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| Book Cover via Amazon.com |
Opinion
Hello, my friends and followers, I’m so happy to bring you another book review today. This one is a fun book, and I was asked to review this by Dawn Hosmer. I picked this up on Kindle Unlimited!
First impressions of this book, the concept of this are centered on the main character who has a bit of a terrible situation going on. I enjoy the amount of work put into the circumstances behind the MC.
Critiques time. The first fall in my “Story structure, Punctuation and Presentation” and the issue specifically is with spacing between paragraphs and lines. So not everyone is big on this, but I love space between paragraphs. The indenting is perfect, and it’s margined beautifully in the justified section. But the spacing is non-existent between paragraphs. “So what does that mean?” you’re probably wondering. What it means is that on an e-reader upon occasion you get solid walls of unbroken text, while other times it’s not like that. It’s very tough on the eyes at times. Line breaks are a book readers friend. They can make decisions on where to pause, or take a break, especially in longer chapters.
My next critique is without a category, and for that, I am sorry everyone. I try very hard to make sure I score evenly, so this critique of mine has no point value at all. It’s just a thing that I feel should be pointed out given the possible triggering effect on the situation. There is a sequence in the book where the MC is driven into a scenario because of her gift. This is a plot moving sequence that is critical for the book. The reason that I am critiquing it is psychologically this was so intense I had to stop and go back to it several times. There are some intensely graphic images in it, things that left my very active imagination burned with. Now, I usually would not ever critique an artist about how he or she paints their narrative. In this case, if the intensity based on the graphic imagery were a color, I’d call it red, and I’d say that this painting has a far thicker red layer than it needed to get the point across.
If you have certain aversions to triggers of violence or certain things that probably would be on an A&E Crime Documentary, this section is going to be something you should be aware of to mitigate your triggers. I want to be more specific and clear, and I’d love to talk more about what I mean, I am sure the writer will understand which part I’m referring to and anyone who reads it.
I do not want to spoil this book, so I’m not going to elaborate specifically. But I assure you if you have an active imagination and vivid graphically violent images are a thing for you, the sequence I mention might be a trigger. I’ve read horror novels that never were as intense as what happened in the sequence. To someone less sensitive than I to such tragic things, and this would be a brilliant and masterful stroke. To which I say, I think the red paint was thicker than the yellow paint, and not my favorite thing to observe. In the context of the book, I feel this section could have been reigned in a bit and been just as effective as conveying the intended purpose. But, that’s me, and that’s why this section is not getting a point value. I’ve never had to write a critique like this before, so I hope you all can forgive me, but it left me haunted and with some very intense images from my subconscious.
Now for the part of the review where we go into the positives. The first, and likely most evident given my previous critique, this book is very descriptive and detailed. If you want to know how something feels or looks in a book, this is the kind of book to read. For though there is that intense sequence, other things are not nearly as fierce but equally created with beauty. At one point Dawn describes a croissant, and that was a delicious image to have. So much so, I wanted to get a dozen of them myself and eat them with chocolate. (For the record I didn’t, but it’s cold out there!)
Next, I adored the pacing and tension in this book. Aside from my above critique, the book is layered beautifully, (like a said croissant) and so good. This is a very well done book, going point by point through each aspect of the novel seamlessly and without a bit of dryness or boredom. First person narratives are difficult to keep at this pace, but it’s done very well here, and I enjoyed it. The tension, all sorts of elements of pressure, were slammed upon or removed correctly with each passing phrase.
My next praise comes to the conclusion of the antagonist in this story. Those of you who have been following me for a while may know I have a thing for mystery novels. I’m not exactly sure if “Bits & Pieces” is officially a mystery book, but it has parts of it that read like a mystery. There are clues, and it’s up to you to follow them to the “Who done it” aspect. I enjoyed this. I feel this story has so many good things to it and ends with an actual silver lining. Oh yeah, and when you get to the story, and you hear that silver bit, you can giggle and remember I mentioned it.
The very fantastic twist in this story is so good. It’s Hitchcock like, and I think it is one of the best aspects of this story. I am not going into spoilers, but I do want to say there is one and it’s impressive. It broke my heart but made me feel good at the same time.
Lastly, I want to say this book was almost impossible to put down once I got past that terrifying part, I couldn’t put the book down. I had to, for life reasons, but not ever for very long. I haven’t had a book that compelled me to read it like this one. Perhaps it’s the way that the MC is and that becomes addictive, the compulsion stuff. Or maybe the fact that this story has a lot of tough times, and ends on such a fantastic note that it stirred my soul, was what compelled me never to put this book down.
Score
“Bits & Pieces” has earned a beautiful 96/100 which is a well deserved 5 Star review on Goodreads and Amazon.
Pick this book up if you like mysteries, or stories with twists, or original tales of strong women protagonists!
