From Publishers Weekly
A plethora of social issues smothers an interesting story about an African American counselor struggling with her racial identity who falls in love with a biracial student's father. Persecuted by other blacks for her red hair and light complexion, Patricia Gilbert hesitantly begins an affair with Morgan Baxter, a black man who seems impervious to her concerns. As the relationship develops, a host of problems that involve the sketchily drawn high school students shifts the focus of the story. Despite obligatory love scenes, the romance founders in a sea of societal ills thrown out for the reader's inspection. A fairy-tale ending fails to redeem a promising novel that loses momentum from the sheer drag of too many ideas and too little development. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Significant Others FROM THE PUBLISHER
A Large Print Romance. Patricia Gilbert looks nearly as young as the students she counsels in a Brooklyn high school. And despite her African-American heritage, she also looks white. Kent Baxter is a troubled biracial teen who left his mother's wealthy Colorado family to come to New York to live with his black father--and to find his own identity.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
In The Color of Love and Significant Others, Kitt delved into issues of interracial relationships and biracial children with great sensitivity and understanding. And here she does it again. Dallas Oliver's life looks better from the outside than it does from within. After a childhood spent largely in a middle-class neighborhood in Long Island, New York, she's making her way as a writer and has a successful boyfriend. But the boyfriend is excruciatingly self-involved. He's the kind who, having stood her up for five hours, tells her "I guess I was wrong to think you'd understand what it's like for a black man in this business." Dallas's childhood memories are tainted by racism, including an attempted rape by a neighbor. She was saved then by Alex Marco, and it looks like the Italian-American Alex, now an ex-Navy SEAL, is trying to involve himself in her life again. Alex is a strong, capable and caring hero. He's got his own childhood scars and secrets but they never overwhelm his character. Instead, they add emotional richness to a story of two outsiders both of whom are willing to buck convention for the warmth, patience and understanding of real love. (June)
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