Review: Lack of communication and self-knowledge
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 04 22, 2014
Jessica is a woman who has indecisiveness pouring out of her in all directions. Her boyfriend cheated on her, so she broke up with him. But she can't help debating whether to give him another chance. To buy herself some time, she goes off to visit an aunt, where she encounters an ex-fiancé from five years before. She doesn't want to face him, either. In between caring for her aunt, feeding her cat, and tele-commuting via her laptop, she frets constantly about Bachelor #1 and Bachelor #2. Since this scenario goes absolutely nowhere for chapter after chapter, a new sub-plot is tossed in - the previous owner of the house died and Jess finds letters to him from an unidentified lover. In true Romanceland fashion, she researches the people and stirs up a hornet's nest. Someone doesn't want her to solve this mystery, and it's obvious who that person is from the moment he's introduced. In the meantime, Bachelor #1 shows up on her doorstep, Bachelor #2 appears to have a new girlfriend, and Jess makes decisions based upon her own jealousy and her perceptions of the bachelors' jealousies. At no time do these people have meaningful conversations. They go out to lunch, to dinner, on a picnic...and the minute a serious thought intrudes, Jess feels unwell and goes to her aunt's to lie down. Having created the scene where clues to the mystery can be found, the aunt is dispensed with by sending her off, first to a hospital and then to a nursing home. Although the characters are at least in their mid-twenties, if not older, the level of maturity doesn't rise above high school crushing. The reader will be irritated even further - if she makes it to the end of the book - by finding that this is only the first in a series and the tale continues its inertia through at least one other volume.