Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Although I applaud anyone able to complete a novel, from start, middle to end, I was very disappointed in this work. Given all the fantastic reviews, one would expect to be transported to the time period, but a few well-placed mentions of vintage product or period celebrities does not a historic novel make. The bones are there, but the execution is not. First, there is the question of contemporary dialog...such as "in my space," or "hot," when describing a certain item of clothing a la Paris Hilton as well as other colloquialisms not appropriate to the era. Minor as those may seem they are jarring. The other annoyance are characters who appear, but whose purpose are never properly explained nor fleshed out, such as Peter, who appears unintroduced in the first few chapters, only to have a real life later in the novel. Or Laura, who has lost a child, but shows little real grief, and is only too willing to get on with her life after only a few weeks of the child having gone missing. No Mother would be going out on dates with reporters weeks after losing her child. The suffering would be unbearable. Making reference to a few historical items within the body of the work is not sufficient to make a novel a historical tale, such as the young man who dies fighting abroad during WW1. America did not enter the war in 1915 as stated in the novel, although some young Americans did join the French early on, or signed with the Canadians, but there is no background to explain what this particular young man was doing there. And, the comment that follows that Laura wanted to write about her experiences, but Remarque did it better, is only a weak reference to include a historic item without any basis. What experiences did Laura have? When she encounters some children begging on a street corner, there is no reference to why they are there....the stock market crash, which decimated the country, is never mentioned, and a reference to President Hoover is a lame aside in conversation, while the effects of his policy not to offer aide to the thousands of unemployed was the basis for these children begging in the streets. One is suppose to just know that? And, treating the ransom sum of $250,000 as a paltry sum in an era when the average worker earned, if lucky, $1500.00 per year is really ridiculous. Compare that amount to 2012 dollars and it equals over $3 million. There are calculators on-line that convert currency for you. I could go on, but, hopefully what I have already presented will be taken constructively. The author has the potential to be a great writer, but much more work is needed to write the type of book she is attempting to execute. I know how difficult it can be to write a novel and I want her to know I think she could write an outstanding one, if she takes more time and backs up her writing with research and takes more care with her characters, their place in history and their motivation. I recommend Gore Vidal's "Hollywood," or "A Good Woman," by Danielle Steel, or "The Given Day," by Dennis Lehane, for examples of books that have used that same era to create entertaining historic novels. There are also any number of reference books that would help the author to develop the era as another character, which is what most good historic novelists do. As I said, before, the author has the potential to be great and so I do look forward to seeing her work in the future.