Book Review
Title: Prodigal
Author: Samantha M. Sanchez
Genre: Romance/Drama
Rating: *****
Review: So I couldn’t categorize Prodigal into a single genre as it is basically the book version of a TV show like Big Brother but there’s a lot of personal reflection and drama mixed in. Lyric, although that’s not her real name decides to audition for a reality TV show called The Breakfast Club and in return she gets her education paid for as well as a huge amount of money for each episode. After moving into the house we are introduced to the others; Lyric is obviously “The Preacher’s Kid” given her religious family and background although she is trying to distance herself from this, we also have Athena, “The Free Spirit”, the only other female in the house, DeVon, “The Clown”, Anthony, “The Wanna Be”, Monroe, “The Chameleon,” and finally Christopher, “The Musician”. They are all in a similar age range and get on rather well, almost immediately Athena and DeVon pair up, Christopher and Monroe are music bros which leaves Lyric and Anthony as the outsiders but after getting dumped by her boyfriend who is in the Navy, Lyric decides to go out and get wasted with her friends to forget about him. Lyric ends up sleeping with Anthony not once or twice but 6 times which results in her getting pregnant, Anthony then takes a strange personality twist as he has made it clear he doesn’t want to be in a relationship with Lyric at all even if she is pregnant with his child but as soon as Trey “Freakboy” appears on the scene willing to take care of Lyric and her baby he gets all possessive telling her she can’t see anyone else. I like Trey despite his thug nature and looming jail sentence but he genuinely cares for Lyric and she would have been with him before if he hadn’t have gone to jail but she is keeping her baby and is happy to know she has support from those around her.
As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, Halloween is upon them and Lyric goes for her eight week scan but she isn’t getting much support from her housemates other than Athena. Don’t even get me started on Anthony was is the most insensitive person I have ever come across, the only time he shows interest in Lyric or how she is doing is when he wants sex and with Trey out of the picture for now she uses those moments to feel better about herself. However, at the Halloween party Anthony tries to set Lyric up with his “Uncle” and she explodes on him. For a time Anthony and Lyric do attempt to make something work between them because as Thanksgiving and Christmas approaches, things are so bad between them that Lyrics has moved out of her room and into Monroe’s. She forms quite a strong friendship with Monroe and he is one of the only people that genuinely cares about her and not in a sexual way. He even tries to get Anthony to really open up about how he feels about Lyric but it doesn’t work. By the time they are wrapping up filming for Season One Lyric is constantly arguing with Anthony due to his possessive, hot and cold behaviour and even threatens him with violence more than once. As Season one draws to a close, Lyric and Anthony have been offered double money for Season two which both accept but they have also been offered a spin off show, Anthony is all for it but Lyric is hesitant because it is their child’s welfare they are putting at risk instead of their own but Anthony seems to be pressuring her into it because it is thirty thousand an episode.
As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, the relationship between Anthony and Lyric gets even worse when DeVon dumps him on the doorstep of her new home since he is now homeless. Lyric makes it clear that she doesn’t want him there and doesn’t want him anywhere near her but he ends up staying the night and this situation gets worse when Lyric’s mother turns up to Anthony masturbating on the sofa and he tells her he had sex with another girl early that day and now wants to get into bed with her. I have the sinking feeling that this is going to get even worse as her pregnancy progresses and Anthony’s possessive behaviour escalates. After that situation Lyric decides that she isn’t going to name Anthony on the birth certificate of their child and he can jump through the legal hoops if he truly wanted to be a part of the baby’s life knowing full well that Anthony would take the out she has given him but it is taking a large toll on Lyric’s emotional and mental health and I am beginning to seriously worry about her. By Valentine’s day Lyric has found out she is having a baby girl who she wants to called Tiana, and she also confronts Anthony telling him that she wants absolutely nothing to do with him and that she isn’t naming him on the birth certificate which he isn’t happy with but there is nothing he can do at the moment.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, Anthony makes a return again and manipulates Lyric into believing that he really wants to be there for his child when he just wants the money from the spin off series. As Lyric is nearing the end of her pregnancy, Anthony’s possessive behaviour is getting worse and worse, and it ends up getting to the point where she hits him spraining her wrist and ending up in the hospital because she feel. After that Anthony reverts back to his old ways ignoring Lyric completely and when she returns to the house after getting her blood pressure down she turns up to Anthony having sex with another woman and she attacks him smashing a beer bottle over his head before it seems like she goes into early labour. Lyric has indeed gone into labour but despite the best efforts of the hospital staff, Tiana doesn’t survive. In the aftermath, Lyric is deeply depressed and it take her a long time to re-join the show and only with family support. Anthony was kicked out by the other housemates and beat up by someone on the street, which Lyric is happy about. She has also been talking to Trey again and I hope this pair end up together and when she returns to film season 2 she has to be the highest paid member in the show and now her best friend Ruby has also turned up. The best thing about Lyric right now is her tattoo for her daughter and how she has chosen to remember her. Four months on, everything seems to be going back to normal for Lyric, her education is moving along, she is working in the industry she wants to and has even starting seeing a boy named Aaron but what happened between her and Anthony can’t just be erased and Lyric has been left with a new set of insecurities since the death of her daughter.
