Review: Needed Editing but Worth the Read
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 10 5, 2013
Vince Glasser's first wife had divorced him for his dedication to his job where he heads a team of federal agents, but she's later killed in a traffic accident, leaving him to care for their young son, Charlie with the help of Jenna, her sister. When he is shot on the job, his partner, Angela Hawkins, saves his life. He and Angela have always been great friends, but he won't let them be anything more, because he has too much on his plate, and he's already failed once. Then, he is diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer, and his whole world is turned upside down.Angela has been in love with Vince for a long time, but he's her boss, so she manages to keep everything on a friendship basis. When he resigns for health reasons, it changes everything. Does he have deep feelings for her, too? His eyes say yes.This book has many minor mistakes. At first there were abrupt point of view changes with no indication, and the story is very repetitive. The same things are explained over and over. There was too much smirking, and Vince was called Hutch once. I don't think a normal kid going into the second grade would ask for help to "go potty." If he grieved and did so from insecurity, he would say use the bathroom or restroom from going to school. There were also several awkward sentences, like "Vince followed to Jenna their regular pew the next morning," "...even Fitz hardly rarely to see him anymore," "...didn't see could at the moment...," and "Then she's going to clean him up and me change him into some clean clothes." "New" was used for "knew," "he" for "she," "aid" for "added," "her" for "our," "se" for "she," "hart" for "heart," "was" for "wasn't," "as" for "ask," and "now" for "know." "He'll will have" and "I'd've" were also incorrect.The biggest problem was the agonizing over, second guessing, and questioning every decision. Instead of enjoying what life they had left together, the couple, especially Vince, made the difficult situation so much worse. Some of this was reasonable, but not so much of it. The only time I saw any real joy was briefly when they were in Florida. In addition, at 802 pages, the novel was much too long. It was interesting, but it needed to be edited down, the repetitions taken out, and the rambling thoughts firmed up. In places it just plain dragged. At 60% I was tired of it, but I read on to see how it would play out. On the positive side, this was a heart-felt story of a man struggling with his last seven months to live. It is tender, sweet, gut-wrenching, and emotional. I liked it, but I'd have loved it if it had been tighter written. Still, I feel it was definitely worth my time, and the characters and their story will stay with me.