Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Book Review: Replacing Gentry by Julie N. Ford

Title: Replacing Gentry
Author: Julie N. Ford
Enjoyment Rating: **
Source: Kindle
This book would be rated: PG

Marlie is a social worker with liberal ideas from California who travels to Nashville to visit a friend and finds herself in a whirlwind romance with Daniel Cannon, a state senator with political ambitions, twin sons, a dead wife, an overbearing family, and some creepy friends. Within days of their meeting, they're engaged (even though strange things keep happening to Marlie the whole time), and a year later, she has become Marlie Cannon.

Adjusting to life in Nashville isn't easy for Marlie. She keeps putting her foot in her mouth with her political statements. She feels pressure to live up to the standards set by her predecessor and raise her sons. And people all around her treat her like a pariah, well, except for the people who are trying to seduce her.

The book is strange. I like the descriptions of Nashville and of feeling like an outsider in the city (I've spent lots of time in Nashville, and feel like Ford captures the essence of the city), but the book is riddled with grammatical errors, typos, and clunky writing that shows a lack of editing. Furthermore, I wasn't sure if the novel was supposed to be supernatural or not, and I'm not 100% sure that the ending cleared things up. I think that with some good editing, this book could have been a lot better than it is, which is too bad because it has some exciting elements.

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