Review: Professional
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 19, 2012
If you think "romance" equates with those old Harlequins you used to read as a last resort while visiting relatives, think again. This is literary fiction with a romantic theme, character-driven, with lushly-drawn settings. In addition, it's refreshing to pick up a book that you can read without being distracted by typos, grammatical errors, punctuation errors, structural issues, awkward sentences, or misused terminology. "A Sea Change" is professionally done and meticulously proofread. There was a brief spate of misused apostrophes about halfway through, but the good proofreading and editing returned soon thereafter.The settings were well-described and I was able to paint a picture of the seaside community in my mind, complete with walkways, porches, cliffs, beaches, statues, houses, and docks. The first half of the book is excellent, drawing the budding relationship between Maddie and Nick in vivid color, switching between third-person narrative and Maddie's diary to give us some insight into the protagonist's mind and her internal conflicts. The initial coolness and denial of the characters seemed realistic to me, and I enjoyed the growth of both of them as they moved from being bitter and hurt to more fully living their lives. Becky was done well, too; many children are awkwardly portrayed in adult novels, but she's believable and complete. The sex, while there, is not overdone. There are some amusing sub-characters as well, such as the accident-prone neighbor who regularly sets things on fire.Things slowed down a bit in the second half, when the relationship was more established and no longer a tentative beginning. The prose and punctuation continued good; conversation sounded natural; everything was well thought-out and well-crafted. I guess my only issue with this book is that I didn't really buy the drama surrounding Maddie's relationship with her brother. I didn't understand what was so bad about him or why people didn't like him or why Maddie was angry at him or why his relationship with her needed to be kept secret and I didn't really "get" his character. I was a little puzzled by Mary, too; described as wise and almost prescient, but she believes Maddie is a reincarnation of her long-deceased infant and her premonition of something wrong about Danny doesn't seem to come to fruition. She's just rude to him for no apparent reason. I kept expecting some terrible revelation about Danny's past, but it never happened. Foreboding with no fruition.Overall, this is an exceptionally well-crafted book, and should be satisfying to anyone looking for literary romance. I know the characters will stay with me, and if there's more, I'm interested in knowing what happens with them in the future. I think that's one of the marks of a good book; you don't forget the characters, they become a part of your imagination and experience.