As a writer myself, I hate to give one-star reviews to any author because I understand the time and effort that goes into writing a full novel. It is not an easy task to complete and takes perseverence. However, I don't want to give praise to a story based on mere accomplishment alone.
I don't understand why this book has received so many glowing reviews, so I will simply assume that most of my negative feelings/impressions about this book boil down to personal taste. Although I wanted, tried very much to like this book, I just could not. I hesitated about whether to give the book two stars or one, but in the end, I decided to be perfectly honest in my review and explain the reasons why I gave such a low rating.
The book started out pleasant enough, but I never really connected with the characters. Something was missing, and I did not find the writing engaging. I couldn't understand what the male protagonist saw in the female protagonist -- he seemed too perfect with no flaws. My suspension of disbelief ended completely after Janie met Matt on the plane. Her thoughts and words from that point on were not those of a middle-aged woman who had been married for many years and who had brought up college-age kids. Janie came across as very naive and weak -- more like a high school sophomore than a 40-something wife and mother. (I say this as a 46-year-old mother of three grown sons and a daughter in her twenties.)
I did not come across many grammatical issues, but there was a shocking lack of commas throughout the book. The poor punctuation was constantly pulling me out of the story as did the stilted, cliche dialogue and inner monologues of the characters. There was so much head-hopping going on that I was starting to get dizzy. The writing was middle grade English, and there were so many cheesy lines that it really started to grate on me. (Pun intended!) At a certain point, I just could not take this book seriously anymore.
Another reader noted in her review that the references to New York were all very "touristy" and that the author had only written about things that she had seen in movies. I would tend to agree with this sentiment, and after discovering that the author hails from Perth, Australia (a city that I loved visiting!) I wondered why she chose to write about a female protagonist who travels from Portland, Oregon (the city where I was born and raised) to New York and meets the man of her dreams. I think the story would have felt more genuine and real if she had written it from the viewpoint of a woman from Perth travelling to Sydney.
I guess I should have figured it out from the naked people on the cover that the sex in this book would be graphic, but I wasn't prepared for the erotica/porn stuffed into a few of the chapters. It didn't seem real and wasn't even necessary to the story -- more empty lust than true attraction between the characters. I ended up skipping over these parts and considered even chucking my Kindle across the room at one point. (I didn't!) I could not understand who the audience of this book was supposed to be since the writing seemed middle school level but with all the foul language and sex throughout, it was most definitely not YA. The story ended in a cliffhanger, and I will not be torturing myself by continuing to read this nine-part(!) story.
It's not you, it's me.