Review: Missed the Mark for Me
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 01 21, 2013
Sylvia Gardner comes from a typical dysfunctional family. Absent father and an abusive mother with men issues she projects on her daughter. After Sylvia is dumped by her very first boyfriend she becomes fixated on a much older British actor. For two years she researches the actor intensely and then takes off for the small village in England where she believes he lives. She is hoping to meet the actor and fall in love and live happily ever after. Things don't go exactly as she had planned.I had issues with this story on so many levels. I just can't imagine a shy girl from Illinois  just packing up, taking off to track down a man she has only seen on television. She can barely communicate with her peers but she is going to win over this much older man.All the characters have monumental issues. The actor's career is going nowhere. The owner of the hotel where she stays in England is a drunk and a real pig, I understand why his wife left him. The barmaid who went to college and can only finding a job tending bar and she is living a very risky life.The end of the story was the best part as we meet a mature Sylvia. A Sylvia with confidence. A Sylvia who can stand on her own but then while the ending was a happy one for her it left me really disappointed.I did enjoy the descriptions of quaint English village. The snow falling, the pubs, and the homes. But the rest of the story just missed the mark for me.