Review: Not bad, not great
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 1, 2014
I did enjoy the book and would read another by the author, but there were a few things that bothered me. One of the main character's father was very odd, in a really exaggerated way, and yet she is shocked when at the end of the book someone suggests he may be mildly autistic. Did it really never occur to her before? And I think the description of his possible disease is very simplistic and not all that accurate (he is described as unable to feel any normal emotion and as loving his daughter deeply in one sentence, two things that are contradictory).  Another main character was an actress, and of course they make a point of describing the entertainment industry as dog-eat-dog and super shallow. As someone who works in the industry (behind the scenes) it is not that way, and there is no need to choose between working in this field or living a moral life. I always hate when books create that false dichotomy.  And her love interest comes across to me as manipulative and controlling, and as someone who is only being supportive of her in hopes of getting what he wants.  Not a true friend at all. And the way that yet another main character interacted with her husband was troubling, not just because of her actions but because her husband blew her off and belittled her wants for basically the entire book, and yet is described as being this great and wonderful guy. It didn't read that way to me at all. I guess, overall, that while I enjoyed the writing and I did connect with the characters, there were still a lot of problems I had with their thought processes and the choices they made.  I think the author must just see the world very differently than me, because a lot of behavior I see as unacceptable (the husband's, the controlling love interest's, etc) she actually takes the side of in her writing.