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Amanda Brown, "Family Trust"
Aug. 16th, 2004 02:54 pmI’ve finished a book, and now I am slightly embarrassed, because I liked it. Probably I should stop reading reviews on Amazon. Anyway, I am not blind, and the book is far from perfect. The most glaring flaw – POV is jumping between characters sometimes several times in the same scene – which is very annoying, even if I wasn’t trained by now to pick it up. Occasionally I had to come back and read a sentence again to figure out whose POV it is now. You get the picture.
Then, the author occasionally goes overboard with descriptions and expositions, but I have to note, that it is not jarring most of the times.
Then, the situation is ridiculous and unbelievable. But, here goes praise: once I turned on me suspension of disbelief and dived into the story, I stopped caring about it. Because here goes what Amanda Brown did well. She wrote characters I liked and cared about – even if they started rather stereotyped. She dropped these characters into improbable situation and let them find their way in it. And it was nice. I loved that protagonists didn’t have a great physical attraction form the first sight, that they didn’t think about it at all, but made each other laugh and learn, and shared a companionship instead. And here is another thing I love: I think that the author has a talent for irony, and generally a god eye for funny. She mocks villains and secondary characters, and settings, and conventions, but she also mocks her protagonists without making them unsympathetic. That was what I loved in her first book, “Legally Blonde” (the one that originated the movie). It is more ironic, and less fluffy and victorious than the movie, but the way the author pokes fun at Elle Woods, while sympathizing with her, is very dear to me.
So the verdict: need for better skills of the craft, and a more demanding editor.
ETA: (Says she, who yet to finish editing of the first story I decided to take seriously. But the editing is painful, because it turned out I like my words, and want them to stay. Guh!!)
Then, the author occasionally goes overboard with descriptions and expositions, but I have to note, that it is not jarring most of the times.
Then, the situation is ridiculous and unbelievable. But, here goes praise: once I turned on me suspension of disbelief and dived into the story, I stopped caring about it. Because here goes what Amanda Brown did well. She wrote characters I liked and cared about – even if they started rather stereotyped. She dropped these characters into improbable situation and let them find their way in it. And it was nice. I loved that protagonists didn’t have a great physical attraction form the first sight, that they didn’t think about it at all, but made each other laugh and learn, and shared a companionship instead. And here is another thing I love: I think that the author has a talent for irony, and generally a god eye for funny. She mocks villains and secondary characters, and settings, and conventions, but she also mocks her protagonists without making them unsympathetic. That was what I loved in her first book, “Legally Blonde” (the one that originated the movie). It is more ironic, and less fluffy and victorious than the movie, but the way the author pokes fun at Elle Woods, while sympathizing with her, is very dear to me.
So the verdict: need for better skills of the craft, and a more demanding editor.
ETA: (Says she, who yet to finish editing of the first story I decided to take seriously. But the editing is painful, because it turned out I like my words, and want them to stay. Guh!!)
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