babies father. Tony loves her and Sherry very, very much and vows to wed Val and have a chance at a family together. Val's troubled childhood just seems to keep getting in the way of her future with Tony.Can Val get past all the heartache and betrayal of her childhood? Will Tony be able to save her from feeling like she will turn out to be just like her mother. In this book you will fall in love with Tony who is like the all american father and husband.
Review by Mousiey Books
ReplyDeleteI rec'd an ARC of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. This is my honest. First my apologies to MS Turner for not doing this review before now as I thought that I had. Please accept my apology. This is Ms Turner's very first book and it is an awesome book. I recommend this book to everyone,
Now, the characters are very defined and detailed. The issues in this book are what people go thru, I for one find it hard to trust someone. The scenes in the story are very described. This book is very well written and truly amazing. It is very touching and compelling. It is about a young black woman and what she is going thru. However, the issues she faces are the sames issues we all face. This being stated I give the book a rating of 15 stars out 5 stars. Why 15 stars now you are going to have to keep reading to find that out...
The story is about a young mother Val who has a young daughter by the name of Sherry. Now Val does not want to be anything like her mother as she is hateful, mean,and down right cruel. The father of her child has been asking her to marry him now for the last 3 years. However, Val can't bring herself to make that commitment. She has trust issues. When she was very young her father walked out of her life. Since then she is afraid that any man that she loves will do the same to her.
Val has a sister by the name of Monica who takes care of their mother, and they have a brother by the name of Jason. Monica has been going to school part time for a very long time along with working to support her and her mother. As for Jason well he likes to drink and run from one woman to another.
Now Tony finally convinces Val to marry him.And they get married. But do they live happily ever after?? And what happens to her mother Olivia?? Does Monica find a man? and does Val and her father end up with a much better and tighter father daughter relationship?? All these questions will be answered for you in the book. Now GO GET IT!!! IT'S ON AMAZON NOW!!! GO GET YOUR COPY TODAY!!!FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS TO VAL!!
Review by an Amazon reader:
ReplyDeleteTime For Tenderness is a little bit less of a romance than a new adult/contemporary story about a family. It starts featuring Valerie and her daughter. Valerie is estranged from the father of her daughter-- Tony --who very much wants to get back together with her. The romance part of it didn't work very well for me. I understand what the author was trying to do, but I wish that the story had started with Tony and Val together. Otherwise, Tony very very pushy to me. Patrick, for the matter, also feels very pushy. Patrick is the love interest for Val's younger sister, Monica. The story is really more about the impact of the way their mother raised them-- and their brother. Their father comes back to town and tries to help as well. The book is incredibly engaging and a good read. I wasn't sure I would enjoy it at first, but I really wanted to know if the family would get over the trauma caused by the mother. I'd recommend it for the story, but it doesn't really read like a romance to me, at least.
Why you should read/get it: You're interested in black literature, or family dramas.