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A review by jenbsbooks
The Promise of Rain by Vasundra Tailor
2.5
Sometimes the KindleUnlimited books (this had text and audio) can be hit or miss. This was a miss for me, I had to push to finish. I can't say exactly what it was I didn't like ... it just seemed very distant, it didn't pull me in. I never really cared about the characters. The writing was just dry. "With sensitivity she gave the explanation ..." It wasn't the writing that evokes emotions and visualizations. Just stark. Stilted. I looked to see if this had been translated, but that didn't appear to be the case (wondering of some flow had been lost in translation). Anna's parents were referred to by their names as much or more than "her dad/mom" and at times I'd forget that "Matthew" was Anna's father, etc. More disconnect.
The title ... after a search for "rain" I suppose I can sort of see the possible title connection ... "the rains will start soon, then everything will change" "Everything will change when the rains come" ... but really, what did rain have to do with anything? I like a title that really comes into play. This didn't, and it's a very general title with dozens of other books with this title or something very similar. Add to that the generic "back of a woman walking" ... and again, what does this image have to do with the book? While I know there's the whole "don't judge a book by it's cover" ... while this cover is pretty, it's nonsensical.
There were four "parts" with 41 chapters running chronologically. Chapter one gives the reader a location/date of North London/July 2018. These helpful headers were not on every chapter and not included on the Table of Contents (to do a quick track of changes). Part 3 was a major shift ... up until that point, everything had been from the POV of Anna, 3rd person/past tense.
In Part 3, we change to Indira, in India/1954 ... this is written journal style, 1st person/present tense. If there was any part I felt more connected to, it was here. The other parts, with Anna and her quest ... the 3rd person made it distant, and she just wasn't a very likeable character. I guess I'm lucky, having my own family history recorded and at my fingertips (thanks to a family into genealogy and https://www.familysearch.org/ ... and while I find it interesting, I'm not obsessive about it, or feel incomplete (again, maybe not a fair comparison). But Anna's "I HAVE to find out" was very annoying ... not caring at all the emotional impact that reveals have on her father, or other possible family out there.
In Part 3, we find out more history of Indira ... it a rape can be barely mentioned ... that was the case here, although ... was it? Again, it's barely addressed, and at times sounded consensual (if not fully understood). I'm trying to understand how sheltered a girl could have been to not understand ANYTHING. Her father calls her simple and mentally handicapped ... and I actually wondered for a bit if she was. The marriage reminded me a bit of the one in The Covenant of Water (a relief to actually have one that isn't horrible).
There were times I wondered if the author was getting a product placement kickback from "What's App" ...
No proFanity. There is a rape and some domestic violence.
The title ... after a search for "rain" I suppose I can sort of see the possible title connection ... "the rains will start soon, then everything will change" "Everything will change when the rains come" ... but really, what did rain have to do with anything? I like a title that really comes into play. This didn't, and it's a very general title with dozens of other books with this title or something very similar. Add to that the generic "back of a woman walking" ... and again, what does this image have to do with the book? While I know there's the whole "don't judge a book by it's cover" ... while this cover is pretty, it's nonsensical.
There were four "parts" with 41 chapters running chronologically. Chapter one gives the reader a location/date of North London/July 2018. These helpful headers were not on every chapter and not included on the Table of Contents (to do a quick track of changes). Part 3 was a major shift ... up until that point, everything had been from the POV of Anna, 3rd person/past tense.
In Part 3, we change to Indira, in India/1954 ... this is written journal style, 1st person/present tense. If there was any part I felt more connected to, it was here. The other parts, with Anna and her quest ... the 3rd person made it distant, and she just wasn't a very likeable character. I guess I'm lucky, having my own family history recorded and at my fingertips (thanks to a family into genealogy and https://www.familysearch.org/ ... and while I find it interesting, I'm not obsessive about it, or feel incomplete (again, maybe not a fair comparison). But Anna's "I HAVE to find out" was very annoying ... not caring at all the emotional impact that reveals have on her father, or other possible family out there.
In Part 3, we find out more history of Indira ... it a rape can be barely mentioned ... that was the case here, although ... was it? Again, it's barely addressed, and at times sounded consensual (if not fully understood). I'm trying to understand how sheltered a girl could have been to not understand ANYTHING. Her father calls her simple and mentally handicapped ... and I actually wondered for a bit if she was. The marriage reminded me a bit of the one in The Covenant of Water (a relief to actually have one that isn't horrible).
There were times I wondered if the author was getting a product placement kickback from "What's App" ...
No proFanity. There is a rape and some domestic violence.