Review: Original way to tell a story
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 04 30, 2014
In The Guestbook, widow Annie Butterworth owns and operates a small guest cottage on her property.  Throughout the story, an eccentric assortment of guests leave their innermost thoughts and feelings in the cottage guest book.  In this original and clever way, Annie's own story unfolds.  I enjoyed the manner in which the story was written.  What prevented me from really embracing this book was the fact that I couldn't prevent myself from constantly disbelieving that someone could write such private things for all to see.  In addition, several of the characters seemed too exaggerated in their personalities.  I also had a difficult time accepting the fact that Annie's love interest was her dead husband's brother.  As much as it was stressed that she really did love her husband, it didn't appear that way in her actions.  I do think that Ms. Martin shows talent as a writer, this story just didn't work for me.