Review: Great Message but Falls a Bit Flat
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 06 2, 2013
When I was asked if I'd review this book, I was happy because I've never read Christian fiction before (which is strange for me since I am a Christian). While this book really wasn't for me, I loved the message behind it.The book blurb is spot on on what the book is going to be about. What you read is what you get, I guess you could say.The title of the book is very straight forward. The book is about a widower, and the title says it all. Does the title grab my attention? Not really. Perhaps, maybe, the title could have been a bit more catchy.I think the cover is pretty, but I don't think it suits the book. You don't really get much about the book just from looking at the cover. I would've liked to see Jacob and maybe a ghostly image of Leah on the cover.The world building is quite good. Jacob's grieving was very believable as was everything else that happened. I never found myself questioning the world in which The Widower is set. All my questions were explained throughout the book.The pacing was just too slow throughout the book for my liking. It wasn't painfully slow, but it was slow nonetheless. Mostly, the pages are just filled with Jacob feeling sorry for himself and blaming himself which became rather redundant and boring really fast. This is a short book, and I guess the author wanted to fill up the pages, but I just would've liked to see a bit more than Jacob feeling sorry for himself.The plot is simple. Man loses wife too soon, grieves, starts having feelings for someone else and questions if it's alright o have those feelings. There's no real plot twists or anything, and as I've said with the title and blurb, it's pretty straight forward. The plot does fall short mostly due to the pacing and because all we read about mostly is how Jacob feels sorry for himself. The message behind the plot is a good one though.While I did feel sorry for Jacob, I quickly became annoyed with him after reading over and over how depressed he was. He's too whiney and a bit pitiful. I understand that he is grieving, and luckily, I've never lost someone that close to me, but instead of being interesting, he just became a bit dull after awhile. I enjoyed Bill (Leah's father) and his approach to life. Instead of being depressed, Bill hands over all his worries to God which helps him to move on. I thought Bill gave excellent advice, and most of the time, I couldn't help but smile whenever Bill was around. I enjoyed Kip's outlook on life even though he was faced with the prospect of dying. I also found his innocence to be refreshing. I did like Rachel, but I felt that I didn't know her well enough to love her. I would've liked to read more about her.The dialogue was lacking mainly due to the same things being repeated over and over. Yes, I'm talking about Jacob feeling sorry for himself. However, the dialogue between characters did flow smoothly and never once felt forced. As for language, I don't remember there being any swearing in it.Overall, The Widower by Ryan LaForge has a great message but fails to deliver due to the repetitive nature of its main character.I'm torn with whether or not I'd recommend this book. On one hand, I did enjoy the message, but on the other hand, I just felt that this book fell a bit flat. However, I wouldn't say don't read it. Okay, read it and make your own mind up about it. I'd say this book would be more appealing those aged 20+ although I feel that almost any age could read it if okay to read about death.(I received a free ecopy of this book from the author in exchange for a fair and honest review).(Review can also be found on my blog and Goodreads).