Have No Shame - 5-Star Review

Have No Shame

When civil rights and forbidden love collide

By: Melissa Foster

Publisher: World Literary Press

My Review: 5 STARS!

"This book will resonate with readers who enjoyed Kathryn Stockett's, THE HELP, Julie Kibler's, CALLING ME HOME, John Grisham's, A TIME TO KILL, Sue Monk Kidd's, THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES, and Kathleen Grissom's, THE KITCHEN HOUSE."

Melissa Foster has done it again!  She has this amazing ability to bring her stories to life!  So as I was reading Have No Shame, I was immediately transported to 1960's Mississippi.  My reality faded away completely and I was immersed in the fictional reality that was unfolding with the turn of each page.

This book took me significantly longer to read than most books because I had to keep putting it down.  Please do not even think that I was putting it down for any negative reasons.  Rather, I had to put it down because of the raw emotion of it.  Have No Shame will make you laugh, cry, scream, and squeal with excitement as it is an emotional rollercoaster.  So for me, I had to step back and reintroduce myself to reality and reflect on the emotions that this book was bringing out.  

There is such a depth to this subject matter!  Allison has a hard time finding where she belongs in the small Mississippi town that is still extremely racially charged.  Is her place with Jimmie Lee, the man that she is supposed to marry, even though he beats up the town African-Americans for sport?  Or is she destined for something else; for someone else?  How can she understand the feelings that she has towards Jackson, a soldier in town to work for her father after his brother was severely beaten?  Foster dives in and explores the question of whether or not love can cross racial lines or if it truly has no bounds.

Rarely do I give a book a 5-star review.  I reserve that for books that I either cannot put down, or ones that I find extremely moving.  While I did put this one down a couple of times, it was only to reflect on it and take time to think about it further.  Plus, Have No Shame was so moving, that rating less than 5-stars would be such a disservice to this wonderful work.  

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SUMMARY

Alison Tillman has called Forrest Town, Arkansas home for the past eighteen years. Her mother's Blue Bonnet meetings, her father toiling night and day on the family farm, and the division of life between the whites and the blacks are all Alison knows. The winter of 1967, just a few months before marrying her high school sweetheart, Alison finds the body of a black man floating in the river, and she begins to view her existence with new perspective. The oppression and hate of the south, the ugliness she once was able to avert her eyes from, now demands her attention.

When a secretive friendship with a young black man takes an unexpected romantic turn, Alison is forced to choose between her predetermined future, and the dangerous path that her heart yearns for.

****

Praise For HAVE NO SHAME

"Within moments of starting to read, you will be transported back to the Arkansas of 1967 - hot, dusty, utterly rural and edgy. Poor white farmers dependent upon cheap black labor who, due to their superior numbers, are constantly suppressed, living on the wrong side of town, ghettoised and terrified. You will remember scenes from `In the Heat of the Night' and `Easy Rider'; you will remember that, less than fifty years ago, if you were black, you could be beaten for simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. And if you died at the hands of a white youth, justice would almost certainly be denied you." Author Roderick Craig Low

"A gripping and poignant novel dealing with a subject once taboo in American society." Hagerstown Magazine

"Have No Shame is a powerful testimony to love and the progressive, logical evolution of social consciousness, with an outcome that readers will find engrossing, unexpected, and ultimately eye-opening." Midwest Book Review

"A historical novel of love and its triumph, told with a unique and compelling voice." Bestselling Author Kathleen Shoop 

"Have No Shame is a delightful eye opener and a rather poignant book that everyone everywhere should put on their must-read list." Readers' Favorite

"A dynamic and heartwarming tale of young love, giving testament to those who struggled so we can live in an integrated society." Author Rachelle Ayala

"[HAVE NO SHAME] Perfectly catches the South at the dawning of the Civil Rights Movement. Melissa Foster takes us on an adventure that twists and turns unpredictably to a tense climax that renders this novel a true page-turner. This is undoubtedly the best novel I have read in a long time."  Roderick Craig Low, Author of 'Promises of Love and Good Behaviour'

"This book is not just a story; it's an experience." Author G.E. Johnson

Melissa Foster is the award-winning author of  three International bestselling novels. Her books have been recommended by USA Today's book blog, Hagerstown Magazine, The Patriot, and several other print venues. She is the founder of the Women’s Nest, a social and support community for women, the World Literary Café. When she's not writing, Melissa helps authors navigate the publishing industry through her author training programs on Fostering Success. Melissa has been published in Calgary’s Child Magazine, the Huffington Post, and Women Business Owners magazine.  Melissa also hosts an annual Aspiring Authors contest for children and has painted and donated several murals to The Hospital for Sick Children in Washington, DC.

Connect with Melissa online!

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Awards

Megan's Way
2011 Beach Book Award Winner (Spirituality)
2011 Readers Favorite Awards, Winner (Fiction/Drama), Finalist (Women's Fiction)
2010 Next Generation Indie Book Award, Finalist (Spirituality)
2011 New England Book Festival, Honorable Mention (Spirituality)

Chasing Amanda
2011 Readers Favorite Awards, Winner (Paranormal), Finalist, (Women's Fiction, Mystery)
2011 Dan Poynter's Global eBook Awards, Winner, (Paranormal)
Top 10 Books of 2011, Pixel of Ink
Amazon Top 100 75+ Days running
Indie Reader's Bestselling List That Counts (8 weeks)
Top Books of 2011, The Write Agenda

Come Back To Me

2012 Next Generation Indie Book Awards, Finalist, 

2012 Readers Favorite Awards, Finalist 

2012 Kindle Book Review Best Indie Books Award, Finalist

2011 Dan Poynter's Global Ebook Awards, Finalist 

Top 5 Must Read Books of 2011, IndieReader
Top Ten Books of 2011, Tea Time With Marce
IndieReader Best Reviewed Books of 2011, Huffington Post