Review: The End of the Line by Jim Power

Latesha Thomas is a beautiful, young African-American woman who lives with her handicapped father. She is in her final year of university and they are having a hard time making ends meet. She decides to start a matchmaking service to make a little extra money, though she has no experience and it turns out to be a disaster. She does, however, meet a client, a handsome white man named Peter Elsworth. The sparks fly immediately, but there’s a huge problem. Her father, and his mother, are vehemently opposed to an interracial relationship. This leads to tremendous conflict, but their love will not be denied. They grow closer, yet the closer they become, the more the tension rises. In time a secret connection between their two worlds become clear and this adds another dimension of conflict and complexity. But love is color blind and they are irresistibly drawn to one another.

I received this book to give an honest review.

This is not my normal genre of a book to read but I had to give it a try especially after reading the blurb. I was glad I did. It is like a love story that you just keep hoping has a good ending.

You know it truly is hard to get those that are set in their ways to see that their ways are not the best ways. If you grew up racist then it is hard to get out of being that way. 

This is a story of how Latesha and Peter were able to prove to those that care about them that they want to be together no matter the cost. 

The author did a great job with this story because you normally don't read about a story that in a way deals with the truth on how people deal with interracial relationships. It was refreshing to see this written into a story because my husband is of mixed race African-American and White and I am White. 

I had to give this book a 4 stars because even though I loved the characters even Peter and Latesha's parents. Latesha drove me crazy going back and forth with the whole "I can't be with you, yes let's be together." Now I could handle her doing this maybe once or twice but when you do it a handful of times it just becomes irritating.

Latesha is a strong character in this book, she has worries like everyone else. She has to take care of her father who is disabled, she has college to worry about, bills and so much more, she when Peter enters her life that is just one more thing to worry about. But she is strong to get what she wants, and she wants to be with Peter so bad and make her father understand that Peter is a nice guy. 

Now Peter he is a dream. He wants Latesha and he will not just take no for an answer. I loved how he kept perusing Latesha even with her going back and forth with her decision. It was especially enjoyable to read how the past comes back to help out in a way that is beneficial to all. 

When both Latesha and Peter look as to what is in the inside of each other and not the color of their skin that is what makes this story magical.

The history that you read about the Underground Railroad in this book and it isn't a lot but it is enough to make you really appreciate what the people who helped those find the stations and help free the people who needed freedom. 

A very touching and powerful story set in Nova Scotia. One that if you enjoy I would say contemporary romance than this is a story you will want to read.  

All Jim's books, including those written under his pen name of Summer Newman, can be found at Amazon. They are all listed at Jim Power Book Store:https://www.facebook.com/jimpowerbooks
Link to Jim's Amazon profile page at:amazon.com/author/jimpower
Jim Power (1957- ) has been published internationally by 60 magazines and newspapers, including by the Smithsonian Institution, and by many of the top outdoors magazines in North America. He has a long history of publishing fiction, from dozens of short stories in New York magazines to seven novels in 2013/2014. He studied Honors English at Saint Mary's University and majored in Russian Literature at Dalhousie University before becoming a writer.
Jim's father was buried in a bitter wind on Christmas Eve, 1956, leaving behind two small children and a wife eight months pregnant with him. He grew up in the small fishing village of Shad Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada and decided to become a writer at fifteen after reading a book of short stories by Fyodor Dostoevsky. He said that experience shook his world. Later, when reading Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, he felt physically ill and was unable to sleep, so strongly did her prose infect him. His first recollection of being a writer was at age five. He distinctly remembers racing out of the woods behind his house and telling his mother that he had seen a tiger, and it had even chased him. She shook her head at the silly fib. Determined to make his story sound more plausible, he instantly noted that an accident in Shad Bay had been reported on the radio, and it stated that a circus caravan had been traveling through the village and a truck had gone off the road. It contained a tiger, which had escaped, but not before killing the driver.
"That was an early lesson," Jim said. "Writing is in essence the art of trying to make readers believe your fictional story is real. In time, when writing novels, I found that my characters actually became real to me. They literally began to exist as separate, functioning individuals. This is essential, I think, because if you don't believe they're real, how can you expect others to?"
Jim was also once a dedicated hitch-hiker, hitch-hiking tens of thousands of kilometres in his life, including trips across Canada and from Nova Scotia to New York City, where he wormed his way into the Big Apple and played softball in Harlem on a beautiful Sunday morning in autumn.
Jim has a long history of playing sports, including fastball, lacrosse and tennis, and he loves the outdoors.