You Gotta Sin to Get Saved is the third of a trilogy by J .D. Mason. The characters from One Day I Saw A Black King and Don’t Want No Sugar make appearances in this novel. Some thirty years ago, Charlotte walked out on her two pre-teen daughters leaving them to fend for themselves in Denver as she followed her man, Sam, to find fame and fortune in Memphis. Only, they did not make it all the way to Memphis, but stopped in Kansas, where Sam abandoned Charlotte. Now, Charlotte’s daughter, Reesy, has found her and hopes that by being reunited with her mother, all her questions will be answered.

Reesy was consumed with the prospect of finding her mother and once the detective found her, Reesy could not contain her excitement. She expected everyone to be happy with her, but soon found that was not the case. Her older sister, Connie, was not happy at all and refused to have anything to do with Charlotte. Connie has her own demons to face. At 40, she is pregnant and unsure if she wants to be a mother. Her boyfriend, John King, does not want to be a father and does what he does best, flees from responsibility. Reesy’s husband, Justin, feels neglected and finds solace at a strip club and her adoptive mother feels threatened by Reesy’s other momma.

When Charlotte gets the letter from Reesy she is ecstatic. She immediately begins to sing praises about how wonderful her baby girl, Reesy is much to the dismay of her youngest daughter, Cammy. Cammy, who was born after Charlotte left Denver, has spent her life taking care of Charlotte and putting up her her abuse. Charlotte’s selective amnesia offends Cammy as she was the one who put her life on hold, forsaking her own happiness to care for Charlotte. It takes a major crisis for Charlotte’s true personality to manifest itself and the girls join forces to heal themselves.

I know JD Mason said You Gotta Sin To Get Saved was the end of the trilogy, but I might have to beg to differ, because there were some loose ends that need to be tied together. If you have not read the first two books, it does not matter,cause this book can stand alone. ( Even I did not read DWNS.) Charlotte’s story on how she came to live in Murphy, Kansas is told in flashbacks throughout the novel. It may appear that there are a lot of different storylines, but what I really liked was the domino effect of each individual story and how it somehow impacted the life of another character. This was a very good read that I highly recommend.

Jeanette
APOOO BookClub

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