Review of Finding James
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Kendra Tompkins
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Review of Finding James
[Following is a volunteer review of "Finding James" by Nancy Blaha.]
Finding James by Nancy Blaha is about a young lady, Karen, finding herself whilst wading through the murky waters of grief. Years ago, her brother James died unexpectedly, leaving Karen and her family to mourn the loss. After years of running, Karen is beckoned back to her hometown to face the reality of her brother’s death and her desperate need for love and family.
Nancy Blaha has definitely captured the differing sides and stages of grief. Though she follows one character, she cleverly integrates the emotions of all the characters introduced throughout her story. I enjoyed how she highlighted how different people handle grief and all life may throw at us. Nancy also does a great job of keeping the reader engaged. Each of her characters are real and relatable. I found myself upset or siding with one or more characters throughout the story. Though this book is not in my typical genre, I had no problem reading the book quickly and with a moderate amount of interest.
It is clear Nancy has been influenced by many a book that has, indeed, aided her in writing a great first work. However, there are two major drawbacks of the book. First, grammar and sentence structure. The amount of grammatical errors and somewhat problematic sentence structure were less than desirable. While I understand the nature and language of the personal journal perspective given to the main character, there still needs to be a minimization of grammatical, sentence structure, and punctuation errors. Unfortunately, this was not the case. I stopped noting grammatical errors after the 5th page.
The second, minor issue, is simply the jump sometimes the characters make from one emotion to the other. There are but a couple of instances when the emotional transition a given character goes through needs just a little more context. For example, at the very beginning of the book Karen sees a young lady crying and becomes lost in her own emotional thoughts. The rest of the book unfolds the intricate workings of Karen and her emotions, but that particular journey had me wondering how or even why Karen went from a basic, distant thought to an all consuming emotional experience.
Positives and negatives revealed, I would give this book a 2 out of 4 star rating. Two for the incredible content and story. The two taken off, for the consistent grammatical errors and problematic sentence structure throughout the entire book.
Finally, I would recommend this book for anyone encountering grief or adverse ways to deal with that grief. Age wise, I would suggest someone who is at least 16 years old. The nature of death in the book may be a bit much for those any younger.
All in all, a decent read. A good start to authorship for Miss Nancy Blaha, and I look forward to hearing more of her journey into the writing side of books.
******
Finding James
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Finding James by Nancy Blaha is about a young lady, Karen, finding herself whilst wading through the murky waters of grief. Years ago, her brother James died unexpectedly, leaving Karen and her family to mourn the loss. After years of running, Karen is beckoned back to her hometown to face the reality of her brother’s death and her desperate need for love and family.
Nancy Blaha has definitely captured the differing sides and stages of grief. Though she follows one character, she cleverly integrates the emotions of all the characters introduced throughout her story. I enjoyed how she highlighted how different people handle grief and all life may throw at us. Nancy also does a great job of keeping the reader engaged. Each of her characters are real and relatable. I found myself upset or siding with one or more characters throughout the story. Though this book is not in my typical genre, I had no problem reading the book quickly and with a moderate amount of interest.
It is clear Nancy has been influenced by many a book that has, indeed, aided her in writing a great first work. However, there are two major drawbacks of the book. First, grammar and sentence structure. The amount of grammatical errors and somewhat problematic sentence structure were less than desirable. While I understand the nature and language of the personal journal perspective given to the main character, there still needs to be a minimization of grammatical, sentence structure, and punctuation errors. Unfortunately, this was not the case. I stopped noting grammatical errors after the 5th page.
The second, minor issue, is simply the jump sometimes the characters make from one emotion to the other. There are but a couple of instances when the emotional transition a given character goes through needs just a little more context. For example, at the very beginning of the book Karen sees a young lady crying and becomes lost in her own emotional thoughts. The rest of the book unfolds the intricate workings of Karen and her emotions, but that particular journey had me wondering how or even why Karen went from a basic, distant thought to an all consuming emotional experience.
Positives and negatives revealed, I would give this book a 2 out of 4 star rating. Two for the incredible content and story. The two taken off, for the consistent grammatical errors and problematic sentence structure throughout the entire book.
Finally, I would recommend this book for anyone encountering grief or adverse ways to deal with that grief. Age wise, I would suggest someone who is at least 16 years old. The nature of death in the book may be a bit much for those any younger.
All in all, a decent read. A good start to authorship for Miss Nancy Blaha, and I look forward to hearing more of her journey into the writing side of books.
******
Finding James
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: Terms of Service by Craig W. Stanfill
