R&R Review Wednesday: Through the Riptide by Bert Murray

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Colin Preston #2

Goodreads Blurb:

""transcends its romance narrative that tracks a woman's tremulous anxieties, beset by cosmopolitan desires, New York big city dangers and Southampton big money corruption...with a lyrical voice" - Shirley Geok-lin Lim, American Books Award winner

An attractive thirty year old professional woman leaves NYC after being attacked there and finds a new job by the seashore. She has to decide whether she will date her ex-boyfriend or a mysterious new man she meets on a bus ride. Filled with passion, emotion, romance and the excitement of a summer by the sea..."

Review:

Thank you to the author, Bert Murray, for gifting me with a copy of Through the Riptide in exchange for an honest review!

One overall feeling before I get into the list: I really don't have that strong of feelings about this book.  Everything was just kind of meh to me.  I didn't hate it but I also didn't love it.

1.  Plot.  Hm... I have mixed feelings about this book.  When I first read it, I didn't realize that it was the second book in a series (the author didn't mention that and I didn't look at the Goodreads page that closely) so I went in thinking that there were so many unexplained relationships and so many people that randomly showed up.  This made the plot really hard to understand for me and I honestly didn't know what was going on.  The thing with this book is that there isn't really an overarching goal that the book is centered around and that propels it forward.  It just kind of has little plot bumps.  For me personally, that was difficult because it felt like I was just reading an account of what happened over a large period of time (like someone's diary) of everyday things that happened.  And then, near the end, when the supposed mystery is revealed, I was just really confused because that part of the plot wasn't emphasized at all.  That being said, if that plot line was emphasized a little more and made so that it was clear it was the main plot line, I would have really liked it.

2.  Characters.  This sort of goes hand in hand with my first point that I didn't know that this was the second book.  Because of that, naturally, the audience is already familiar with characters so they aren't introduced as thoroughly in the sequels.  However, since I haven't read the first book, I was VERY confused and all of the characters seemed to just flash by.  The problem with that is that all of the characters came across as very unmemorable and felt like cardboard cutouts.  As for the main character, I really don't know how I feel about her.  She did face some adversity (with her narrowly escaped sexual assault) but overall, she was just meh to me.

3.  The romance.  There is somewhat of a love triangle in this book but it's more loose.  There's no real competition between the two male love interests but there are too so I feel justified in calling it a love triangle.  Overall, unlike a lot of love triangles, I didn't really have strong feelings about it.  The love interests didn't make me swoon or say 'aw' or anything of that nature.  It was just a thing that was happening.

4.  The writing.  This writing style is almost diary style without the headings.  The time jumps are a little disorienting especially because there isn't any direct indication as to how far into the future it's jumping.  The writing itself is wonderful albeit a little lacking with the variety of adjectives.  It flows very nicely and can be read aloud with out stumbling too much or it sounding terribly awkward.

The Final Verdict:

Overall, this is a nice book.  I wasn't overly impressed by it but it wasn't terrible either.  It would probably be best if you read the first book first and then this book to get a feel for the characters.  The plot could have been very good but there wasn't much emphasis on what the central plot line was so it just felt like a diary that skipped random weeks.

3 stars

Quotes:

"Ripples of laughter, fueled mostly by fine and abundant drinks, had become waves, at times explosive."

"His name is Pierre," Jasmine told me, looking fondly at him.  "After AK."

"AK stands for Pierre?"

"It reminds me of AK.  Classy guy.  Classy name."

"The past might still call to me, but I wouldn't have to live there anymore."