Bloom

Reader reviewed by Nian

When Lauren is with Dave, shes envied by all, and Lauren thinks
nothing can get better than being with her boyfriend. With him, his
perfection rubs on her, making her perfect as well. But Lauren isnt
happy. And when an old friend, Evan, comes along, Lauren suddenly
realizes that she should change things about her life before she cant.



I am not impressed with Bloom at all. I guess I had
highextremely highexpectations and was less than pleased when I
finally finished reading. Although, to be honest, I couldnt force
myself to finish it, and I had about 60 pages left. I dont think I
liked anything about it. Nada. But Ill give props for this being
published. Really, I wonder how books get their dealsome novels Ive
read in the past could have passed as sloppy writing from a 6th grader.



Characters. Lauren is whiny times a hundred. Overboard. Shes
always complaining about this or thatyes, teenagers do that, but I
have an incredibly hard time sympathizing with her about anything. Its
like her story is so, so forced. I dont know how to explain it, but I
feel like her problems are just fake, and everything that shes going
through is fake. I know it isnt, but thats just how I feel when I
read the book. Especially when Laurens detailing Daves perfection.
There, I notice the repetition again.


Since I read Perfect You first, I noticed that Scott likes
to repeat things over and over again, and its no different here. Line
1: Dave is perfect in every way. Three pages later, Line 2: Dave is
smiling that perfect smile of his. Two more pages later, Line 3: Dave
even has straight, perfect teeth! The stress on Daves perfection
drives me crazy. How can anyone be that perfect? (See, just describing
the book has made my sentences repetitive and I normally hate that
above anything else in writing.) And if shes so upset about how
unhappy shes feeling, why not just save us all the time and dump him
and get a life already? Thats just what I want to scream out to her.
If Lauren was real, that is.


Story. Its like one long soap opera. Nothing ever really happens
short for Lauren talking about how she should be happy but isnt
because Daves too good for her. Its only at the last two chapters
that Dave finally finds out that theyre not the perfect couple
anymore. Normally, you expect the conflict to be resolved like that,
but when it comes to books with stories like this, I cant help but
wait for it all to end sooner. The emotions, lines, pages just drags on
until finally, the author realizes a little too lately that she has to
end it somewhere, and thats the feeling I get it. Its all so
suddennot just Dave figuring out that Lauren wasnt the best
girlfriend, but also the father expressing his feelings at the final
chapter. Hes been silent and absentee all this time, but wham, hes
saying how sorry he his and talking about the past. Im watching him
walk a ladder, but I only see him take the first two steps, and when I
blink, hes already reached the top of the stairs. Now, what happened
to all those other steps in between? This is definitely not a well
thought out progress of the story. Lame, lame.


But the most important thing is that its boring. Ive said before
in one of my other reviews that I really hate to describe a book as
boring, because I realize it takes the writer a long time to write it,
get published, and everything else in the process. To me, though,
theres no nice way of putting it. Even if youre not a published
writer, you always have to be prepared for people liking/loving,
disliking/hating your workyou cant please everyone. So thats me,
definitely not pleased at all. Besides the anticipation for something
dramatic or even engaging to happen to wake me up from my foggy state
of mind, I was just like, Oh, please, filled with sarcasm and
everything. There wasnt anything exciting or intriguing about the
characters, the storyline, or even the chemistry in the relationships.
Books, movies, you have to be able to experience that sizzling
on-screen romance you get from that big screen in the theaters. But
here, Evan is more robotic than anything, and Lauren just gets stupider
as time ticks away. Perfect match, you say? Not in my world.