Review: Armature At Best...
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 01 31, 2014
Wow...Let me start off by noting how misleading the sample of this book was. The first chapter was sensational! I mean I couldn't purchase this book fast enough. Somehow after chapter two, however this book took on a rushed, naive, amature tone. Listen, fiction doesn't have to be realistic, hence the genre of location. Yet this story just wasn't working even for a fiction novel.So the fast rundown (I want to try and keep this short)...Characters:Honestly the sample doesn't lie. Looking back what you see is what you get. I guess Alejandro (forgive me if I get character names wrong they left that little of an impression) is supposed to be passionate, intense and direct. Yet that just doesn't get flushed out throughout the story. Bryanna is, I suppose, a dedicated mom, sister and daughter who is great at her job in marketing. BUT we really don't get to see that because her character is just not flushed out enough. Very little of her professional persona is seen. The scenes with her family (who all share a strange geographical location) comes across as flat. Diego is about as surface as you can get. He takes to the hero in a way that I have NEVER seen in any other fictional child character. After one night EVERYONE, and I mean everyone is in love and there's no real reason to develop this because (I suppose) the author just expects the reader to let that fact ride.Plot:Not original. Man has unknown baby. Finds out in a dramatic way, goes to find baby and... This is where this story could have been original, but... because the story was so rushed we don't really get to see this develop. I didn't think this story was a novella so there was plenty of time to flesh this out. Heck I would have even possibly paid for a book two if the author would have taken more time and care. Not everything in this story needed to be resolved in this book. Yes, I believe it is possible for people to fall in love at first, but that doesn't mean their story of falling is contrived and rushed.Potentional Spoilers but important observations:The intimate scenes in this book were... Painfully uncomfortable! If you don't want to commit to what it is and write them, then please go dark screen or close curtain. I'm not a huge fan of these scenes and I don't think they make or break a story. So I would have been fine with the God angle being worked (considering the father's vocation) and us not getting them at all. And my GOODNESS... For the heroine to not be "experienced" at all, the "event" in this book was grossly mishandled. I particularly prefer books that take this direction for the heroine but here it is simply too contrived, rushed and silly. If its a romance book, and you include intimate scenes then please give us romantic, intimate scenes I didn't even read these as they were just too awkward. I do applaud that the scenes were not overly graphic and vulgar. Yet this is probably not so much an intentional thing but rather how all the rest of the book is. Lacking in detail. The only thing in this book with detail is the background to the relationship between the hero and Diego's. Mom.The brother and father knowing the truth that isn't shared with their daughter and sister is laughable. If a Mexican dude in a suit showed up at my sisters house, fell in love with her on sight, lied to her and then wanted to take her away. My black brother and father would not let that fly. When the big secret is revealed it fizzes in a sensational fashion. I mean I think it gets resolved in like less than 2 pages. It's the only reason I kept reading the book.Additionally a man taking to a child so fast like this would raise more concern than what is shown in this book. But because the development is lacking and the writing is rushed, the reader is forced to just go with it.Way too many characters for such a rushed book. The "villain" in the books ends up being weak and pointless. The families, I suppose, should add plot depth and character development, but they just come off as storyline baggage.Conclusion:It was ONLY three dollars and it isn't the WORST book I've ever read. But it wasn't great. Other reviewers seem to love this book. But I just can't figure it... If I didn't read the bio and the end of this book, I would think that the writer was a 15 year old girl who never truly experienced "the first time event", romance and falling in love. You know... it just hit me here but what's missing is passion. No one in this book, not even the writer seemed to have any. It all was so very flat.One of the pros was the editing and grammar of this book. Perfect. No issues at all. Most IR stink at this, bad, but King-Bey nails it. So that's half the battle. This book has solid bones. The skeleton is there, just wish the writer would have put more meat on it.I probably won't read this sister again anytime soon, yet it's not completely out of the question. I do wish King-Bey well in her writing endeavors. Based on this novel, there's no place to go but up!