I read the “look inside” feature of this book to see if I wanted to choose it as this month's free First Reads books.
GENRE: Romance novel. I don't know why it's being billed as Family Drama. The book is very clearly about a woman and the two men she must choose between.
PROS:
- Really well written.
- Interesting turn of phrase.
- Compelling read.
CONS:
- I'm surprised that the writer has the two male leads feel free to put their hands on the female protagonist unbidden within minutes of meeting. One grabs her chin, to move it to look at him. The other grabs her wrist to emphasis a point.
- The recommendation of an alternative medicine approach to allergies was especially off putting. It's called alternative medicine because it hasn't been proven to work. If it worked, it would be called medicine. Also, I googled it. It's highly controversial.
- Too many discrepancies:
- She's walking to a store at dawn with her dog, but could have gotten honey from a neighbor if their house hadn't been blown down by hurricane Irma. Borrow honey from a neighbor at dawn? The store is open at dawn? And the house is blown down but your “future home” was spared? So you never knew the hypothetical neighbor you were going to borrow your honey from at dawn?
- You never know whether your dog is going to like somebody or not, but you allow this child to pet him?
- The man freezes up when he has to use the Epipen. Would that really happen to a parent? Especially one that has done it before?
- The boy is 11 years old. He has a life-threatening condition and wears a Medic Alert bracelet. By that age, my kids had known for years to ASK whether food contained what was, to them, poison. What's more, they wouldn't have touched the food in the first place, not without asking me first. In fact, it was one of the first lessons I taught: “Never take food from anyone but me.” It was the best way to guarantee their safety when they were young.
- “The blurry train continued.” What train? There was a train?
- The dog is allowed inside the ambulance?? And two people? Since when? Well, why not. The dog is allowed inside the store and inside the hospital, so in this AU, why not also allow the dog in the ambulance.
- Kansas sends teachers to Florida for personal development training?
- What kind of parent would practice using an Epipen by stabbing their kid repeatedly? That's right! Nobody. You use an orange. Maybe you use another person or even yourself. But not your kid!
- They squeezed 5 people into a restaurant booth?
BEST READ BY: Women who like romance novels and can push past little discrepancies in the text.
BOTTOM LINE: Despite the fact that the novel is quite well written, the pacing intense, and the phrasing original, I found myself going “but but but” far too often to enjoy the reading experience.
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