Start Me Up

- Victoria Dahl -

I wasn't engrossed in this one as I have been in all of Victoria Dahl's other books - I kept putting it down and wandering away.

I think ultimately it's because the two lead characters weren't as three dimensional or as entertaining as characters like Molly or Ben in "Talk Me Down".

Lori's attitude was a real drag on enjoying the story for me - for the bulk of it she just came across as very defeatist and sorry for herself. While you could impute the real reasoning, it didn't feel like it was explored throughout the story enough and consequently her attitude came across as very 'woe is me' and frustrating.

Quinn remained a bit of a cypher the whole way through too - I was a bit irritated by his attitude, ie: constantly getting absorbed in work to the exclusion of all else, realizing that he was often exceptionally rude and inconsiderate because of this yet seemingly making very little effort to change his ways or try harder.

Finally the mystery and it's resolution, with Lori's surrogate father ultimately killing himself, was just too depressing for me. It felt a bit too melodramatic, even though it was probably was a realistic enough scenario.

I am definitely looking forward to the next contemporary in this series though - judging from the excerpt, the characters are going to be much more assertive and more my style.