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A review by dmsullivan
All About Evie by Cathy Lamb
3.0
I absolutely have no idea how I feel about this book.
First, let me say that I previously read the author's "The Last Time I Was Me" and LOVED it. I saw "All About Evie" was available via Amazon Prime, so I was very excited to read this. The premise was intriguing.
I guess my issue is that if you read the synopsis of the story, you would expect that would be the focus early on. And while we meet quirky Evie and her very quirky aunts early on, the storyline about the DNA test doesn't happen until about half way through the book, with the results of that near the end.
Ok fine. Then maybe you'd expect the first half of the book to focus on more promotions that Evie has. Not quite -- the story goes back and forth between the present and the past (which you could see where the story was going early on), with the chapters about the past way more intriguing than Evie in the current. I feel like we got a lot of filler and repetitiveness in the first half of the book (her feelings on desserts! Her quirky aunts! the animals! Marco! Her sister always talking about her sex life! The cats knocking down her stacks and stacks of books! Her bookstore ALWAYS insanely busy and her arguing with patrons and always being right in her arguments!) It got old pretty quickly.
And by the time the actual point of the story came about, it still dragged UNTIL the results, which then felt very rushed. Evie also would sound so profound where I was cheering for her (whenever she stuck up for the garbage excuse of the police chief, who sort of came out of nowhere, if only to parallel the story in the past about men being controlling, etc.), but then would sound like a very immature child. Again, she's quirky, so maybe that's on point?
And as I say this, the ending with her dog made me CRY ACTUAL TEARS, so obviously I was somewhat invested in the book. Maybe the dog was my favorite character, I don't know.
Overall, I don't know how to feel about this book -- with the number of high reviews, I apparently missed the point. I am interested in reading other stories by Cathy Lamb because of my love for "The Last Time I Was Me" though (which I'm pretty sure she pulls in as a book club topic early on in this story -- assuming my memory isn't messing with me, since I read TLTIWM a few years ago, but if so, that was pretty clever). Here's hoping the next one I pick up from her is more on that level than Evie.
First, let me say that I previously read the author's "The Last Time I Was Me" and LOVED it. I saw "All About Evie" was available via Amazon Prime, so I was very excited to read this. The premise was intriguing.
I guess my issue is that if you read the synopsis of the story, you would expect that would be the focus early on. And while we meet quirky Evie and her very quirky aunts early on, the storyline about the DNA test doesn't happen until about half way through the book, with the results of that near the end.
Ok fine. Then maybe you'd expect the first half of the book to focus on more promotions that Evie has. Not quite -- the story goes back and forth between the present and the past (which you could see where the story was going early on), with the chapters about the past way more intriguing than Evie in the current. I feel like we got a lot of filler and repetitiveness in the first half of the book (her feelings on desserts! Her quirky aunts! the animals! Marco! Her sister always talking about her sex life! The cats knocking down her stacks and stacks of books! Her bookstore ALWAYS insanely busy and her arguing with patrons and always being right in her arguments!) It got old pretty quickly.
And by the time the actual point of the story came about, it still dragged UNTIL the results, which then felt very rushed. Evie also would sound so profound where I was cheering for her (whenever she stuck up for the garbage excuse of the police chief, who sort of came out of nowhere, if only to parallel the story in the past about men being controlling, etc.), but then would sound like a very immature child. Again, she's quirky, so maybe that's on point?
And as I say this, the ending with her dog made me CRY ACTUAL TEARS, so obviously I was somewhat invested in the book. Maybe the dog was my favorite character, I don't know.
Overall, I don't know how to feel about this book -- with the number of high reviews, I apparently missed the point. I am interested in reading other stories by Cathy Lamb because of my love for "The Last Time I Was Me" though (which I'm pretty sure she pulls in as a book club topic early on in this story -- assuming my memory isn't messing with me, since I read TLTIWM a few years ago, but if so, that was pretty clever). Here's hoping the next one I pick up from her is more on that level than Evie.