Review by AussieWriter -- Lemoncella Cocktail by Rene Natan

[AussieWriter]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Lemoncella Cocktail" by Rene Natan.]

---

2 out of 4 stars

---

Share This Review

---

Lemoncella Cocktail is a crime/mystery by author Rene Natan. The story moves at a good pace and begins with twenty-five year old Patrick Carter, who has had a really bad day, rescuing a young girl from a river after hearing her screams then a splash. We soon learn that the girl, Samantha, had not accidently fallen in the river but was a victim of an attempted murder.

After taking Samantha to her grandmother’s, Patrick does not want to become involved but is drawn into the investigation and his life begins to change. As the people who attempted to murder Samantha had probably seen him, he needs to help find them. As the story progresses we find that Samantha was mistaken for her older sister who had seen things she shouldn’t and had been targeted for elimination.

Patrick is a likable and believable main character who is easy to identify with. Most of the characters are believable but I found some of the bad guys to be overly stereotyped. The bad guys are involved in weapons trafficking and I thought this aspect could have been expanded further. Also some of the characters responses to certain events seem at odds with what I would have expected. When a teenage girl learns of the death of her parents I would have expected more emotion, and some of the conversations appear a little wooden.

I enjoyed reading the book, but it was not particularly memorable. A week after finishing it I had to look at the notes I had written as I read it to remember the finer details. It didn’t have that intensity that a good crime novel needs to keep me turning pages and staying up later than I should! The pace was good, the characters were in the main likable, the scene setting was good, the ending was satisfactory but the editing was woeful.

I rate this book 2 out of 4 stars. I might have given it more if not for the poor editing. Words like “drawn” instead of “drown”, ”carrier” instead of “career”, “week” instead of “weak”, “flu” instead of “flew” and many other misspellings made me suspect it had been written using voice recognition technology and this detracted from the story for me. Once or twice names were confused and the tense changed in mid-sentence. If these things were fixed it would have been a more enjoyable read. Recommended as a light read that has unfulfilled potential.

******
Lemoncella Cocktail
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon

Like AussieWriter's review? Post a comment saying so!

[Heidi M Simone]

Nice review! I also read this book and had similar thoughts. My rating was also a 2/4 stars.

[AussieWriter]

Thanks for the comment - that was my first book review for this site. Loved your review of it. I need to work out how to balance writing about the book with not giving any spoilers.

[kdstrack]

Hey, I think we are on the same page with this book! This book definitely did not keep me up either. The editing and grammar mistakes were a huge problem. I agree with your comments. Thanks.