Review: page-turner, in spite of my dislike of the characters
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 10 23, 2012
It's a tribute to the author that I stayed with this novel to the end. I skipped whole pages of description (the wedding is in a house by the ocean; I don't need more). I skipped dialogue that dragged on for too many pages. I speed-read some of the sentimental lines. So much of the plot was contrived and over the top, especially a certain rare disease that only a father can cure. Johnny's first person reports of how many women found him irresistible just grated on me. So did the wildly inconsistent use of punctuation, especially in dialogue. This novel desperately needs a good round of editing and reducing the word count. Deflating Johnny's ego a bit would help, too, but he is what he is, and women love him, and so be it. He had his honorable side, at least. But if he were in a bar telling me this story, I wouldn't believe half of what he said.The invention and the teenage boy in the fix-it shop were the best parts of the novel.Somehow, much as Johnny grated on me, I can't resist the power of a story of first love. For all the sloppiness of the prose and the chest-beating manliness of the narrator, I somehow kept wanting to see this through to the end. The Platinum serial killer had to go down. I never dreamed it would take as long as it did. I'm surprised I stayed with the book, but again, it's a sign the author was doing something right, after all.