G435 Book Review of Someone Else's Love Story by Joshilyn Jackson
Author: Joshilyn Jackson
ISBN: 978-0-06-210566-0
Publisher: William Morrow
Type of book: Religion, offensive scenes, rape, date rape, unexpected love stories, the south, single mother, seeking the truth, autism spectrum, miracles, fate, virginity, 2000s
Year it was published: 2013
Summary:
Someone Else's Love Story is beloved and highly acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Joshilyn Jackson's funny, charming, and poignant novel about science and miracles, secrets and truths, faith and forgiveness; about falling in love, and learning that things aren't always what they seem—or what we hope they will be.
Shandi Pierce is juggling finishing college, raising her delightful three-year-old genius son Nathan, aka Natty Bumppo, and keeping the peace between her eternally warring, long-divorced parents. She's got enough complications without getting caught in the middle of a stick-up and falling in love with William Ashe, who willingly steps between the robber and her son.
Shandi doesn't know that her blond god Thor has his own complications. When he looked down the barrel of that gun he believed it was destiny: It's been one year to the day since a tragic act of physics shattered his world. But William doesn't define destiny the way others do. A brilliant geneticist who believes in facts and numbers, destiny to him is about choice. Now, he and Shandi are about to meet their so-called destinies head on, making choices that will reveal unexpected truths about love, life, and the world they think they know.
Characters:
Oh goodness, where do I begin? Shandi's mother, Mim, as she is called, is literally a man-hating woman that has a strange obsession with looking good and eating healthy without being in a relationship. She shows her anger in the most fascinating ways and detests her husband a great deal. She is christian. Shandi, despite her age, sounds like an immature teen girl and her style of talking drove me nuts. She doesn't like either religion due to her parents, and she's in denial about how she got Natty. William Ashe saves people at a gas station and he is a scientist as well as possibly having an autism disorder. There are also Walcott, Shandi's loyal male friend who is there for her through thick and thin, as well as Paula, William's friend who helps him out with Bridget, William's ex-wife.
Theme:
No idea what the theme should have been. There is a lot of discussion about fate and miracles if it helps, that we often help people unexpectedly.
Plot:
The story is written in both first person and third person narrative, first person from Shandi and third person from William's. I have to admit that Shandi literally drove me nuts due to the way she sounded, like a young and uneducated teenager. William was much better written actually. I also really liked Walcott as well as Shandi's precocious son Natty, but I disliked the main characters. As I got more and more into the story, Shandi drove me more and more nuts, and each time it was her turn to speak, I couldn't help but be frustrated.
Author Information:
(From TLC)
About Joshilyn Jackson
Joshilyn Jackson is the New York Times bestselling author of six novels, including Gods in Alabama and A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty. She lives in Decatur, Georgia, with her husband and their two children.
Opinion:
It can't be a good sign that within the first chapter of the book I found two things that were very distasteful for me. I admit that one of them was a minor thing and could have been easy to over-look, but another one is a huge deal-breaker, and thanks to that particular part as well as the veiled religious hints, I started to dislike the story more and more. Thanks to Casebook by Mona Simpson, I developed a pet peeve when a mother is called "Mim" instead of mom or mother or mommy, and yes, Shandi does call her mom that. The other part that disgusted me completely is the praying hands scene, when Shandi's christian mother asks Shandi to hang that particular painting in her Jewish father's house! I'm sorry, but that's a despicable and distasteful scene for me. Towards the end I finally understand what the author was trying to do, and I like that, but the ending can't really be compared to 90 percent of the story. The story, I felt, tried too hard to be funny, as well as likable, and it ended up as a huge miss for me. Also the ending was a little too sudden for me. It also doesn't seem to help that the Jewish father is more stereotypical, that Shandi seems to come to him simply because he helps her out financially rather than caring for him as a person, and he also doesn't seem to play a huge role in her life. Also, since this part comes up a lot, the part where she got raped is unbelievable, but that's probably for another day.
This is for TLC Book Tour
Joshilyn’s Tour Stops
Tuesday, August 26th: JulzReads
Wednesday, August 27th: nightlyreading
Friday, August 29th: Ace and Hoser Blook
Monday, September 1st: Svetlana’s Reads and Views
Tuesday, September 2nd: Literary Lindsey
Wednesday, September 3rd: Every Free Chance Book Reviews
Thursday, September 4th: Literary Feline
Monday, September 8th: Fuelled by Fiction
Tuesday, September 9th: I’d Rather Be At The Beach
Wednesday, September 10th: Bibliotica
Thursday, September 11th: Snowdrop Dreams of Books
Tuesday, September 16th: Ageless Pages Reviews
Wednesday, September 17th: Giraffe Days
Thursday, September 18th: Kritters Ramblings
Friday, September 19th: Jorie Loves a Story
Monday, September 22nd: M. Denise C.
2 out of 5(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this book for the tour.
ReplyDelete