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catevari's review
2.0
I'd been really delighted with the previous outing I'd read from Davitt (Bound and Determined, cowritten with Alexa Snow) and I was quite looking forward to Hourglass, but instead, it was an incredible disappointment and an incredibly difficult read for so short a book. I'm a little amazed, because Davitt is a talented author and I honestly didn't expect something that read so much like (bad) fanfic with the serial numbers only lightly filed off. I'm not even sure where to start.
First of all, the pacing on the book is completely wonky. The book opens with a peripheral character (and one who I personally found really off-putting and unlikeable) and it's 22 pages before we even get to meet one of our main characters. We're on (iirc) page 77 before the two prospective lovers are even in the same space. For a book that ran only 191 page on my Nook, that's far too long to wait to get to meet our characters or to have them occupy the same space and too much time spent on a character that doesn't really matter.
The premise of the book is that the two protagonists, Ash and Lee, previously starred on a less-than-successful genre TV show that is getting a brief second life as a straight to DVD movie. Ash & Lee previously had a (down low) relationship that ended badly and the movie will be the first time they've seen each other in over a decade. I've read--and liked--enough fanfic with a similar premise to feel the idea is a solid one, rife with possibility, but I don't understand the choices Davitt made with the story and how she told it.
Which is actually another of my complaints: so much of the book is told, rather than shown. Much of the interaction and conflict that Lee and Ash have is rooted in their mutual (and mutually heartbreaking) past and is told less in flashback form than a more coldly told, "so and so remembered". This is true, as well, of large portions of the current action and, for me, it makes it much harder to emotionally connect with the characters or to care much about what happens to them or whether it all works out. I think telling stories have their place...but not in romance where, above all, I want to FEEL things.
Along with the pacing issues and the telling issues, the book's climax really slammed up against my fragile and fading suspension of disbelief.The shooting at the press conference reminded me of that old writing advice by Raymond Chandler, ”When in doubt, have a man come through the door with a gun in his hand.” It was such a random piece of circumstance and so unfortunately cliche on top of it that it's hard for me to imagine that's not exactly what happened and it's all the more irritating because (and I will admit this is personal) I much prefer books where the resolution comes from internal struggle and internal decision than a supposed moment of clarity created by the incursion of outside forces.
I'm not saying that can't be a legitimate writing choice, it absolutely is, but it's always going to be far less interesting to me to read about a protagonist who suddenly sees his attachment to his love mate clearly because the other's life is in danger. It was much less interesting to have the seemingly insurmountable obstacle of Ash's career and ambitions versus Lee's desire to stay out of the Hollywood machine come to an easily resolved head by the danger of the shooting than if they had worked it out between them without an catalyst from outside the relationship.
And then, in keeping with the strange pacing that plagued the story, it's one of those stories that seems to end 10 times before it actually does, as if Davitt couldn't make up her mind where to place the final cut off. And though it does bring the story full circle for her to end as she began, with the noxious character of Ben and his daughter, it was the least satisfying or interesting of the places where it seemed she could have ended it.
Bound and Determined was so excellent I'm determined to give Davitt another chance, but Hourglass is just time I can't get back.
First of all, the pacing on the book is completely wonky. The book opens with a peripheral character (and one who I personally found really off-putting and unlikeable) and it's 22 pages before we even get to meet one of our main characters. We're on (iirc) page 77 before the two prospective lovers are even in the same space. For a book that ran only 191 page on my Nook, that's far too long to wait to get to meet our characters or to have them occupy the same space and too much time spent on a character that doesn't really matter.
The premise of the book is that the two protagonists, Ash and Lee, previously starred on a less-than-successful genre TV show that is getting a brief second life as a straight to DVD movie. Ash & Lee previously had a (down low) relationship that ended badly and the movie will be the first time they've seen each other in over a decade. I've read--and liked--enough fanfic with a similar premise to feel the idea is a solid one, rife with possibility, but I don't understand the choices Davitt made with the story and how she told it.
Which is actually another of my complaints: so much of the book is told, rather than shown. Much of the interaction and conflict that Lee and Ash have is rooted in their mutual (and mutually heartbreaking) past and is told less in flashback form than a more coldly told, "so and so remembered". This is true, as well, of large portions of the current action and, for me, it makes it much harder to emotionally connect with the characters or to care much about what happens to them or whether it all works out. I think telling stories have their place...but not in romance where, above all, I want to FEEL things.
Along with the pacing issues and the telling issues, the book's climax really slammed up against my fragile and fading suspension of disbelief.
I'm not saying that can't be a legitimate writing choice, it absolutely is, but it's always going to be far less interesting to me to read about a protagonist who suddenly sees his attachment to his love mate clearly because the other's life is in danger. It was much less interesting to have the seemingly insurmountable obstacle of Ash's career and ambitions versus Lee's desire to stay out of the Hollywood machine come to an easily resolved head by the danger of the shooting than if they had worked it out between them without an catalyst from outside the relationship.
And then, in keeping with the strange pacing that plagued the story, it's one of those stories that seems to end 10 times before it actually does, as if Davitt couldn't make up her mind where to place the final cut off. And though it does bring the story full circle for her to end as she began, with the noxious character of Ben and his daughter, it was the least satisfying or interesting of the places where it seemed she could have ended it.
Bound and Determined was so excellent I'm determined to give Davitt another chance, but Hourglass is just time I can't get back.
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