The story starts off introducing our MC Mila as 18 year old girl who is leaving foster care and going to work as an intern on a farm/homestead, that has 12-15 kids of varying ages in the foster care system. Mila's job is to teach the grade schoolers, and at the beginning there is only 1, a boy named Lee. This is how the story begins. And it is well paced and it is interesting and intriguing.
Story has a good start.
Then Mila has a flash back to her days before the foster care system, and her abuser. Initially this is a bit jarring , but not to bad. And as the story continues, the flashbacks become more regular and they don't seam out of place. Mila and Lee both have issues from their past, but they help each other, and grow very close. So close as to say they were like big sister and little brother.
Story is still staying good!
Then after a specific event in the book, a little bit of sex was thrown into the story. This totally killed it for me. It made no sense with the characters, and did not feel like it even fit the story. It felt akin to a 1970's advertising company said "lets sell it with boobs". Like the editor of this book thought it needed more sex appeal or something, but it just did not fit with the rest of the story, and made it worse. And it made Mila a worse charecter in my opinion.
Story took a bad wrong turn.
As the story went on the pacing fell away, and the read felt more like montage of events happening. vs a continuous story. All of the check boxes were hit for a complete story arch, but the story felt like it was skipping around.
Story feels like a condensed plot summary, that was originally interesting before it was truncated.
Near the end of the book there was a lot of blank pages used to break up important things. And I found myself grateful for that because I was very much ready to be done with the book by that point. And from that point, to the end the story was a hazy, semiconscious slog to get through. And at the very end, Mila finally was able to get something she had wanted the entire book. And the instant she did, the story ended. Just like that. No epilogue, no glimpse of life afterward no nothing. Usually in a story after the climax there is some story of afterwards, even if its only a page or two, but this was just like "Nope, your done, story over".
Story feels like it needs to get the rest of the information out to you before it hits a wall that reads "end" but doesn't know how to so it gives it to you in a slow confused way.
Over all the concept of the story was interesting, and it had lots of potential to be a really good heart warming story. Instead I walked away from it disappointed and wishing the characters I was growing to like had, had different fates.
Story has a good start.
Then Mila has a flash back to her days before the foster care system, and her abuser. Initially this is a bit jarring , but not to bad. And as the story continues, the flashbacks become more regular and they don't seam out of place. Mila and Lee both have issues from their past, but they help each other, and grow very close. So close as to say they were like big sister and little brother.
Story is still staying good!
Then after a specific event in the book, a little bit of sex was thrown into the story. This totally killed it for me. It made no sense with the characters, and did not feel like it even fit the story. It felt akin to a 1970's advertising company said "lets sell it with boobs". Like the editor of this book thought it needed more sex appeal or something, but it just did not fit with the rest of the story, and made it worse. And it made Mila a worse charecter in my opinion.
Story took a bad wrong turn.
As the story went on the pacing fell away, and the read felt more like montage of events happening. vs a continuous story. All of the check boxes were hit for a complete story arch, but the story felt like it was skipping around.
Story feels like a condensed plot summary, that was originally interesting before it was truncated.
Near the end of the book there was a lot of blank pages used to break up important things. And I found myself grateful for that because I was very much ready to be done with the book by that point. And from that point, to the end the story was a hazy, semiconscious slog to get through. And at the very end, Mila finally was able to get something she had wanted the entire book. And the instant she did, the story ended. Just like that. No epilogue, no glimpse of life afterward no nothing. Usually in a story after the climax there is some story of afterwards, even if its only a page or two, but this was just like "Nope, your done, story over".
Story feels like it needs to get the rest of the information out to you before it hits a wall that reads "end" but doesn't know how to so it gives it to you in a slow confused way.
Over all the concept of the story was interesting, and it had lots of potential to be a really good heart warming story. Instead I walked away from it disappointed and wishing the characters I was growing to like had, had different fates.