Review: good story
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 02 26, 2014
The Dreaming Billabong series is described as a saga of crime, mystery, resilience, romance and, of course, Australia. For those not interested in the entire series, I’m glad that the author treats each book as a standalone. That said, it’s not my cup of tea, so to speak. As backgrounder about me, I have a chronic pain condition and I am OFTEN and I mean often in search of distractions to take my mind off the current pain throbbing away at me. I’ve found that reading is an easy alternative as I can set myself up to where there’s minimal movement and aggravation. That said, on really bad days, I can pour through anywhere from three to five novels. I am a voracious reader. So, I need my reading material to hold my attention and away from other throbbing/pounding/shooting/sizzling things making themselves known on my body. This particular volume didn’t do it for me.But…and I’m serious when I say this, this is an excellent story. The author does an amazing job of putting us in a timeline and place without giving us the travel brochure overview. She walks us through the town and the people as we would see them if we were there. Her character development is clear, as their histories, medical conditions, emotional status and even how quickly they judge another based on color of skin or financial status (as in poor) slowly unfold before us. On more than one occasion, I caught myself saying, ‘aha’ or ‘hmmm’, as a tidbit about a particular character unfolded. The intrigue, the mysteries are not told to us by some omniscient narrator, we find them out slowly.I think that as the series continues, I may pick up interest in it, as I do like the characters. And I definitely recommend it to others. There were a few proofreading/editing issues (ch 12 was a bit dodgy with the errors), but they were minor and did not detract from the story.