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Water, Stone, Heart (2013)

by Will North(Favorite Author)

3.46 of 5 Votes: 5

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Booktrope Editions

review 1: Hard to believe that the author did not live through the flood in Boscastle himself. After reading the sample I just had to buy and carry on reading. The characters all came alive and I was almost holding my breath until I knew how they had fared through that day. Remembering watching on television, almost disbelieving our eyes at the time, this tale by Will North brought it all back. I will certainly read more by this author.
review 2: Sadly, I didn't see the Nicholas Sparks comparisons until it was too late. This is a pretty dreadful book about a pair of Americans who meet in a horrifically twee version of Cornwall, exchange twenty words, fall madly in love and then experience a flash flood. It's even worse than it sounds. There is a poorly-written subplo... moret about sexual abuse, a dreary dip into witchcraft, and a magical pixie of a 12 year-old who brings the two adults together.Spoilers ahead in my laundry list of complaints:1) For a long time, I thought that Will North simply didn't know how to write British dialogue. Then I reached the line, "I felt like Radar O'Reilly in that American television show, M*A*S*H." and I realised that he doesn't know how to write any dialogue, full stop.2) The character of Lee (an eye-rollingly abbreviated "Lilly") is a precocious and irritating child with no friends her own age. Her parents have no problems with her chasing strange foreign adults all over the place; nor do the adults.3) There is a devastating flash flood which does no lasting damage to any of the characters or their possessions. One of them returns to her cottage to rescue a painting(!). It, and she, both happily survive.4) Will North is fond of throwing in utterly unnecessary details. For example, he introduces us to Tim Llewellyn, flying a helicopter to rescue people from the flood. We are told that he is a Welshman and veteran of the First Gulf War. Tim does not have a speaking part in the novel.5) One of the main characters was, we are told, abused as a child as a brother. She was also beaten by her ex-husband. Nevertheless, she has no problems starting a sexual relationship with a stranger...until suddenly she experiences what is implied to be a horrific flashback when he touches her intimately. Fortunately, she recovers from her background of abuse through the healing power of a) love, b) magical 12 year-old friend, and c) witchcraft. No, really.6) The same character remains friendly with her abusive ex-husband's father, a peer, who writes his son out of his will in her favour. His appearances are utterly bizarre and add the lack of realism.7) Finally - the same character has issues with anorexia. We are told that she stopped eating entirely when her brother abused her, and stopped again when her husband beat her. She is described as being beautiful, voluptuous, heavy-breasted, etc. Her eating disorder, incidentally, appears to have been cured by a neighbour seeing her faint and offering a few words of wisdom. This is an irresponsible and completely unrealistic portrayal of eating disorders, and I was disgusted by it.All in all, this is a horrible mess of a book presented as a feel-good story. Avoid at all costs. less

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