Review: Good work
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 06 18, 2014
I received a copy of this book from NetGalley and am providing an honest review.Hold on Tight was more of a 3.5 star read for me.There were several things that I thought the author did quite well. First, the characters were real. Jake had issues even before he was injured in the war. He ran from his problems and while that's not an admirable trait, it's great to see the author writing characters that aren't instantly perfect.I also liked that this wasn't a case of the mother hiding a pregnancy with some flimsy excuse. She tried to find Jake, but couldn't and she told him as soon as she ran into him for the first time. That was amazing to me. I've read several stories where the father has to arrive to this conclusion on his own after seeing a child that looks like them. But that's not the case with Mira and Jake and that is definitely a plus for me!The main issue I had with this book was that the relationship between Jake and his son seemed to entirely depend on the relationship between Jake and Mira. It seemed that whenever the adults couldn't get their act together, Jake would drop out of his son's life completely. I feel that no matter how the parents feel about each other, the child shouldn't suffer. I felt that even if Jake and Mira weren't so good together, I would have had to route for their relationship just so that their son could spend some time with his father.I also thought that Mira could have given her father a little more credit. Sure, he may have been "overbearing", but there are many parents that hold the beliefs of "if you live under my roof, you live under my rules." They took care of her and her son for nearly eight years. She didn't have to have a job, which meant that they paid for everything. I can't say that I fault him for being overly opinionated about what she did with her life. Is it wrong? Probably. But up until her move across the country for her first job, she wasn't exactly in a position to complain.Overall, though, Hold on Tight was quite enjoyable and I am looking forward to more of Serena Bell's work!