Rate this book

From Barcelona, With Love (2011)

by Elizabeth Adler(Favorite Author)

3.28 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

031266835X (ISBN13: 9780312668358)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

St. Martin's Press

series

Mac Reilly

review 1: Fair warning, I only got 2/3 through and had to stop reading. I'd like to give you a quick summary of the plot, but I'm not sure that's possible with all that has been shoved into one book. But I will try.Bibi is a famous singer who is suspected of murdering her lover and his lover, who was also her best friend. Despite getting off, the scandal ruins her and she sends her daughter away to Spain to live with family and disappears. Later when the family needs to find her they call in Mac Reilly, a detective who solves crimes on reality tv. Mac has a girlfriend named Sunny and a past with Lorenza the matriarch of the Spanish family. Etc etc. (insert extraneous information here)I believe Mac and Sunny have been in Adler's previous books, but I don't think you need to read it t... moreo understand this one. Maybe if I had though, I might care more about the characters. There is just too much going on, too many coincidences for comfort. A nine year old just happens to be wandering the beach in front of Mac's house. Mac just happens to have an old love for the matriarch etc etc. It takes too long to get to the actual mystery and by the time it did, I just didn't care about any of the characters. Not even the poor motherless nine year old. Also, this is a pet peeve of mine, I don't like pov jumps within a chapter. Each sentence or paragraph being someone else's thoughts is just confusing. But that's just me.Definitely a not read. It wasn't terrible, just not interesting.
review 2: Is it a murder mystery? Is it a romance novel? Is it a melodrama? Is it an attempt at all three? A good editor could have improved this book significantly. It galls me when an author uses the same descriptive words repeatedly: the same simile over and over and over; characters telling information at length in dialogue first to one person, then to another, information that author has already explained in great detail, like the reader isn't witness to all three; explaining allusions and metaphors after using them, suggesting the reader is too stupid to "get it". And the name-dropping drove me crazy, wines, designer clothes and shoes, artists, buildings, and each one explained to the reader, how condescending! But I got to the end, 'cause I wanted to know "who done it"! Stupid me! less

Download links for: From Barcelona, with Love

Advertising