4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Like A Charm, November 28, 2008
This review is from: Like a Charm (Paperback)
A light fun read.
It really felt like an intro to a series with the library being a Portal and all. I would like to see what comes next in this series.
The heroine, Kira, is a high-powered contract attorney who has a mental and physical breakdown when a friend steps off the top of one of Atlanta's high-rises. Her mom, a hippie born too late for the movement, collects her and takes her home to west Texas to recuperate.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
can't waitfor next one, September 22, 2008
This review is from: Like a Charm (Paperback)
I love this book, once i started reading it I couldn't put it down..
I really hope the story continues in the next book soon.
This is a great book...
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Unpleasant, July 10, 2008
Several months ago I crafted a lengthy review for this book. However for some odd reason it didn't go through and it was lost. So here it is again though this time much shorter.
What I noticed most and found tiresome was the issue of the author telling instead of showing. She told us character traits instead of fleshing them out, and in this novel a prime example would be Bronwyn. Kira didn't know her very well at all and yet somehow she could identify and rely on the character's quirks (my memory eludes me but I'm sure it was her being strong headed or brave). Bronwyn was mentioned less than a handful of times and had maybe one significant role in those brief moments. I hardly call this adequate time for Kira to be all kinds of perceptive and savvy about the woman she just met.
Another thing that really bothered me was the fact that Kira hot-footed it out of Sweet because she didn't "fit" in. Over and over the author tells us she didn't quite belong, she was an outcast, her adolescence was a lonely one and so forth and yet when she returns there are a very high number of people welcoming her back and reminiscing fondly of their time with Kira as a child. Very inconsistent and it sort of invalidated Kira to me as a reader, she became a sham. In fact most of her interactions with the towns folk were a transparent convenience for the less than solid plot.
Candace Haven is actually a great story teller. I'm fond of her other series (somewhat companionable to this book). I would recommend those books rather than this one, they are at least coherent. It was an unpleasant experience to slog through this book.
The majority for the one star rating is because I was so frustrated by the lack of continuity and it took much longer to read than it ought to have. I've never been quite as put off by a book as this one, when half way through, when you've invested all this time in the people and place is starts to fall apart.
But that's enough negative.
Some redeeming things:
Caleb is an absolute doll. I really liked reading about him and Kira can actually be quite entertaining with all her lists and such.
The town of Sweet is just that, Sweet. It was probably the most developed thing in this novel just not adequately displayed this time around.
Should there be a sequel I would read it, though hopefully it would be more coherent.
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