Review: Even shorter than last round, but more plot - RETURN TO YOU (Letters to Nowhere #3) by Julie Cross
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 26, 2014
If you follow my reviews, you know I gave the LETTERS TO NOWHERE eBook five stars (and a long list of compliments) and RETURN TO YOU three stars (and much less admiration). For that matter, I've bought my niece a copy of the first LtN for her birthday. That first contemporary YA volume in the series jumped to "my all-time favorites" bookshelf, out of everything I've ever read.Sharing many life events and character traits in common with Karen, I "needed" to find out what happened next in her story. Call it a grief coping mechanism. RETURN TO SENDER prepared me to face that RETURN TO YOU could be even shorter- one-fifth the length of the first of Julie Cross's LtN publications. And it has a few other problems.* The rhythm of the "short story" was off, because Karen isn't writing the diary-like letters in the amount readers would expect, based on the first LtN.* Although one major issue of character growth is present, it is an issue of force in the plot, as well as in the feel of the text.* (The constructive criticism regarding the need for more description during the gymnastic routines is not needed for this book, because Cross provides a vivid play-by-play during gym activities.)Two additions to this book caught my interest. First, the POV switches between Karen and Jordan continue to offer a new depth to the prose. It's one thing to see Jordan from the outside, but it's another to know him from the inside. Second, I like that Karen is acting out. It would drive me crazy as a supervising adult, but I can watch her begin to explore the "real" world for the first time...from the safe distance of my Kindle app. Cross has paced the growing sexual maturity of Karen and Jordan as a couple quite well, and I look forward to find out how they handle all that will face them this summer and beyond.Julie Cross should have stuck to the novel format. Tracking character growth, timelines, and plot intricacies will be more difficult for the reader in the short form. We also tend to get cranky, when we have to keep paying $2.99 again and again. At the date I'm writing this, there's a marked difference between the number of people who reviewed this book for a free copy and those who actually paid for it. Hint? So, going on the premise that a book should tell a story, you might want to wait and buy this installment with later ones in a group (so they'll feel like a novel, when you read them together), or maybe Cross will put a few in an actual  novel after she publishes them this way first.* This book picked up in a spot later than the camp event discussed at the end of the last book. If you're reading #2 and #3 back-to-back, keep the scene jump in mind.Book #1 was:Letters to Nowhere (Letters to Nowhere Part 1)Book #2 was:Return to Sender (Letters to Nowhere Part 2)