Review: Frustration ...
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 28, 2014
Some things in a novel are more easily forgiven. A typo is easily overlooked. Even a slip occasionally with word choice can be nothing if the story is working. This book had three of my biggest pet peeves all in one package. 1). The use of third person in a narrative to me is just so cold and awkward that I cannot feel at one with the characters or what they're up to. But I went onward with the story to see if that was my only issue with the story. It wasn't. 2). The main character was not to my taste, nor were any of the others except perhaps the male protagonist. He had his moments when I actually felt something for him ... pity for having such a lot of ex-girlfriends and such a manipulative grandmother (and not in the nice way), or sympathy for not getting lucky with anyone on the page who deserved him, but still ... Those qualify as feelings. 3). The unforgivable sin in this book was what I like to call the "Mrs. Radcliffe Plot!" This book could have been a funny whirlwind of mistaken situation, silly strategy, or even just a story about how business relationships turn to love in a very romantic and natural way. But this romp was full of too many harrowing twists and villains. By the end I expected the female character lead to be hanging by her fingertips on the precipice of a cliff or perhaps to be naked and at the will of a third or fourth would-be rapist trying to get to her virginal goods. I mean, it was bad enough she was spineless and simpering and all...but there were too many bitches in this book anyhow so perhaps the chaste and wimpy heroine was supposed to act as ballast?I'm sorry I could not like this book. I'm not disparaging the grammar or the syntax. It was, for the most part, cleanly written. But as to taste, this book and I just did not suit. And I could probably have given it two stars but I'm just not that cold when it's a matter of taste more than anything from which stems my dislike. If you like extra drama, over-dramatic heroines, hints and nudity but no actual sex scenes, and unbelievable and untrustworthy characters, this is a book for you, not me.