Grace Octavia

My sister picked this book up first and I though it sounds interesting and it didn’t appear to be one of those drama for drama’s sake books. Plus the author is attending my Alma Mater, so I had to support Ms. Octavia.

Should have Known Better introduces us to Dawn Johnson a devoted wife, mother and librarian living in Augusta, GA. Dawn exemplifies the working mom struggle which is increased by the fact that her son, has Autism. One day she gets a call from a her old college roommate who is in town for a conference and wants to come hang out like old times. Sasha is Dawn’s sorority sister and once best friend who is now an acclaimed journalist living the fast life in the Atl. While Dawn is excited, she also has some reservations about Sasha coming to visit because she knows that Sasha has never approved of her relationship/marriage to her husband Reginald a blue collar worker who never finished college. Reginald has his own issue with Sasha and her BUPPIE lifestyle. Putting all that aside, Sasha comes to visit and after she and Regional initially but heads, things soon swing quickly in the other direction. Dawn is never able to put her hands on it, but she sees things changing and her gut tells her that Sasha is desperate for a man and a baby and will do anything to get it.
The story reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend recently. I wanted to visit her and her family in their new military duty station( which for reference was outside the continental U.S.). During the planning process she told me that she would was fine with me staying with her. I remember being taken aback because the only way I could afford this trip was because I didn’t budget a hotel. My friend went on to explain that her mother had warned her not to have her friends staying in her house with her husband unless she could trust them( no clarification on if them included the husband). Apparently, I had made the cut, but many others had not and it caused a riff in the friendships. That conversation stayed with me for years and pops in my head from time to time. After reading this book, I wonder if Dawn could have benefited from a similar conversation.

I really wanted to like Dawn, but I had trouble with the plot. It’s completely plausible, but Dawn was just so slow to act and clueless it was annoying. Now we have all been in a situation where our gut tells us one thing, but the way Dawn took a back seat was just annoying.
I really enjoyed the writing, and the way that Ms. Octavia addressed some really big A’s- Adultery, Alcoholism and Autism and because of her smooth writing, I kept reading even if I didn’t really connect with Dawn and wanted to reach into the book and shake her. Sometimes the sequence of events just seemed over the top and the ending was pretty abrupt which I guess means we can anticipate a sequel. I know love and lust are crazy things, but Sasha and Reginald just seemed far-fetched. Had it not been for the great writing, I probably would have given up on the book halfway through, but the writing flowed so well, it was easy to just keep going.
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