Celeste Fletcher McHale

This is the second book flop for me this month. The problem is not so much that this was Christian fiction, as the shallowness of the characters.

This is the story of three female childhood friends who face a heartbreaking ordeal together. The narrator is the most immature person I have ever encountered, and I do read YA sometimes. Surely, it is a story of a small town, but not all small-town's people are this shallow and self-absorbed. There are a few nice quotes about grief, about the importance of friends and family. There are a couple of apt observations or jokes about small town life, or life in the South. It is however all too stereotypical. Characters are either whiny (the narrator Carrigan) or super wonderful and caring (Laine and Carrigan's husband Jack). The rest suffer from various degrees of irresponsibility (and sometimes sheer stupidity. I would never be able to carry a two-minute conversation with anyone in this book.

There was a minor point in the story that irritated me repeatedly whenever I thought about it. I find it extremely unlikely that in a small southern town a girl can get married at 17 and then stay childless by choice into her thirties. And this happened to TWO of the women. Carrigan has also married to the only son of a wealthy plantation owner, and I find it really hard to believe that there was absolutely no pressure on them to produce offspring.

On a positive note, the narrator put me to sleep quickly one night, and she gave a very nice rendition of a song at one point in the book. The few gems of wisdom about life, love and friendship were drowned in all the small-talk and trivial banter of most women (and some of the men).

I recommend this book to people with craving for sugary sweet unrealistic reading material, and those who can put up with trivial dialogue straight out of a soap opera on an eternal daily run.

… (mais)