Review: Couldn't finish the book
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 04 9, 2014
First of all, I'd like to say that I don't enjoy writing negative reviews; it takes a lot of courage & hard work to write & publish a book. That said, I couldn't get past 24% of this book, & I pushed myself to get that far. This review only pertains to the portion I read.The first issue I had was the rampant mention of brand names (clothing, electronics, cars, etc.), especially in the first 10-15% of the book. It was beyond the most extreme examples of product placement in movies & TV. I think she was trying to convey the image-consciousness of the characters, but it was annoying.In the Dedication, Ms. Ringham thanks her mother for constantly correcting her grammar. Well, she should have paid better attention. As I plowed through the book the sheer number of errors was distracting, especially when I started highlighting them & making notes. She confused words that sounded similar (consul / console, padded / patted, pack / pact, track / tract, cue / queue, leech / leach, past / passed). Punctuation issues were also common, especially commas & hyphens that were omitted, sometimes confusing the meaning of the sentence. She clearly needs to learn the correct way to use apostrophes. When I gave up at 24% I had made 30 notes -- & I hadn't bothered to highlight or note every error I spotted. I'm not the grammar (or spelling) police, but many of these errors should have been caught before publishing.The book itself was mildly engaging, but sometimes confusing & plodding.  I know errors don't bother everyone, but when I start to focus more on finding errors than on the book, it's time to give up. If I enjoyed the story more, I might have read through to the end.