Three Weeks Last Spring ebook

This book started out okay but went steadily downhill from the first interaction between Skye and Walker. There was a lot wrong but rather than be repetitive I'll just say that I completely agree with the other one and two star reviews and add how completely unlikeable I found the main characters. Skye was a pathetic basket case. It was hard to buy that she was an intelligent businesswoman. Walker was a jerk with zero people skills who badly needed anger management. Frankly, they deserved each other. I gave it two stars for the semi-interesting suspense plot. I was confused about why the book was set in 1999. I half expected it to jump to the present at some point but it never did. Maybe that is when it was originally written? Anyway, really glad this one was free.

Dreadful.

I purchased this book because the setting and the premise sounded promising.

I disliked it nearly from the beginning, but kept reading, just to see if it would improve at all. It did not.

The characters are all one-dimensional. The heroine is shallow and whiny, and I cannot imagine her in the role of co-owner of an internationally respected computer software firm at all. The hero is such a bully, and flip flops between lusting after the heroine and brutalizing her so often and quickly that he reads as insane.

What is it about British authors that they are so fascinated by domineering men who verbally and physically abuse their women? Most of us left this horrible world behind back in the 1960s, and it's not even interesting as a fantasy story. This hero is coming off as a Neanderthal much of the time.

And, like at least one other reviewer, I'm completely offended by the author's statements about American women (and why we have trouble with relationships, apparently). What an incredible insult to an entire nation of women.

In some ways, this reads as someone's early draft of the novel with no details and little dialogue filled in. Too many times I would realize that I'd read 3 or 4 pages that had been composed entirely of stage directions. "He did this. Then he did that. He thought this. He realized that. He left. She picked up the phone. She did something else. She wondered about something. She went to sleep. Four days later, she wondered if he would ever call." Dull, dull, dull......

In addition, when there IS dialogue involved, the author can't seem to decide whether her characters are using American or British English, and their voices are all over the map. And while, perhaps her British characters sound normal for 1999 (I spent a LOT of time in London in the late 90's, and I don't think so, but I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt.) when her American characters speak they seem to be using terminology and slang that came out of 1940s films. Who doesn't use contractions these days? Who uses the word 'stevedore' twice in one paragraph? UGH!!!!!!! The dialogue was just abysmal!!!!!!!!

There are plenty of inconsistencies and jolts in the basic storytelling as well. How did the heroine go off to take a hot shower when her rented cabin was still without electricity following the storm? And more than once, the author would skip over hours, or even days, without any warning to the reader (I think that this a mostly a Kindle formatting problem, but it was completely disconcerting).

This book is in serious need of professional editing and formatting. In the first 20% of the book I found several grammatical errors, including 'where' when she wanted to use 'were', and 'its' for 'it's'. My lord, even your average word processing program should pick those up, these days. Was this written on a Selectric?

I have nothing good to say about this book, except that I've finished it. (Okay, not really, but I've finally quit torturing myself by reading it.)

Let me just say - I loved the story itself with just a few reservations. I loved that it was a longer read too, don't like books under 200 pages. But if this author paid for editting she was robbed! And it's too bad because the story was a real page-turner. I had to finish it in spite of misplaced commas, capitalizations when not needed, extra prepositions in weird spots, and the errors were so prolific! The other thing I didn't like was the main male character, Walker, man-handled Skye when he got angry. This happened more than once and he even held her against her will for three days. I thought everyone dismissed his temper and him getting physical with her just a little too lightly for my comfort level. Even though the kidnapping aspect was mentioned a few times the victim and perpetrator both treated it as no big deal. In these times of increased domestic violence I was not comfortable with that portion of the story. Those are my only criticisms. Great story other than the abuse issue. The story moved quickly, had good character developement, was very believable. I would have given it 4 stars if someone had proof-read it first, 5 stars if the kidnapping portion was removed and Walker had learned to control his temper. I undertsand that he was supposed to be passionate about his cause but that shouldn't allow him to impose his will upon women by using his superior strength.

There is nothing more irritating than having to re-read a sentence 2 or 3 times to figure out what it says. This book is rife with it. That being said, I finished the book and it was a good romantic story, but the author seriously needs to hire a good proofreader. Even a good document writing program like Word would have caught the worst of the mistakes. A mistyped word here or there can be overlooked.

As I said, the book was a good romantic read, but...

The author gets points for making the reader care about the crime in this story. But, that's all. The passion is lacking. The love story isn't at all engaging. There is so much rage between the two lovers that I just want them to go to therapy for co-dependency and to never see each other again. The "awful" thing that happens to Skye with Michael is a pitiful attempt at making the reader upset for her. And, the bad proofeading is unacceptable.

My first read of one of Victoria Howard's novels. There is just enough mystery and romance in this story to appeal to most people, both male and female. Showed the extent to which people will go in order to get revenge on someone, having not much thought to the wider public who will get hurt in the process. Can recommend this, although I am still slightly annoyed at the editing which perhaps is a result of downloading to Kindle?

Victoria Howard did a great job of creating the characters and the story line. I was only able to give it  a 4 star rating due to the editing. Words were used in the wrong text or words were omitted but you were still able to make sense of the story. I would love to see the mistakes corrected for a more enjoyable read. I would look forward to reading more from this author and hopefully a she will be a little more cautious in her editing.