A review copy was provided by the
author in return for an honest review.
Hannah has been obsessed with
James ever since they broke up. She just cannot let go. So she secretly spies on
him, alters her own schedule hoping to meet him face to face once again. She
doesn’t. Instead, she meets gorgeous waiter Marc while dining with her friend
Annie at Pecorino’s. Marc feels an instant attraction towards Hannah and asks
for her phone number. She gives it to him, thinking that he might hook him up
with Annie later on. But that’s not how things will work out in the end.
Annabelle Blume has written a
very short novella. It is so short, indeed, there was no time to develop the
characters at all, hence the concept of love seems to be misplaced. While real
love comes from long companionship and persevering courtship, it can also be
born in a moment, and it will be just as strong and lost lasting as the former
if certain criteria are met. But that’s not the point that Annabelle failed to
make in her story. I felt all along that she rushed the characters’
relationship, and maneuvered them towards a premature ending. She painted a canvas in front of the reader’s
eyes, pointing at her every stroke, explaining her technique, instead of
showing the magic of the final product and letting the reader discover its
secrets.
I also found that by the end of the
story I couldn’t figure out what Hannah really wanted, or if she really knew
what she wanted, even though the author listed the heroine’s inner thoughts
about her past life as opposed to her new existence.
What also distracted me was the
repeated occurrence of typos and syntax errors. Where on earth were the editor
and proof reader?
Having said all that, Annabelle’s
novella does deserve your attention. It is well written, sweet, and it depicts
feelings that are so familiar to many of us. We have all been through deception,
suffering, we all had a broken heart, and most of us found it hard to let go. Annabelle
has a gift at capturing all these feelings, and the female behavioral response
to an emotional loss. I commend her for that.
‘Old
flame’ is a pleasant read that I would not hesitate to recommend.
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