I had such high hopes for this book. I mean, when the publisher sends a packet of kleenex with the Advanced Readers Copy of a book, I expect to shed a few tears.
I am the girl who cries at the National Anthem, it does not take much for me to try, I admit it.
Not one tear. Not once did my eyes even get damp. Not once.
There was potential. But the story got lost on the river. Seriously.
A man from the wrong side of the tracks, Doss, saves a Senators Daughter, Abbie, from some potentioal muggers. The two, then proceed to fall in love & get married.
Life is splendid & all is well until Abbie is diagnosed with cancer. Cue the tears, right? Wrong.
One of Abbie's last ten wishes is to go down the river (we don't find out what all ten wishes are), but this is where the author loses me. Page after page after page AFTER PAGE of descriptions of the river, is it really necessary? I really did lose interest & just skimmed most of the book after page ten of river description.
Really, it doesn't take much to make me cry, but this book sadly enough, did not do it for me. I wasted far too much valuable reading time on this book. Please, spare yourself the agony & pick up The Choice by Nicholas Sparks if you really want a well written tear jerker.
I've read most of Charles Martin's other books and am currently half way through this one.
For me, all of Martin's books deal with the fundamental brokeness that all guys have. And it's in his honest portrayal of broken guys that I get drawn in and hooked to his stories. And I'm finding that same thing is what's driving this one. Doss is a good guy, but he has some things from his past that haunt him and he's broken.
Just wanted to note that the final (not pre-pub) copy of the book DID include the list of the ten bucket list items. My problem was that some were pretty unusual and I felt the plot was rather contrived to make them happen.
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