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A review by amethyst_hearts_books
Winter at the Door by Sarah Graves
1.0
I had so, so many problems with this book. I picked it to fulfill a book set in the wilderness category, but I do enjoy thrillers/mysteries, so it's not that it just wasn't my genre.
- The characters were done in a very lazy fashion. Stereotypes all around, especially Spud.
- Did we really need a love triangle? Is it a love triangle when two men are interested in the same woman, but she can't seem to make a decision? And for most of the book, she can't have a scene without one (or both!) of them being present, or her thinking of one of them more than what she's actually doing. There's also at least 3 scenes where Trey just drives by, or looks in a window, or shows up where Lizzie is for no reason.
- The wildnerness scenes were not at all realistic. How was the van so deep in the woods? If there was a road, why didn't the cops take it? Why did they go in just before a storm? What happened to the storm?
- Lizzie is a homicide detective. From Boston. Why on Earth did she hire Spud without a background check?
- Did Rascal really need to be there? After a while, it felt like he was just there so there would be something to break up the dialogue.
- There was so much exposition at the start about who Lizzie is and what she's about, it reminded me of the Sweet Valley High books I read when I was a kid. SVH is mostly about 2 beautiful twin sisters from, I think, California, and every book starts with about 4 pages talking about them and their personalities, and how they're twins but different. It's not a good sign when the opening of a mystery/suspense novel reminds of fluff for teenagers.
- The characters were done in a very lazy fashion. Stereotypes all around, especially Spud.
- Did we really need a love triangle? Is it a love triangle when two men are interested in the same woman, but she can't seem to make a decision? And for most of the book, she can't have a scene without one (or both!) of them being present, or her thinking of one of them more than what she's actually doing. There's also at least 3 scenes where Trey just drives by, or looks in a window, or shows up where Lizzie is for no reason.
- The wildnerness scenes were not at all realistic. How was the van so deep in the woods? If there was a road, why didn't the cops take it? Why did they go in just before a storm? What happened to the storm?
- Lizzie is a homicide detective. From Boston. Why on Earth did she hire Spud without a background check?
- Did Rascal really need to be there? After a while, it felt like he was just there so there would be something to break up the dialogue.
- There was so much exposition at the start about who Lizzie is and what she's about, it reminded me of the Sweet Valley High books I read when I was a kid. SVH is mostly about 2 beautiful twin sisters from, I think, California, and every book starts with about 4 pages talking about them and their personalities, and how they're twins but different. It's not a good sign when the opening of a mystery/suspense novel reminds of fluff for teenagers.