Sometimes it takes coming home again... An American Holiday by @BobbiRomans #romance #review
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An American Holiday
Written by Bobbi Romans
Genre(s): Romantic Comedy
Ahh, Thanksgiving… complete with ghosts of holidays past. Those being humiliating memories of last year's revelry gone wild: jail cells, a tattoo and rose left on Kristi James pillow by someone she can't remember.
Toss in two brothers who, while loving, had needled her with vivid imagery on what might have happened during that fateful rendezvous at the local HoJo's. Seriously, what's a girl to do? She'd run like hell from Harpers Ferry back to her apartment and job in Alexandria.
She's praying this year's holiday ends a bit more traditional. But between exploding turkey's, cranberry fights, and the winter storm threatening to lock them all together for God only knew how long, she's fairly certain her Norman Rockwell hopes have flown the coop.
Adding another layer to this casserole of disaster, the high school boyfriend—who'd cheated on her two days before prom—returns, claiming to have made a horrid mistake all those years prior.
Amid all this, what has her heart flip-flopping is catching her best friend Simon getting cozy with his latest girlfriend.
Thing is, she isn't sure why its bothering her so badly.
Sometimes it takes coming home again... to discover how lost we’ve really been.
Toss in two brothers who, while loving, had needled her with vivid imagery on what might have happened during that fateful rendezvous at the local HoJo's. Seriously, what's a girl to do? She'd run like hell from Harpers Ferry back to her apartment and job in Alexandria.
She's praying this year's holiday ends a bit more traditional. But between exploding turkey's, cranberry fights, and the winter storm threatening to lock them all together for God only knew how long, she's fairly certain her Norman Rockwell hopes have flown the coop.
Adding another layer to this casserole of disaster, the high school boyfriend—who'd cheated on her two days before prom—returns, claiming to have made a horrid mistake all those years prior.
Amid all this, what has her heart flip-flopping is catching her best friend Simon getting cozy with his latest girlfriend.
Thing is, she isn't sure why its bothering her so badly.
Sometimes it takes coming home again... to discover how lost we’ve really been.
Willow Sanders' Review
While the idea of the story is a cute one - innocent girl comes home for a Holiday, knowing that the previous holiday she had a total bender and can't remember it - the execution of the story fell totally flat.
First, the book is all telling, essentially a summation of actions and events rather than showing the reader the events as they unfold. There is no emotional subtext to the book at all. Additionally, there are a lot of technical errors in the book: typos, strings of dialogue that have run together and have resulted in a confusing back and forth where the reader does not know who is saying what, as well as some issues with continuity (the main character is chopping a vegetable on one page, and two pages later has moved on to another action).
Additionally, other than one scene near the end of the book (and aside from the predictability of the story), the reader wouldn't really get a true sense of her love interest because they barely have any interaction with each other, which makes the ending somewhat unrealistic.
A little bit of restructure, and perhaps a polish in writing technique and this story could be a good one. As it stands though, I would have difficulty recommending it.
First, the book is all telling, essentially a summation of actions and events rather than showing the reader the events as they unfold. There is no emotional subtext to the book at all. Additionally, there are a lot of technical errors in the book: typos, strings of dialogue that have run together and have resulted in a confusing back and forth where the reader does not know who is saying what, as well as some issues with continuity (the main character is chopping a vegetable on one page, and two pages later has moved on to another action).
Additionally, other than one scene near the end of the book (and aside from the predictability of the story), the reader wouldn't really get a true sense of her love interest because they barely have any interaction with each other, which makes the ending somewhat unrealistic.
A little bit of restructure, and perhaps a polish in writing technique and this story could be a good one. As it stands though, I would have difficulty recommending it.
Disclaimer: Book provided by the author free of charge in exchange for an honest review.
