3 stars When I first started reading the story, I was pulled into the drama of it and found myself eagerly turning pages. Starting off with an impending plane crash is always a good way to draw the reader into a story. The scene is described very well and the potential heartache is portrayed in frightening shades of realism. I tend to not want to know too much about a story before reading it, so I allowed myself to imagine that Robbie had already died, even though I knew he would be a major character in the rest of the book. After all, I reasoned, maybe the entire thing would be told from the past tense. The story was moving along at a decent pace until Jess and Robbie left the first hotel. At that point, I found myself easily distracted and not wanting to pick up my Kindle to continue reading. I wawa confused whenever Jess referred to the time-travel aspects of their relationship and then when she started going through the family ancestry of the people in Ireland, it became too much. I wanted to skip those parts, but felt they were important. Of course, they were. I took a look at reviews to see if other readers had encountered this kind of problem and most people seemed to like the book, so I endeavored to continue. Unfortunately, it just dragged for me until Part Two, at which point the story shifted to the distant past and Robbie’s family/friends in Ireland. I found this part much more interesting. When the book switched back to Robbie and Jess again, the story was more engrossing to me and I found my desire to figure out the mystery had been piqued. Now, I had to discover whether my suspicions were correct. Some of the writing was really good, with great imagery. I’m always a sucker for a good metaphor or just a vivid description. I loved this one: “Robbie pointed out the corrugated cliffs to our left as far as the eye could see, each one absorbing flashes of sunset and pounding surf that broke into bubbles of glass and foam slithering down the massive rock.” And this one: “A shower of sunlight from a mullioned window in the library spilled over Treasa, turning her thinning white hair into strands of crystal fiber optic. There were some funny bits too. Like when Robbie’s boyhood friend Lewy wondered “if the adoption process wasn’t similar to choosing a healthy head of cabbage at the market. Can ye support this cabbage, and raise it Catholic?” And there were a couple of sayings thrown in that made me laugh, like, “Robbie always said fast healing was a gift to a slow runner.” I think this was my favorite: “First babies come anytime, me da always says. The rest take nine months.” Overall, the book was pretty good, but I just didn’t love it. I would have to say that the pacing was probably the biggest issue, but I found the references to the previous book confusing and that took away from my enjoyment as well. I don’t feel a burning need to read more from the series. January 10, 2021
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Elizabeth J ConnorWriter. Editor. Proofreader. Archives
September 2022
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