A review by lilith_bookshelf
The Vine: Messages of Hope from Around the World by Adria Dunn

slow-paced

0.25

Worst book ever. Totally fake, no purpose, poorly written, big fiasco. Don't recommend. Almost everyone in this book either has money, fame, or both. Important people like kings, princesses and CEOs are giving "a message of hope" through a personal letter on how everything gets better. I'm not saying they didn't struggle at some point, but one is a prince who came back to retrieve his throne, another one married a prince and now is a princess of a "wealthy" country, another one comes from a long chain of congressmen, and so on. One of the person sending his letter even said we needed to keep hope like Sadam Hussain did (like what?). I get this is a multicultural book, but, dude, someone should have proofread this beforehand. Some letters seem to be translated using Google Translator: the sentences don't make sense, verbs are wrongly conjugated, the order of the words is off, etc. This has been the worst experience ever and I'm surprised I was eve able to finish the book (though I admit I barely skimmed through the last 100 pages). This got me into a reader's block so big I thought I would never be able to read a book again. Just thinking about grabbing my Kindle or a physical book exhasperated me.... The reason why I read this? It was a request from Online bookclub.com. They offered to pay me if I read and reviewed one of their selected books, and I chose this one because usually I love memoirs and biographies, but this was a nightmare. I was barely able to finish it and it was supposed to be one of their selected books to become a best seller... also, don't try that page - it's a huge scam. Conclusion: don't read this, don't waste your time like I did.