Review: Scrambled Family Redemption
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 04 9, 2013
I wanted more and in some ways came away disappointed. The main character, and part of the reason I had problems with the story was there wasn't one. Jake started out to be the star characters, but soon got lost and stayed there way too long. The story is epic and spans over a forty year period. There are nice moments, long sections and some rewarding, redeeming faith-filled episodes. I wanted Jake to do something other than what he did and how he did it. The writing is good, even with the missing or misused words, but the story as a whole wasn't quite whole. On some pages you get sucked into the story but are quickly let down without follow through. I wanted to know the characters more, what made them tick. I know it's hard to write and cover two wives, horrible moments, five boys and one daughter and trouble that goes way beyond the nightmare version that would depress almost everyone if they stood in Jake's shoes. Throughout you question Jake. is he a good or terrible father? What kind of husband is he? Do we ever find out? Later we discover things he did that as a reader I would have wanted to know he did them when they happened. We learn too much from the kids and had we known Jake did such things earlier our opinion of him would have been different. As a faith-based story, it came up a bit short for me and like I said - I wanted more. I'll be interested in reading another book by C.S. Larkin to learn more about her style.