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A review by lyndajdickson
Baby Girl by C.M. Stunich
3.0
On the night of their senior prom, Embry’s fiancé Codrick dies in a car crash. But he’s not the only one who dies that day. Unable to cope with her grief, Embry runs away to college, vowing to never return, while best friend Phoenix buries himself in his memories, his work, and in cleaning up his father's mess. Just over a year later, Embry comes home to visit her father in hospital. She struggles with her growing feelings for Phoenix, while he tries to keep his love for her hidden. Can you have more than one soulmate?
The story is told in alternating chapters from the points of view of Embry and Phoenix. In the prologue dealing with Codrick’s death, I didn’t feel anything, as I had never “met” him. The story could be improved by introducing the reader to Codrick while he is still alive, seeing his interactions with Embry, and getting a feel for this love that is so strong it leads two teenagers to get engaged. I struggled with the characters’ names: why the name Codrick, when he’s also referred to as Rick?; Embry’s name is way too close to “embryo” to be sexy; and Phoenix’s name just doesn’t suit him. His Cajun accent is also annoying, and he lapses out of it, especially when he is narrating. Other issues: too many descriptions of eye and hair color, using a different simile each time; numerous editing errors including punctuation, missing words, extra words, use of incorrect homonyms, mixture of past and present tenses; any excuse to get naked, it gets a bit tiresome; the crude dialogue is not sexy; overuse of the phrase “nipples pebbling”. And does Phoenix seriously start taking about Codrick when he’s having sex with Embry?
On the plus side, the story gives us a realistic depiction of the seven stages of grief: shock and denial, pain and guilt, anger and bargaining, depression/loneliness, the upward turn, reconstruction and working through, and acceptance and hope. Embry’s been counting the days since Codrick died but, now that she’s back in town, and especially when she’s with Phoenix, she’s starting to lose count; this shows that she’s moving on. She also manages to cry for the first time since Codrick’s death.
Not what I was expecting from the description.
Warnings: extremely coarse language, graphic sex scenes, violence.
I received this book in return for an honest review.
Full blog post: https://booksdirectonline.blogspot.com/2018/02/baby-girl-by-c-m-stunich.html
The story is told in alternating chapters from the points of view of Embry and Phoenix. In the prologue dealing with Codrick’s death, I didn’t feel anything, as I had never “met” him. The story could be improved by introducing the reader to Codrick while he is still alive, seeing his interactions with Embry, and getting a feel for this love that is so strong it leads two teenagers to get engaged. I struggled with the characters’ names: why the name Codrick, when he’s also referred to as Rick?; Embry’s name is way too close to “embryo” to be sexy; and Phoenix’s name just doesn’t suit him. His Cajun accent is also annoying, and he lapses out of it, especially when he is narrating. Other issues: too many descriptions of eye and hair color, using a different simile each time; numerous editing errors including punctuation, missing words, extra words, use of incorrect homonyms, mixture of past and present tenses; any excuse to get naked, it gets a bit tiresome; the crude dialogue is not sexy; overuse of the phrase “nipples pebbling”. And does Phoenix seriously start taking about Codrick when he’s having sex with Embry?
On the plus side, the story gives us a realistic depiction of the seven stages of grief: shock and denial, pain and guilt, anger and bargaining, depression/loneliness, the upward turn, reconstruction and working through, and acceptance and hope. Embry’s been counting the days since Codrick died but, now that she’s back in town, and especially when she’s with Phoenix, she’s starting to lose count; this shows that she’s moving on. She also manages to cry for the first time since Codrick’s death.
Not what I was expecting from the description.
Warnings: extremely coarse language, graphic sex scenes, violence.
I received this book in return for an honest review.
Full blog post: https://booksdirectonline.blogspot.com/2018/02/baby-girl-by-c-m-stunich.html