Ben Ryder
Autor(a) de Noah (Englishmen Stories)
Séries
Obras de Ben Ryder
The Secret Life of the Cruise 1 exemplar(es)
Etiquetado
Conhecimento Comum
- Sexo
- male
- Nacionalidade
- UK
- Local de nascimento
- London, England, UK
Membros
Resenhas
Estatísticas
- Obras
- 4
- Membros
- 51
- Popularidade
- #311,767
- Avaliação
- 2.9
- Resenhas
- 7
- ISBNs
- 3
There were some things about this book that I liked, and others that I disliked. I’ll get to those in a bit, but first, Noah was a quick read and most of the time kept my attention.
The author wrote this story switching from the present to the past. The past dealt with Callum, his business trip to Toronto and his relationship with Noah. The story starts out in the present and I have to admit I was lost from the beginning. Maybe it was the writing style used for the present, or the lack of information, but I had no idea what was going on. Then when the story switched to the past, it took me quite a while to figure out that we were reading about Callum's actions in the past. It wasn’t written as a memory, but as switching time back and forth. I found it annoying. Mostly because there wasn’t much clue about what was going on in the present except things like talking on the phone, the weather, Callum’s impression of people around him and Callum moving from one place to another. The ‘present’ storyline jerked me out of the nice ‘past’ storyline so I really disliked it when the story turned to the ‘present.’ As the story went along, the past and present started to converge, with the present becoming more immediate and the information about the present longer.
Now that I mentioned how much I disliked the ‘present’ in the story, I very much enjoyed the ‘past.’ I liked the characterizations of Callum and Noah and their growing relationship. The only part I didn’t like about it was as they became more of an established couple, Noah became more female-like. I know that description will annoy some people, but I use it in reference to how the majority of female characters are portrayed in fiction, not real life. Noah gave away his power or choices to Callum so that in the end it was Callum who made the final important decision for Noah. What immediately popped into my mind was that if the decision didn’t work out, then Noah could always blame Callum because he made the choice instead of taking responsibility for his own choice. That was the one thing I didn’t like about Noah as the story progressed, his behavior struck me more and more like a female character rather than a male.
I liked the surprise that involved Callum’s Toronto co-worker that was totally unexpected. However, Amy, the character I felt was over-exaggerated, like an over-the-top cartoon villain. I think if she was more subtle and sneaky, she would have made a better character. But, I didn’t mind the villain being a woman.
Noah was a fast read and I enjoyed the ‘past’ storyline, but disliked the ‘present’ storyline. I also disliked how Noah devolved into a feminine character and I think Amy’s character would have worked better if she was less exaggerated. I give this story 3 Stars.
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