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A review by stayceee24
The Stepfather by Lorna Henderson
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
2.5⭐️
Thank you NetGalley, Choc Lit and Joffe Books for this ARC. The views outlined are my own.
Plot
Sophie has married an Australian and has a daughter, Emma. She and her family return to England and Sophie takes the reader through her past and present unravelling the secrets behind her Stepfather - a well respected MP with a dark past.
Review
In order to make my review fair and balanced, I’ll outline the positives and the negatives from the book. Beginning with the positives:
1. The book does make you want to understand what exactly happened.
2. It does a good job of building tension
3. It has very short bursts chapters so you get through the book quite quickly.
4. The plot is very interesting and I didn’t hate the characters - except James but I’m fairly sure I’m meant to.
However, some of the negatives that I tried really hard to overlook but couldn’t include:
1. The constant switching between past and present did make it incredibly difficult to follow what era we were in. I understand this was one of the ways the author tried to introduce cliffhangers but sometimes it felt like it would be more appropriate to have a few chapters from one era and a few from another.
2. I understand this is an unedited version but there were a lot of silly spelling mistakes and errors in the plot.
3. The first person narrative was really annoying. I love a good first person narrative but this narrator was working too hard to over describe everything, was often repetitive and it got boring in parts because of this.
4. A minor issue but the copy I had, the typing was too close together and was pretty poor accessibility wise to read. I’d consider double spacing for the official ebook or readers with poor eyesight may struggle.
Overall, it wasn’t an awful book but I didn’t love it and I don’t think I’ll be rushing out to buy this or another book by this author unfortunately.
Thank you NetGalley, Choc Lit and Joffe Books for this ARC. The views outlined are my own.
Plot
Sophie has married an Australian and has a daughter, Emma. She and her family return to England and Sophie takes the reader through her past and present unravelling the secrets behind her Stepfather - a well respected MP with a dark past.
Review
In order to make my review fair and balanced, I’ll outline the positives and the negatives from the book. Beginning with the positives:
1. The book does make you want to understand what exactly happened.
2. It does a good job of building tension
3. It has very short bursts chapters so you get through the book quite quickly.
4. The plot is very interesting and I didn’t hate the characters - except James but I’m fairly sure I’m meant to.
However, some of the negatives that I tried really hard to overlook but couldn’t include:
1. The constant switching between past and present did make it incredibly difficult to follow what era we were in. I understand this was one of the ways the author tried to introduce cliffhangers but sometimes it felt like it would be more appropriate to have a few chapters from one era and a few from another.
2. I understand this is an unedited version but there were a lot of silly spelling mistakes and errors in the plot.
3. The first person narrative was really annoying. I love a good first person narrative but this narrator was working too hard to over describe everything, was often repetitive and it got boring in parts because of this.
4. A minor issue but the copy I had, the typing was too close together and was pretty poor accessibility wise to read. I’d consider double spacing for the official ebook or readers with poor eyesight may struggle.
Overall, it wasn’t an awful book but I didn’t love it and I don’t think I’ll be rushing out to buy this or another book by this author unfortunately.