cover image EX-Terminator: Life After Marriage

EX-Terminator: Life After Marriage

Suzetta Perkins. Strebor Books, $15 (435pp) ISBN 978-1-59309-183-5

When Sylvia St. James, 45, is left by her husband of 20 years, she is shocked and brokenhearted. In an effort to find strength in numbers, she starts an Atlanta support group: five women and one man who share the need to move on from ruined marriages and ""close our Ex-files for good."" The trash talking starts almost immediately-""that woman don't know how to pick a man,"" says 15-years single Arial (who is Sylvia's hairdresser and not a member of the group) of three-time marriage loser Rachel-but so does the affirmation. Perkins (Behind the Veil) moves things along briskly among the six, with new love, inner strength and the power of forgiveness all playing a role-along with their attendant crises and complications. While the characters themselves are thin, their sizings up of one another crackle with energy.