Review: Great concept and potential for a better story
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 09 3, 2013
This was a hard book to rate. I loved the premise of a family with 5 adopted children from different cultures, raised to be one big happy family, but I was a bit disappointed because the story wasn't what I was expecting.The Title of the story is Accidental Love, so naturally I thought this was a love story, about a couple who "accidentally" met and fell in love. But no, not really. The story begins with one of brothers (Jin) bringing home his fiance to his family, and from there it became more of a cultural lesson as Jin seeks Mei Ling's fathers approval to marry her. Also - the cover image doesn't match the characters the story is focused on.The book is written in the third person and jumps from different points of view. For this book it worked, because it was a very light read and not very in depth. It moved at an accelerated pace and if you're a detail oriented person (like me) you may be a bit disappointed by this because before you can wrap your head around a thought, they're in another country a week later or having another conversation. I wouldn't really class this as a romance novel because it didn't really have any romance in it. There is no character or relationship development and the sum of romance in this book is a kiss in the back seat of a cab and Jin telling her that she takes his breath away. It seemed more instructional on Chinese culture and family values than a romance to me.Another thing that I questioned was how carefree adoption was treated. Mavis talks about her husband going on trips and coming home with a kid. Now I've never adopted a child, but I KNOW adoption is not that easy. The book made it seem like anyone could walk into an orphanage and go home to another country with a child. Then when Jin went back to his adoption agency and asked who brought him there, the agency was all smiles and handing out information. Is it really that easy? Because I also know adoption isn't so open and full of ready information.The last thing I wanted to touch on was the length of the story. Now, I didn't pay for this book, but normally I wouldn't pay $0.99 for a short story. I can buy full length kindle novels for that price. Reviewers are merciless about authors who split their stories into multiple books and charge for each short portion of it, so I will warn purchasers up front - IT'S A SHORT STORY, don't get mad about it AFTER you buy it! And to the author - I would recommend selling it as one whole book to avoid some unnecessary hate mail about price gouging (trust me, it will happen).I was given an ARC copy of this book for an honest review.