By Cherise Wolas
Genre Adult Fiction
Format ebook
Rating ⭐️⭐️
Synopsis
A best selling author at the age of twenty one, Joan Ashby has a plan. Don't fall in love and get married and don't have children. Of course life never goes as plans and love and children come into her life taking over and Joan's writing is put on the back burner. Will Joan ever write again? When a horrible truth comes out about her first child Joan must relearn who she is and was to find happiness and fulfillment again.
First Sentence
Joan Ashby was frank with Martin Manning right from the start: "There are two things you should know about me.
I have absolutely know idea why I bought this one last year on a Kindle Daily Deal. Maybe someone was talking about it? (If that's you, raise your hand) Maybe I just thought it sounded interesting. I'm not sure and I'm not sure what made me pick it up when I did but here we are.
This one was a longer book at 550 pages and yet I was quite glued to it. The author did a wonderful job of making me want to follow Joan through her normal, rather boring, day to day life. Of course, things did pick up and get interesting when you learn about her oldest son and what he did but then it kind of fell back into a quiet, unassuming pace that still managed to keep me interested.
I think it helped, that I related to Joan. Not that I'm a great writer and I don't have children but I sometimes get that trapped feeling and it helped me empathize with her. I wanted to see her find herself again and find peace.
What I did NOT like about the story was endless pieces of Joan's writing that was scattered plentifully throughout the book. Joan's "amazing" writing was anything but, in my opinion, and made me want to tear my hair out. I found it incomprehensible and tedious and way, way, WAY too abundant. Seriously! Without all that dribble the book would have been much shorter and much better. I even thought that maybe the writing was supposed to be tied into the story and that it was symbolic but it was far too indecipherable to tell. By the end I was just skipping it all together.
Horrible story excerpts aside, it was a slower but interesting story that I think a lot of women could relate to and appreciate.
I've never heard of this one, but it doesn't sound like it has much going on in the way of plot. The writing excerpts sound ... interesting. Too bad that story device didn't work out too well. Yikes!
ReplyDeleteInteresting is a nice way to put it. ;)
DeleteI think I would have been skipping all her writing pieces, too! :)
ReplyDeleteYeah, it got pretty bad.
DeleteMy heart is breaking! That's two 2-star reads in a row. It's funny you mention not liking the character's writing being part of the story. It was something that I wasn't so fond of in Emergency Contact, and I saw someone else say it took away from Final Draft. Glad it's not only me, who is not a fan.
ReplyDeleteI know! I need a good read!
DeleteMaybe I'll skip this one but that cover is sure eye-catching.
ReplyDeleteIsn’t it?
DeleteInteresting. Nice that the MC was relatable, but I can see where the writing excerpts would get tedious- especially if they're not that compelling!
ReplyDeleteThey were awful.
DeleteInteresting. I wonder why the author chose to make her writing that way and chose to share them so often. Weird.
ReplyDeleteI couldn’t figure it out. Maybe buts and pieces but not that much.
DeleteWhen you skipped those parts did it make it easier enjoy the rest of the story, or were they somewhat relevant? I think I would be annoyed by it even more if they served no purpose.
ReplyDeleteL @ Do You Dog-ear?
It did get better once I started skipping. I’m sure they had some purpose but it was lost on me.
DeleteWow, I can understand not wanting to read her writing throughout the story. That sounds like a bunch of filler to me even if it had been enjoyable writing.
ReplyDeleteIt was a ton of unnecessary filler. Drove me nuts!
DeleteI've never heard of this one, so it wasn't me that recommended it.
ReplyDeleteHa ha! Good. We might have had words. ;)
DeleteI can't decide if I like the cover or hate it. I keep going back and forth.
ReplyDeleteHa ha! I’ve seen other covers too but this one is probably the best.
Delete