While You Were Mine

I would NOT recommend this book to anyone. I was dying of boredom. I made it about half way through the book. I might try to finish it later. Normally, I would not write a review without finishing but here's what I've found: 1) Like Creel's last book, we have another female in a tight spot with a "baby" situation. Again, she has a friend with man troubles. Again, her love interest is initially presented as a desperate, pitiable, but respectable man. I feel like it's just another version of "The Magic of Ordinary Days" 2) The idea of the story, the basic plot, sounds great "on paper" but the telling of the story is poorly executed. There is nothing driving the story forward, no reason behind why the characters do what they do. For example, I was excited to see what made Gwen finally decide to confess her feelings to John and the answer was...nothing. Like MANY other times in the book Gwen goes back and forth about her feelings, then this time she just decides do it it with no real REASON for her decision. I was surprised and felt let down by the author. 3) The author approaches the telling of this story too much like a history lesson. It's clear she's done her research and history is an important part to this story. However, it should be just that--a story, not a history lesson. She gives LOADS of excellent descriptions of the events and circumstances--but again, we are not here to have someone give lovely flowery descriptions of the beach scene on Coney Island. We are here for a really good story. She needs to use her descriptions to support the story. Instead, she lets the story get lost in the background of all the mundane events. I think if the author works on her storytelling she could be a good author but right now she is simply describer of events and environments. I felt like I was reading a diary instead of a book. 4) This is not my favorite narrator. She does a good job with inflection but her voice sounds robotic and her male voices all sound nasal. It's kind of hard to enjoy what SHOULD be a romance with this kind of narration. 5) The overall effect of the story combined with the narration was making me bored and depressed.

No, but I will think twice before reading this author and this narrator again.

She has a good pace and reads the story well.

I can't say. I couldn't finish this book.