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A review by opheliabedilia
Drowning Erin by Elizabeth O'Roark
2.0
Having just read and really enjoyed A Deal with the Devil by this author, I was in the mood to try something else by her. Which made this one extra disappointing. The biggest issue was that Erin's (the FMC) thinking made NO SENSE. I understand that I don't have to love a character to enjoy their story, and that part of what makes a story good is seeing a person learn and grow, so they're often going to start out unlikable or not making sense to the reader.
But I have never in my life met anyone who could
Also! She breaks up with her fiance, but then proceeds to spend about half the book assuming they'll be getting back together. Exactly zero of their issues have been worked out, because they're not even in the same country or time zone, and she's no less frustrated, hurt, or angry with him, but she just assumes she'll take him back, for... reasons. And of course she then does indeed talk herself into taking him back.
And finally, she spends the majority of the book going on about how Brendan sleeps with anyone and everyone and then leaves them, in spite of seeing actual evidence to the contrary at this point in his life, and no evidence to support the belief. He keeps not doing it, he keeps explaining to her that he has no longer does, and she just keeps plugging her fingers in her ears and saying "la la la I can't hear you" for no discernible reason.
In short, the FMC is what we call Too Stupid to Live. And I know exactly zero people who think like her. I could only figure that she had to think like she did to drive the plot and create conflict. But that's just shoddy writing.
I guess I'll need to read a third book by O'Roark as a tie breaker.
But I have never in my life met anyone who could
Spoiler
hear that their fiance kissed someone else and mostly shrug it off, even saying that it was "innocent". In what universe is an engaged person kissing someone other than their fiance innocent? And then, when she breaks up with him (not for the kiss, mind you!), and she later has sex with someone else, she gets totally hung up on how wrong it is of them! OK, I get that her new guy is her newly ex-fiance's ex-best friend, but that doesn't mean what they're doing is inherently wrong. And she stays hung up on how it will ruin the men's friendship even though Brendan has told her that the friendship is already over, for various reasons. So to recap, in Erin's thinking: kissing someone else while engaged = innocent. Having sex with someone after breaking up with someone else = inexcusably bad.Also! She breaks up with her fiance, but then proceeds to spend about half the book assuming they'll be getting back together. Exactly zero of their issues have been worked out, because they're not even in the same country or time zone, and she's no less frustrated, hurt, or angry with him, but she just assumes she'll take him back, for... reasons. And of course she then does indeed talk herself into taking him back.
And finally, she spends the majority of the book going on about how Brendan sleeps with anyone and everyone and then leaves them, in spite of seeing actual evidence to the contrary at this point in his life, and no evidence to support the belief. He keeps not doing it, he keeps explaining to her that he has no longer does, and she just keeps plugging her fingers in her ears and saying "la la la I can't hear you" for no discernible reason.
In short, the FMC is what we call Too Stupid to Live. And I know exactly zero people who think like her. I could only figure that she had to think like she did to drive the plot and create conflict. But that's just shoddy writing.
I guess I'll need to read a third book by O'Roark as a tie breaker.