Not yet ready to mix romance and mass slaughter of children.
Even the most horrible events in our recent history regularly pop up in works of fiction. It wasn't too long after 9/11 that authors started to incorporate little bits of how that day changed our modern culture and started using it to shape their own characters.
In theory, surviving a mass shooting is something that is happening to people all over the modern world and especially in the US. In theory, it should be able to tie readers into the story by quickly being able to empathize with what the characters might be going through.
The reason I can't recommend this novel to anyone that I know is because we aren't a culture that is moving past gun violence.
The author didn't minimize the horror of the event or try to make it quaint. What the author did do was make it feel that this event was something that happened in the past that these people are trying to deal with. The reality is that we are all dealing with this type of event right now, today.
Romance novels are generally an escape for me and this one struck too close to home in the opening chapters. I would be incapable of reading this romance novel for enjoyment with this plot starter. While I only had about 35 pages to go on, it felt like the gravity of the shooting was already starting to wane in place of a more expected romance plot and I wasn't looking forward to that turn.
In theory, surviving a mass shooting is something that is happening to people all over the modern world and especially in the US. In theory, it should be able to tie readers into the story by quickly being able to empathize with what the characters might be going through.
The reason I can't recommend this novel to anyone that I know is because we aren't a culture that is moving past gun violence.
The author didn't minimize the horror of the event or try to make it quaint. What the author did do was make it feel that this event was something that happened in the past that these people are trying to deal with. The reality is that we are all dealing with this type of event right now, today.
Romance novels are generally an escape for me and this one struck too close to home in the opening chapters. I would be incapable of reading this romance novel for enjoyment with this plot starter. While I only had about 35 pages to go on, it felt like the gravity of the shooting was already starting to wane in place of a more expected romance plot and I wasn't looking forward to that turn.