Review: Allegedly

Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson
Grade: C+
Release date: January 24, 2017
An ARC was provided by the author as a giveaway prize. I received no other compensation for this review.
Summary: Mary B. Addison killed a baby.

Allegedly. She didn’t say much in that first interview with detectives, and the media filled in the only blanks that mattered: A white baby had died while under the care of a church-going black woman and her nine-year-old daughter. The public convicted Mary and the jury made it official. But did she do it? She wouldn’t say.

Mary survived six years in baby jail before being dumped in a group home. The house isn’t really “home”—no place where you fear for your life can be considered a home. Home is Ted, who she meets on assignment at a nursing home.

There wasn’t a point to setting the record straight before, but now she’s got Ted—and their unborn child—to think about. When the state threatens to take her baby, Mary must find the voice to fight her past. And her fate lies in the hands of the one person she distrusts the most: her Momma. No one knows the real Momma. But who really knows the real Mary?

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Allegedly is one of those books where I'm having trouble putting my thoughts into words. A lot of the plot was good, but there were several aspects that are just not my thing in novels so I struggled to love Allegedly.
I did really like Mary. She was well-written, and it was clear how she had been shaped by her childhood and having to grow up fast in jail. She had goals and plans for her life.
The other girls at the group home were interesting. I wanted at least one of them to be likable, and I didn't find a single one that I could by the end. There was one I started to like earlier, but her personality went downhill. I loved the lawyer character and the SAT lady (whose names are escaping me, even though I finished the book only two days ago); they were both strong adult presences in Mary's life. I couldn't stand Ted for the life of me, so I didn't enjoy any of his scenes with Mary.
I liked how the plot wrapped up. Looking back on Allegedly, I think all the pieces were there for this to be a good book; it just wasn't entirely for me.
There was a lot of foul language and some sexual content.

The Verdict: Good, really powerful, but I didn't love it.

Buy: Read Between the Lynes  Barnes & Noble

Will I be adding this book to my library?: Probably not.