TIES THAT BIND
By BrendaJackson
St.Martin's Press
0-31230-611-3
Mainstream Fiction
Rating: 5 Stars
Reviewed by Renee Motley

TIES THAT BIND is a beautiful story about friends and lovers with a dose of family.  Sometimes it takes a bit of all three to make a relationship work and is what the reader gets in TIES THAT BIND.

The novel is about the relationship of Jenna Haywood and Randolph Fuller, Howard University students.  From the very beginning you are held captive by this couple. Jenna, an architect student with dreams being successful in order to help with the financial burdens of her parents to send her three brothers to college.  Family is very important to her. 

Randolph is pursuing a goal of becoming a lawyer and helping with the family business. In doing so, he insures his chances of not being drafted.  Determination gets them through the turbulent sixties and early seventies with the struggles of the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights movement.  Then tragedy hits them both.  Will this be the end of the ties that bind them?

In TIES THAT BIND,  the goes through three time periods that had affected the lives of African Americans.  Ms. Jackson does a wonderful job of providing enough history to be knowledgeable, but not overwhelming; with just the right amount of flavor provided by the families to make for a deliriously funny novel. 

TIES THAT BIND is a must read.  Just when you think she can't get any better, Ms. Jackson shows you she has what it takes.  The quality of her writing is awesome.  I recommend this book to all Brenda Jackson fans and then some.