Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I was able to suspend my disbelief while I was reading it, but the plot holes and illogic came popping out as soon as I finished. Basically, this should have been two books- a love story and a Mafia story. The addition of the Mafia drug war plot line seemed forced. It felt like the author decided that there wasn't enough 'action' so he had to come up with something to introduce guns and killing. Spoilers 1. Everyone, from the battered wife to the Mafiosi, had an incredible ability to take physical injury and get up and function. At least two characters are walking around on broken legs! And even if you're a trained soldier or hopped up on coke...there's a limited number of steps you can take on a broken bone before the injury worsens. No matter how tough you are, broken ends are going to displace, stick through the skin, and you will NOT be able to keep walking on it. It just got ridiculous, reading that someone had broken bones, but they kept on fighting. 2. We're told that Chris was 17 when he went into Witness Protection, and the book is taking place 10 years later. He now has a career as an architect. But when he returns to his home town, everyone keeps referring to him as a 'boy'. Several people recognize him, even though he's 10 years older, they haven't seen him, and the only 2 explanations offered for his absences are the WP or that he was murdered. Seriously? People wouldn't say to themselves, 'Hey, that guy looks like Chris, that kid who disappeared 10 years ago', rather than being immediately sure he IS Chris? 3. Chris's amnesia depends upon having been hypnotized. How did they get him to consent to go into trance? Trance isn't something you can force someone into, to make them forget something they desperately want to remember. 4. Chris is 17 and has a fiancee. And the FBI didn't consider taking her into the WP, too? 5. The fiancee believes that either Chris is in the WP or the Mafia killed him. She mourns the love of her life...then starts dating the son of the Mafiosi who ordered the hit. Excuse me? Where are her parents in all this? Where is her brain in all this? She's there for the trial where Chris's father testifies against the Mafia, she thinks maybe the Mafia killed Chris...and then she starts dating the son of the mobster who Chris's father puts in jail? The guy is portrayed consistently as a pig- why on earth did she even accept date one, much less marry him? When we first meet him, he's working as a bartender, and by the end of the book, he's making million-dollar cocaine deals. 6. The domestic violence was excessive. Yes, we get it, he's a pig. He beats his wife. But does he have to beat her so danged much? I'm not sure who this plotline is supposed to appeal to. Are there large numbers of women who want battering in their love stories? Another reviewer suggested that this is a man's book- and frankly, I find that even creepier, that there's a market for books with vivid descriptions of wife-beating intended for a male audience. 7. I kept wondering if the violence at the boat dock was even possible. Combined with large amounts of damage to the humans, who kept on fighting, it seemed like the boat was taking a huge amount of damage, and still staying afloat. And I'm pretty sure I saw a Mythbusters episode about how hard it is to ignite gasoline with a bullet. 8. The end of the book was a fizzle. No wildly passionate reunion of the long-separated lovers; they just go separate ways. You'd think they'd want to spend at least SOME time together. There's a vague promise that she'll meet up with him later- but if I'd been fighting my way to the side of the woman I loved, I wouldn't just drop her off at the airport. It left me feeling like they hadn't had much more than a teenaged crush, that there never had been any soul-mate, love-of-my-life romance there, if they could separate so easily with only vague plans to reunite. After having been set up all through the book for a romantic love affair, it was really disappointing.