Plot: Katrina is a successful auditor. She is also a successful blogger, who is about to have a break through when she is asked to help advise about a new jewel collection coming to a local museum.
What she doesn’t have, however, is luck with men. When Robert – a man she met years ago – makes a reappearance in her life, Katrina is torn apart by her turmoil of emotions. There is also Barry, the museum manager both steady and kind, but who doesn’t make sparks fly the way Robert does.
Kate has to work out what she wants from life.
Quote: `She’d amassed a fine collection of photos, and over two thousand people awaited her witty and insightful posts each week.`
Opinion: One thing people have always mentioned in my reviews is how honest I am. I am not going to change that now: this is possible one of the worst books I have ever read.
To start with, Robert is abusive, intimidating and harasses Katrina throughout the entire book, reducing her to tears more than once. His emotions are practically bi-polar with how quickly they can change from one extreme to another. He pushes Kate emotionally, touches her without permission and right at the end, really doesn’t give her the option of saying no.
And she still wants him! So much for a character determined she wouldn’t let a man screw her over again. Not to mention, right at the end, she conveniently forgets that she had a budding relationship with a man who treated her well.
Katrina’s character was annoying and shallow. She lets herself be pushed around by this man and displays no signs of strength or even having a mind of her own. The narration spends half the book calling her “girl”, a patronising and condescending description of a woman who is supposed to be successful. There is nothing driven about Kate’s character and I really didn’t care about her.
The narration itself was weak. There were two occasions where another view point was randomly inserted. This was mainly done so the reader could see just how much these men “admired” and “felt” for her, despite her having no attractive traits. This change of narration was unnecessary and jarred the reader. Another issue was nicknames: there is only so many “girl” or “honey” I can take.
For a short book, especially one that needed a lot more character development, there was far too much description of jewellery. It felt the author had learnt about the pieces in question and felt the need to throw everything in, despite it adding nothing to the story.
The final thing that made me cringe was the names. Kate writes under the name of “Violet Sparks.” That’s also the author’s name. To my mind, Kate was a self-insertion of the author wanting to be popular, successful and desired by all men.
Women are objectified and emotionally abused throughout this novel. Dialogue is forced and the characters weak. Certainly not a recommendation!
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A Rambling Reviewer 