Just Too Good to Be True

A Novel

By: E. Lynn Harris

Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo, Bahni Turpin, Mirron Willis

Harris serves up a treat that will capture and enchant audiences everywhere - a big, bold, and irresistible novel about football, family, and secrets.

Brady Bledsoe and his mother, Carmyn, have a strong relationship. A single mother, faithful churchgoer, and the owner of several successful Atlanta beauty salons, Carmyn has devoted herself to her son and his dream of becoming a professional football player. Brady has always followed her lead, including becoming a member of the church's "Celibacy Circle". Now in his senior year at college, the smart, and very handsome Brady is a lead contender for the Heisman Trophy and a spot in the NFL.

As sports agents hover around Brady, Barrett, a beautiful and charming cheerleader, sets her mind on tempting the celibate Brady and getting a piece of his multimillion-dollar future - but is that all she wants from him, and is she acting alone?

Carmyn is determined to protect her son. She's also determined to protect the secret she's kept from Brady his whole life. As things heat up on campus and Carmyn and Brady's idyllic relationship starts to crumble, mother and son begin to wonder about the other - are you just too good to be true?

A sweeping novel about mothers and sons, football and beauty shops, secrets and lies, Just Too Good to Be True has all the ingredients that have made E. Lynn Harris a best-selling author: family, friendship, faith, and love.

©2008 E. Lynn Harris (P)2008 Random House, Inc.

Great read from start to finish!!

Where does Just Too Good to Be True rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I first read this book about 7-10 years ago. It was such an amazing read I finished it within a weekend. I locked myself in the bathroom sank in the tub and injected myself in the book like an invisible character.
This Audible version is amazing!! I was able to feel every character’s emotions as if I were right there with them. Great production!!

What did you like best about this story?

Never a dull moment

Which character – as performed by the narrators – was your favorite?

The villainess Barrett/Raquel

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes! However, I dragged it out so my work day would be more enjoyable.

Any additional comments?

Enjoy!! Just like all his other books this one is an amazingly exciting read.

good read

loved listening to this book, it kept my interest from beginning to the end.

Entertaining Journey

E. Lynn Harris has a formula for writing that always seems to work and is fairly predictable! I suppose he sticks to the adage, if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

It is a story of a young man, his mother's love and her secrets, a deceitful woman, and a number of good men! As predicted, the book will make you laugh, sigh, think and remember (if you ever were in college).

The story is told with 3 narrators, 2 are women and the only down side for me, was the male narrator who attempted to produce a southern male voice. At the beginning, his interpretation was awful! The male narrator sounded more like a antebellum southern slave, who makes attempts to speak like a 1870's white southerner! It was quite obviously fake and this made it quite annoying. I wondered why the producer of the audio did not find an authentic southern male narrator instead of selecting someone who did not have a natural southern accent. I almost gave up on the book within the first couple of chapters. However, eventually the male narrator gave up the pretense and used a more natural college aged male voice and it flowed much better, was more believable.

The story itself has enough twists to keep you listening and reacting as a good story book should. All in all, not Mr. Harris' best, but not his worst either!

Too Many Characters

It was okay. Personally, I wouldn't recommend it. I feel it was poorly written, but the narrators made it more tolerable. It was too predictable also.🤷🏾‍♀️ I'm just glad I finished the book in time for book club.

It is a nice story…

It is a nice story… but was a bit “PG-13” for this author in my opinion. 🤷🏾‍♂️

Overall great book. Disappointed in presentation.

I didn't like how the three narrators read like three totally different personas. I felt like each changed the roles. One would read Brady one way and the other another. It kind of took away from getting into the story and changed the way you understood and felt about a character to the point of frustration. Especially with May Jean. All 3 narrators had a different presentation of May Jean and I did not like that. Overall story was great. Wish there was more developed after Brady graduated. I felt like it was a bit rushed just to finish the book. I hope there's a sequel well worth listening to.

WRONG VOICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This book is a good read but the only thing that I had to get use to was the main characters voice. His voice sounded to much like a dumb country boy that didn't know right from wrong, and his voice sounded more of a older man like a father figure than a young college student. If u can get pass the male voice, it is a pretty good book to listen to.

Great Story

wonderful book about hypocrisy, judgement, lies & forgiveness. The characters are relatable and it's an easy read.

"Entertaining"

Not one of his best but entertaining nonetheless, less gay charicters and a little more coniving and shallow charicters but I always enjoy his style of writing and knowledge of the African American Community

Not too good to be true…Was really good!

Great story with fair amount of plot twist, with very well developed characters telling an age old story.