To Hear You Smile by Gina Rossi
(The title is so hard to read on the cover! Plus you hardly get any idea at all what the book is about. Bad design, if you ask me).
Dev Rating: **
(As a book, 4/5)
I like the writing style in this one a lot. The author is clearly a pro. It's sweet, endearing, romantic, and fun. It seriously makes me want to pack up and move to a quiet English village.
The only problem is that the blurb is left intentionally vague about the disability because (DevoGirl, look away!), the heroine meets the blind hero and doesn't realize that he's blind. Yes, this is one of DG's top complaints about books with blind characters.
It was difficult for me to keep reading because I found that idea so silly. Oliva meets Zac three or four times, and even has a lengthy date with him, without ever figuring out that he's blind. There are little hints all over the place (and in the title, of course), but it's half way through the novella before Oliva finds out (and I guess it's supposed to be a surprise for the reader too?)
If you are able to see past that conceit, the story is really charming and I would recommend it. The dev factor was lessened for me because I found the confusion about him being blind to be really irritating. If I wasn't so distracted by that I would have found it significantly more devy.
I'm looking forward to trying more stories from this author.
See a longer review on my website: www.ruthmadison.com
Haha, I was just going to review this, but you beat me to it! I'd only give it one star. It's more than 2/3 over before she realizes he's blind. That part is totally unbelievable, but even worse, the author has clearly never met a blind person, knows nothing about the Paralympics, and didn't bother to do any research. The characters are underdeveloped and lacking in any emotional realism too. I was too distracted by the lack of research to find it devvy at all.
ReplyDeleteYou should put your review in too!
DeleteI feel bad that I didn't warn you more effectively about this book's shortcomings.