Thursday, 1 August 2013

Dove by Rain McAlistair

 
Housewife Hillary, lives with her bullying husband Dermot, in a village on the west coast of Ireland. Hillary has had every shred of self esteem and confidence torn from her over the years by Dermot.

Unsurprisingly, Hillary is afraid of Dermot. He is a control freak and a mean drunk. Her marriage is loveless, a sham and she has no children. Hillary knows she is different, she also wants and needs love. But Dermot is not the person she’s ever really wanted. Will she ever find someone to love her? Someone she can love back?

If it wasn’t for Hillary’s beautiful faithful dog, Timber, she wouldn’t have any affection at all in her life. Hillary’s only interest is her lovely garden. However, this is all about to change. Shortly after her thirty fifth birthday, an event occurs that will change Hillary’s life forever.

On the whole, the story was reasonable, even though parts of it were a touch unbelievable. But, this is fiction after all. The story ambles along at a nice pace. It made a change to read a story set in Ireland with some nice scenic descriptions.

I found myself feeling sorry for Hillary and very angry with one of the other characters. Which, I suppose is what I was meant to feel. But at the same time, I couldn’t help feeling that Hillary was too naive for her own good and too quick to forgive. I don’t intend to put in any spoilers, so I won’t expand on this any further. The story just seemed a bit contrived in parts.

There are a few typos and grammatical errors, not enough to pull me out of the story. But for the high price I paid for this 85 print length page novella, I expected perfection. Rain McAlistair has penned a fairly reasonable novella. But, I’m not willing to buy any more of her works at the price she’s asking for them.

 

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