Review: An unusual plot that was addictive in parts.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 20, 2014
The start is somewhat unusual, but it did have me intrigued. Justin starts up a night-time café, specially designed for those that can’t sleep, especially him. Battling from insomnia, his idea to open an all night café leads him down a path completely unexpected.When an accident happens at the café, Justin debates on calling on his first customer that offered his ‘services’, claiming to want to support the local community.At first I thought this story was going to be a bit mundane, but there are definitely a lot of twists happening. Customers coming off the street to help fix things, while an attractive woman spends the entire night in the café, but obviously scared of something… or someone.The author has a humorous way of depicting characters and scenes, which lightens up the overall feel of the novel.Not exactly what I would describe as a thriller, but the unusual events and how and why they are all connected is fascinating and keeps me enthralled. I want to read more to find out what exactly is going on.The plot thickens as a death and a threat or warning occurs. There is no indication to what started this; why Justin and his café is being targeted.As the plot progresses, more unusual things take place. Unfortunately the middle of the story slows down. There is the underlying presence of a corrupt person, but the story mainly continues to tell about the different characters that come into the café. I wasn’t sure if they were part of the underlying plot, or just talking about the type of customers that come into the café.Although the main plot is quite good, I think the story perhaps goes for a bit too long. It shouldn’t slow down as much. There is a bit too much focus on what happens at the café, and less exciting events happen.There are some interesting and sad moments. The different characters add another dimension to the story; with another character getting caught up in the mix of a powerful man that thinks he owns everything and everybody. People under his grasp can’t be free, and the one man that could bring him down refuses.Although I connected with the story to begin with, I did fade in and out in the middle of it. It’s not really a mystery, but a bit slow to be a thriller. Some dramatic scenes create a bit more pull from the novel, but they don’t really contribute much to the overall story line; at least that would appear so, but with this novel, appearances can be deceiving.Finally, the pieces start to fall into place. Events start to make sense, unexpected events come into play.The ending does drag a bit, I got the gist of where the author was heading with the ending quite quickly, so the ending could have been a bit shorter just to tighten things up.Overall, a good read which could have benefited from being about a hundred or so pages shorter.3  stars