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mleach07 's review for:
The Summer Children
by Dot Hutchison
I loved Dot Hutchinson's The Butterfly Garden. So much so, I even squeezed my way through The Roses of May. I do not DNF a book often. So when I do, it's for a good reason. I DNF'd The Summer Children (I know I know...how can I even write a review on a book I haven't finished). Here's the thing: There was a reason The Butterfly Garden was so good. It was the story. You spent the entire story learning about a terrible, devastating situation told through interviews with people in a terrible situation. You didn't spend much time with the lives of the detectives. It was not necessary. The story in and of itself was so amazingly good.
The Roses of May brought the detectives out full force like a dang "Miss America" pageant. You went from them just being mostly in the background to: Wham! They're right there and here's their lives. The story wasn't terrible, but could have been better with a slower build into the move from the victim's point of view to detective's. Still, if you read it as a stand alone...it isn't bad. It's a solid “halfway" score (2.5).
The Summer Children is a different story altogether. I made it almost 70% way through the book before I couldn't bring myself to finish. Don't get me wrong...I love a character-rich book. But we went from a story-rich thriller to a slumber party. Also,(not a joke) every time I got through a couple of chapters, the detectives were being sent home to “rest." They just hung out at each other's places being overtly familial (which you can't fully understand because the first two books were so different in nature), and I just couldn't take another slumber party.
The Butterfly Garden was a thrilling/suspenseful tale, but I cannot, in good conscience, ever recommend continuing to read this series.
The Roses of May brought the detectives out full force like a dang "Miss America" pageant. You went from them just being mostly in the background to: Wham! They're right there and here's their lives. The story wasn't terrible, but could have been better with a slower build into the move from the victim's point of view to detective's. Still, if you read it as a stand alone...it isn't bad. It's a solid “halfway" score (2.5).
The Summer Children is a different story altogether. I made it almost 70% way through the book before I couldn't bring myself to finish. Don't get me wrong...I love a character-rich book. But we went from a story-rich thriller to a slumber party. Also,(not a joke) every time I got through a couple of chapters, the detectives were being sent home to “rest." They just hung out at each other's places being overtly familial (which you can't fully understand because the first two books were so different in nature), and I just couldn't take another slumber party.
The Butterfly Garden was a thrilling/suspenseful tale, but I cannot, in good conscience, ever recommend continuing to read this series.