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A review by tita_noir
The Newcomer by Robyn Carr
3.0
This was fine for a nice afternoon read. I didn't like it as much as I ended up liking the first book in the series mainly because the lion's share of the book read like a PSA on teenage dating pitfalls.
Like the first book, this one started slow, so much so that I had a hard time sinking into it. The early pages almost read like a laundry list of stuff that people did...."he did this and then she did that and then they did this other thing". So, no, it wasn't catching me.
But eventually the story started to happen. It continues with Cooper and Sarah's romance, which is going along fine. I like Cooper more than I like Sarah -- mainly because Sarah feels like she is the least defined of all the main characters or maybe because she doesn't get as much of a POV as the rest.
I thought the story would center mainly on Mac and Gina. To some extent it did but not as much as I would have liked. Their respective exes make an appearance which is where the majority of the plot for them resides.
However my biggest problem with the book lie with the fact that much of the story was taken over by Gina's 16 y.o. daughter's dating problems. In the first book we met Ashley and Downey who were dating. Downey was a freshman in college while Ash was a junior in high school. In that book Downey was written as a decent level headed guy. Well in this book the author basically does a 180 on him. In the meantime we get treated to a somewhat, imo, pedantic primer on such things a teenage depression, online bullying, birth control, sexting, drug use etc.
On it's own, Ashley and Downey's romantic implosion wouldn't have been so bad and in places it was great drama, but on the whole it veered almost into after school special territory. Hence this was a weakness in this book for me.
When the story shifts back to Mac & Gina or Cooper, the book strengthens. I like the subplots with both the exes and I thought the author built a nice contrast between Mac's ex-wife and Gina's long absent baby daddy.
Cooper also gets a blast from his past that adds a interesting wrinkle to his story going forward. I did think there was a 'tied up in a convenient red bow' element to this plot development that had me rolling my eyes a bit. But still, I liked this plot so much more than the Ashley/Downey thing so I couldn't be too mad at it.
So overall good read. And even though I wasn't thrilled with the teen storyline, I am still looking forward the the next one to see how some of the dangling plot threads will resolve.
Like the first book, this one started slow, so much so that I had a hard time sinking into it. The early pages almost read like a laundry list of stuff that people did...."he did this and then she did that and then they did this other thing". So, no, it wasn't catching me.
But eventually the story started to happen. It continues with Cooper and Sarah's romance, which is going along fine. I like Cooper more than I like Sarah -- mainly because Sarah feels like she is the least defined of all the main characters or maybe because she doesn't get as much of a POV as the rest.
I thought the story would center mainly on Mac and Gina. To some extent it did but not as much as I would have liked. Their respective exes make an appearance which is where the majority of the plot for them resides.
However my biggest problem with the book lie with the fact that much of the story was taken over by Gina's 16 y.o. daughter's dating problems. In the first book we met Ashley and Downey who were dating. Downey was a freshman in college while Ash was a junior in high school. In that book Downey was written as a decent level headed guy. Well in this book the author basically does a 180 on him. In the meantime we get treated to a somewhat, imo, pedantic primer on such things a teenage depression, online bullying, birth control, sexting, drug use etc.
On it's own, Ashley and Downey's romantic implosion wouldn't have been so bad and in places it was great drama, but on the whole it veered almost into after school special territory. Hence this was a weakness in this book for me.
When the story shifts back to Mac & Gina or Cooper, the book strengthens. I like the subplots with both the exes and I thought the author built a nice contrast between Mac's ex-wife and Gina's long absent baby daddy.
Cooper also gets a blast from his past that adds a interesting wrinkle to his story going forward. I did think there was a 'tied up in a convenient red bow' element to this plot development that had me rolling my eyes a bit. But still, I liked this plot so much more than the Ashley/Downey thing so I couldn't be too mad at it.
So overall good read. And even though I wasn't thrilled with the teen storyline, I am still looking forward the the next one to see how some of the dangling plot threads will resolve.