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A review by alythespoon
Cocoa Beach by Beatriz Williams
2.0
The only thing more interminable than Virginia Fitzwilliam's melodramatic saga was my attempt to read it. Normally, I'm a fan of Beatriz Williams' work. I've read everything else by her, and enjoyed it all. Devoured it, most often. But this book was an altogether different proposition. Not only was the plot inconceivably slow, but there was not a single important character that I felt any connection to whatsoever. I couldn't root for or against any of them, because I simply didn't care what happened to them. The only character that I found interesting appeared and was gone again in the space of a few chapters.
Williams' books often switch between two narratives, which usually has the effect of seeming to speed up the action. The opposite happened here. And since the same characters appeared in each storyline, it was harder to follow the storyline.
Finally, and perhaps most annoying of all, was the shoddy editing. Churning out a book every six months is all well and good, but Williams and her editor seem to be sacrificing quality for quantity. There were several glaring errors throughout this book that an editor should have caught. For instance, the facade of a grand house was described as pilloried, not pillared. Kind of funny out of context, but annoying nonetheless.
Williams' books often switch between two narratives, which usually has the effect of seeming to speed up the action. The opposite happened here. And since the same characters appeared in each storyline, it was harder to follow the storyline.
Finally, and perhaps most annoying of all, was the shoddy editing. Churning out a book every six months is all well and good, but Williams and her editor seem to be sacrificing quality for quantity. There were several glaring errors throughout this book that an editor should have caught. For instance, the facade of a grand house was described as pilloried, not pillared. Kind of funny out of context, but annoying nonetheless.