I could never ever write a book, so I have a boatload of admiration and respect for anyone who sits and spills out thousands of words. It must be a lonely, lengthy, tedious task. And some authors do it again and again and again…all for the enjoyment of people like me. It is, therefore, always with a heavy heart when I read the fruits of so much labour…and they just don't make the grade. Sadly, this book falls in to the 'fail' category.
A thin plot didn't help. In a nutshell, Megan meets Jay in the army when she's stationed in Korea. He's engaged to be married. They have an affair. He does get married, they continue the affair. She gets pregnant. All very ordinary, very mundane and done a million times. So you've got make something very ordinary into something special to make it stand out. But the characters are bland, unlikeable…let's face it, Jay was a complete toad. There was no character development, the dialogue was monotonous, forced, wooden. And worse, there was no evidence of any editing: dreadful grammar, spelling, punctuation; poor, immature and repetitive vocabulary (I started screaming at the twenty-fifth use of 'he said laughing'.) There was no comprehension at all of show and tell or head-hopping. It was like reading a twelve-year-old's first attempt at writing.
I struggled with this book after the first 10%. I never give up on a book and laboured right to the end…I thought I owed the author that much…but it didn't improve. The few reviews on Amazon are four or five star: without doubt by friends and family.
My five stars are for the commitment and enthusiasm this author must have had to churn out approximately seventy thousand words. No mean feat and certainly praiseworthy. But no stars for this particular output, I'm afraid.
AMAZON US
(Please note that this book on Amazon is under a different title: My Heart's Journey)
(Please note that this book on Amazon is under a different title: My Heart's Journey)
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