Scan barcode
A review by calmcelebration9888
All the Wrong Places by Joy Fielding
3.0
On a whole the book was interesting enough for me to keep reading the whole way and I loved the cliffhanger ending. That was probably the best part of the whole book.
One of the things I disliked about the book was the relationship between Joan and Paige (mom and daughter). It just seemed kind of artificial to me. Some of the dialogue in the beginning of the book was cringe and I skipped through a lot of it. The mom complimenting her daughter over and over was weird. I don’t know any mom an d daughter that speak to each other that way. It got better as the book went along but I skipped through a lot of the boring scenes. Same for the first date dialogue. I’m not much for romance books so I didn’t like a lot of that. The one exception was Joan and Harry. I thought they were really cute and I liked how their relationship progressed. It seemed easy and natural.
I feel like part of the issue was the same thing happened again and again. For instance Joan going to the doctor for 3 separate reasons for 3 separate things is not believable in any way. And going to the ER because of too much sex? It was funny but dumb also. Also Chloe seems so helpless, leaning on Paige over and over again. Also the dropped text conversations were irritating. Let’s me honest. If someone messaged you and then disappeared and repeated that 3-5 more times, would you really be interested in meeting that person? Wouldn’t you be turned off by how flaky that person is? It just felt like methods to stretch the story out longer.
The book was almost like two stories. I felt more drawn to the parts where Mr Right Now narrated because it was more interesting than the everyday lives of the women. The part where he finds his landlord standing outside his door was great and the daughter moving in to help her mom was great also. I also loved all the parts with Heather. The problem with Joan, Chloe and Paige was too many goody two shoes vibes. We needed someone more complex and Heather was that character. I especially loved the twist at the end where she goes on the date for Paige. I didn’t even realize that was happening until Paige mentions not taking her phone with her to the hospital. And leaving it before she gets killed was so genius. Perfect ending.
I have mixed feelings about the Chloe character. I feel like she was mostly forgettable. She didn’t seem to have much depth. We don’t know much about her other than she has a best friend and her husband has always cheated on her. Even having an absentee mom was not really weaved into the story well. I’m on the fence about her husband Matt as well. The idea that a husband who was not particularly violent could shoot his wife, personally it didn’t compute for me. I feel even though it was set up with him being controlling and having a gun, making the leap to killing her didn’t make sense to me.
One other thing I did not enjoy was the talk about the twins. I do not understand in the slightest why you would be so mad about one twin living when the other dies. It wasn’t like they were on a boat and one killed the other to survive. Sure I get it. Maybe Heather’s dad is not a nice guy but I don’t understand the leap to hating him. And it was very clear that Paige just hates him. That whole part confused me a lot. It seemed like he cared a lot for Paige, but maybe his words didn't match his feelings, I’m not sure.
So overall the book was interesting. Great ending but it was boring for stretches of time in the middle. I really wished the Paige and Chloe characters were more complex and better thought out. They just seemed like perfect women with boring lives. Nothing too interesting about either of them.
One of the things I disliked about the book was the relationship between Joan and Paige (mom and daughter). It just seemed kind of artificial to me. Some of the dialogue in the beginning of the book was cringe and I skipped through a lot of it. The mom complimenting her daughter over and over was weird. I don’t know any mom an d daughter that speak to each other that way. It got better as the book went along but I skipped through a lot of the boring scenes. Same for the first date dialogue. I’m not much for romance books so I didn’t like a lot of that. The one exception was Joan and Harry. I thought they were really cute and I liked how their relationship progressed. It seemed easy and natural.
I feel like part of the issue was the same thing happened again and again. For instance Joan going to the doctor for 3 separate reasons for 3 separate things is not believable in any way. And going to the ER because of too much sex? It was funny but dumb also. Also Chloe seems so helpless, leaning on Paige over and over again. Also the dropped text conversations were irritating. Let’s me honest. If someone messaged you and then disappeared and repeated that 3-5 more times, would you really be interested in meeting that person? Wouldn’t you be turned off by how flaky that person is? It just felt like methods to stretch the story out longer.
The book was almost like two stories. I felt more drawn to the parts where Mr Right Now narrated because it was more interesting than the everyday lives of the women. The part where he finds his landlord standing outside his door was great and the daughter moving in to help her mom was great also. I also loved all the parts with Heather. The problem with Joan, Chloe and Paige was too many goody two shoes vibes. We needed someone more complex and Heather was that character. I especially loved the twist at the end where she goes on the date for Paige. I didn’t even realize that was happening until Paige mentions not taking her phone with her to the hospital. And leaving it before she gets killed was so genius. Perfect ending.
I have mixed feelings about the Chloe character. I feel like she was mostly forgettable. She didn’t seem to have much depth. We don’t know much about her other than she has a best friend and her husband has always cheated on her. Even having an absentee mom was not really weaved into the story well. I’m on the fence about her husband Matt as well. The idea that a husband who was not particularly violent could shoot his wife, personally it didn’t compute for me. I feel even though it was set up with him being controlling and having a gun, making the leap to killing her didn’t make sense to me.
One other thing I did not enjoy was the talk about the twins. I do not understand in the slightest why you would be so mad about one twin living when the other dies. It wasn’t like they were on a boat and one killed the other to survive. Sure I get it. Maybe Heather’s dad is not a nice guy but I don’t understand the leap to hating him. And it was very clear that Paige just hates him. That whole part confused me a lot. It seemed like he cared a lot for Paige, but maybe his words didn't match his feelings, I’m not sure.
So overall the book was interesting. Great ending but it was boring for stretches of time in the middle. I really wished the Paige and Chloe characters were more complex and better thought out. They just seemed like perfect women with boring lives. Nothing too interesting about either of them.