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| 30 Days |
Genre: Romance, Adult*, Suspense
*Adult: Well, yes, but only just. It has some sex scenes in it, but personally I wouldn't describe them as pornographic.
This is cleverly constructed and quite well written, which makes it a really good story. Elle is in a bad situation: her sister Jenny is dead, which means she's lost her best friend. Her abusive husband Ryan has driven her to try to kill herself, and she finds herself on suicide watch in the mental health section of the hospital. Therapy has helped her towards recovery, but now Ryan is trying to use her 'incapacity' to gain control of her inheritance, and of her, for the rest of her life. It's time for Elle to make a bid for freedom, and to get her own life back. With a list of 30 things Jenny would have challenged her to do, Elle sets out on her personal journey to self-determination, only to be ambushed by a superlatively attractive Colin, and friends.
Elle's history and background is sketched in by Larsen's expert use of flashbacks, which fade away as they complete their task. Larsen's characterization is a little weak, especially of secondary characters. Elle's friends are all wonderful and the bad guys are awful. Elle herself, however, is well done. At 55k words it's not a long novel. The writing style is easy to read and the story flows well - and the book has the great advantage of being available for free. I don't know how long that will be the case, but I suspect that Larsen is using this as a free taster for several other books and particularly the sequel to this one, Committed ($4.99 when I looked and probably worth that). This story does end on something of a cliffhanger, but I did not feel cheated by that because I could guess where things were going, at least in a general way. I'm sure that Larsen has some plot complications, and entertainments, contained in Committed, but I have not yet read that one.
Overall I would say this is not great literature, but then it was never intended to be. It is very good entertainment, well executed. As a light read, I can highly recommend it.
I obtained this ebook as a free download. This review is entirely unsolicited and reflects my objective opinion.
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