3 stars I received an ARC of this book through Reedsy. Unfortunately, it was in the form of a PDF which made reading it a bit cumbersome. I tried not to let that affect my review. I finished this story yesterday and decided to sleep on it to let it percolate before putting my thoughts on paper, so to speak. For the most part, I enjoyed the book, particularly the voice of Liz, but there were times that the pacing dragged and it felt like there was filler to make the book longer. The story was primarily told in present-tense, first-person, but toward the end, it switched to third-person from the POV of Maggie, Liz’s daughter. This was jarring but manageable. Unfortunately, at one point, the author confused the two POVs and ended up with a paragraph talking about the “women” (Liz and Jack) and then switched to “I” (Liz). Here’s the sentence: “Both women pick up their plastic tiki glasses of wine and ‘clink!’ as Jack toasts to now living their lives in paradise, and I give a big thanks to William and James for making it possible.” (I’m embarrassed to admit I don’t know who William and James are. I guess they weren’t integral to the story.) There were some cute parts of the story and I really liked some of the dialects and the way they were phonetically spelled. For example, one of Liz’s neighbors has a very strong German accent. While walking her dog, she runs into him and he says, “Hallo leetle dawgie. And how goes its with you twos?” She goes on to explain that he drives a van with advertising for ceiling popcorn removal, amongst other things, so she asks him for a quote. “He admits that his wife is the brains of the operation and an interior decorator as well. As best I can decipher, he advises me he’ll have her stop by soon to give me a quote. Either that, or she’s stooped over with a spoon on a boat?” It’s silly, but I found that very amusing. Additional criticisms: Why don’t Liz and Jack use the flashlight function on their phones when the power goes out? Liz uses hers later, so I know their phones were capable. Instead, they bumbled around in the dark, which I suppose is funnier, but I kept thinking how unnecessary it was. Also, Ik got a little tired of the Blum jokes. Liz’s last name is Blum, pronounced bloom, but every time she says it to someone, they ignore her and pronounce it like plum. The author takes to putting it in parentheses as the story goes on and it happens over and over. After a while, I was like, okay, I get it. People consistently mispronounce her name. Being really careful not to spoil anything: Liz is a bit of a prude and avoids sexual discussions, but when she is intimate with Stu, there is a description that I found completely out of character for her. Remember, this is told from the first-person POV. The author described it rather than allowing Liz to describe it in the repressed fashion that the reader has come to expect. Stu is a doctor but is surprisingly unhelpful when it comes to Daisy. I expected him to jump in and explain things and work to assuage people’s concerns but he doesn’t. Also, we never really find out what happens to Daisy. Based on the supernatural nature of the story overall, I expected a supernatural solution, but if there is one, I missed it. Oh, and also, the denouement is a bit underwhelming. The climax was tense and exciting, with great descriptions, but then, it just kind of fizzled with a tying up of loose ends that didn’t tie up all of the loose ends. Overall, I liked the book. I think the writing is engaging and I loved some of the descriptions, which I found to be evocative and realistic. In other words, the author painted a vivid picture of Liz’s life. I’m happy to have read it, and although I wouldn’t give it my highest recommendation, I’d still suggest it as a fun read. August 10, 2021
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Elizabeth J ConnorWriter. Editor. Proofreader. Archives
September 2022
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