Review: Good story but needs polish.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 07 8, 2014
This could have been a 5 star read if not for the grammatical errors, and the fact that the book went in and out of first person to third person. The dialogue was not great either. It was hard to get into the feel of the characters because of the dialogue and the jumping around. An example of what I mean by the dialogue is: "Oh I did not know that you were going to be back so soon."  People don't actually speak like that. They would have said "Oh, I didn't know you was gon be back so soon." Especially in the ghetto where this story is supposed to take place.Dialogue is very important to a story, it gives you a real feel for the characters, you might know someone who talks like that. I didn't get a New York flavor from this book. Even in the movies, people speak according to the speech of that particular culture, area, time, etc. I also think the author might have fared better if she had written in third person.All in all I liked the story, however it was pretty predictable. I'm giving this author another shot, I want to see if things get any better for Nia Chavez in "The Purpose Lies Within."  The authors bio says that she's been writing for 12 years, I'm thinking this was one of her first novels. Keep writing Ms Purpoz, nourish your gift.