Barbara M. reviewed on 3/26/2019 + 150 more book reviews

First book of Winton's I've read and I don't know that I will read another. Thankfully, I got this through paperbackswap.com so it only cost me a book credit instead of real money. I had read a few chapters and was almost going to quit reading. Georgie is a 40-year old "burned out" nurse who has a history of drifting from man to man and isn't shy about having sex with them a day or so after meeting. Jim, the guy Georgie's been living with the past three years, initially seems to be a solid guy--has lived in the same town apparently most or all of his life and earns a good living. However, he's a closed off character and even though the reader learns a little more about him as the book progresses, it still doesn't seem to flesh Jim out. And Lu is an outcast and poacher. As the book unfolds, we learn more about the backgrounds of Lu and Georgie but even that didn't make me care about them. I also didn't understand the attraction between Lu and Georgie or Jim's sudden interest in trying to find Lu after Lu splits. Supposedly, Jim is looking for redemption but it really doesn't make sense. The ending definitely had an unexpected twist but I was still left wondering how the relationship of the three main characters would shake out.

The author has some writing talent (otherwise I'd probably give the book two stars) but at times I also found it annoying as far as his descriptions of things. He didn't use quotation marks when people were speaking. He often used incomplete sentences which can be effective, I'm sure, in some instances but I thought they were overused. There were times when one of the characters--primarily Lu--either had a dream or was just thinking of things that really had no relevance to the story.

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