As we cross into the second half of the novel, her relationship doesn’t work out with Aaron who got back with his ex and the drama with Ruby is stepped up to the max when she leaves Lyric alone with two guys who almost rape her but DeVon, Monroe and Anthony turn up just in time. Ruby is removed from the house and everything is going back to normal when Trey enters the picture again. It turns out he was released from prison in May, got a job but was homeless for a while and has been living with a girl because she believes he is her boyfriend but that isn’t the case. He and Lyric finally get together lie they are supposed to and he doesn’t want to live off her money but they work out an arrangement and he is moving in with her on November the first. When they finally tell each other that they love them it was really nice and Lyric honestly deserved someone who cares about her and I believe that Trey is that guy. Trey is turning out to be the best person in Lyric’s life that isn’t family alongside Athena but that doesn’t diminish the tension and drama inside the house especially with Anthony and DeVon but not even Anthony is stupid enough to go up against Trey. The show offers to pay for Lyric’s birthday party in Vegas and everyone is invited except Anthony but DeVon invites him anyway which causes a lot of drama, I am just glad that Trey is there to support Lyric. She definitely needs this support especially when Anthony gives her a picture of her a week before she lost her daughter as a gift thinking it would make things right between them when it only reopens fresh wounds but Trey and Lyric are a strong couple bringing out the best in each other and holding each other back when they need to.
As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, things begin to heat up again as Lyric learns Trey was living with an old friend of hers and she claims to be pregnant with Trey’s baby but he knows it isn’t true and reassures Lyrics of his faithfulness as they move in together. Lyric’s career is really picking up as she and Trey are offered their own show and they are going to get paid some major money for it as long as she signs on for the 5th and 6th season of the Breakfast Club which she agrees to and it seems like everything Lyric wanted she is finally getting but I am worried this story isn’t going to have a happy ending which is what I want for Lyric after everything she has gone through. As the housemates head to Mexico for the next part of filming, Lyric wants to come home because Trey’s grandmother had a stroke and unfortunately died, but the night before she is due to ask permission to leave Mexico early, Anthony gets really drunk and proposes to Lyric and she obviously turns him down. Anthony just can’t get it through his head that he played a major role in Tiana’s death and that he wasn’t there for Lyric when she needed him and because of that she is never, ever going to forgive him.
As we cross into the final section of the novel, Lyric returns and supports Trey through his grandmother’s death and he ends up telling her about the abuse he suffered as a child as she is the first person he has ever felt safe enough with to discuss it and I know these two are in for the long haul together. Despite where her life is going when she sings in church at her cousin James’ first sermon, she knows that it isn’t going to be his last time in the pulpit or her last time singing in church. Things get more dramatic again when Trey has been doing drugs as well as dealing them in order to keep up with the lifestyle Lyric has been leading which leads to them breaking up because he feels that money is more important than her. In their time apart, Anthony and Lyric are able to repair their relationship to a level where she doesn’t want to kill him all the time and he even shares with her the song he wrote about Tiana. Together they record and for the first time she sees how much Anthony really cared about his daughter and how heartbroken he was when she died, but they don’t get back together even though Anthony still loves her in his own way. Trey does come back, sober, and clean and tells Lyric that she is the most important person in his universe and she will always be and then he proposes. Overall, I wasn’t expecting much from Prodigal but I read it in a single sitting and I don’t think my heart is ever going to heal from the emotional blows this novel dealt me. The only aspect I didn’t really connect with was the religious one as I am not religious myself but I do understand in other cultures, religion can make up a large part of their cultural identity and I am 100% onboard with that. A well-deserved 5 stars, highly recommended.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
I received this book for review consideration from YA Bound Book Tours
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