From bestselling author, Donna Hill comes an evocative, unforgettable novel about love, friendship, marriage, adultery. . .
"You'll find out soon enough. So I may as well say it now. I slept with my best friend's husband. There is no explanation. Not a real one, anyway, not one that people will accept, especially people who know me. . .But I want to tell my side. . .Just hear me out. . ."
Asha and Lisa have been best friends since grade school and they have always shared everything. A beautiful and accomplished photographer, Asha never seems to lack excitement or a man to share it with. Yet, for a woman who appears to have it all there is always "that something" she needs to make her feel whole. . .worthy.
Lisa, "the good girl," has always dreamed of the perfect marriage to the perfect husband. Now she has both with Ross Davis and she has their future planned to the last, perfect detail.
Ross didn't want to believe that he and Lisa had married too soon. He didn't want to believe that each day the man he thought himself to be was being stripped away by the woman he loved--leaving him feeling like a kept man instead of the man of the house.
And then--betrayal. No one knows how it happened, how they could have done this to each other. But now, they each want to tell their side of the story.
As Asha, Lisa and Ross travel down the road to discovery, you will root for them, hurt for them, hate them and love them. But you will never forget them.
An Ordinary Woman is about the betrayal of the most sacred of trusts. It is about the that one moment when a single choice will change lives forever. It is a cautionary tale that dares to look deep inside the hearts and minds of the characters involved. Most importantly, An Ordinary Woman attempts to answer the question: How?
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Publishers Weekly
Commitment and betrayal are the themes of this gracefully written novel by the author of Rhythms. Lisa Holden and Asha Woods have been best friends since the day they struck up a conversation as 12-year-old neighbors in an African-American enclave in Brooklyn. Like yin and yang, they have different personalities and dreams. Raised within a stable family, Lisa is now an English professor who always looks before she leaps; Asha, the product of a dysfunctional upbringing, is a worldly photographer who lives life spontaneously. When Lisa finds and weds her Prince Charming, architect Ross Davis, both women worry that the marriage will affect their relationship. Meanwhile, Ross, who is accustomed to taking care of the women in his life, feels emasculated by Lisa's control over their marriage. When Ross loses his job and Asha has a confrontation with her mother, they turn to each other for comfort and share one night together without considering the consequences. It doesn't take Lisa long to suspect the worst and to discover the truth. Similar betrayals have fueled innumerable plots, but Hill handles the emotional drama well, demonstrating that actions have long-lasting consequences. While the narrative should have broad appeal as a chronicle of human relationships, Hill uses good background detail to make the story more effective for her African-American core audience, introducing such issues as a white student's animosity toward a black professor, for example. Her thoughtful approach invests the love story with greater meaning. Agent, Pattie Steele-Perkins. Author tour. (Oct.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Library Journal
Betrayal is at the core of Hill's (Rhythms) latest novel, as new bride Asha confronts the love affair between her best friend and her husband. Each character relates his or her side of the story. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Infidelity, followed by endless introspection. African-American Asha, a globetrotting photographer, has more than her share of lovers—and can’t understand why she’s inexorably attracted to the man who just married her best friend. Granted, Ross Davis is a handsome, sensitive, hardworking architect, but that shouldn’t be enough to dazzle a sophisticated New Yorker like Asha, especially when he pledged his eternal love for Lisa at the church in front of all their friends and family. And Asha and Lisa have been friends since they met as children in a poor Brooklyn neighborhood. Could it be that Asha is attracted only to emotionally unavailable men because, years ago, her father abandoned her understandably angry mother for another woman? Moving right along to Ross’s point of view, it’s clear that he’s not ready for the whole commitment thing, fearing that he’ll have to sell out to afford Lisa’s dream of owning a Harlem brownstone or a spacious suburban house. Though he’s a considerate, upstanding man who believes in fidelity, he’s overwhelmed by the responsibilities of marriage and unable to resist temptation when Asha makes it clear she’s interested. His naïve new bride misses all the signs of the impending affair, but she’s devastated when it finally happens. Where did she go wrong? She took care of Ross in every way—how could he break her heart? Then Lisa’s mother reveals a long-hidden secret: She once had an affair with Lisa’s father’s best friend and had no way of knowing for nine long months whether the child she was carrying was his or her lover’s. Lisa ponders this judge-not-lest-ye-be-judged situation for a while and is glad there are no children this time around. Meantime,Asha’s mother explains the catastrophic breakup of her marriage in bitter detail, and she and Asha fight anew, unable to heal the old wounds. But life goes on—and new love awaits all.
Low-key, oddly unemotional soap, from the author of Rhythms (2001), etc.
Author tour
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