Love Me Back by Cheryl A. Baisden

Saddled with broken ribs, bruises and welts, an uncaring mother, the anguish of lingering sexual abuse, Beth Brown should have ceased to exist long ago. Yet, now, as an adult, she not only prospers in the heart of Kansas City, she also starts to relish the company of dear friends and manages to preserve herself to see the day she is reunited with the long lost love of her life.

In Love Me Back by Cheryl A. Baisden, we stumble upon the gut-wrenching tale of a small town girl who, bursting with love for all that breathes and exists, perseveres despite the forms of ignominy thrown her way.

Its triumphant description of a healing retreat within nature's deep reserve, unyielding good will, and the all-overpowering conquest of sincere love invites a second look at all the travails of our tired, inspiration-strapped world.

As required by FTC, I received a complimentary copy of Love Me Back by Cheryl A. Baisden as a member of the Dorrance Publishing Book Review Team. Visit dorrancebookstore.com to learn how you can become a member of the Book Review Team.

This is a confusing book.  Written as a fiction story I suspect it is really the authors own memoir, to a large degree and would have been more effective written as a memoir.  In fact, I would have liked it to have been split into three separate memoir books, each covering a distinct time period in her life - much like Dave Pelzer did in his memoirs (A Child called it, The Lost Boy and A Man named Dave).

The story itself had a lot of potential but it was not well written.  It jumped from one story straight into a new one almost without even starting a new sentence.  It felt more like a set of random thoughts and scenarios that someone had written down with the intention of writing it in full later to turn into a book.  It reminded me of the way I tell a story, jumping to the next happening before I have actually fully explained the part I am telling - and that is one of the many reasons why I could never be a successful author.  

This combined with the many grammatical and typing errors throughout the book made it quite a difficult book to read, despite being only 84 pages long.  I found myself having to re-read parts to work out what the author was trying to tell me. 

The publisher needs to get some better Proof Readers and Editors in to improve their product.  I don't proclaim to be brain of Britain or, indeed, very good at grammar but some of the mistakes were unforgivable.  For Example, referring to having "Post Dramatic Stress Disorder"!  Come on, is this a new disorder for actors or something, I assume you mean "Post Traumatic Stress Disorder"  hence the use of the acronym PTSD!  Another example "It don't get any better than this".  Ok they could have just been trying to reflect the way the character actually speaks but, for me, this grammatical error just made me throw my hands up in horror.

A shame as the author clearly has a good story to tell but has been let down by her editors, proof readers and whoever else helped her publish this book.

2 out of 5 from me on this one and only because I actually feel sorry for the author. 

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