Review: A Waste of My Time
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 07 28, 2013
Armed with mostly positive reviews, intriguing sample chapters and a non-traditional hero and heroine, I purchased "Heaven" and settled in for what I hoped would be a good experience.  What I got was a confusing poorly executed mishmash that managed to be both frustrating and boring at the same time.Nevaeh is a 17 year old inmate who has spent the last four years in prison.  She is involved with training dogs for the disabled.  She loves and trains Myst, but has to give her to Josh, a disabled vet.  Josh and Nevaeh don't immediately hit is off.  But he sees how much she loves the dog and he decides to befriend her.  The two become friends, then something more as the story progresses.The good points first. I have always loved the theme of friends turning into lovers and I understood that here.  I also love animals, so the inclusion of Myst was a major high point.  Unfortunately, almost everything else sank this book for me.I just didn't like Nevaeh or Josh that much.  I never really connected with these characters at all. They were immature, thoughtless and just sometimes stupid. Is Josh (a person who has had at least 3 DUIs) supposed to be sympathetic?  Also if you are on probation, why would you be smoking weed?  Also, if Nevaeh was in jail since she was 13; wouldn't she have been at a juvenile facility?  I don't think that most jurisdictions place 14 year olds in adult prisons.  Also, once out awaiting word on whether you are going to be tried again, wouldn't you keep your nose clean? Instead of getting drunk (which is illegal at her age) and smoking weed? As you can probably tell, I had a definite problem with the drug use in this book.  It just showed that both Josh and Nevaeh hadn't learned anything to me.There were also several subplots involving murder, rape, attempted murder, racism, drug dealing, ghosts, etc.  I was all just too much.  The only thing not in this book was an alien abduction.  Plus, the going back and forth in time was jarring and a little confusing.  I can keep up with a well-executed plot, but this was just a disorganized jumble. I didn't like it at all."Heaven" was a waste of my time. Instead of the slice of heaven, I got a plate full of mess.