Review: Show, Don't Tell
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 01 30, 2014
What an oddly emotionless story. I LOVE an edgy dark romance, but I don't know what this is.  It's not erotica--the sex scenes are ho-hum. It's not romance--the heroine (she's really too passive for that title) has a sexual connection with her kidnapper but it's not a romantic connection.  Is it chick lit? Can't be. We'd have to follow more of her recovery for it to qualify as that. And it's not suspense. The bland style and poor characterization meant I just didn't care what happened to these peeps, although I was able to call it pretty early on.And the worst part is, the author TELLS instead of SHOWS. Supposedly the main character sympathizes with her kidnapper because of his sad and difficult past, she claims they've spent time discussing their lives, but we get hardly ANY of that. We see them watch daytime tv and have remarkably boring Stockholm syndrome sex.  Instead of exploring the real drama (interesting paradox of victim attracted to kidnapper), the author described how other characters--detective, co-worker, and husband--react. And guess how they react? Predictably. Oh no. Where is she. Commence the search.The author tried something brave with this premise but in my opinion, couldn't make it work. Too bad.