This was a book I became aware of while browsing Kindle's lending library – upon reading the summary, the story sounded interesting so I decided to check it out. Overall, the story itself was not bad – in fact, there was actually a lot of potential for this to have turned into something great. Unfortunately, due to poor execution, a story that would have otherwise been emotionally moving and heart-wrenching turned out bland and lacking in emotional depth (for me at least).
To me, the main problem with this book was the writing, which was very inconsistent and distracting. Some parts were written in a way that felt choppy and abrupt while other sections I felt attempted to go the "literary" route with overly descriptive paragraphs that were unnecessary and didn't do much to further the plot, but then there were other parts that flowed well. This made the story come across as being all over the place and "true" character development swallowed up by stuff that didn't need to be there. All the characters in the book endure one dramatic/tragic event after another and I'm sure the expected reaction from us as readers was to sympathize and feel for them, to be moved by their plight, to applaud their ability to overcome in the face of adversity and the relationships that formed as a result. I'm sorry, but throughout the entire time I was reading, I just couldn't get into it – I found it difficult to connect with the characters on an emotional level, even though I know I was supposed to (and from the many glowing reviews this book received on Amazon, it sounded like everyone else did feel an emotional connection except for me). The main characters themselves, despite being inconsistently developed, were actually likable enough – the friendship between Bridgette and Alexis was admirable, Eda Mae and Blanche were there when they needed to be, and the little girl Eden was indeed very sweet. However, the situations they go through were too contrived, especially as it relates to the main character Bridgette – it was almost like the author was trying to throw every bad thing possible at this character and show how she was still able to rebound from all of it and therefore make the better person she becomes at the end more significant. In a way, it was too formulaic and predictable to be believable. I also felt as though Bridgette's story wasn't actually being "told" in the relatable way that it needed to be, but rather, it was merely being "reported" by an outside party similar to what we would see in a newspaper article.
Overall, I felt like the author tried too hard to give us an emotionally packed story and in doing so, crammed way too many "heavy" emotional topics into the story without giving adequate time to explore each one and tie it back to the development of the characters. Also, the last third or so of the book was essentially "fluff" that I ended up skimming through, as I felt like the author had already said everything she had intended to say a few pages back and so the rest was unnecessary – the loose ends could've been tied up in another page or two instead of dragging on for another 3 or 4 chapters.
Basically, I don't regret reading this book and I definitely don't feel it was a completely wasted effort, but if the book had gone on for longer (324 pages was way too long as it is), I very possibly would've abandoned it in favor of a better written book (and one that didn't have as many grammar/spelling/sentence structure errors too, though it wasn't significant enough of an issue to make the book unreadable for me).
(Read in January 2017)
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