What did you like least about "Deceptive Calm" by Patricia Skipper?

[Tasha Marie Poole Sullivan]

I had a hard time following at the beginning of the book and the sentence structure felt a little off. It read like it was written by someone without much writing experience or possibly someone who's first language is not English. That being said it still caught my attention and I couldn't put it down! I didn't like the ending though because it left too many loose strings and I really hope there is a second book.

[Nenye Charles]

I didn’t like how the author didn’t give a chance to discuss Barry’s life after Vanessa left him.

[Aida Nuria Montenegro Jerez]

Vanessa's abortion, I was so hurt by what Barry did to her.

[Laura Shawn]

I was really disappointed that Sister Rosalie died. Her character was so impactful, and her loss felt significant. I also didn’t like how the book ended, as it left a lot of unanswered questions, which made it feel incomplete.

[Elizabeth-Tush4Christ]

The book is great, and I enjoyed reading it. However, now that I think about it, I would reduce the sex scenes, as some of the descriptions were too detailed. This makes the book less suitable for younger readers who could have benefitted from the U.S. history shared and learning from Vanessa's life

[Britney Jacobs]

I disliked the excessive use of profanity words, it should have been better recommended if the profane words were minimized.

[Victoria Brackett 1]

I struggled a lot with the structure of the writing. Combined with the naivety of the characters and the lack of development for them, overall it was rather juvenile. The graphic sexual scenes were extremely uncomfortable to read as we just do not need that level of detail for negative, nonconsensual sexual interactions.

[Girlly Durano]

What I liked least about of this book was that some plot elements felt a bit predictable and followed familiar romance tropes. While the story has many engaging moments, there were times when I wished for more originality or unexpected twists to keep the narrative fresh. Additionally, certain sections of the book felt slow, which occasionally affected my overall engagement with the story. These aspects made me feel like some opportunities for deeper exploration of the characters and their relationships were missed, but they didn’t overshadow the overall emotional depth of the narrative.

[Nneka Bridget]

What I liked least about Deceptive Calm was the occasional pacing issues, where the narrative sometimes jumped between events abruptly, which disrupted the flow of the story.

[Lauren Victoria]

I thought there was too much dialogue in the book when put against the not dialogue portion. It felt as though the author used dialogue to set scenes and moods instead of actually having to write them out. Considering the time period where it took place, there is a rich backdrop to the story that wasn't used as well as it could have been.

[Ambar Gill]

I disliked the graphic sex scenes. This was not a smutty book as that wasn't the premise and it felt incredibly clinical and cold. I feel a wider audience could have been reached if those were omitted.
I also could have done without the long-winded dialogue of US history. It honestly got boring and a little tedious to read through. I felt like it took away from the story.

[Creole]

The amount of history and the rushed ending were my main concerns.

[Kristen Baumann]

I didn't like the ending of the book because it seemed a little rushed. The story didn't seem totally fleshed-out. And I didn't feel like the characters truly seemed like Southerners. A lot of their behaviors and attitudes didn't seem to fit.

[Winnie Molale]

What I generally disliked about the story is how Tod’s abuse wasn’t dealt with in depth despite of how Vanessa ended up despising him, her despise was explicit enough for her to even go into confession and confess to hating him and wanting to divorce him. I would understand the Priest’s dismissal to her confession because of their religious beliefs. But, when it came to Trisha who knows her friend best than anyone else and has always been a well of advice from a place of genuine love, to just overlook the physical and emotional abuse just because of the wealth that came with it, that almost made me loose interest in the story. I mean Vanessa is a steadfast woman also, resilient enough to take a stand against her husband’s and in-laws’ push for her to be just a house/trophy wife. Why is it that she couldn’t be decisive on leaving her husband because she didn’t even depend on his money to start with? Could it have been because of the weight her maiden surname carried? Which would still not make sense because at the end of the day the odds were not in her favour!

Also the story ended abruptly, too many loose ends. What happened to the Almighty Von ‘Westerkamps’ do they stay detained or incarcerated? Was justice well served? Does Trisha get to live? Is there a happily ever after for the smooching on the hospital bed high school sweethearts?

[Hazel Arnaiz]

What I disliked the most were the graphic sexual details. They felt forced so as to highlight the story's romantic aspect. Less attention was paid to the main character's feelings and more to the physical details of the intimate encounters. This approach provided little to demonstrate how the experience affected the character or how it resulted in changes or self-discovery.