Review: Pretty good
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 06 15, 2014
Sydney was betrayed by her mother, mated to an abusive man in a clan where patriarchy is taken to new extremes. Most of this is revealed in dialogue, and I have a pretty clear image as to what her life was like.However, I wish the book had started like 2 weeks earlier in the time frame, or more was detailed during the time that Katherine died. I guess my biggest complaint is that this really is a tell not show book. Much is glossed over, and we are told that the three brothers are protective, caring, etc, but while they are all equally concerned about her and display their love, not much is really provided about these heroes. The characters were one dimensional, very cardboard. The moments that are displayed the most are the more menial, and the conflict areas glossed over and hastily remedied.Sydney does not have any hobbies, no quirks to her personality. She is...vanilla, is the only word coming to mind. I liked her, but she had no fire. There was a lot of potential for some character development, and the author did try, but essentially this surmounted to the author telling us how Sydney feels unappreciated, has never been shown affection, and now gets some praise from people. I don't think this is really a length issue, but rather focusing on the wrong areas. I found myself skimming sections that got rather boring.For what it is, it is entertaining. I think the author is a good story teller, and I will watch her work in the future, but for now it is rather rough, and does read as amateur. The beginning reads a bit choppy, but she has moments where it is written quite well. For its price, can surely recommend it, though I can't give it more than 3 stars for missing its mark. Despite my complaint about the choppiness, I really enjoyed the first few chapters. It does go downhill from there, but, still, I have read worse.