Book Review
Raindrops on Roses by Millenia Black
A Summary: Pricilla,
granddaughter of famous actress and owner of a world-renowned hotel train is
mourning her grandmother’s death surrounded by celebrities and paparazzi.
Michael Frost son of Larry Frost attends the funeral to ensure that the Bauer
family will continue being a loyal client. Larry warns Michael away from
talking to her, but he’s so enraptured with Priscilla that he can’t help but
talk to her. Many drinks lead to a “tipsy” Priscilla who leads Michael to her
room where they do the do. Priscilla is not aware of the fact that Michael is
in a relationship. Michael and Amber are high school sweethearts and Amber will
do anything to ensure they stay together. Will this one night stand lead to more
or will Amber secure her man?
THE REVIEW: This novel does nothing that we haven’t seen
before from this genre, it takes the clichés and does them worse than its contemporaries
(Fifty Shades of Grey). Raindrops on Roses comes across as tone-deaf and is
devoid of any characters with dimension. One of the first things to happen in
the book is Michael having sex(rape) with a drunk Priscilla and I’m supposed to
like him after this? Because we learn nothing about Michael beside the fact
that he’s a cheater, it becomes impossible to hope for this relationship to succeed.
Amber was the stereotypical vindictive ex-girlfriend the reader, should despise
Amber but she’s mostly reasonable. I can’t be upset with Amber for telling
Priscilla that Michael is a cheater because he is a cheater! I thought I’d be
able to read the sequel to this book, but I can’t stand to read about
characters that I hardly got to know after reading 181 pages.
< The pace of the book
Characters
v
Michael is a
terrible person
Ø Michael has sex (*cough cough rape*) with Pricilla
when she is drunk. The author attempts to justify Michaels actions by having
he think Priscilla is, “A girl who's also just a little drunk,”. When I was
reading this, I felt like this was the author trying to justify Michael’s
immoral actions (the fact that this happens in the very beginning of the books
doesn’t help either). I know things like this come up in erotica but it’s my
review so I can be subjective and personally I don’t appreciate it (-10)
Ø
So, Michael has
a girlfriend and I don’t take issue with the fact that he has a partner being
that it is one of the major conflicts in the book; he’s a jerk for two-timing
mais c’est la vie. The thing I take issue with is Michael’s complete disregard
for Amber’s feelings, how am I meant to root for this character who is hurting
two women. At the end of the book, Priscilla fins out that Michael was dating
Amber when he started a relationship with Pricilla, so Priscilla flies off to
Paris. The reader wants to see them get back together, but I can’t do that
because of how Michael acts throughout the novel. (-10)
Writing
v
Priscilla and
Michael fall in love in two days they don’t know each other’s age anything.
Ø
Because they
fall in love quickly it is hard to get invested in a relationship that moves so
rapidly(-5) ( an efficient way
to deal with this would have been focusing on Priscilla trying to fill the void
her grandmother left with someone else but the author doesn’t do that so ☹)
Ø
Because the
book moves so fast, we get no character development until page 134. (-5)
·
There is no
character development so, boldness from Priscilla feels out of place because we
know nothing about her
·
Chances for
character development are skipped in favor of focusing on the melodrama
surrounding Michael and Amber’s relationship. Specifically, I’m referring to
the interviews that Priscilla and her brother Douglas do in chapter 15; this
would have been a perfect time to see Priscilla act without Michael and without
thinking about him, but we don’t get that.
Ø
We’re just told how characters are feeling
(-10)
·
For example, at
the funeral we’re just told that Michael is disgusted by the paparazzi; a
proper way to show this would have been him avoiding paparazzi or showing some
emotion.
Ø
The book would
have been better if it was first person with alternating point of view (-5)
·
The fact that
the book was in third person made it a lot harder to get to know the characters
and often the narration rubbed me the wrong way. The narrator was conveying
Priscilla’s thoughts, but the narrator is also talking to the reader, but it’s
not handled accordingly.
Ø
Melodrama
(-10)
· Priscilla says, “But this just proves that I don't know
you, Michael.” This is meant to
be a dramatic moment, but it is impossible to become invested in a relationship
that was formed in less than a week. We’re supposed to feel sympathy for
Priscilla here but it’s also her fault she doesn’t know him so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Raindrops on Roses
Grade:
45/100 F
Thoughts:
5/10 This book wasn’t good but I’m willing to give one of the author’s other
series a try.
