My latest post is a review for the book, After the Break by Penny Smith, one to miss I think.....
After reading and quite enjoying the first book by Penny Smith I decided to give the second one a go, what a big mistake and I have to confess I was not able to finish it as it bored me to tears.
The story is about Kate who from the first book got sacked from her morning television presenter show and then finally managed to get some work for a new company. In this book we have her out of work and running out of money so when given the opportunity to appear on a reality show she jumps at the chance as she needs the money ad hopes her career may be restarted off the back of it. She goes to the small log cabin with the fellow contestants and soon finds her feet and makes a few good friends. Whilst she is appearing on the show her boyfriend and family are left behind and they are not too impressed with the way she is coming across on screen.
Will Kate win the show and get her career restarted or will she be shown in such a bad light she looses everything?
The story was a follow on from the first book with the same returning characters and a few new ones added. When reading I just felt it was all to familiar and nothing seemed original and new. The way the reality show came across with the tasks they had to do was all to similar to the of I’m a Celebrity Get me out of here and for the whole time I was reading this is what I had pictured in my head. The same plot seemed to be repeated over and over again with the tasks and I was always wishing something new and exciting would happen but nothing ever did and it was so long winded at times.
The characters were a mixed bunch, Kate was her usual loud and quite witty self but she did come across as a little obnoxious at times and dumb with the way she was behaving knowing she was being filmed 24 hours of the day, she never changed and she just seemed dull and boring for the majority of the book. We had a lot of strong characters added and I was not able to warm to them, they were backstabbing and only out for their own gain and not bothered about who they hurt along the way. I did feel like shouting at them on more than one occasion.
The story was easy to read from the style of writing but there was not much happening and it was very dull, I hate not being able to finish a book and since I have been able to read this is only the second book I have never finished. I was just not interested at all in the book and the story and due to the lack of excitement or story found it a chore to read.
We did not get enough details of the places we were in so I was not able to get a good mental picture and this did not help when I was reading as I like to be able to visualise what I am reading and what the characters and places look and feel like, there were some small details but no where near enough fro my liking.
This is the second book from Penny Smith and I do think she has a good writing style but she does need to move away from the area of television and I just hope she does not write a third book in this series as it is not one I will be buying if she does. I think she should stick to writing one off books which has different and exciting characters and stories and not ones she tries to draw out to get follow on books from.
The book has been published by Harper Collins and has a total of 393 pages. The retail price on the back cover for the paper back edition is £6.99, fortunately I did not pay this price and got the book in a offer with 3 books for £5.00.
I ma a book lover so hate not being able to recommend a book but this was lacking in originality and quality characters, there was a lot of padding which made the story dull and boring. I have given this book one star and this is mainly for the modern and good cover but I am not able to recommend this book at all.
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