Wednesday, December 2, 2015

A Healing Spirit (Riverview Series #2) by Melissa A. Hanson

A freak ski accident brings nineteen-year old Mia Kinney within minutes of death. Hurt and scared, Mia is calmed by the southern drawl and clear green eyes of her rescuer.

Twenty-one year old Dylan Blackburn is one of the first Ski Patrol members on the scene. As his patient is airlifted to the local trauma center, he can’t shake her from his thoughts.

As Mia fights for her life, Dylan, is haunted by the blond hair beauty, and knows he needs to make sure she’s going to be okay.

With a troubled past Dylan has vowed never to completely open himself up to another girl, but Mia continues to knock down every wall he’s constructed. When his past arrives at his front door and threatens once again someone that he loves, will Dylan be able to save Mia yet again? Or will he be too late this time?

A story of love, friendship, and the determination to turn a horrible experience into something worthwhile.

 * Goodreads * Amazon *

This is the second book in this Riverview series.  I read and reviewed the first book not too long ago.  As a reviewer, I don't always love the books I am reviewing.  That goes without saying.  But, I do believe that when I read a first book by an author, and don't really love it, I should give them another chance.  Sometimes authors get better as they go, sometimes I get better as I go.  :)  Either way, I believe in second chances.  I didn't really love the first book in this series but I had already signed on to review this one and like I said before, I thought I would give the author another chance.  

Unfortunately, all the reasons I didn't really enjoy the first book were amplified in this book.  This book is told in first person from multiple points of view.  It drove me nuts.  Especially in the beginning when it jumped from person to person.  By the end of the book there was really only 3 alternating voices going on which was a relief, but I still would have appreciated it more if there weren't so many voices.  The problem, especially in the beginning was that I didn't feel any connection to any of the characters.  I didn't feel like I needed those alternating points of view to convey the information or emotion.  It was just distracting.

My other problem was the swearing and profanity.  The first book had a few mild instances, this book had a few more, some not so mild.  Not a fan of that.  The first book mentioned the couple not being ready for sexual relations quite yet, this book did the same but took things just a little bit farther.  

I will say that by the end of the book I really did like the main characters, Mia and Dylan.  Mia has a fantastic attitude toward life and it's always refreshing to have characters that sends out positive vibes.  This book also tackles the very tough subject of domestic violence and I thought the author did a great job of capturing the emotions of abuse.  I also liked the fact that this story was based on a real life event.  I enjoyed reading about that in the back of the book.

I think now that I have a pretty good idea of how this author writes and I just don't think it's a good fit for me personally.


2 comments:

  1. Great job on sharing your honest thoughts in a constructive way! I'm in the same boat as you with this series...

    ReplyDelete

We bloggers live for comments! So, feel free to comment away! Thanks for dropping by.