EVERY VOW YOU BREAK by JULIA CROUCH.
SOURCE: A Reading Group read.
BACK COVER BLURB: The Wayland family - Lara, Marcus and their three children - are leaving England to spend a long, blisteringly hot summer in Trout Island, upstate New York. Marcus has been offered the lead in a play and Lara, still reeling from the abortion Marcus insisted on, hopes the time away from home will help her learn to love her husband again.
A chance meeting at the plays opening-night party reacquaints the family with an old actor friend of Marcus's. Stephen is everything Marcus is not: attractive, successful - and interested in Lara. As Lara feels herself increasingly drawn to him she knows it's a dangerous game she's playing. What she doesn't know is that it's also a deadly one.
FIRST SENTENCE {Chapter One}: From the air, New York looked to Lara like a catering-sized Croydon.
MEMORABLE MOMENT {Page 347}: All too soon it was time for Lara to return, Cinderella-like, to the horrible house in Trout Island, where she was expected to cook and clean for everyone else.
MY THOUGHTS: One of those novels that just when you think you have it sussed off it goes in another direction. Not always a bad thing, indeed it can be great fun when you didn't see some plot development or other coming, but in this instance rather than wondering in which way the story would take me I was simply left pondering how much more ludicrous and far-fetched it could get ... not to mention just how much more linguistically advanced the four year old Jack could possibly become.
A difficult book to review without giving anything away but lets just say for those readers looking for a reason to complain about/ban a book for its contents Every Vow You Break offers ample opportunities -abortion, adultery, rape, teenage sex, incest (although this is only hinted at), drug use, and expletives aplenty, its all there (and more) in a novel that ends abruptly as each of the stereotypical characters, their part in the tale tied up, is seemingly ticked off the authors metaphorical check list.
It isn't often that I mourn time lost reading a book but I'm afraid with this particular novel I did.
10 comments:
I'm afraid the premise of this book just doesn't appeal to me at all. In fact, I even find the title off-putting. Then, of course, your last statement clinches it for me.
The plot and characters sound like they had so much potential in this one. However, based upon the premise I would be looking for realism in a book like this and not ludicrousness.
I didn't know about this one but it sounds interesting. but wow so many topics in it.
I appreciate your review - I think I'll skip this one.
Aw so sorry to hear that it wasn't what you expected
Tracy, thanks for your honesty. I hope the next book you pick up is a keeper.
Sounds like it's trying to do too much in this one!
Oh WOW...that's a LONG list of things I never like to see in a book. I think I'll pass.
Ooh...yeah, I can't say this will hit my wish list any time soon, or any time for that matter. I'm not one to ban books overall, although that is a wasps nest of things to include in ONE novel. I have to say I am actually disappointed it didn't turn out well because the synopsis sounded promising...I was all ready to start figuring out for whom the attraction would be deadly for. Better luck next read.
Wow! This one sounds like a good book to stay far clear of. It sounds like there aren't too many plot devices I would like. I doubt I would have kept reading. Thanks for the warning!
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