Review: More prison memoir than romance...
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 03 20, 2012
When I first started reading this book I was really excited. It started out about a young girl facing a 'forbidden' romance with her sexy, slightly older cousin. The fact that he was going away to jail for a few years wasn't enough to keep them apart. I was actually intrigued by the 'taboo' nature of their relationship and anxious to find out what happened next.About 2/3 through the book, the author got really heavy and went from what I thought was going to be a sexy, thought-provoking love story to a very political story about the prison system and those incarcerated in the 70s. I didn't expect half of the book to be about the inmates and this major riot that occurred. I would have loved to have more about the two characters and their relationship....how they rationalized the fact that they were first cousins...why it wasn't a big deal to anyone. Was that just a sign of the times? Was it okay for first cousins to be in love? That was very interesting to me but was somewhat glossed over. It was mentioned often... but NEVER discussed or explained.It's a good book but much more of a historical memoir of this prison riot than a love story. The ending also made me wish there was an epilogue that jumped ahead at least a year or two into the future to tell me 'what happened next'.