This is my second DNF review for CBR8. I have really good reasons, other than the fact that this book was going nowhere.
Let’s get the reviewy part out of the way. This blandly-titled thriller starts with Simone and Matt discovering that their infant daughter Helena has been abducted. Fast-forward, and a young woman named Grace seeks out Simone claiming that she might be her missing daughter and also claiming that she may have just killed a man. Grace’s requests, actions, and backstory are a tad shady (and the dead man seems to have disappeared?), but in the hopes that this really is her daughter, Simone starts investigating. After a brief (and inadvisable) stint at lying to Matt, Grace gets her doctor husband on the case with a DNA test, and then ropes in her work friend into some light B & E. I stopped somewhere around there.
Despite a good premise, I couldn’t care less about the characters halfway in. The tone was oddly cold, with the characters fairly devoid of feeling despite the stakes. It seemed that it would follow a formula of predictable turns followed by batshit crazy unsupported twists that many wannabe-Gone Girl novels now feature. So I bailed. Two things led to this bail.
1- So, this is this month’s book club read. The member recommending this book said it was a easy, fun thriller for summer reading, at a great price for Kindle. People seemed sold. I heard the author’s name and thought “Oh, she wrote The Art of Falling, which people been recommending to me for months…this must be solid.” Upon further investigation, Kathryn CrAft wrote The Art of Falling, and Kathryn CrOft wrote this humdinger. I started off bitter.
2- I spent a few days overseas. I had the second half of this book queued up for my 6hr + flight home. Sat down, buckled in, turned on Kindle….the Kindle lines of death. The screen wouldn’t load properly, a hard reset did nothing….I was on a transatlantic flight with a dead Kindle. I’ve had this Kindle for years with no other problems, so I guess it was just its time to die, but could the timing have been ANY WORSE!?!? The quality of this book does not warrant me repurchasing in another format, so I’m just bailing.
tldr:
Con: Book sucked, I am unprepared for book club
Pro: New Paperwhite for Xmas?
That is the WORST time for a Kindle screen of death. I’m so sorry.