Sarah's Library

SPOILERS!!

16/5 - Josh annoyed me from the start with his insta-erection, but then after Gemma went back to Auckland she over took what was a small niggle with her even more annoying behaviour. Gemma's cheating, in spirit if not in deed, really irritated me and I probably wouldn't have picked this up if I had known about Nick (he's not mentioned on the back) and the fact that she goes from Josh's bed to Nick's to Josh's again (and who knows where next). The scene where she and Nick have sex (loudly!) within hearing distance of Josh was just wrong. How messed up is that!? She knows he can hear them, she knows that he came all the way to New Zealand for her and she admits (to herself, if not Josh) that she has feelings for him and that the bloom has gone off Nick's rose. Why would she want to do it to start with, and even worse to shove it in Josh's face. That's just cruel and unusual punishment and completely unnecessary to the story (unless you want me to lose all respect for Gemma). To be continued...

17/5 - One of the pages I marked as needing discussion was because of Halle mixing up Queenstown with Queensland (the first is on the South Island of New Zealand, the second the top right state of Australia) and I was going to question her level of research, but after reading her acknowledgements I now know that the problem isn't her research it's her editing. She spent a year studying in Auckland, so she should know the place reasonably well, but obviously her editing/proofreading needs work.

Funnily enough I also noticed an editing problem within her acknowledgements. She gets March 2003 mixed up with March 2013. She said that she first visited to backpack in 2000, then attended university in Auckland in 2013 (she was unable to get into a Vancouver uni due to an overselling scandal that effected the whole school), but only a few lines later she tells us that she went back again in 2009 for a friend's wedding, which would be impossible unless she's using time travel. Time travel seems unlikely so I figure that that's another editing mistake.

On page 294 Halle calls New Zealand the easternmost habitable country and the first to see the sunrise - don't worry people of Kiribati, I (and many others, I'm sure) know you're further east than New Zealand.

I didn't hate this, mostly it's just that I didn't really like either main character or the main theme of Gemma and Nick or Gemma and Josh. The last few pages of the book (not included in the page number count) are the first chapter of the next book in the series, Racing the Sun and after reading it I'm tempted to put it on hold at the library, but not until my reading schedule calms down a bit (I've got holds coming in left, right and centre and then there's the impulse borrowing that I don't seem to be able to quit doing).