Just Like Your Daddy
By d.E. Rogers 

     Just Like Your Daddy is a gripping tale of a man’s struggle to not succumb to the same lifestyle that his father never successfully extricated himself from. It is a story of a boy who grew up with a loving and supportive mother who went through a lot to keep her only son from becoming just like his daddy. The story moved quickly; the years passed it seemed at almost the turn of every page, but at the same time was easily understood and easy to follow. The characters were clearly defined, which aided in such a quick progression. Horatio, the main character in the book, overcame a lot of heartache to become the man his mother worked hard to craft.

     Horatio was named after his grandfather--a staunch Baptist preacher whose daughter became pregnant out of wedlock and moved to Memphis to keep down scandal. Growing up was easy on Horatio, but hard on his mother. She wanted it no other way for her child and worked very hard to support him. She had to contend with a man who didn’t want to be a father, as well as the death of her husband, who was the perfect father. Horatio’s life became difficult when his mother decided that he should forge a relationship with his natural father during his teenage years. Just Like Your Daddy was not used in a complimentary tone at this point.

     Horatio’s life was filled with both happiness and heartache. This book goes through a wide range of emotion, from a lot of the character’s vantage points. I read the book in one sitting. It moved fast enough to keep my interest and I genuinely wanted to find out about Horatio’s life and the affects, both positive and negative, the cliché of being just like your daddy had on a man. While the writing could have been better and some parts could have used more detail, overall this is a book well worth your time to read.