Read in 2017 - 18: Roses on Cliff Walk

[Just a short interlude of two posts before I'll pick up my Lago Maggiore posts again. I have a back log of several more book reviews to post; amazingly, these days I seem to be reading books faster than I can review them!]

"Roses on Cliff Walk" by Joseandres Bautista is definitely not what it promises, and certainly an ebook you may give a miss easily.

The (shortened) description, which made me download the free ebook in the first place, reads: "Join Haley and her four friends on their adventurous summer in Newport Rhode Island. [...] These spirited women grew up walking the Cliff Walk on the Atlantic Ocean in their twentieth year.
[...] You will never smell a sea breeze the same way again."

Sounds like a fun, summery read, doesn't it? And there are indeed some fun, summery bits in it - just not enough to make me like the book, or any of the characters, for that matter. The writing is trying to be something the author can not fully deliver, plus there is the lack of editing I so often notice in free ebooks. (I know, I know. That is one reason why they ARE free.)

There are also some minor contradictions. For instance, at the beginning it is stated that the story is set in the 1980s. And yet, there is frequent mention of the students owning and using mobile phones. Now, who in the 1980s owned mobile phones? Certainly not students in their 20s who were poor enough to depend on more or less awful summer jobs to support themselves, as do the young women in the story.

The book sort of trundles along, describing how the girls live in their rented house, find jobs, meet for afternoons on the beach or nights out hitting the bars and get to know young men.
Very late in the story a dramatic event happens that feels almost as if has been inserted as an afterthought, to provide... yes, drama.

I'm afraid it left me cold, and contrary to the blurb's promise, I am quite sure that any future smelling of a sea breeze on my part has not been altered in any way.