Customer Reviews

Imperfect Past

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Jessica Casavant is one of the few authors I've followed who is able to keep all books in a series interesting. 'Imperfect Past' is the third book in the Boston Friends series. After reading the first two books, I wasn't really sure why this was a series at all -- Casavant had some crossover characters, but the story lines did not intersect. That is also true in this third installment, but her approach has made all the characters more familiar to me; thus giving them more depth and dimensionality. I feel like I know these women.

The back cover of the book insinuates the central plot line is about solving child abduction cases. However, that is an "endcap" to the book (i.e., the book opens and closes with it, but isn't relevant to the story between). The real story centers around Jamie's relationship with her recently-deceased father, her physical magnetism with the prime suspect, and her emotional turmoil when she realizes she's falling in love with her long time best friend. Seemingly a twisted story line, these elements come together into a great story.

Highly recommended. A lesbian classic in the making.

Jessica Casavant has done it again with her latest novel, Imperfect Past. I was impressed with both Twist of Fate and Walking Wounded, Casavant's earlier work. Imperfect Past is the third in a series of novels that focuses on the friendships of a group of women who have been friends for years. The main character in this novel is Jamie, a detective with the Boston PD, who struggles with the realities of doing a job the centers around murder, hate and a miriad of horrible atrocities that life can bestowed on a person. Casavant does a wonderful job portraying the importance of having friendships in our lives during tough times, and gives of a glympse of the fine line some friendships walk between remaining friends or becoming lovers.

The story line was refreshingly different and quite surprising. It was touching how the characters sort of fall into love with each other letting it grow as time passes. The pace was perfect, and although the plot dealt with some serious nefariousness, Casavant did a good job of mixing in humor and light moments without making it seem fake.

There were only a few weak points in the plot that left me wondering, but it was nothing too serious to ruin the story. One point being the mystery involving the killing of the judge. It's confusing how the primary suspect in the murder is confused about identifying another possible suspect. In one instance, she is very sure about the identity of a possible suspect, but seems clueless about the identity of another character inwhich she should be familiar. It's minor; I may have just missed the point there. Casavant's style does utilize sudden jumps in time, often in the middle of a paragraph. For the most part, this helps moves the story along, but sometimes you have to stop and think about what just happened.

I highly recommend reading this book. And I think she hints at another in the series at the end.

This author was accused of plagiarizing all of her books and they were removed from publication. I thought they were good until I found that out.