Quick Facts
- Release Date: January 12, 2014
- Page Count: 406
- Publisher: Samyann
- Kindle Unlimited? No
My dislike of Amanda and Mark made it difficult to support their relationship. The only parts of this book that kept me somewhat engaged were the historical flashbacks, and, even during these scenes, I felt their primary function was to highlight Amanda’s instability in her own life. Skip it.
Synopsis
Yesterday begins when Amanda Parker becomes headline news in Chicago after saving police officer Mark Callahan from a metro train derailment. In the weeks following the accident, Mark pursues Amanda and attempts to identify the source of their intense connection.
Mark and Amanda begin experimenting with Past Life Therapy, a method of therapy that focuses on identifying and exploring past lives. Amanda is cast backward in time to her life as Bonnie Lexington. Bonnie grew up in Charleston, South Carolina at the height of the Civil War and later moved to Chicago before the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Amanda and Mark then attempt to pull together pieces from her previous life to overcome Amanda’s deep-seated abandonment issues and focus on their love.
Review
Yesterday, by Samyann, mixes contemporary romance with historical fiction, bouncing between modern-day Chicago and Civil War America as Amanda explores her previous life as Bonnie. While I initially perceived the author’s writing style to be descriptive, if not a bit verbose, it quickly descended to confusion as the story progressed. While I appreciated Samyann’s sophisticated vocabulary, it made it difficult for the reader to follow the story and understand what is actually happening. The dialogue frequently incorporated references and jokes that I was either unfamiliar with or just didn’t understand. This made conversations between the characters confusing to follow.
Mark and Amanda were difficult characters to appreciate. Amanda is extremely inconsistent. She sternly kept Mark from returning to work too early after his accident, but became instantly hysterical and nonsensical when her godmother Mary passed out from heatstroke. Almost childlike in her lack of self-control, Amanda relied on Mark to pick her up time and again, including when she almost drank herself to death following one of her Past Life Therapy sessions. More often than not she came across as an airhead, asking Mark idiotic questions such as, “You don’t think you’ll die someday?” I find it frustrating for the female protagonist in a romance novel to lack traits worthy of being emulated.
Mark’s tough-guy, cop persona is unrealistic and cliched. He seemingly excelled at everything from astronomy to psychology without any justification or reason and reinforced Amanda’s lack of self-reliance by being consistently condescending and arrogant.
In addition to Amanda and Mark’s flat personalities, I felt one of the primary shortcomings of this book was the lack of any real conflict between Amanda and Mark in the present-day setting. I was essentially reading about nothing and was frustrated by the minimal content.
Summary
I am giving this book 1 out of 5 stars because the only parts that kept me somewhat engaged were the flashbacks into 19th century Charleston and Chicago. That being said, I felt this plotline could have been developed further as its primary function was to highlight Amanda’s instability in her own life. My dislike of Amanda and Mark made it difficult to support their relationship. I found their romance to be irritating and trite, and at some points even a bit misogynistic. If the book was solely focused on Mark and Amanda’s romance, I would have put it down long before the ending.
Readers should be aware that this book contains profanity. While it does reference sexual content, it avoids overtly pornographic scenes.
Link to Author’s website: http://samyann.com/wp/
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