Review: Good Premise, Poor Execution
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 03 22, 2014
Full disclosure: I was provided with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.The Good News: The author Jasmin Clara seems to have her finger accurately placed on the pulse of single young women faced with the daunting, competitive rituals associated with watching their girl friends get married.  While there is a some angst associated with being the little brown wren in a flock of white-gowned peacocks, there is also quite a lot of humor to be found.  This is what makes the premise of 'A Bride's Guide' so promising.The Bad News: As this book was billed as a romantic comedy, it was my hope that the humor would take center stage.  Unfortunately the opportunity for smart, biting female relationship humor was lost in a sea of clothing and shoes descriptions, unlikely situations, weak character development, and poor writing characterized by awkward sentence structure, questionable capitalization, short, choppy paragraphs and narrative that lacked any kind of coherent flow.  The author's tendency to shy away from non-clothing related descriptive detail and extended dialog left this reader with long passages of 'tell, rather than show.'  All of these deficits could have been cleared up with the efforts of strong editor with a clear sense of coherent storytelling.A Suggestion: The best ideas fail with poor execution which is what I believe happened with 'Bride's Guide.'  I wish Ms. Clara good luck and success in her writing endeavors, but urge her to hook up with a good, tough editor and some honest beta readers.  That way the next good idea may get the success it deserves.