Review: An extended prologue
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 07 12, 2014
The characterisation and pace are excellent, and the style and execution of the telling are really good, making it an enjoyable read for those who read uncritically. Based on these factors alone the rating would be 5*. The sex was the standard fare for this genre, done well in comparison with some others I’ve reviewed. However, there are a few problems that IMO bring it down to 3* rating.The smallest of the problems is the lack of description of places. I have a clear picture of where the sex happened, but beyond that I know it was a town in Virginia. I’m English and don’t know what towns in Virginia are like; I still don’t.Problem two is that readers might be disappointed when the discover this is not really the novella it is claimed to be; this is really not much more than an extended prologue to the series. We get a lot of back story, setting up the characters ready for the ‘main course’.The last problem I perceive with it comes from being logically-minded, so I noticed the inconsistencies in what we were told. Nina has been responsible for family finances since she was 18, so how come she allowed her husband to rack up $300,000 of debt on their joint account before she noticed something was amiss? At work she closes a deal for a regular client the partners are supposedly scared of, so why, while she was doing that, were they clearing out her office and cancelling the car and phone? Surely they wouldn’t have risked losing a client worth that much money to them by giving that negotiation to someone they didn’t trust? If they did trust her to pull it off, why would they be firing her? Lastly, she’s an estate agent; if anyone should know the benefits of purchasing, and be able to get the best deal when doing so, it should be her, so why is she only renting a property with her husband? It’s not specified that she was renting, but if the mortgage is so far in arrears the bank is going to foreclose, making 3 more payments wouldn’t make any difference.I really enjoyed the writing style, but these holes in the storyline ruined it for me.