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A Note In The Margin (2009)

by Isabelle Rowan(Favorite Author)

4.02 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

1935192671 (ISBN13: 9781935192671)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Dreamspinner Press

series

A Note in the Margin

review 1: This falls between 3 and 4 stars for me as I had a few issues with the style and flow of the writing. The story gets of to an interesting start and I loved the character of Jamie and the lightness that he brought to the story but in truth the majority of the book is focussed around David and John and John's efforts to save David from his shattered life and fragile mind. At times I felt frustrated and confused with the changes in POV, and what felt like a lack of depth to the two main protagonists for a story with so much gravitas! On the edge of my awareness the authors manipulation of the reader into what felt like an over load of angst started to niggle me and some how made the conclusion to the story drag for me and it was a relief to finish reading it. I like a book to... more transport me to a different world and this one felt grey and heavy with only the glimmer of a silver lining for both David and John's future.
review 2: This book was amazing on so many levels. It was painful and scary to read throughout, but so touching and heartfelt that I had a few tears run down my face at certain points. I stayed up so late reading this without getting tired because this was such a grabbing book; even with its slower pace, I couldn't stop wondering what would happen next and reading on. This deals with realistic problems that are most often hidden away and ignored by society. David was such a beautiful, kind person, but he had been abused while on the street, had mental blocks and issues making him take two steps forward and one step back the entire time. With John, he started improving, but it's a long, long journey back to sanity and security for those who, like David, don't have a physical reason for being homeless. And this was all handled with such raw reality, intensity, and pain on the part of John, David, and Jamie, that it really pierced my heart. I felt myself fluctuating between so many emotions while reading this, from empathy to fear and pain at the present, to hope and love at the future, to horror and sadness at the past, to a cycle of many repeats of all those as I went through the series of progresses and setbacks with those three guys. But this was ultimately a beautiful and uplifting story, and I'm exciting to read the novella sequel to see more progress.This is one of those rare books that make you think and feel deeply about a subject; while reading this you think about the callous and shameful behavior we, as a society, show towards the homeless and the mentally different, and this story makes you want to change that, see them as individual human beings, with individual stories, needs, and desires. I highly recommend this book to all, just be ready for your heart to be wrenched repeatedly and your eyes to tear up.I also want to mention that this had one of the most affecting sex scenes, and not in a "red-hot horniness" way, but the first sex scene between David and John made me get butterflies in my tummy; it made my heart beat funny, and it made me feel all the hope and fear of rejection or moving too fast, all the burgeoning love that moment was filled with, and I felt as I were truly there in the bed as John. It was an incredible and encompassing experience.The only niggles I had with this book were a few (minor) editing issues and the abrupt changes from scene to scene. The POV change you get used to pretty quickly, and it becomes nice to know what everyone is thinking (which is third-person omniscient, btw), but many of the changes from the end of one scene to the next, sometimes days or more (one time even months) later aren't designated at all by any break between the paragraphs, so I had to reread some sections to understand when this new scene was, and sometimes to figure out that it even was a new scene. These niggles weren't all that bothersome though, and definitely not a reason to miss out on the story or complain more than just a quick mention. less

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