I thought this book would be really good. It has such a refreshing premise, and promises to be rather exciting.
If you skip to about the middle of the book, you get what is promised. The storyline takes forever to get moving. I have lost a loved one, and I completely understand the devastation, the anger, the depression. I also understand there is a difference between how a Christian handles that kind of grief, and how someone who is not a Christian or who has turned their back on God, blaming Him for what happened handles those emotions. It just is not clear at the beginning what kind of person Lynn is to give reason for the way she is handling her grief. She prays on page 3.
However, it only seems an interminable age plowing through those first few chapters, and I found myself not really caring what happened to Lynn or whether Rachel made the right choice between the two men vying for her affections. I felt slightly cheated because the back blurbs held such promise, and the rave reviews from famous people said it was a terrific book. I just didn't find that between the covers of this book.
I think the main reason I felt cheated is because this is a proven author, with several published novels under her belt. Probably, I was looking for something different, and that was my fault, not the author's.
I intensely dislike head-hopping, and there is a LOT of that in this book. Written in 3rd person, the reader can browse through each character's head like browsing at Walmart. Macias uses a technique of allowing the character to tell the reader what she or he is thinking. When done sparingly, and done very well, it can be a powerful tool. I think Marcias over uses it.
In creative writing, we learn to make the characters tell the story, and we show what happens rather than telling what happens. There was a novel I reviewed several years ago that went to the opposite extreme by writing nothing but action, never telling what the characters were thinking, and therefore never head-hopping. It was unusual and unnerving. Macias, on the other hand gives each character a voice by head-hopping frequently, which becomes annoying. In a larger, more detailed work, this would give more room to develop each character. The reader is not given time to come to love the characters; therefore must subsist on the love between mother and daughter, and the two love interests for the daughter.
There are really good parts in the story. The descriptions of small town living, and the cantankerous neighbor who was Lynn's brother's best friend are wonderfully written. However, this book does not make me want to run out about buy up all Kathi Macias' other offerings.
I give it a 1 star out of 5 stars.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Kathi is passionate about The Voice of the Martyrs and Open Doors. To learn more about the persecuted church, please visit VOM’s website and Open Doors Website.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Lynn Myers is still reeling from losing her husband of thirty-five years when word comes that her only sibling, an older brother, has also died. With no one else to settle the estate, she must return to her small hometown of Bloomfield, however briefly, to settle his affairs.
Lynn’s daughter, Rachel, has just graduated from Bible college and with no other commitments comes along to sort through her uncle’s huge old home, right next to the local cemetery.
It isn't long before Rachel has two men -- a handsome CPA and the youth pastor -- seriously vying for her attention. At the same time, Lynn's attention is drawn to a set of journals her brother has left behind detailing a long-standing Bloomfield mystery.
As they pursue solving this mystery, Rachel must make some personal decisions about her future, while Lynn is forced to face unexpected issues from her own past.
If you would like to read the first chapter of Last Chance for Justice, go HERE.
No comments:
Post a Comment