1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
I Just Don't Get It, August 16, 2011
I don't know how to describe this story. It read like somebody's first draft instead of a completed novel.
From what I can gather, Caroline is from the upper class, Jack Fitzgerald is from the wrong side of the tracks with an alcoholic father who left and a mother who couldn't cope so she turned to prescription meds. However, the two met and fell in love despite there being a money divide. Caroline's father insisted that she not have anything to do with Jack, but she sneaks around with Jack behind her father's back and at 17 she finds out that she's pregnant. Her father forces her to have an abortion.
She tells Jack about the abortion but not about the fact that her father forced her to do it. He thinks she did it because he wasn't good enough for her. So he tells her he hates her, tells her that he never wants to see her again and leaves town vowing to make something of himself so that no one can ever look down their noses at him again. The entire story actually takes place 17 years later (when Caroline is 34 and Jack is 37) when Jack returns to the village to repurchase and renovate the home he grew up in (but was evicted from). Jack still despises Caroline for having the abortion and Caroline is still feeling guilty that she went through with it.
The synopsis for this story actually sounds good. It should have had a lot of angst, emotion, forgiveness, and redemption. What failed was the execution of the idea. It came across more irritating than intense. And there was a secondary character (Nicholas) who seemed completely superfluous to the plot. I kept waiting for his existence to have a point, but aside from making Jack jealous and creeping out the reader, he seemed to only be there so that the book could have more than 2 people.
The over use of italics was also another irritant. It doesn't seem like a big deal, but it's like that annoying person who writes all his email correspondence in capital letters. This book was non-stop in italics. I kept wondering, where was the editor?
In my opinion, this book isn't worth the time it takes to read it. Give this one a pass.
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1.0 out of 5 stars
Character development lacking, March 28, 2011
This is supposed to be the story if high school sweethearts. They ended badly and re-connect 17 years later.
Instead this book over uses italics and preaches. It is far more a pro-life sermon than romance. The boy is supposed to be obsessed with going to make his fortune but also unable to forgive his 17 year old girlfriend for aborting his baby. But wait she even came to him with the news of said abortion with a bruised face cause her dad, who hated him, was the one who forced her to abort. He loves her but is too stupid not to blame her for not having his baby. Even though he was so obsessed that giving up his dreams wouldn't have happened in the real world. This book paints the women as a victim of her dad who had no romance until her high school sweetheart forgives her 17 years later. The is the first book I could not finish. Glad I didn't pay for it and I threw it away.
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2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good story, good plot... what's missing though?, October 7, 2009
Just like all Harlequin, Silhouette, and Steeple Hill books I've read, Where's the story BEFORE that tells the whole side of what happened? Is it just me, or am I supposed to read these novels in a order that tells the before stories? Maybe I missed them, and trust me... I looked.
But anyway, the book was sweet, very romantic, and seemed like [the story] could be told from any person I've met. That's how real it was. Maggie Cox is a great author and what made this one good is it didn't have a whole lot of sex in it, like some I've read, so teens may have a shot at reading this. I know my mother wouldn't have allowed me to read these kinds of books in high school. LOL.
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