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This book was hard to stay interested in, mostly because I was trying not to pull my hair out the whole time. There were just so many small annoying things in this book that didn't fit. A huge one of me is how flimsy the scenes were, things would happen that didn't really make since. Like, so often I could just see the man behind the curtain pulling all the characters strings "I want our readers to meet the exhusband and ex mother inlaw, Oh I'll have them come to the house! Why would they be there though, hmmm. OH! I'll have them threaten to sue her and say its because she was hiding this house from them in the divorce. Even though there is literal stacks of paperwork/paper trail that say that was not the case and that she was only gifted this property a few days ago. The readers aren't smart enough to see through that right? yeah. Thats a totally plausible thing someone would do"
And dont even get me started on the two female main characters, they were too busy the WHOLE FREAKING BOOK, trying to be quirky and zany. I was excited for this read because of the Heroins age, shes 44, and I wanted to enjoy that perspective. Instead, her character acts more like a teenager in the "Lol so random" phase than anything else. I enjoyed some of the banter/witty back and forth at the start, but it is a constant in this book, and grated on my nerves so fast. I was just so over it at about the 30%-40% mark. Less is more.
The characters just felt so fluid, being/acting not how that character would act in the moment, but how the writer would want them to act in the moment. I know thats a bit confusing, but I mean that the characters dont feel real at all, they feel so fake and like easily transparent plot devices.
An example being. Our main girl is asked to find a lost wedding ring by a customer of her grandmothers, her grandmother sold her services for finding lost things for the town and now that shes gone, our girl has to do it. She not only finds the ring, but three others as well for the woman. but then refuses to be paid for it, even though she has no money in her account what so ever and is going to be losing her house. Even afterward, she is so shocked when her friend mentions talking to the woman about being paid. So I was like "Okay, thats annoying, and doesn't make any sense, but we are establishing that the character is a goody two shoes with zero sense of self preservation." And then literally on the next page, she starts talking about how she lies on the descriptions of the materials she uses for the notebooks she makes and sells on etsy. Says they are consecrated and what not because "people eat that stuff up." WHAT?! Who is this character? Is she a "no no I couldn't possibly take your money, just knowing I helped is all the payment I need. *Sparkle sparkle*" or is she a morally gray character who thinks its okay to tell white/gray lies to put food on the table. Make up your mind.
Also, the love interest has no personality traits other than "Always appears to save the day at the perfect moment" and "Sexy guy in no shirt and a kilt." He is just there to be something to pant over. Nothing to actually want to be interested in other than visually. He's got a dark past that she is very rude to keep asking other random people about, but even then it wasn't something I was curious about because we don't really ever fucking talk to him. (I DNFed at the 70% mark)
And dont even get me started on the two female main characters, they were too busy the WHOLE FREAKING BOOK, trying to be quirky and zany. I was excited for this read because of the Heroins age, shes 44, and I wanted to enjoy that perspective. Instead, her character acts more like a teenager in the "Lol so random" phase than anything else. I enjoyed some of the banter/witty back and forth at the start, but it is a constant in this book, and grated on my nerves so fast. I was just so over it at about the 30%-40% mark. Less is more.
The characters just felt so fluid, being/acting not how that character would act in the moment, but how the writer would want them to act in the moment. I know thats a bit confusing, but I mean that the characters dont feel real at all, they feel so fake and like easily transparent plot devices.
An example being. Our main girl is asked to find a lost wedding ring by a customer of her grandmothers, her grandmother sold her services for finding lost things for the town and now that shes gone, our girl has to do it. She not only finds the ring, but three others as well for the woman. but then refuses to be paid for it, even though she has no money in her account what so ever and is going to be losing her house. Even afterward, she is so shocked when her friend mentions talking to the woman about being paid. So I was like "Okay, thats annoying, and doesn't make any sense, but we are establishing that the character is a goody two shoes with zero sense of self preservation." And then literally on the next page, she starts talking about how she lies on the descriptions of the materials she uses for the notebooks she makes and sells on etsy. Says they are consecrated and what not because "people eat that stuff up." WHAT?! Who is this character? Is she a "no no I couldn't possibly take your money, just knowing I helped is all the payment I need. *Sparkle sparkle*" or is she a morally gray character who thinks its okay to tell white/gray lies to put food on the table. Make up your mind.
Also, the love interest has no personality traits other than "Always appears to save the day at the perfect moment" and "Sexy guy in no shirt and a kilt." He is just there to be something to pant over. Nothing to actually want to be interested in other than visually. He's got a dark past that she is very rude to keep asking other random people about, but even then it wasn't something I was curious about because we don't really ever fucking talk to him. (I DNFed at the 70% mark)