A review by leighannsherwin
Imagine by Jill Barnett

3.0

Started off promising and intriguing. Set in 1896 Margaret is a lawyer. That alone intrigued me. Her father sends her on a cruise through the seven seas. Unknown to her a prisoner named Hank is planning an escape and when he does he ends up on the same ship as Margaret. A storm brews the ship sinks and Margaret, Hank, a goat and three children, Annabelle, Theodore and Lydia, are the only survivors. As I said it starts promising, even hilarious when toddler Annabelle constantly repeats Hank's vile swear words. Then she brings some random genie into the mix which is where the story lost me. Just why? It was dumb really. I also found it was much the same as her other books. A cranky man, a chatty woman annoys the man, the man gives the woman a nickname of some sort based on nationality, or a version of her name. They eventually fall in love and end up living happily ever after. The kids changed the formula slightly and the odd and unnecessary genie did too. I think the book came out around the same time as the original Aladdin when Robin Williams made genies a big deal, but it falls flat. But I tried and I just couldn't. I like her shorter books better and this one might've been better if it was shorter. Hey they had a genie wish for rescue maybe? Ah well I somehow got through it, might revisit it again later on, but only once I forgot about it.