Review: Ended too simply with issues unresolved: Feels Unfinished.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 08 27, 2012
I fell in love with the "Queenbee of Bridgeton", what I loved most about the book was when Sonya Garrison looked into Will's soul and told him "You have sad eyes",  and the white flowers that Will always gave Sonya as a token of his love. I was so impatient to learn more about them that I didn't waste any time in buying "The Devil of DiRisio" and that was when my disappointment with the series began to grow. In the latter book, I found myself often impatient with Sonya, for what I saw was her inability to accept some responsibility for her actions, it seemed to me that in her mind, she was always the victim and I had hoped that with the third book in the series, "The Saint of Petersburg", she would begin to own up to her own part in creating the messes which she generally fell into and toughen up a bit.I didn't think that this book did justice to it at all. The book began by Sonya blaming Will for hiding all of Damian Karl's texts to her and manipulating her into marrying him. I would expect that for someone who lives on her own, even though she is still a teenager, Sonya would begin to rely more on her own resources. She leaves him, he is devastated and files for a divorce, she is unresolved and doesn't sign the papers but goes to St. Petersburg in Russia to follow her dream. What I found so maddening was that Sonya didn't decide NOT to sleep with Damian Karl; instead HE rejects HER even though Sonya was perfectly willing to spend the night with him, because, as we later found out, he knew that she was pregnant, even though she didn't at the time.  Here is one more scene, where Sonya plays the victim, "why did he reject me after pursuing me so ardently etc."  I found myself very disappointed in her.  Later in the book when she was getting back with Will she tells him, she couldn't sleep with Damian, I felt that was dishonest, because she was perfectly willing to do so, but that's another example of her not taking responsibility for her actions.Some other juvenile actions, going so far to find her sister only to wind up punching her in the face and declaring that her sister was dead to her, I mean what's up with that? And the main issue that bothered me was why did Sonya give up her dream of dancing in St. Petersburg so easily? I mean, I understand that she felt lonely, and then Will's attempted suicide made her re-evaluate her priorities, and that the reality of St. Petersburg fell very short of her dream.  I even understand why she felt compelled to open up a school for under privileged kids, but I sort of feel that if you have a dream that compels you for most of your life, then you shouldn't give up so easily even when there are obstacles in the way.  I just felt that the book ended with so many things unresolved. To me it feels unfinished and I would welcome a chance to learn more about Will and Sonya's future - with their new baby - and see how everyone ended up.