Ryan

This book starts off pretty interesting, but I found myself getting a little bored in the middle. It does pick up again toward the end though! I wanted to get more info from the ending, but I also felt like they author chose to finish the story at a good spot.

This book started off so strong, but unfortunately it just wasn't my cup of tea. I had a lot of thoughts so I wanted to categorize them into likes and dislikes.

Likes:

• The skeleton of the story is interesting enough and did keep my attention throughout it as we follow along with Sam, our main character.
• Approaches alcoholism in an interesting way, weaving in magical realism as Sam struggles throughout the book.
• The words are pretty and things are described nicely; One chapter in particular is great - a scene with Gina and Sam dancing in a bar - toward the middle of the book. It covered so much ground and summarized what was happening up to this point very well. I feel like this is where the book should have started (which leads to the Big issue and the one leading off my dislikes with this book:

Dislikes:

• Yes, I did say the descriptions were pretty, but there's simply TOO MANY words. The book takes too much time scene setting and not enough time moving the plot forward. As a result I felt like I kept hearing the same couple of things but in slightly different variations. I wanted to know what happened next, but I felt like we kept getting caught up in describing the same forest over and over again.

• The dialogue is BAD, especially with Sam and Steven, her spouse. You're telling me a couple who has known each other for ten years talks like they barely know each other??? I think it was meant to show how they've drifted apart, but it does not work well in this case and I think there was a better way to get this point across. The dialogue with other characters is just OK, bordering on being cheesy and cliché at points.

Other notes:

• Sam is not much of a likable character and I'm not sure if I'm supposed to like her or not. I'm not entirely sure if this is a bad or good thing to be honest with you, and maybe that was the authors' intention. If so, I applaud them. If not, then I'm not so sure that's a good thing!
• For audiobook fans, the narrator Kira Fixx is WONDERFUL. They do a great job reading the text and it feels like poetry at times. I will definitely have to check out more books narrated by them (hopefully I like the next one I read better.)

I hate rating this book so low since I can tell there's so much hard work that went into this, but my biggest gripe is that it's way too wordy. I feel like with more editing of this book and more paring down of the work, it could be something amazing. I almost feel like it would even work better as a movie or miniseries on TV.

Is it worth reading? Maybe? If you're really into very long-winded descriptions, it may be for you. Or if you're simply looking for a great narrator and want to hear them talk for hours, I guess it could be a good one too.