Review: Solid Story
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 10 26, 2012
A Quick SynopsisThe book started well enough but the story just unraveled at the end with too many things being thrown into it. It was not a neat and tidy conclusion but a decent and fairly quick read.More Details...After very difficult formative years, Dani, a naive eighteen year old, lands in Vegas with her foster brother. Their stint in Vegas spirals downhill causing her to be strung out on coke and homeless. Trying to support herself, Dani beats the pavement looking for work and goes to the Winner Takes All Casino to use its nicer restroom facilities. Because she did that particular practice more than occasionally, she made friends with one of the bathroom attendants, Nola. Dani and Nola strike a fast friendship and Nola allows Dani liberties that she wouldn't allow other patrons of the casino -- she allows her to sleep on the chaise lounge in the restroom. On one such occasion, Dani's respite is short-lived and she comes to the attention of other hotel staff members which takes her on a whirlwind encounter with the enigmatic Al Scaletti. Scaletti is still mourning the death of his wife, Clarice, who he lost to breast cancer at twenty-five years old. Dani bears a strong likeness to Clarise so she comes to the immediate attention of those closest to Al who view her as answer to getting Al back into the dating game. Dani's like goes full throttle and she becomes a showgirl at the hotel because of her beauty and the premier showgirl because of her skill. From there the story really begins...To me, this story felt very The Sopranos meets As the World Turns. There were very strong mob/mob-like inferences, especially with Al's father Sal being a made man. However, the juxtaposition between the two didn't connect for me.Also, I had a problem with the fact that the reader doesn't know when the story occurs. My assumption was that it occurred in the present because Kim was taking classes online and that is a fairly recent (mainstream) practice. However, the character dialogue speech, specifically Kim's, is at odds with what appears to be a story set in the present as well as her age (since the reader is to assume that she is fairly young to be a Vegas dancer). Kim refers to Al as a stud-muffin in one instance. And then in another she refers to a club as a happening place. The dialogue was also a bit quirky in places where it didn't flow seamlessly between the characters.Additionally, I found it challenging to believe that Dani was a virgin, one who was almost sexually assaulted in her youth, and her first intimate encounter with Al ended with her begging him to finger her. It was just a hard pill to swallow, especially when Dani was still obviously and severely traumatized by the near assault. Her actions didn't match the story foundation laid by Ms. Fornataro.I also found it odd that no other mention was made of Dani's coke habit. It was mentioned came up but never again within the story. Cocaine is very additive so the fact that Dani didn't go through withdrawals or crave more.So now to the ending. *Sigh* Despite the aforementioned comments, the book was about a 4 star read up until the ending. However, the ending caused me to have a series of no so positive reactions ranging from:‣ a confused head scratch‣ to a vocalized, what the heck?!?!?‣ and then a I just don't even believe that!The last 10% of the story yielded a surprise older sister. There was one mention of Al having his men look further into Dani's background. However, the reader assumes that that was sort of an honorable-mention because it never came back up again...until the very end. And the insertion of Olivia, Dani's sister was a haphazard insertion that made me go back a page flip on my Kindle to see if I had skip forward a few pages and didn't realize it. But alas, it was not so. Olivia was just plopped into the story.The reader is again taken by surprise when Dani turns up engaged. Again, I am confused because we don't read about Al asking Dani to marry him...she just turns up engaged.And the piece of the ending that had me really shaking my head was Dani "speaking to the heart" of an armed robber which caused him to give himself up. It was another unbelievable and fairly artificial element to the story.The ending just felt contrived and forced. Honestly, if a bit less time was spent on other elements of the story (like Dani's sleepwalking and nightmares) and more to the ending, the story would have had a better balance and ended with a solid 4 star rating. But, as it was, it was a decent read.