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3.48 AVERAGE
3.48 AVERAGE
Oi, this book was boring, and it moved at a snail's pace. I read about halfway and just gave up. The majority of it was Shauna asking herself the same, trite questions over and over. I don't want questions, I want a damn mystery! (Yes, I know, I just contradicted myself.)
Plus, the way Ted Dekker writes really annoys me for some reason. I dunno, I just find it awkward and confusing, and it pisses me the hell off.
Anyway, perhaps if I had a bit more patience I'd actually like Kiss. Ah well.
Plus, the way Ted Dekker writes really annoys me for some reason. I dunno, I just find it awkward and confusing, and it pisses me the hell off.
Anyway, perhaps if I had a bit more patience I'd actually like Kiss. Ah well.
Even though I no longer really read Christian Fiction, this is one I'd bought a while back so I decided to give it a go since I remember liking another book by this author, called Thre3.
Plot:
The plot itself was interesting and for the most part unpredictable. It didn't really go with the cover, blurb, or back synopsis IMO, but I still enjoyed it. It was the only thing I actually liked about the book. I feel if everything else had been as good, I probably would have loved it.
Setting:
I don't know much about Austin, Texas, but the author didn't do a great job at painting the scenery for me for the most part, though the guest house sounded neat.
Characters:
I really didn't care for or connect to any of the characters. They all felt one dimensional and Shauna, the main character, felt especially so. She seemed to grow very little as a character, though I admit her amnesia was believable. Too much of the book focused on her repetitive thoughts, though, which got old after a while. I honestly didn't care if she ever got her memory back or what really happened to her at the end.
The side characters, as well as the love interest were pretty much the same. Even the bad guys failed to muster any sort of response from me. I felt "meh" about everyone.
Relationships:
Since I didn't care for the characters, I didn't care about the relationships, though Shauna and Miguel were better than Shauna and Wayne. Their characters weren't deep enough for me to root for them, but I did like their relationship at times and figured they had once been together when they "met" again.
I found the entire family dynamic to be somewhat sad, and while I liked how things ended in that regard, I still didn't feel enough to care.
Writing/Voice:
The writing was very difficult for me to get into and I was honestly shocked to discover an editor had helped with this since I stumbled upon more errors than I was expecting. The book switches POVs at the beginning and end as well, which made no sense to me and made the book even more jarring than it already is.
I honestly think I would have enjoyed the book much more if the POV had been from Shauna all along. Making it 3rd person took some of they mystery out of the thriller and also made it hard for me to care about the main character. I remember enjoying one of the author's other books so I'm not sure if the addition of another person helping him write changed the writing, if my tastes have considerably changed writing-wise, or if they just didn't do a good job with this one. I'm leaning toward the first or last possibility though.
The book wasn't overly preachy, at least, though I did find the hint toward the nurse's identity at the end to be a little too convenient.
Ending:
While for the most part, things wrapped up well in the end, it was just "okay." Nothing earth-shattering or anything.
Overall, I enjoyed the plot but that was about it. I didn't hate it, but I also didn't really like it all that much either. It could have been so much better! 2 stars, because it had a pretty good plot and had potential.
Plot:
The plot itself was interesting and for the most part unpredictable. It didn't really go with the cover, blurb, or back synopsis IMO, but I still enjoyed it. It was the only thing I actually liked about the book. I feel if everything else had been as good, I probably would have loved it.
Setting:
I don't know much about Austin, Texas, but the author didn't do a great job at painting the scenery for me for the most part, though the guest house sounded neat.
Characters:
I really didn't care for or connect to any of the characters. They all felt one dimensional and Shauna, the main character, felt especially so. She seemed to grow very little as a character, though I admit her amnesia was believable. Too much of the book focused on her repetitive thoughts, though, which got old after a while. I honestly didn't care if she ever got her memory back or what really happened to her at the end.
The side characters, as well as the love interest were pretty much the same. Even the bad guys failed to muster any sort of response from me. I felt "meh" about everyone.
Relationships:
Since I didn't care for the characters, I didn't care about the relationships, though Shauna and Miguel were better than Shauna and Wayne. Their characters weren't deep enough for me to root for them, but I did like their relationship at times and figured they had once been together when they "met" again.
I found the entire family dynamic to be somewhat sad, and while I liked how things ended in that regard, I still didn't feel enough to care.
Writing/Voice:
The writing was very difficult for me to get into and I was honestly shocked to discover an editor had helped with this since I stumbled upon more errors than I was expecting. The book switches POVs at the beginning and end as well, which made no sense to me and made the book even more jarring than it already is.
I honestly think I would have enjoyed the book much more if the POV had been from Shauna all along. Making it 3rd person took some of they mystery out of the thriller and also made it hard for me to care about the main character. I remember enjoying one of the author's other books so I'm not sure if the addition of another person helping him write changed the writing, if my tastes have considerably changed writing-wise, or if they just didn't do a good job with this one. I'm leaning toward the first or last possibility though.
The book wasn't overly preachy, at least, though I did find the hint toward the nurse's identity at the end to be a little too convenient.
Ending:
While for the most part, things wrapped up well in the end, it was just "okay." Nothing earth-shattering or anything.
Overall, I enjoyed the plot but that was about it. I didn't hate it, but I also didn't really like it all that much either. It could have been so much better! 2 stars, because it had a pretty good plot and had potential.
NOT Ted Dekker. I am 100% convinced that Dekker did not actually have anything to do with writing this book, but simply put his name on it to help Erin Heanley get her name out there and get good distribution and sales. There is nothing about this book that is in Dekker style. Not the writing and by far not the story. There is very little supernatural feel to it, and the characters aren't very strong as they are in Dekker's writing. Also, it is about 75% all dialogue, which I found very difficult to read and really kept the story from progressing very much for me. I was thoroughly disappointed in this book. However, it is likely that I was only disappointed because I anticipated another electrifying Dekker story, and got this one instead. Perhaps Heanley would have done better if she had kept her name and only had a forward from Dekker or something like that. At least then I wouldn't have expected something so entirely different from this book overall.