Chorley Chronicals

Thursday, March 13, 2014

10:53 PM | Posted by Unknown

Someone Else's Love Story by Joshilyn Jackson
My Rating: 3 of 5 Butterflies

Title: Someone Else's Love Story
Author: Joshilyn Jackson
Series: Stand Alone
Length: 321 Pages
Publisher: William Morrow (HarperCollins Publishers)
Published: November 19, 2013
Source: Library
Format: eBook/Kindle
Genres: Fiction; Love Stories
Subjects: Life Change Events; Georgia

Synopsis:

Someone Else's Love Story is beloved and highly acclaimed New York Times best-selling 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. ©2013 Joshilyn Jackson (P)2013 HarperCollins Publishers

My Review:

I must admit that this is probably going to be one of the harder reviews that I have to write because I have such mixed feelings about this book. In the end, I found it to be quite close down the middle when it came to the good or the bad, thus the 3 star rating!
This is my first read by Joshilyn Jackson, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I found some of the book to contain extremely lengthy descriptions, whereas I think that less may have been better. There were so many words going on, that it was sometimes hard to follow and stay interested. I had extreme difficulty in getting through the first chapter, but it certainly started picking up more and more for me, each chapter that I finished! I am all about learning new things and new words, but in my opinion, I felt like the author was trying to use every unique word she could possibly think of, which made some of the writing seem like rambling more that concise and cohesive thoughts. I do feel that some books could really use some more pizazz, however, this one had just a little too much pizazz!
I thought that the characters were a very unique set of characters, but I found myself entranced in their lives, waiting with bated breath to find out what was going to happen next. I found myself having very vivid photographic descriptions of the characters, more so than I have had with any other book that I read. I think as a reader, you always try to imagine what the character looks like, but with this book, I felt like I knew exactly what these characters look like!
The first chapter of Someone Else's Love Story was quite confusing. Perhaps if a Prologue would have been included, that would have saved on the confusion, but I sure can tell you that I was as lost as one could be reading Chapter 1. I did feel like the chapters bounced a little, which also made the story harder to follow. I also found myself struggling through the incredibly long chapters. I seem to prefer more shorter chapters, rather than a few really long chapters, and this book seemed to have the some of the longest chapters that I have seen. However, I did enjoy reading the story from the different points of view.
This book is something of a different breed. It seems like I am complaining about everything, but there were such wonderful things about this book, which is where my problem came in when reviewing and rating this book! I really enjoyed the premise of the story and the thought process, especially with the ending. I found myself continuing to read just so I could figure out what happened. Jackson does a great job of keeping you hanging enough so that you just had to keep reading. Overall, I wouldn't consider this my favorite book of the year, however, I also wouldn't totally discount Joshilyn Jackson as an author. I haven't really looked at any of her other books, but should I find one that peaks my interest, I wouldn't hesitate giving it a try!