Review: Could use more personality
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 03 26, 2012
This slim volume is a collection of blog-sized essays on a variety of topics with no clear reason for being bundled together. Some are about family, some about being an aspiring romance author, some about this, that, and the other. There's less focus on fiction writing than the subtitle implies, and consistent blandness worked against holding this reader's interest.Ms. Maher is a fine writer, technically, and she has a memoirist's natural gift for a nostalgic moment and a story-teller's eye for detail. (I imagine that her fiction benefits greatly from both those qualities.) Each essay on its own is a nice little piece of writing, but there's not much personality on display here. As a collection, the whole doesn't add up to more than the parts. There's nothing wrong with it, but there's nothing exciting going on here, either.I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my review. I'm left wondering what the point of this collection is, but not curious enough to care about the answer or engaged enough to want to read more from this author.