A review by boodlez
Revenge by Martina Cole

3.0

This book was a disappointment from Martina Cole. It starts strongly, yet becomes muddled and woolly as it moves on, causing me to wonder whether Cole merged two originally disparate plot ideas / book concepts into one. I see another reviewer has questioned whether she had a ghost writer for this novel: a reaction which I can identify with. Whilst the book is worth a read, the plot was unimaginative and - as other reviewers have pointed out - the text needed a decent edit to cut out all the repetition. It was as if Cole had a word limit to reach and trotted out the same lines over and over, at the expense of any novel information. This meant that it was exhausting to read at points and I would find myself skimming sections which offered nothing new. Some characters were significantly under-developed, particularly Josephine, who was hard to relate to or understand. This was a shame, as firming up this character would've added so much more depth to the storyline, and would help the reader to empathise with her as events unfolded. If you are a Cole fan, then it's probably worth a go, but if you are considering reading your first by Cole, stick with The Take or The Runaway, which are spectacular books, in a different league altogether.