Colored Lily:Poppa Took My Innocence (the prequel to the debut novel SECRET) What would a daughter want more from her father than his love? However, in a rural town, a teenage girl called by the name of Jocie, finds out how the love she once adored from her poppa can become twisted and feel so much like hatred, causing hell-grown wounds. Going on a search for the love that she yearns so deeply, Jocie winds up with worse than she bargained for, and without an escape, ends up in the midst of death, darkness, and a cold conception while gripping the darkest secret that only God in heaven can know and forgive! It all started when her poppa took her to visit a friend of his. She never had any reason to not trust her father until he passed her over to his friend like she was a piece of meat. It was her training to be a woman. Her poppa passed her along from this man to that one until ultimately her poppa forced her into something so horrible that it took the life of the one she loved the most! Next, read the third and final book of this novel series titled PATON, the story of Jocelyn's father! Jocelyn, commonly called Jocie by her family, grows up in a small household consisting of Momma, Poppa, brother Junior, and herself. Her best friend is Cousin Lily, whose mother is dying of stomach cancer, and her confidant is her grandfather, whose grave she visits as often as possible to tell him everything about her life. Only there does she feel she wins the respect and love a girl child ought to receive from her father. Certainly Jocie doesn't find that at home, for her biological Poppa is next thing to a monster. Strictly speaking, he wasn't her first encounter, but he orchestrated it, and from that time of age six Jocie's life became a living hell on earth. She never trusted him again nor could she find any male trustworthy other than her deceased grandpoppa, whom she never knew, and her sly and thieving but still lovable brother Junior. Colored Lily is a difficult and painful book to read. The reader will find herself determined to reach through the pages of the book and give the villains what-for and what they deserve; the story is that realistic and lifelike and vivid. Like Secret, of which Colored Lily is the prequel, no reader can come away from this book without being touched as deeply as possible. For those who have lived through ugly childhoods, memories will be awakened; for those who have been blessed not to live those situations, heartstrings will be tugged. But readers everywhere will find themselves praying for children who do undergo such sufferings and torment. Mirika Mayo Cornelius is truly a gifted author who proves her talent again and again. This reviewer can't wait to read her next offering. ----Annie Haws of Euro-Reviews 1/2007-5 STARS EXCELLENT --Annie Haws of Euro Reviews (The first page intro) The first time he touched me, I don't remember, but it was when I was in the middle of the rug on the floor in between my momma's legs. There was a lady there pulling me out of her while poppa stood over us and watched. Momma was screaming and groaning pushing me out. That's when the lady trying to pull me out of momma had to hurry up and take that cord from around my neck before I died all the way. I still don't know who that lady was. She died soon after I was born I was told. Poppa then went to put his body up under momma's head to make her relax a little bit more. She'd already passed out one time, and he didn't want her to do it again, I suppose. I would've probably died for sure if she'd had to done that with the cord being wrapped around my throat. When I came all the way out, legs and all, the lady wiped me off and handed me over to poppa so she could tend to momma. He held me up to his nose and smelled me. Held me up to his lips, kissed me. Then, he tapped my back side. He believed that the first beating you give a baby lasts the longest, and the baby will somehow always remember that beating even though it was one tap and not meant to hurt too bad but only hurt enough though...just enough to make it cry. It's this beating that will keep the baby on the path you want it on. It's the beating for being born, and it'll keep you out of the bad path as long as you don't raise up at the person who gives it to you. That's what poppa knew. That's what he still believes. Guess that's why it was hard for me to stray his way. Momma knew different. She prayed. She still prays to the Lord, not believing in fairies nor their tales. I didn't know whose side to take being that I was just getting here. I listened to both...what momma said and what daddy said. Of course, all of that stuff about my near dying at my birth, I don't remember any of it, but I know it's the truth. Momma and poppa. . . both of them told me. It was the same story, and since the stories were the same, I couldn't pick out the liar. Now that I think about it, I probably didn't know there could be one living in my momma or my popp