Review: Room for improvement
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 05 24, 2014
Actual rating: 2.5 of 5 starsI did not finish this book, and I’m sorry for that. Most of the writing was fine, but I couldn't get through it.What I liked: The character thoughts were witty, in places. At the beginning, the reader stayed in scene with the character, and the expository details were woven into the action, which was nice. The setup for the story was good, although it was a little unrealistic. The writing started off at a good pace and kept me engaged, although it slowed down as the story progressed.What I didn't like: There were four big issues I had with this story, as far as I read.First, there was A LOT of product placement (places, place names, brands, etc.). Not only are those references ineffective if readers aren't familiar with what's mentioned, but the references were so frequent that they prevented the author from providing descriptions and writing so the reader could SEE where we were, with the character. Show, don’t tell. For example, I’ve been on the subway in New York City. But someone who hasn’t been on the subway, wouldn’t know that you go underground, it’s hot from the moment you get down there, you go through a turnstile where you scan your subway card (and sometimes it doesn't work the first time), you wait on a platform where you can see into the tracks on both sides (which always made me nervous), the subway cars rattle, some subways go through and the air whooshes by (watching them makes me motion sick), and some subways stop and go. Sometimes on the subway there are enough seats, and sometimes the cars are so packed that people are on top of one another. There are an infinite number of setting details that I didn't have the space to write and that the characters could have chosen to focus on. Details like that would have characterized Kate better than me being told about her and, depending on what the she chose, those details would have increased the tension.Second, the writing relied a lot on stereotypes, which I REALLY don't appreciate, since I am a writer and a person. As a writer, I didn’t appreciate all of the rips on authors and the publishing industry. As a person, I understand when characters have certain opinions that I don't agree with, but these views seemed out-of-character, like author-imposed opinions, rather than organic character opinions, and the dependence on stereotypes was offensive and served as a way to avoid describing people as unique individuals. I don’t read books so I can read about stereotypical characters.Third, so many opportunities for details were missed, with the red carpet event, the interviews, the airport travels, the all-day author meetings. Skipping those, and not describing them, took all the fun and tension out of the story. Those are times when things happen, where the story takes place. The scenes started jumping too quickly, and nothing happened.Fourth, the reader was given so many names at the beginning of this story that I didn’t know who was important and who was who. So many possible love interests/conflict-makers were mentioned that I didn't know who to focus on. It's overwhelming for the reader and not interesting because I didn’t care enough about the main character. Along with that, some of the background information seemed irrelevant to the story. And there didn’t seem to be much at stake for Kate; she had a pretty good life, except for a few small mishaps.This review is my personal opinion. And I’d like to suggest to the author a writing exercise: keep the characters in the same place for as long as possible and describe, describe, describe. Describe everything.Despite the problems I had with this book, I hope the author keeps writing because there is a lot of potential and room for improvement.