Lauren Sanders

This review will be short - as I wish the book itself was. It's hard to believe that this book passed the 'let's publish this' at the start. The plot is practically non-existent, the characters are either unlikeable or an enigma, and the dialogue is all over the place. I normally enjoy a good thriller and this sounded intriguing. Because I'm the sort of reader/reviewer that feels obligated to finish a book, I persevered, much against my better judgement.

The narrator, Jennifer, is in such anguish - career over, alcoholic, missing father, and something weird going on with her brother - but I didn't feel any remorse for her or her plight. The LBGT angle seemed unreal and unnecessary. The mysterious neighbor was confusing. All in all, I just could not get into this book. Normally I can find something, but not this time.

Sorry, Lauren Sanders, but this one didn't do it for me.… (lisätietoja)

This book sounded right up my alley... but it wasn't. I HATE not finishing books, but I just couldn't. I stopped at around page 60, and getting that far was a struggle.

Here's the thing--the plot is hard to follow, and the narrator is so incredibly entitled and unlikeable that I really couldn't get on board with her. Finally, the idea of 'listening' to her for another 250 pages was just too much to bear. Simply, there wasn't anything connecting me to the book or making me want to keep reading, even after 60 pages. On top of that, the writing felt uneven, and while that may have been a by-product of elevating the voice and stylizing the so-called plot, it made everything worse.

So, no, I couldn't make myself keep going. From the blurb, this still sounds like something I should love, but I'm afraid all it did was, at turns, either annoy me or put me to sleep.… (lisätietoja)

To be quite honest, I didn't like this book. Ms. Sanders is a fine author. Her command of language and character are superb. She blew me away with her descriptions of certain things. However, the non-linear structure of the narrative and the lack of plot killed it for me. It was billed as being a novel that was (partly) about white collar crime. But after reading more than half the book, I wasn't any closer to learning more about the central "crime" conflict in the book other than a handful vague references. I wasn't enjoying the process of reading it, so I stopped about 60% in.… (lisätietoja)

This was... a true challenge to get through. I really wanted to toss it aside after 20 pages but no, I can't give a fair review without finishing. So I finished. I will admit I had to skim half of it in order to make it happen but I paced myself enough to keep track of what was going on plot-wise.

I'll lead with the good. The author is eloquent with her words, I would periodically come to a sentence or statement that actually resonated with me. The book was sexy (not smutty). The main character is lesbian. It is set mainly in Israel, sometimes NYC or Connecticut (flashbacks).

Prior to the events of the novel she met her brother in Israel for hanging out in the mountains? He was a little messed up (they all are) so they bond. He dies shortly after. A year prior to the current setting she returns because her father dies(supposedly) in Israel and she falls in love with his lover afterwards... whom is a spy. They part ways for about a year but she can't stay away and comes back. FBI etc. are eyeing her because they suspect her father didn't really die and he committed financial crimes prior to death with his business (I inferred). Jennifer (main character) was once a very good speed ice skater until she was injured. Her whole family is a disaster and she spends a lot of time reflecting on their past. She is a recovering alcoholic and her flashbacks reveal substance abuse and sexual experimentation from an early age. She hates her father but frankly she never really says why HE was horrible, she instead hates her mom and while she sees why her brother was horrible loves him dearly.

This book was more of an experience than a story. You are constantly in the main character's head and she is constantly reflecting on her past and not thinking nearly enough about the present.. or is a little too focused on her coffee. I was going a bit mad figuring out what the heck was going on. You know how you can walk in on a conversation and everyone is referring to "it" over and over yet you missed the part of the conversation that actually stated what "it" is? That is this book in a nut shell. I will say I it wasn't much of a story. You are only going to like this book if the character or the setting speak to you, which it did not speak to me.

So for the right audience this could potentially be an amazing book because the author does write well. But the style(all the flashbacks) and story itself are for a narrow audience.

ONE suggestion (other than redoing 85% of this story) I came up with. There was a scene where the lover asks about tear, she thought they were referring to crying and the main character corrected her, they were speaking of tear as in tearing paper. So it occurs to me yeah they are in a foreign country speaking English... how about incorporating dialects and accents into the dialog?

*won as an earlyreview copy from LibraryThing 2017.… (lisätietoja)