Review: Some flaws, but a fun read!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 3, 2013
March 2014 Update: I hear there's a brandspanking new second edition in circulation now, and that some or all of my original review may not apply to the new edition, since Sanctuary has undergone some rewrites. I hope to give the new version a peek when I have the time, but that could be a while. This review is for the original edition, not the second edition.Aside from some rough spots in the writing (Using the passive voice really excessively, the very occasional typo or error, or dialogue that felt stilted because of the passive voice or because it made the character too transparent by telling something transparently, rather than sketching the overall picture.), this was a pretty fun read. I enjoyed the beginning moreso than the end, because of the humor underlying the romance or drama.There were a few elements to the tone that felt mismatched. The beginning of the book was fairly flirtatious and sexual, and much lighter in tone and content the latter half of the book. I didn't mind it, but it did amplify some spots where the pacing felt rushed or transparent. It felt like Smith-Wild was trying to work in too many themes or ideas to give any of them the detail and time they needed to be fully realized. So some characters (such as Grunge/Georgina) or plot lines (Mary's arc during the last act) suffered, as they went through substantial changes without really having much screen-time to show reason, reaction, or nuance, or as they had to react too fast to give it the depth of their earlier arcs. Even the main character, Ben, lost a lot of depth in the last act, because Smith-Wild was focusing on the subplots around him. Towards the end, Ben seemed to be basically a hero-man standee, rather than a flawed but good-hearted individual, as he was in the beginning.The last act felt rushed, compared to the pacing of the first 2/3 of the book. It also meant that the ending wasn't entirely satisfying, since it was clear that we were seguing directly into the next book, without a real pause. Despite the uneven spots in the pacing, the characters were well fleshed out and well written, though sometimes Smith-Wild veered fairly far into the whole "showing" end of the "showing vs. telling" writers' dilemma.My favorite things in Sanctuary were the humor and the crisp details of the French lifestyle. There were a few spots where there was a language barrier, where something provided something in French and no translation was provided, and it was difficult to deduce from the surrounding scene what meaning was intended. I'm awful with foreign languages though, and I tried to channel the feeling of confusion into the main character, who seemed to feel similarly, when he was not using those foreign phrases.There were a fair amount of those little flaws, but the overall book was entertaining, humorous, and the characters had enough nuance to engage with. The beginning of Mary's relationship with Donald going south was particularly well done, and the starts of emotional abuse are often hard to get across with readers who have little experience with it. It's easy to say "Urgh. Why doesn't she argue back?" when it's poorly written or fleshed out, and Smith-Wild did an excellent job of showing those early stages in a relatable manner. I kind of worry that he'll become a bit too cartoonish in the sequel; he seemed to be heading that way, and it would be a shame to spoil the excellent and realistic beginnings of his unhealthy character.