Revelation

by Bobi Gentry Goodwin

Social workers often reminisce about their first time “freezing”―the dreaded stillness from emotions so strong that they take the body hostage. Angela Lovelace is a well-trained social worker: she has been working for Child Protective Services in San Francisco for nearly five years and has never frozen, never had a sleepless night. But after she sees her father’s tattered picture on the apartment wall of a little boy whose addict mother just died, she must learn how to overcome the numbness―and sets out to uncover the truth.

While Angela conducts her investigation, she finds her family and personal life spiraling down into brokenness; as she peels away layer after layer of secrets, her brother navigates the ravages of substance abuse, and her sister struggles with infertility. The Lovelace family must look to their faith in God and each other to discover their own resilience and put the pieces of their splintered lives back together again.

Told from multiple perspectives across generations, Revelation explores how untreated mental illness and family secrets ricochet and can impact each and every family member―and the importance of perseverance, love, and hope.

Genres: Fiction

256 pages, Paperback

Published November 5, 2019

About the author

Bobi Gentry Goodwin is a native San Franciscan. The Bay Area was where she first discovered her love for people and their stories. She has held a passion for writing since early childhood, and as a clinical social worker her mission field has been working with women and children. She is a wife and mother of two and an avid member of her local church. She is also a member Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Goodwin currently resides in Livermore, California.

Reviews

[Samantha Scheer · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I first heard this book, I was super eager to dive into it. It follows Angela, our child protective social worker and her family as they navigate through life. As a child protective social worker myself, I was excited to finally find a book that could wholly talk about the things that child protective social workers deal with on the daily. While the book started off that way, it quickly went from being about social work to being about family and religion. I also thought that Angela acted unethically on her case when she realized she had a personal connection.

I don’t consider myself to be super religious, I do believe in God, but I felt like this book was TOO religious for my liking and I found myself getting annoyed with every mention.

The book deals with some serious stuff including suicide, substance use and rape; which the author handled delicately.

I also felt that I was waiting and waiting for something to happen, literally ANYTHING and it didn’t happen until the last 25 pages or so.

To say I was mislead and disappointed would be an understatement. Here’s to hoping I can find more books out there dealing with child protective social work that focuses more on that than other aspects.

[Divas Read 2 Book Club · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Diva Review 📗
💚💚💚💚
This story starts with a child finding his mother dead from an overdose and Social Worker, Angela Lovelace has been assigned to the case in which she finds a picture of her father in the home. The characters lives are forever changed and filled with drama. Secrets, Substance Abuse, and Infertility is the main focus of the story. The family's faith will make or break them as they try to put the pieces back together.
Diva Reviewer - Nina

[Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

New author for me. I liked the way she organized this book and broke into a section on each character throughout the story line. There was a little mystery running throughout as to the child--thought it was handled well. This happens to be a black family--but could be white, hispanic or any family.

[Rncaduceus]

Read 150 pages then gave for something more interesting.

[Amazing Amy ✨ · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn’t really get into the story. Every two page was a different character pov. Lost interest after 50 pages in. 😬

[Tonja · Rating 3 out of 5]

Revelation was a 3.5 read for me. The description of the book was a bit misleading. I felt the story line described of Angela investigating her fathers possible ties to a little boy that has recently gone into child protective services, was a minor part of the story. The story was really more about the personal relationships of her and her brother and sister and how family and faith sustained them.
Angela is a social worker and has a complicated love life in that she cant have the man she really wants and I felt for her as she went from relationship to relationship. Her sister Sharyn is in a good marriage that is tested as they struggle to have a baby. She also has a brother, Kevon who is a charismatic, good looking, functioning alcoholic. The chapters rotate through each of their stories and it did keep my interest. They where likable characters and I wanted them to have a positive outcome. Throughout the story they stayed connected to family. I would read another book by Goodwin as I like the strong message her story sends. Thank you to She Writes Press and Booksparks for the free ARC in return for an honest review.