#BookReview Seeing Julia by Katherine Owen

Seeing Julia by Katherine Owen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A very introspective book. I get that Julia is full of grief and confused and had bad things happen to her, but she was way too self-absorbed and not nearly as proactive as she could have been. I actually liked the story somewhat, enjoyed the writing style, and sympathized with Julia, loved Kimmy, and thought Dr. Brad was hilarious. But what peeved me was that the baby, Reid, was a prop who was shunted off to the nanny and other friends. He was always conveniently asleep when the Julia wanted to get hot and heavy with Jake, her dead husband's best friend, and never caused any trouble as far as waking up and interrupting a kiss, or throwing a tantrum when mother dearest wanted to leave him with yet another caregiver.

The repetition of several mannerisms and sayings got tiresome. Yes, I get it's a code word, but it is used over and over again. The same with the blackjack dealer standdown move. Yes, people use the same gestures, but Julia was fluttering those hands all the time. Jake's drawl and hangdog look also got old fast, and I didn't even think he was so hot or anything, just plain pathetic. The author can TELL us that he's handsome and GQ and all that and describe all his cool clothes, but I couldn't feel any attraction myself. I mean, I'm told that Julia gets this unexplained electric feel, but my emotions were not dragged in where I felt it.

The story was too predictable and the ending went on forever. I didn't feel Jake's dialogues were real. They were too long and full of psycho jargon and not how normal guys talk. And of course, the repeated "I've always loved you." at the end was too eyerolling, especially since we spent most of the book with Julia grieving over her two lost loves, Bobby and Evan.

The book could use a line edit and proofreading. Superfluous commas littered the manuscript to the point of visual distraction and auditory stumbling. I didn't bother to mark, but I think there was a mistaken name or some other obvious swapped word and repeated words that could have been easily caught. Paragraph breaks and action beats did not correlate with the dialogue in places, and sometimes I could not tell who was speaking.

Despite the editorial issues, I still give it a 4 star because I love damaged and flawed characters who overcome their depression and grief. I just wish I could have felt it more in the actions and viscerals and not been told by having the emotions named and identified for me.

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