Colored Summer

by Michelle McGriff

Starting a new life in a small town, a young woman, taught that her looks and dark skin are punishments for her mother's sins, is determined to reinvent herself, but discovers that it isn't easy to forget the past. Original.

254 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published May 1, 2007

About the author

Michelle McGriff is the Literary World’s best kept secret. Writing many titillating and entertaining novels, and stimulating non-fiction pieces, Michelle McGriff made her way gracefully onto the Black Expressions best sellers list in 2005, and quietly into the hearts of readers who enjoy her prolific, mixed genre writing style. Talented and deeply appreciative of her gift of storytelling, Michelle McGriff now resides in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she writes and teaches.

Look for her books wherever you find good reading materials.
Completed and copywritten works by Michelle McGriff

Majestic Secret a romance Novel
Majestic Secret Book one
A style of His Own
Destiny’s Song
Rested Memories
Temporary Rain
The 4th Floor and Other Short Stories
The Legend of Morning
For Love’s Sake
Obsession 101
Feels like Falling
Colored Summer
Deadly Tease
Change of Life
Last Breath
Blood Relations
Swerve: an expected turn of events

Non-fiction
The Human Experience: the journey of Soul Mates

Writing as Lena Scott
Chocolate Dream
O.G. (Original Gangster)
West End Girls I, II, III

Reviews

[Claudia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thea founds herself up against a trace of Sickle Cell disease before marriage. So she goes to her grandmother Emma to find out about her family history. Thea finds herself rushing her grandmother to the emergency from her passing out. At that point the flash from the past starts up. Emma finds herself living a lie because the color of her skin. Although the outside was saying she was white but she was consider black. This happen because her mother let a white couple adopt her while she was on her death bed. From that point Emma takes you through her trials as she lives a lie.

I really enjoyed the book but as a reviewer the book was out of tune. It started off as Thea story and flash to grandmother story and just left Thea out in the cold until the end. Where Emma wakes up to find Thea and the love of her life grandson standing there. At the end I really had a lot of questions because I was very confused. So this is why I had to rate this book low.

[Monique · Rating 5 out of 5]

Being Black in a White World

Thea Fairbanks got the shock of her life when the doctor informed her about her blood test. Thea was a carrier of the sickle cell trait. After asking her parents, Scott and Tina, if any family members had the disease, they both laughed knowing it was a “colored” disease. You see the Fairbanks were upstanding and respectable members of the “white” community. Thea believes that her grandmother Emerald “Emma” Jackson Fairbanks holds the key to understanding why she has this trait.

Emma is proud of her heritage even though she doesn’t openly express it. At a young age, she was sent to live with the Griffiths because her mother was dying. Emma suffered through many heartaches and years of mental and physical abuse before she learned to live with the hand God had dealt her. Emma knows all the details of their dark family secrets but she may not live long enough to reveal it.

COLORED SUMMER is a dramatic historical romance about how many African Americans lived during the 1950’s and 1960’s. The characters leap from the page causing you to sympathize with their plight and thank God that it wasn’t you. McGriff did her research with this one – she used terminology, dialogue, and believable examples concerning life during the Jim Crow era. COLORED SUMMER is a must read romance that will fill your sunny afternoons with both tears and laughter - both signs of an extraordinary novel.

[Wendy Adams · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. It deals with the intra racial prejudice that people have to endure and they difficult choices that have to make while trying to find their true identity.