Review: Beautiful Story, Too Many Holes in the Plot
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 09 27, 2012
A beautiful story that brings out the best and arguably some of the worst qualities of the romance genre, "Running from Fate" follows Mira Sweeney Anders and James Kelly, childhood sweethearts who by a cruel twist of fate were separated.Now, both grown and well-respected in their chosen careers, they met again but under false pretenses on Mira's side. Though Mira knew who James is; James had forgotten her. Can their love be rekindled in the dog-eat-dog architectural world that they live in?I truly enjoyed the book. It is well put-together, no grammatical errors execept for the "intentional" ones to show the character's ethnicity. Then, at first glance, the editing seem very good but by the time I reached the ending, I began to wonder if the holes in the storyline was because certain chapters were eliminated to be within the required word count.I'll clarify that statement but there will be ***SPOILERS*** so, if you don't want to see it, please stop reading here. Here goes:First - how can James NOT RECOGNIZE Mira at all? Okay, Mira might be pudgy or on the heavy side when she was younger. But she was already a teen the last time they saw each other. But, Mira was not grossly obese or anything like that wherein her bone structure was hidden. She might be a bit overweight. So, even when she lost her baby fat, it would have not changed her facial features at all.Plus, Mira is not a common name. It's not exotic, but it is not a popular girl's name like Michelle or Marie. So, when Mira applied for a job even with her married name Anders, James should have thought of Mira, the girl from his childhood who adored him. And since they were also very close, chances are James also knew Mira's middle name which is usually disclosed in employment application forms.Alright, James might want to forget his past. After being accused of murder in Boston and his hatred of his own father Patrick, he might have had selective amnesia. I'm giving the author the benefit of the doubt and say that perhaps it was explained in the original writing but was deleted during editing. But, this gives a huge hole in the plot.The gap between Patrick and James - there is animosity between father and son, mostly on James' side. But it was never explained except that Patrick gambled. But, that is not reason enough for James to hate his father with a passion. This is another hole in the plot. This side plot was glossed over though it was actually important.The close relationship between Patrick and Mira - Why is Patrick an honorary godfather to Mira? How close was Patrick to Mira's father?Mitchell Haines - Though he was mentioned early on in the book, and his reappearance was sort of expected, his connection with Mira from childhood was tenaciously explained. It just came out from left field.This is romantic suspense; and the book gave it to us. But then again, this could have been better if the author tied up loose ends instead of leaving them as gaping holes in the plot.And this is the reason why I'm giving the book 3 stars instead of 5. This book is PG 15 due to some sex scenes and violence.