Review: improbable plot
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 03 8, 2012
Having visions of the past since childhood, Annie's parents institutionalise her believing her to be bi-polar or schizophrenic. After their death there is no way out for Annie until her trust funds run dry and there is no-one to pay the doctors bills.  Now alone and on the streets Annie has to find a way to survive. After being attacked she meets Maxwell, a vampire and it's not long before the reason for her visions is revealed.......I have recently read a couple of short story compilations by Alex and enjoyed her writing style so had high hopes for this book but was sadly let down. The writing style was totally different in this full length novel than it was in the short stories and I couldn't get to grips with it. The dialogue was unnatural and it made the characters voice irritate me.The story line was an odd one, initially I was grabbed and I couldn't put it down. Annie who had been in a mental institution for years was suddenly on her own on the streets with very little money.  Then she is attacked and rescued by a helpful stranger. After being unconscious for a few days she wakes up in a strange bed in a strange house.......Now this is where it began to lose me.......... She wakes up in a bed and has no idea how she got there, she decides to look around and finds she is alone in a very well furnished but `looks like it's not lived-in' house. She recalls being attacked so surely she would at that point run for the hills before whoever brought her there (maybe the attacker for all she knows) comes back...........But no!!! she looks around and decides she's going to squat there, clean it up and make it her home!!......It made no sense to me...... why would she do that??? Another point that made me go `ugh' was that the place was filled with antiques and even though she's been locked up for years and is still quite a young girl (I can't remember her age) she could spot a `Queen Anne desk' and a `Louis XIV Chaise'! I'm sorry but being able to tell the difference between crystal vases and glass vases or identify antique furniture is not something she could feasibly be able to do from the life she has endured up to now.After that it was a downward spiral for me, I tried my hardest to convince myself the plot was going to improve, I really wanted it to, but it didn't. At the point Annie transformed into Margaret  Ann I was lost and only continued to read because I will always finish a book I'm asked to review. Had the writing flowed better for me I would have rated this higher but I am sorry to say the whole book was a huge let down.Copy supplied for review.