I’ve been neglectful on posting the review to this book, which I finished sometime in early August. I honestly thought I had already posted the review. That’s how “with it” I am these days. Ha! Plus, I’m not really a “book reviewer” but have reviewed a couple of books here lately. *Special note: This book review is unsolicited. I was not given anything for it. I discovered Robin by accident on Instagram and sort of fell in love with her, but not in a weird way. In a “she gets me” kind of way. When I downloaded her book that feeling grew even more. I couldn’t put it down. Well, I did “put it down” because I had to sleep that night, but it was hard to stop reading it once I started.

Anyhow, on to A Long Time Comin‘ by Robin W. Pearson. First, the book description:

To hear Beatrice Agnew tell it, she entered the world with her mouth tightly shut. Just because she finds out she’s dying doesn’t mean she can’t keep it that way. If any of her children have questions about their daddy and the choices she made after he abandoned them, they’d best take it up with Jesus. There’s no room in Granny B’s house for regrets or hand-holding. Or so she thinks.

Her granddaughter, Evelyn Lester, shows up on Beatrice’s doorstep anyway, burdened with her own secret baggage. Determined to help her Granny B mend fences with her far-flung brood, Evelyn turns her grandmother’s heart and home inside out. Evelyn’s meddling uncovers a tucked-away box of old letters, forcing the two women to wrestle with their past and present pain as they confront the truth Beatrice has worked a lifetime to hide.

Now for my review (don’t you like how I’m telling you what’s next, like you can’t figure it out.):


This book ripped my heart out and shoved it back in, battered, bruised but better off than when it first left me. I could relate to Evelyn so much it was scary. I could even, in small ways, relate to Granny B.

The way Robin wove this story, pulling me in as I read, so I felt like I truly knew this family, walked their roads with them, was genius and other worldly.

Ruthena reminded me of people I know and when I read her chapter I had to stop and put the book down and leave it for a day. My heart needed time to recover.

At the end of the book I had to do the same. Good grief – what an emotional roller coaster ride that forced me to look at situations in my own life that I’ve been looking away from and have wanted to run away from.

It forced me to consider grace for those who I don’t believe deserve it, to wish for healing for a family shattered much like Granny B’s family was. In our case that healing can’t come earthside because many of them are gone, but I pray there was some healing I’m unaware of before they passed away.

I’m sure the fact the book took place in my own Mom’s home state of North Carolina helped make it more appealing to me, but where the story takes place doesn’t matter in the long run.

It was who it took place with and who it changes when they read it – because it changed me. Thank you, Robin. I can’t wait for your future books, but this time I’ll know to have the tissues ready.
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If you would like more information on Robin and her books, you can check our her site and her blog. Her next book ‘Til I Want No More is due February 21, 2021 and is already available for preorder.