Changing Faces

November 14, 2005
Roby's thin portrayal (after The Best-Kept Secret
) of three steadfast best friends in Chicago shows how they cope with waves of individual and interpersonal troubles. Whitney is an intelligent, overweight singleton who consoles herself at Krispy Kreme and McDonald's. Her dearest friend, Taylor, a successful lawyer, has savvy in the courtroom but no real commitment from her longtime boyfriend, Cameron. The most troubled of the trio is Charisse, a controlling, Bible-thumping man-hater with two young children and a browbeaten husband who has begun to show signs of a backbone. Whitney resolves to face her weight problem head-on, meets an adoring Rico at the gym and finds that she just may be able to recharge both her self-confidence and her sex life. Taylor continues to put up with Cameron's insensitivity and inattentiveness, until a serious medical problem makes her re-evaluate her priorities. Meanwhile, Charisse conceals shady secrets and strives for the upper hand in her marriage. Finally, her bid for reconciliation with her own cartoonishly abusive mother results in a climax as incredible as it is tragic. Despite the book's potential for an honest look at friendship among modern African-American women, Roby's story takes a turn for the mediocre as this novel slides into near-farce.

April 3, 2006
Three performers give a warm, believable feeling to this tale of friendship. Polk is the standout here: as Whitney, she latches onto the reader like a best friend eager to spill all her news. Whether bemoaning her inability to lose weight or expressing her outrage at her mother's criticisms and personal digs, Polk makes Whitney a completely real, lovable and amusingly overexcitable character. Williams takes a more thoughtful approach to the character of Taylor, a successful lawyer who learns she may have cancer. Taylor is the calm, reasonable one of the trio—the mediator between her two volatile friends—and Williams's soothing voice suits her role perfectly. As Charisse, a woman who has coped with childhood abuse by becoming controlling and sanctimonious, Chavis captures both the character's cold and overbearing personality and the hidden vulnerability behind it. These three lively, contrasting performances bring the story to life and make this audio a most enjoyable listen. Simultaneous release with the William Morrow hardcover (Reviews, Nov. 14).