Amazon discontinued the ability to create images using their SiteStripe feature and in their infinite wisdom broke all previously created images on 12/31/23. Many blogs used this feature, including this one. Expect my archives to be a hot mess of broken book cover images until I can slowly comb through 20 years of archives to make corrections.

Monday, February 2, 2009

Insomnia Happens

I didn't think it was possible, but I think I drank too much caffeine yesterday. I can't be expected to resist the siren song of Republic Of Tea Rose Petal Tea. Of course, I probably didn't need to drink like three pots of it. Just sayin'. So when I couldn't sleep, I hit the living room couch and plowed through the last 300 pages of Stranger by Megan Hart. I'm still working out my feelings about this one, so bear with me.

Grace is a funeral home director, a family business she took over when her father retired. Her job essentially entails helping people through the grief process. It's because of this grief that she sees every day that she's gun shy about personal relationships. As in, she doesn't have any. She's single, and instead of getting emotionally invested with a boyfriend or husband, she pays strangers for sex. OK, not strangers per se. Male escorts. Still, strangers. She's at a local bar one night to meet her latest stranger, and in walks Sam. They have mind blowing sex, and after the fact Grace realizes she slept with the wrong stranger. Oops.

What basically follows is Grace's story. Her relationship with Jack, the stranger she was supposed to boink that night, and who she continues to hire over the first half of this book. Then there is Sam, who comes back into her life when his father passes away (side note: Sam is the brother of Dan, the hero from the author's debut Spice novel, Dirty).

I want to start this review by saying I liked this book, and I continue to enjoy Hart's writing. I love that her Spice novels feature emotionally messy and stunted characters. I'm a sucker for characters with baggage, and hers have it in spades. I also enjoy watching all of the characters (secondary characters included) orbit and crash into each other over the course of her stories.

That said....

My main issue with Stranger was the same issue I had with Tempted. It felt "over long" in parts. Like it could have been edited down by a good 50 to 100 pages. I really felt the author spent too much energy on Jack. Not that Jack isn't a nice guy and all - but I wanted less of him and more of Sam. I wanted a lot more of Sam and Grace and a lot less of Grace and Jack. Now I don't want to mislead anyone - this is NOT (I repeat NOT) a love triangle book. Which is probably where my frustration came in. It's apparent that Jack isn't our hero. I wanted a lot more hero.

Because of this I felt the ending was a bit abrupt. I needed "more" of Sam working through his issues, and likewise, working through his issues with Grace. Because of all the time devoted to Jack, I felt like the conclusion of the Sam and Grace romance got a bit of a short-shift. I closed the book thinking, "That's it? That's all there is? There ain't no more?"

That being said, it's the second half of the novel that really sells this book for me. Once the author is past Jack, and Sam and Grace are working on being "together" is when this book shines for me. Because all their baggage, all their issues, come tumbling out in the open. There are some great scenes between them towards the end, and I wanted them (desperately!) to get their happily ever after.

So where does that leave me? It leaves me with no idea how to grade this book. Usually grading comes really easy for me. I just "know." I liked it better than Tempted, and I graded that a B+. But I'm not sure Stranger is a B+. So maybe both it and Tempted are a B? Yeah, let's go with that for now. Although don't be surprised if I change my tune during my End Of 2009 Reading Recap and bump this up to a higher grade.

For now...

Final Grade = B

6 comments:

Rosie said...

Thank God SL! So many reviews rhapsodize about Jack. Who ain't bad, but this isn't "his" book. This was a second half book for me too, but dang, MH got game, doesn't she?

AuthorM said...

Wendy, thanks for reading! I appreciate it. :) I'll take your B gladly.

M

Wendy said...

Always glad to be of assistance Rosie!

Oh good - Megan stopped by. Hopefully you have e-mail notification on! It's killing me, and I've been too lazy to dig out my copy of Broken. Help me out here - was Sarah in Broken? I'm thinking she was. And damn, I'm positively dreadful with character names....which is why I can't recall 100%.

AuthorM said...

Yep, Sarah was in Broken, you got it!

I've been thinking about your comments about Jack, and wanting more Sam...

I knew when I wrote Stranger that there'd be readers who didn't like the amount of Jack. I can't really "defend" my choice because the book came out how it did...and also, you're not asking me to defend it. :) And also, I wrote the book like, two years ago, and who knows what I was thinking.

But this is what I think -- in books, it's easy to pair up people, nice and neat. You meet the hero, he's the one, it's all about him. But sometimes...in real life...you meet someone and you don't know you're going to end up with that person, and you still have a tie of some sort (emotional, sexual) to another person, and you keep seeing that person even if you're not going to end up him, because you don't KNOW that the new person you just met is the one you're going to be with!

*deep breath*

So...I guess what I'm saying is, I totally get why you'd have preferred more Sam. I knew it when I was writing it that some would like it better that way.

I just couldn't do it that way!

But as always, thanks for reading, I appreciate it, and even more when you point out what didn't work for you (I know, that makes me a masochist?)

M

PS -- I also really despise when authors try to "explain" themselves to reviewers or defend themselves with "but, but, if you only UNDERSTOOD WHERE I WAS COMING FROM" and stuff like that.

I don't expect my explanation of where I was coming from to change your opinion. Your review just sparked some thoughts in me about why I wrote Stranger the way I did, and that I do understand the folks who wanted less Jack, more Sam.

Hmm, no wonder I wrote about not being a pleaser today at my blog! LOL!!!!

AuthorM said...

PSS--

Also, thanks for pointing out what DID work for you, I always love that, too. :)

Wendy said...

Megan: Ha! I knew it! I remember really loving Sarah in Broken. Loved, loved, loved her. Of course I didn't love her enough to remember her name - LOL. That's one of my foibles. No matter how much I might love a book or character, I'm positively dreadful when it comes to names.

All an author can do is write the best book they can. The minute they start thinking about "pleasing" readers, is when I think they start traveling down a slippery slope. It is not humanly possible to make all readers happy. It cannot be done - even with copious amounts of alcohol.

You wrote it, you put it out there, and readers will have varying reactions to it. Like Rosie mentioned, I've seen several reviews where readers adore Jack. And I certainly "liked" him - I was just more intrigued by Sam and wanted this to be a non-stop Sam Love Fest LOL. Which I got in the second half of the book. I just got greedy and wanted more......